The PGA Tour will take a position on the use of controversial square-grooved clubs before the start of the 1988 season, Commissioner Deane Beman said Sunday. The issue will be considered at a meeting of the PGA Tour Policy Board in Akron in two weeks, Beman said. He declined to speculate as to what the position will be.
The U.S. Golf Association recently ruled that at least one brand of the square-grooved clubs will be ineligible for USGA competition beginning in 1996. ”There is fairly uniform agreement from the players that the square-grooved clubs reduce flyers from the fairway and give substantially more control from the rough,” Beman said.
Vladimir Zubkov, a defenseman who played on the Soviet national team, is expected to play in the National Hockey League this season, according to the Tass news agency. Zubkov, 29, has played more than 350 games in the Soviet`s top hockey league for the Central Army Sports Club.
It has sidelined three of his players, but Michigan State football coach George Perles is a strong supporter of the NCAA`s tougher academic standards for freshmen. ”Our objective is to get these kids through school,” Perles said. ”Make your rules based on motivating these kids to get an education, and you won`t make any bad rules. It`s as simple as that. What`s our job?
What`s my concept as head football coach? To help these young men be the best they can be both on and off the football field.”
Chicagoan Andy Rogoznica trailed Glenn Allison by eight pins after two rounds of the Ebonite Professional Bowlers Association Senior Championship in Canton, Ohio. Allison had 2,627 pins.
Mike Robertson`s two-run homer in the eighth gave San Pedro, Calif., a 9-8 victory over Chicago Heights in a winner`s bracket game in the Connie Mack World Series in Farmington, N.M. Chicago Heights had a 6-2 lead, but San Pedro scored five times in the fifth. Chicago Heights tied the score in the seventh. Dave Wrona had two homers, two singles and three runs batted in for Chicago Heights. Ed Anderson also homered.
Jerry Flake hit 26 of his last 30 shots to win the Great Indiana Shootout for the second consecutive year. He made 97 of 120 shots (81 percent) during the two-day competition among 31 participants at New Castle High School. Flake was 16 shots ahead of runner-up Gary Long. Former Indiana Pacer Billy Knight finished in a three-way tie for third with 80 of 120 but ended up fifth when he finished last in a shootout. Brent Johnson finished third, and Dave Bennett took fourth. Sam Alford, basketball coach at New Castle and father of former Indiana star Steve Alford, finished 11th, making 74 of 120. Steve Alford was ill and missed the competition.
Mark Allen remained unbeaten in triathlon competition this year, defeating Mike Pigg in Southhampton, Bermuda. Allen`s time was 1 hour 48 minutes 42 seconds.
Davis Phinney won the 60-mile 12th stage of the Coors International Bicycle Classic in Aspen, Colo. His time was 2:10.40. Raul Alcala and Jeff Pierce were given the same time in finishing second and third. Pierce maintained the overall lead, more than 5 seconds ahead of Alcala. Jeannie Longo kept her lead in the women`s division. . . . Joey McLoughlin of Britain won the Tour of Britain cycling race in a controversial finish. Instead of the scheduled 60-lap circuit race around the center of London, an extra lap was ridden because of a mixup by officials. Eight men had broken away in what the riders and an estimated 4,000 crowd assumed was the final lap. As the leaders stormed up the finishing straight, rider Jens Veggerby won the sprint to the line and raised his arms in triumph. To his amazement, the bell sounded for another lap, and it was Michel Vermote who won. . . . Manuel Cunha of Portugal won the 17-day Tour of Portugal cycling race despite finishing 11th in the final stage.
