Amateur

The Private Clubs team collected four points from the six matches that went to the 18th green, and took a 7-5 lead over the Publinx side on the first day of their fifth annual Challenge Cup at Pine Ridge Golf Course yesterday.The Municipal players forged a 3 1/2-2 1/2 lead after the morning better-ball pairings, but the opposition used some late heroics in the afternoon foursomes to gain its lead. The matches conclude today with 12 singles pairings at Hillendale Country Club.U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur: Baltimorean Andrea Kraus stumbled down the stretch, but her par-equaling 72 was enough to share the lead after the first round of on-site qualifying in Atlanta.

Jaime Geilenkirchen, from Hunt Valley Golf Club, set a competitive course record for the year-old Hayfields Country Club yesterday, posting a 4-under-par 68 to lead the first round of the 45th Annual Baltimore City Amateur Championship.As was the case with many in 55-player the field, it was the first look at the course for the 20-year-old redshirt University of Houston sophomore. He finished with six birdies on putts up to 15 feet and two bogeys."Perhaps it was better I didn't know where there was trouble," he said.

Andrea Kraus put the cap on an outstanding amateur season yesterday, firing a 2-over-par 74 for a 36-hole total of 154, and a three-stroke victory in the first Maryland State Women's Open at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace.Kammy Maxfeldt, head professional at Salem (N.Y.) Golf Club, a two-time Women's Metropolitan Open champion, shot the best round by a pro, 75, and finished at 157. Baltimore CC pro Kori Johns, the first-day leader, had a second straight 79 for 158.Kraus, a Woodholme CC member who won her second Maryland State Women's Amateur title earlier in the summer and went to the third round of the recent U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur championship, had a much better putting round than on the opening day.This time, she capitalized on her superb ball-striking, hitting 15 greens and rolling in some clutch putts on the back nine, particularly a pair of 4-footers at Nos. 15-16.

Jenny Chuasiriporn of Timonium shot a final-round 79 yesterday and failed to advance past the first stage of LPGA qualifying school in Rancho Mirage, Calif., after finishing 63rd.It means the former Duke All-American will not go to the final stage of qualifying school next month in Daytona Beach, Fla. More importantly, it means Chuasiriporn, 22, will not play on the LPGA Tour next year. Instead, she will play its developmental Futures Tour.After missing the cut at last month's first-stage competition in Venice, Fla., Chuasiriporn started well at the Mission Hills Country Club earlier this week.

Everyone knows about the Mike Tysons, Evander Holyfields, and gold-medal winners like Oscar De La Hoya who can demand multimillion-dollar ring purses, fill arenas and attract worldwide audiences on pay-per-view.But what about the hundreds of boxers minus Olympic jewelry who scuffle in small fight clubs for purses that barely pay the rent?Take Dana Rucker, the Baltimore super middleweight who passed up a chance to go to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.The converted kick-boxer was all but guaranteed a place on the U.S. boxing team after winning the National Golden Gloves in 1994 and the National Festival tournament a year later.

Pat Tallent, who has enjoyed past success at Caves Valley Golf Club, outdid himself in the first round of the 11th annual Maryland State Mid-Amateur championship yesterday.A new member at the Owings Mills club, Tallent dipped 6-under par on the front nine and wound up equaling the competitive course record with 30-35--65, good for a five-shot lead at the halfway mark.The 65, recorded in showers and sunshine with high humidity, was 6-under par over the 6,629-yard, par 36-35--71 layout, and XTC matched the score established by Ed Gibstein in qualifying for the 1995 club championship.

Jenny Chuasiriporn, much more in the spotlight than on her previous two trips to the U.S. Women's Amateur championship, started with a 1-over-par 73 in the first of two on-site qualifying rounds at Barton Hills Country Club in Ann Arbor, Mich., yesterday.This was three strokes off the pace set by early leader Jenny Glasgow, 21, of Corona del Mar, Calif., who shot a 70 over the 6,277-yard, par-72 course.Later, Glasgow was joined by Curtis Cup players Brenda Corrie Kuehn, 33, Fletcher, N.C., and Virginia Grimes, 34, Montgomery, Ala.The second round today will reduce the field of 144 to 64 for the match-play portion of the event.

Joan Hickson,92, an actress best known for her television portrayal of the shrewd amateur detective Miss Marple, died in London on Saturday. Ms. Hickson's acting career began in 1927.Pub Date: 10/22/98

KOHLER, Wis. -- Jenny Chuasiriporn came here last week hoping to make the cut and become the low amateur at the U.S. Women's Open for the second straight year.Instead, the 20-year-old golfer from Timonium nearly made history.Chuasiriporn, a senior at Duke University, built an early four-shot lead on Se Ri Pak of South Korea before losing their 18-hole sudden-death playoff on the second extra hole yesterday at the Blackwolf Run Golf Course.A triple-bogey six on the par-3 sixth hole by Chuasiriporn had closed the deficit for Pak, who then made three birdies on the back nine and another on the par-4 11th hole to prevent Chuasiriporn from becoming the first amateur in 31 years to win the Open.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- It's not difficult to tell who is the featured attraction in the 98th U.S. Women's Amateur at Barton Hills Country Club.Jenny Chuasiriporn has been pictured in ads publicizing the event and was the only player afforded a gallery of ropes during yesterday's second round of medal qualifying. Then again, the 21-year-old star-in-the-making from Timonium was the only player who attracted much of an audience.While former Arizona State All-American Kellee Booth might be the player to beat after she continued her recent Curtis Cup performance by being the medalist at the Amateur, Chuasiriporn is clearly the player to watch.

Et cetera Rice loses in second round of U.S. Mid-Amateur, 5 and 4 Pat Carter, a 12-time West Virginia amateur champion from Huntington, defeated Andrew Rice of Baltimore, 5 and 4, in the second round of the U.S. Mid-Amateur championship at Kiawah Island, S.C. Rice had rallied to win his first-round match, 1-up, over Tyler Shelton of Fairway, Kan. More golf:: Lisa Schlesinger of Laytonsville won and lost in the second and third rounds, respectively, in...

Francis Meckel was about to zoom into Baltimore's 1st Mariner Arena on his bright-blue minibike. Straddling his bike with his arms folded and his goggles flipped down, the 11-year-old was the picture of cool. Not so for the woman standing beside him - his mother. "As a parent, my knees are knocking, and my stomach is turning," said Beth Meckel of Harford County. Her 14-year-old son also raced yesterday, doubling her anxiety. With ambulances standing by and parents alternately averting their eyes and pumping their fists into the air, Toyota Arenacross' "amateur day" was under way. The popular indoor motocross series was in Baltimore all weekend, drawing crowds of 6,000 Friday night and 9,000 Saturday night, according to promoters.

ARNOLD HARDY, 85 Award-winning photographer Arnold Hardy, an amateur photographer who won a Pulitzer Prize for his gripping 1946 photo of a woman falling from a burning hotel, died Wednesday at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta of complications from hip surgery, according to A.S. Turner & Sons funeral home. He died just two days before the 61st anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1946, fire at Atlanta's Winecoff Hotel - a disaster that killed 119 people, more than any other hotel fire in U.S. history.

It's 45 minutes before the fight, and Nick Kisner is getting his hands taped. Kisner and fellow boxer Mike Paschal are trading tips before Kisner's bout at Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie. The 16-year-old super heavyweight is relaxed but focused. When he matter-of-factly says things such as "I can be so quick that it's hard to hit me. Hands and feet-wise, it's just unreal," it's difficult to not believe him. When it's time to fight, Kisner moves slowly toward the ring apron with his father, Danny, Paschal and trainer Vince Veazey.

The Cult of the Amateur By Andrew Keen Currency / 240 pages / $22.95 Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away - which is to say, during the loony apex of the 1990s Internet boom - Andrew Keen was an entrepreneur. An Englishman by birth, he relocated to Silicon Valley and in 1996 founded Audiocafe.com, one of the earliest Web sites devoted to digital music. Like most such ventures, his crashed and burned before it could earn a dime. At this point, many a man might have retreated from the Web in a permanent sulk.

The lilting, jazz-kissed melody, dedicated to the survivors of the massacre at Virginia Tech, has been downloaded more than 380,000 times in the past three weeks - a frequency typically generated by a Top 10 hit single. The song was not written by a polished performer but by a British amateur artist named Kojo Best. He wrote the tune, then played it on an electric piano and posted his performance on YouTube. Even as professional artists such as platinum-selling Texas rapper Lil' Flip and R&B-pop star R. Kelly release their versions of songs dedicated to the survivors of the Virginia Tech killings, homemade musical tributes such as Best's have been mushrooming in the online video universe.

Two amateur boxers with local ties will each take big steps in their careers this weekend, with one, Hasim Rahman Jr., 15, making his first move and the other, James Berry, 19, trying to continue on his way toward a berth in the 2008 Olympics. Hasim Jr., 6 feet 2, 200 pounds, whose football prowess once caught the eye of coaches at Gilman, is just half an inch shorter than his father, former two-time world heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman. Using fists nearly as massive as his dad's, the younger Rahman in his first fight will take on an opponent to be determined during an amateur event tonight at the Pikesville Armory.

Led by top-seeded Mike Mulieri, a parade of collegians marched into the quarterfinal round of the Maryland State Amateur men's tournament yesterday at the Elkridge Club. All eight remaining players are either enrolled in college or, in the case of Jeff Castle, have recently graduated. Castle, who meets Loyola student Mulieri this morning in an intriguing matchup, finished at Towson University earlier this spring. Play was again suspended yesterday because of thunderstorms and lightning - this time twice - and was prolonged into the early evening, partially due to a 24-hole match that Maryland student Zachary Lese wrapped up by escaping a hazard and parring the difficult No. 6 hole.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Two days after the most positive development in his career in years, Matt Kuchar was driving through Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday morning, tooling along to his next tournament while simultaneously recapping the highlights of his most recent start. He was experiencing, metaphorically and realistically, the highways and byways of the unpredictable pro game. "I'm cruising along I-20," he said of his whereabouts. Anybody with 20-20 vision when the Orlando native leaped onto the national scene as a college sophomore would be surprised to learn of the not-so-exotic tournament locales he's been frequenting of late, including Athens, Ga., Fort Smith, Ark., and Richmond, Va. Obviously, big-league stops like Riviera, Augusta and Colonial, they are not. But leave it to the relentlessly upbeat Kuchar, whose panache and demeanor made him the world's most famous amateur in 1997-1998, to make the best of his situation.

Long before Michelle Wie became the most talked-about player in women's golf, another teen phenom in Hawaii with Korean roots was considered a future LPGA megastar. Grace Park won 55 titles during her career as a junior and amateur -- including the 1998 U.S. Women's Amateur over Jenny Chuasiriporn of Timonium -- before turning pro after two years at Arizona State. Though she won a tournament in each of her first four years on the LPGA Tour, Park seemed to be in a perpetual state of antipathy.