Match Play

Billy Wingerd wrapped up the annual Match Play championship of the Baltimore Municipal Golf Corporation, hitting fairways and greens en route to a solid 5-and-3 victory over Tim Elliott in a scheduled 18-hole final at Mount Pleasant Golf Course yesterday. This was the third straight final for Elliott, the defending champion, in this event. The winner, the first to hold the Maryland Amateur Stroke Play and Match Play titles in the same year, did not come close to making a bogey, and never really gave his opponent a chance.

The C. Milton Wright boys soccer team played an inspired game against powerhouse Salesianum, of Delaware, taking a 1-1 tie to overtime before their nationally ranked guests scored for a 2-1, sudden-death victory. The game was scoreless at halftime.. Dan Kissner scored the Mustangs' lone goal off an assist from Brandon McFadden. Collin Miller had 11 saves in goal for CMW.

Jason Raivel, who had seen a 3-up margin sliced to 1 up, won two holes in a row to restore his lead and hung on for a 3-and-2 triumph over Andy Peet in the quarterfinals of the first Baltimore Municipal match-play championship at Mount Pleasant Golf Course yesterday.Both shot 4-over-par 40 on the front, and Raivel turned 1 up. He won 10 and 11, but Peet, who had gone 19 holes in his first two matches, stormed back to win the next two with pars.Raivel claimed the next two, then Peet missed on his bid to stay alive at the 16th.

Angela Stanford admits she took on something of a mental burden as she played the final day of last week's Sybase Match Play Championship. It wasn't her fault, of course, that she was the only American to reach the semifinals in the revival of the LPGA's match-play showcase. But that didn't keep the proud Texan from carrying the weight of fan interest on her shoulders. "If anything, I was trying harder because I know that it just kind of keeps coming up — 'An American needs to win; an American needs to win,'" said Stanford, who fell to South Korea's Sun Young Yoo 3-and-1 in the final.

VIRGINIA WATER, England -- Severiano Ballesteros equaled Gary Player's record of five World Match Play titles with a 10-birdie, no-bogey performance yesterday that gave him a 3-and-2 victory over Zimbabwe's Nick Price."

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Tiger Woods, David Duval and Mark O'Meara spent yesterday practicing together, preparing for a tournament that all three would love to win.The highly anticipated Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship begins today, bringing the world's best golfers together in a single-elimination format that will be both entertaining and unpredictable.There will be pressure from the opening tee shot. Half of the 64 players at La Costa Resort and Spa will be eliminated by tonight.

Chad Perman of Hunt Valley shot a second-round 35-34--69 yesterday, and his 36-hole total of 143 was enough to place him into this morning's first round of match play at the 52nd U.S. Junior Amateur championship at the Country Club of York, Pa."I hit some really good shots close," said Perman, 17, of a three-birdie round during which he missed only two fairways. "I'm happy with the round, but it comes down to putting, and I'll have to improve."He will start against Dillon Dougherty of Woodland, Calif.

How do you win a golf championship?Strangely enough, for CarrollCounty golfers, the formats are pretty much the same. And it mattersnot whether you're talking about stroke or match play competition.Qualifications for these championships are the same at Wakefield Valley, Piney Branch and Bear Creek.While most clubs throughout Maryland consider their match play championship as the most important,the stroke play version continues to gain in stature. There is even quarrel in some corners that stroke play is a truer test of golfing skill.

Tim Elliott birdied the 200-yard 17th hole from 3 feet and went on to win the fifth match play championship of the Baltimore Municipal Golf Corporation with a 1-up triumph over Chris Baloga at Mount Pleasant Golf Course yesterday. Each player showed a different style, but the result was the same, as no more than one hole separated the two over the 18-hole distance. "I can't hit it any better," said Elliott, runner-up a year ago, who missed just two greens. On the other hand, Baloga missed seven greens, but a series of one-putts kept him in contention.

NEWTON, Mass. -- Two Marylanders competing in the 97th U.S. Women's Amateur Championship found the going a little easier on the second day of the tournament.Leland Beckel and Jenny Chuasiriporn were on the bubble after opening with 80s in Monday's first round at Brae Burn Country Club. But both responded with 75s yesterday to make the cut of 158 with two-day totals of 155."I got a little nervous when I bogeyed seven and eight," said Beckel, 31. "But I knew if I kept it around par, I was playing fine.

Top-ranked Jiyai Shin knocked out Michelle Wie 2 and 1 in the Sybase Match Play Championship quarterfinals on another hot, humid day at hilly Hamilton Farm in Gladstone, N.J. Shin will face Sun Young Yoo, a 2-and-1 winner over fourth-seeded Yani Tseng, in the semifinals. Angela Stanford and Amy Yang will meet in the other semi. … Chris Wood shot a 4-under 67 to take a two-shot lead over Robert Karlsson, who had a course-record 62 in the third round of the BMW PGA Championship in Wentworth, England.

Woods says he'll return next week at Match Play golf Eight months after winning the U.S. Open on one good leg, a healthy Tiger Woods is returning to golf. Woods said on his Web site yesterday that he will defend his title next week in the Accenture Match Play Championship, believing his reconstructed left knee and his game are good enough to win. "I'm now ready to play again," Woods said. The Match Play Championship begins Wednesday in Tucson, Ariz., where Woods will end his 253-day break from competition.

In the finals of yesterday's Forest Hill Lanes Open, Brian Ziesig found himself bowling against the same man he played his first pro-am tournament with - Parker Bohn III. Ziesig dealt Bohn his only loss of the tournament in Harford County, 248 to 200, to win his second Professional Bowlers Association East Region title of the season, his sixth career regional win. After throwing a "bad shot" in the first frame, the 14th-seeded Ziesig, of Levittown, N.Y.,...

LEBANON, Ohio - It was just the third shot of a long day, but telling nonetheless. A pitching wedge to the green on the long, par-5 opening hole left a ball mark so close to the flag it nearly ruined the integrity of the cup. Michelle Wie tapped in the ensuing 3 1/2 -footer for birdie in her morning match yesterday in the 80th U.S. Amateur Public Links at Shaker Run Golf Club. She was on her way. She routed C.D. Hockersmith, 6 and 5, in her morning match, then beat Jim Renner, 3 and 1, in the afternoon to advance to the quarterfinals.

PARIS - There was warm sun, just enough of a cooling breeze and hordes of fans packed into every outside court or causing 15-minute backups at the hot-ham-and-cheese sandwich concessions. There was Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters soaring to victory. And nothing, including the sullen look on Anastasia Myskina's face as she was drummed into a dubious place in French Open history, was going to make this first day of the French Open any less special. Her 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 loss to Maria Sanchez Lorenzo of Spain made her the first champion, male or female, in the history of the tournament to be put out in the first round the next year.

CARLSBAD, Calif. - Once again, match play was child's play for Tiger Woods, who won the Match Play Championship for the second year in a row and blew out the candles on his 40th PGA Tour victory. Only seven players have won more than Woods, but none has made more money, a bankroll that Woods added to yesterday when he carted off $1.2 million as a result of his 3-and-2 victory over Davis Love at La Costa. It was only a matter of time until it happened, but Woods also officially launched himself into exclusive new territory, golf's 40-40 club: $40 million (he has won $41.5 million)

CARLSBAD, Calif. - Once again, match play was child's play for Tiger Woods, who won the Match Play Championship for the second year in a row and blew out the candles on his 40th PGA Tour victory. Only seven players have won more than Woods, but none has made more money, a bankroll that Woods added to yesterday when he carted off $1.2 million as a result of his 3-and-2 victory over Davis Love at La Costa. It was only a matter of time until it happened, but Woods also officially launched himself into exclusive new territory, golf's 40-40 club: $40 million (he has won $41.5 million)

The Bowler of the '80s, washed up in the '90s.That's what Lisa Wagner, the American Bowling Congress Women's Bowler of the Decade for the 1980s, began to hear after an article in Bowlers Journal two years ago suggested she had reached her peak.The fact that Wagner -- who had won at least two tournaments every year since 1983 -- did not win a title in 1991 or '92 seemed to validate the talk of her eroding skills.Even Wagner began to question her desire for the game."1991 and '92 were so stressful that I just didn't want to do it anymore," said Wagner, who is competing in the Hammer Eastern Open at Baltimore's Country Club Lanes this week.

Andrea Kraus of Pikesville shot an 80 for a 36-hole total of 156, and was one of four players with Middle Atlantic ties to qualify for match play in the 17th U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur championship at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, S.C., yesterday. Sally Krueger, a former Women's State Amateur champion now living in San Francisco, and Lesley Stracks, who plays from Redgate Golf Club in Rockville, each posted 36-hole totals of 155, and were joined by Lisa Schlesinger, of Laytonsville, at 158. Mid-Amateur: Matt Sughrue, of Alexandria, Va., and Bethesda Country Club, was at 148 and in a 14-for-10 morning playoff for places in today's match-play draw at Wilmington Country Club.

Billy Wingerd wrapped up the annual Match Play championship of the Baltimore Municipal Golf Corporation, hitting fairways and greens en route to a solid 5-and-3 victory over Tim Elliott in a scheduled 18-hole final at Mount Pleasant Golf Course yesterday. This was the third straight final for Elliott, the defending champion, in this event. The winner, the first to hold the Maryland Amateur Stroke Play and Match Play titles in the same year, did not come close to making a bogey, and never really gave his opponent a chance.