Par

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Ty Tryon regained his touch and didn't lose his sense of humor yesterday. Darkness prematurely ended Tryon's second round as a 17-year-old PGA Tour rookie here at the Phoenix Open, three holes short of finishing and several strokes shy of making the cut. At par for the day and 6-over for the tournament, Tryon joked that he accomplished one of his goals. "I knew I'd make it to the weekend," Tryon said with a smile. Tryon and the other 24 players who failed to complete a round that was delayed 45 minutes by frost will come back this morning.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- It ended on the 17th green, with darkness falling on the golf course and Tiger Woods enjoying another moment in the spotlight.Winning a match that was both different and controversial, Woods overcame an early two-hole deficit to defeat David Duval, 2 and 1, in the Showdown at Sherwood, a match-play exhibition unlike any they play on the PGA Tour.Neither Woods nor Duval could control what people thought of the event, nor could they control how many people watched the ABC network telecast.

It's no secret on the Senior PGA Tour that there's a direct correlation between age and score. According to tour statistics, more than 85 percent of the all-time tournament wins have been posted by players between the ages of 50 and 55. But thus far, the 2002 season has been somewhat of an aberration. Through 18 events, six wins have come from players age 56 and older. So perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise yesterday at the Greater Baltimore Classic when 66-year-old Dale Douglass, and 66-year-old Chi Chi Rodriguez turned in two of the better rounds of the day at Hayfields Country Club.

POTOMAC -- The Booz Allen Classic, a golf tournament that is supposed to end after this year, hasn't. Ben Curtis, a player who has waited three years for a chance to win his second PGA Tour event, will have to be a little more patient. Storms that stopped play Sunday and later poured nearly 5 inches of rain onto the already-saturated and now-waterlogged Tournament Players Club at Avenel - unofficially renamed the River Course - continued yesterday. The start of play was pushed back more than two hours in the morning and there were two more delays before officials finally called it a day at 5:11 p.m. after an additional 3 inches of rain and with at least two hours of storms to come.

POTOMAC - When Rory Sabbatini won his first PGA Tour event at the 2000 Air Canada Championship, many considered the 24-year-old South African among the game's promising players. At the time, Sabbatini was the youngest winner since Tiger Woods won as a 20-year-old in 1996. Nobody has mentioned Sabbatini in the same sentence as Woods - or among the tour's up-and-coming players - in the past three years. In fact, Sabbatini has hardly been talked about at all, losing his place as a rising star and slowly approaching journeyman status.

CHASKA, Minn. - Trying to figure out who was going to emerge from yesterday's windblown third round of the 84th PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Club was not difficult. Whoever could negotiate the 35-mph winds that whipped around the rained-soaked, 7,360-yard course with their nerves and their scores intact probably would have a chance to win the tournament today. A player who spent his entire life carving out a career in one of the windiest places in the country - Texas - held up the best.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- There are still three rounds remaining in the 100th U.S. Open here at the Pebble Beach Golf Links, still plenty of time for the other 155 players in the field to make their move, still plenty of potential trouble for even Tiger Woods to find. But the sight of his name at the top of the leader board yesterday was not good news for those trying to get in the way of the world's best player. Traditionally not a fast starter in major championships, Woods shot a 6-under-par 65 to take a one-shot lead over Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - He hasn't won the 102nd U.S. Open just yet, though there was a sense of inevitability following Tiger Woods throughout his opening round yesterday on the Black Course at Bethpage State Park. His score of 3-under-par 67 had given Woods a one-stroke lead over Sergio Garcia, though with the exception of the 22-year-old Spaniard and Phil Mickelson down the leaderboard a few notches at even-par 70, there didn't seem to be many others in the hunt with major championship mettle.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. - Tiger Woods chased history yesterday at the Pebble Beach Golf Links. He kept it in his sights throughout the first nine holes in the final round of the 100th U.S. Open. Shortly thereafter, Woods caught it, passed it and obliterated nearly every record he was pursuing. Like the rest of the field who meekly got out of his way, history proved no match for the world's greatest player. In winning his first Open title by a whopping 15 shots for the third major championship of his remarkable four-year career, Woods tore out the pages from record books, some of which had been in there for more than a century.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - The weather seemed more suitable for the British Open than the U.S. Open, the end result becoming more predictable every time Tiger Woods made a big putt for birdie or an even bigger one to save par. The 102nd U.S. Open here on the waterlogged Black Course at Bethpage State Park couldn't exactly be called a warmup for next month's British Open at Muirfield in Scotland, given the wet and chilly conditions. But it might be a preview for the next stop in Woods' pursuit of golf's single-season Grand Slam.