Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 6

FINAL The Arizona Republic Tuesday, March 9, 1982 od Nicklaus falters; Kite wins playoff Republic porta Wires ORLANDO, Fla. Tom Kite beat Jack Nicklaus and Denis Watson with a chip-in birdie on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff Monday and won the Bay Hill Uoll Classic. Kite came from six shots back by shooting a final- life 7 5rr? --r round 69, then waited for almost an hour before he was confirmed as a member of the playoff threesome. Kite, Nicklaus and Watson finished regulation play in the rain-delayed tournament tied with 72-hole 9cores of 278, 6 under par. Nicklaus, a one-stroke leader when the day's play started, had various unhappy adventures in water and rough, got a ball embedded in a tree trunk and twice had to hit left-handed.

He finally completed the last round with a 4-over-par 75 and had to halt an embarrassing skid with birdies on two of his last four holes to gain a spot in the playoff. "All I had to do was play golf today to win the golf tournament," Nicklaus said. "And I didn't do a very good job of it" Ray Floyd, who was one shot behind Nicklaus going into the second round, also shot a 75, including two double bogeys. Tom Kite Earl McCartney Republic A crowd of 4,878 people watched the Oakland A's in their new spring home, Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The A's beat San Francisco, the park's former tenants, 3-2.

Giant dissatisfaction: Muny deserves As "I know how it feels," Kite said of the playoff losers. "I've been there. It's a helpless feeling when a guy chips in on you. But I'm not giving it back. "It's awful hard to win a golf tournament Awful hard.

I probably didn't play as well this week as I have before, but I'll take it. "I had a lot of good breaks. Who would have thought Jack would shoot 75? Who would have thought Raymond (Floyd) would shoot what he did?" Kite, who picked up his first victory of the year, started the day at 4 under par and went to 3 under after a bogey at the par-4 fourth hole. But he birdied the next hole and went 4 under again. He stayed there until he bogeyed the par-4 11th.

Then, he birdied the tough par-5 12th and picked up birdies at 16 and 17. Nicklaus, who hasn't won a tournament in nearly 19 months, had pars on the first two holes but faltered with two straight bogeys on the third and fourth holes. He picked up another bogey on the par-4 eighth and finished the front nine at 7 under. On the back side, he double-bogeyed the 11th and had a bogey on the 12th before back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16. Kite, 32, won $54,000.

He aiid he felt he could win the tournament when he looked up at the leader board on the 14th hole. "I looked up and said to my caddy, 'Look at what these guys are he said. "They're only 7 under, and if we can make three birdies, we can win the golf tournament going Leaving the 14th green was the first time I thought I had a snowball's chance." down at Casa Grande. The isolation helped you get things done. "The practice fields in Scottsdale are in terrible shape.

They've got holes in them. Scottsdale Stadium, though, is in good shape." Regular patrons of Muny stood with jaws agape at the sight of Tommy Gonzales, the jack-of-all-trades who runs the stadium for the city. Gonzales' rotund body was bedecked from head to toe in Oakland colors. "Look at all this," Gonzales said as he showed off a new pair of green-and-white shoes. "I've been working with the Giants for 24 years, and I never even got a T-shirt" Gonzales' title is Stadium Supervisor, but he said he really doesn't consider himself a titled person.

"Titles are for guys who carry briefcases," he said. However, he had a title Monday Turncoat "Gonzales, you turncoat, what's all this green-and-gold stuff," yelled third-base coach Jim Davenport, a 26-year veteran of the Giants' organization. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," Gonzales retorted. Instead of complaining about the city not fixing up Muny, the A's did it themselves. They turned a half-diamond beyond the right field fence into a full practice diamond.

They painted the dugouts. They carpeted the home clubhouse and increased the locker capacity. And they paneled the manager's office. By Bob Eger Republic Staff There are certain things you can count on each spring in the Arizona desert The wildflowers begin to bloom. The snowbirds make their descent from points north.

And the San Francisco Giants set up shop in Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Not this year. When San Francisco and Oakland kicked off the Cactus League baseball season Monday, a 3-2, 10-inning win for the A's, the good guys were wearing black and sitting in the visitors' dugout a green dugout no less. The Giants, spring residents of Muny since 1965, went looking for greener pastures in Scottsdale this year. Some players claim that's exactly what they found pastures at their Indian School Park training complex.

An elderly woman, obviously viewing Muny for the first time, turned to her husband and remarked: "My goodness. What a beautiful ballpark. Why in the world would they want to leave here for that park in Scottsdale?" That's a question a lot of people in the Giants' organization are asking. Shortly before he was fired last summer, Spec Richardson, then general manager of the San Francisco club, signed an agreement to train in Scottsdale. The Oakland A's, who had trained in Scottsdale the past three years, jumped at the opportunity to move to Muny.

Economics played a major role jn Richardson's decision, persons near the club said. The city of Phoenix, which operates Muny, reportedly had refused to make some improvements requested by the Giants. Scottsdale offered a better financial deal. "That's my dugout," pitcher Greg Minton said as he sat on a chair beside the visitors' dugout and looked across the infield to the home dugout, which was filled with white-and-green-clad Oakland players. Minton, 30, a 10-year veteran of the Giants' organization, said memories began flashing back when he walked into Muny.

"I was sitting here earlier thinking about guys I came up with, guys like Skip James and Tony Pepper, who didn't make it for one reason or another," he said. "This is the best training facility in the state, and we have to give it up because the penny-pinching Giants wanted to save a dollar." Giants management isn't real high on Minton's list of favorite people these days. He just lost a salary-arbitration case to the Giants for the second year in a row, and he suffered a knee injury the first day of spring training when he slipped on one of the poorly manicured mounds at the Scottsdale training complex. Pitcher Gary Lavelle, a 16-year veteran of the Giants' organization, said he misses Muny. "There are a lot of memories," Lavelle said.

"It's a great place for spring training. I even liked the early training The Phoenix Giants will inherit those improvements this summer. NFL union makes strike plan redPj Today Wulk's new status stuns players, aide regular season starts," Upshaw said. "I'm not saying it would be called during the preseason, or whenever. What I am saying is we all play football, we all make a game plan for every game, and we try to follow it.

We have a game plan. And one thing you don't ever do is hand out your game plan to the team you're playing against." When Upshaw was asked if players can afford a strike, he said, "Can the owners?" The union, one official said, has enough money to maintain its own operations through a full-season strike but the union doesn't pay the players. "We've been telling them to save their money, to keep the jobs they have in the off-season or to look for a job," the union spokesman said. Unlike major-league baseball, the NFL doesn't have a multimillion-dollar strike fund. It does, however, have a $150 million line of credit extended by the California-based Crocker National Bank.

That means that for every game wiped out by a players' strike, the teams involved would receive the amount equivalent to what they would have made had the game been played, and the league would have several years to pay back the loan. Republic Sports Wires Gene Upshaw, president of the National Football League Players Association, said Monday that the union has developed a "game plan" for a players' strike, which he called the "ultimate weapon" against management Upshaw refused to say exactly when the players might strike, but some of his comments at a news conference in Cincinnati indicated that a strike was more likely after regular-season play begins possibly even close to playoff time rather than when training camps open. "When and if we do strike," Upshaw said, "well strike in a situation when the most pressure is on the owners and the least amount is on the players. None of us know how we're going to feel in October, November or December when negotiations, if indeed they are, are dragging along." Upshaw was asked if using those months' as examples indicated strike plans were for the regular season, when presumably there would be more pressure on owners from TV networks and fans to keep the season rolling. "I'm not saying it would be called after the chip emits on Mine pointed to Ari-z a State." said that although no po- tential recruit has offered a verbal CAVS COACH BOUNCED Chuck Daly is fired as coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, despite having almost three years left on his contract He has coached the Cavs just more than four months and the team was 9-32 under his direction.

Update. C2. Sports broadcasts Television Argentina vs. Czechoslovakia, Ch. 33, 11:20 p.m.

Radio Pro basketball Phoenix at Washington, KTAR (620), 5:35 p.m.; KCKY (1150), 5:45 p.m. Exhibition baseball California vs. San Diego at Yuma, KWAO-FM (106.3), 12:40 p.m. Paul Williams ByBobCohn Republic Staff The responses were of surprise and a little sadness in the wake of the announcement Monday night that Ned Wulk's 25-year career as head basketball coach at Arizona State is over. Wulk was notified by ASU Athletic Director Dick Tamburo that he has been promoted to a new job within the athletic department.

Tamburo, for the last week, was assessing Wulk's basketball program. But few expected the result to end as it did. "I was totally surprised," junior Paul Williams said. "I felt they would keep him till he got his 500 wins." Wulk's final totals, assuming he doesn't coach again, leave him with 495 victories compiled in 31 years of coaching. The first six years were at Xavier University in Cincinnati.

"We all thought he was going to come back," said Williams, who was watching the state high school basketball playoffs at the University Activity Center ASU's home court when he heard the news. Williams said that he was "disappointed" and that he believed ASU made a wrong decision. Sahuaro, Phoenix Union advance in AAA commitment to attend ASU, "we've gotten some good vibes from some tremendous players." Howard, who already has applied for the head-coaching position at Idaho State, said he will continue to seek employment He emphasized that he is applying for the newest vacancy, the one at ASU. "I'm going to be a candidate for that position," he said. i Tamburo hinted that reports of friction between Newman and How--ard played a part in his decision.

"I tried to take everything into consideration," Tamburo said. "And' that was considered." But just as that might have had an effect, the final game of the year didn't That was the Sun Devils' 68-60 victory over Oregon State, ranked fourth nationally. It ended a 13-14 season on a happy note. It also meant that ASU won eight of its final 12 games. That didn't seem to weigh heavily in Wulk's favor.

"I thought about that," Tamburo said of the good finish, "and about the number of winning seasons and the facK that he won 400 games (406 at Early 16-point deficit ends St. Mary's hopes By Lloyd Herberg Republic Staff TEMPE After putting on a first-half, lights-out shooting exhibition that helped open a 16-point lead, Tucson Sahuaro had to come from behind Monday night to beat St Mary's, 61-54, in the semifinals of the Class AAA state tournament at Arizona State University's Activity Center in front of a crowd of 5,750. The Cougars, who lost to Phoenix East in the semifinals last year, tonight will play at ASU for their first title since 1970 at 8:30 against Phoenix Union. With 7:07 to play, Sahuaro point guard John Gwozdz, primarily responsible for bringing the ball up against St. Maryls full-court press, fouled out Sahuaro led, 51 -40.

St. Mary's made its move. While the Cougars continually turned the ball over, the Knights scored the first 12 points of the fourth quarter and took the lead, 52-51, with 3:49 remaining on two free throws by Joe Sells. Twenty-one seconds later, Sahu-aro's 6-foot-6 senior center Andre Lewis hit a 7-foot bank shot. The Cougars led, 53-52, and never again trailed.

"We made a run at them, but then we couldn't hold on to the ball," St. Mary's Coach Ron Gray said. "Turnovers killed us. If we could have gotten into our four-corner offense, we could have forced them out of their zone (defense)." It was wishful thinking. After Sells again hit two free Sahuaro, C3 Sahuaro in the Activity Center.

South had five opportunities in the final seconds to tie the game. Darryl Lamb missed the front end of a one-and-one with 10 seconds to play, and Byron Evans rebounded for South. Evans missed a 10-foot shot, and South's Manuel Hendrix rebounded with five seconds to play. He missed a 12-foot shot Two attempted tip-ins also missed before the clock ran out The win dvenged two earlier Phoenix Union losses to South. "It's tough to beat a team of that caliber three times," South Coach Don Petroff said.

"They played a great third quarter. They outscored us 18-7. That was the difference." Phoenix Union hit only 33 percent from the field and 44 percent from the free-throw line in the first half Union, C3 South blows 5 chances to tie game in final :10 By Bob Young Republic Staff TEMPE Phoenix Union's Billy Rhymes hit a 10-foot leaning jump shot with 22 seconds to play, South Mountain blew five opportunities to tie the game in the final 10 seconds and fifth-ranked Phoenix Union upset third-ranked South Mountain, 58-56, in the Class AAA semifinals at Arizona State University. Rhymes, playing his first basketball since spraining his ankle in the Metro Division finals, hit just six of 15 shots from the field but was able to sink the game-winner which capped a second-half comeback. Phoenix Union's Coyotes (24-3) move into the state championship game tonight at 8:30 against Tucson Paul Howard, who played for Wulk from 1958-60 and has been an assistant to Wulk since 1974, said, "It was totally disappointing to see Coach Wulk, who has been there for 25 years and who I played for, not be the head coach at ASU.

"I don't have much other reaction except that I feel pretty beat I'm pretty drained." Howard and Jim Newman, the other assistant, will keep trying to find recruits for next season, Tamburo said. "It's going to be tough, but ASU is easy to sell," Howard said. "I'm going to dt everything possible to keep blue- ASCI). I think he's done an awful lot'".