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Sports The Indianapolis Star MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1990 TVRadio 6, 7 wide Open: Irwin, Donald in playo They'll play 18 holes today in showdown ff 1 Still III By PHIL RICHARDS STAR STAFF WRITER Medinah. 111. Mike Donald planned to be at Knollwood Country Club north of New York City today for a golf outing with a beer company. Business schedules change. Donald will instead do an outing Open Notebook, Page 5 at Medinah CC.

He and Hale Irwin will meet In an 1 8-hole playoff to determine the winner of the 90th U.S. Open Championship (3 p.m. EST. WRTV-6). "It's the chance of a lifetime," said Donald.

34. an 11-year PGA Tour professional whose only victory was the 1989 Anheuser-Busch Classic. "It's the chance of a lifetime for both of us." said Irwin. 45. a two-time Open champion who has won 1 7 Tour events, the last the 1985 Memorial Tournament.

"It couldn't be any more exciting than today." Amen. Irwin holed a 45-foot birdie putt on the 18th green for a 5-under 67 that left him at 8-under 280. Irwin Is not the only Mike Donald waves to fans after ASSOCIATED PRESS sinking a birdie putt. ASSOCIATED PRESS the gallery after dropping a 45-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole. Unlikely leaders in Open spotlight player to make a long putt on the 72nd hole of the U.S.

Open but he Is the first to take a victory lap. Irwin jumped In the air. ran across the green with his arms upraised, then along the ropes slapping fives with the gallery. "I didn't know where he'd got to." said playing partner Greg Norman. "It seemed like the ball had eyes on it.

It looked for the bottom of the cup as soon as it left his blade." Donald blrdled the first two holes, then did what no one thought he could: hang on. He strung 13 straight pars, bogeyed No. 16. then ground out two more pars to shoot 72. Two hours after Irwin holed his dra- Hale Irwin gives high fives to matic 45-footer, Donald studied one slightly longer on the same line.

Donald's putt slid past the left edge and went 3 feet past. He drilled the comebacker to force the playoff. "Walking down the 18th hole, I told my brother Pete he's my caddy 'Man. this is what I've been practicing 20 years for," said Donald. "I played the kind of round you're supposed to play In the U.S.

Open. 1 got two birdies early, got the lead, and then Just parred it to death." Medinah. in turn, bogeyed Curtis Strange Into extinction. Strange was chasing his third straight Open title. He began Just two strokes off the lead shared by Donald and Billy Ray Brown but made five bogeys, shot 75 and finished six strokes back at 2-under 286.

"I Just didn't play today. Just didn't have it." said Strange. "With a good round today. I would have been real close. "I think this will make me hungry for next year.

I think I have another Open in me." Medinah was further softened by rain Saturday night and Sunday morning but it played tougher than it had all week. The wind blew. It blew hard. It gust-ed. Medinah's tree-lined fair "a '4 1 i i ways made the wind difficult to read.

"The course was tough today. It was like an animal." said Masters champion Nick Faldo. who tied for third with Brown. It didn't stop Donald and Irwin from tying the Open scoring record. Only Ben Hogan and Jack Nlcklaus had completed an Open 8-under par.

Hogan did It In 1948 at Riviera CC In Los Angeles. Nlcklaus did It in 1980 at Baltusrol GC In Springfield. N.J. Sodden fairways and greens See OPEN Page 5 STAR PHOTO KEITH PRITCHETT 1990 Lola. "It's Just good to be competitive." Also finishing In the top 10 Sunday were: Mears In the Pennzoil PenskeChevy 90.

Arte Luyendyk In the Domino'sPro-vlmi LolaChevy, Raul Boesel In the BudweiserTruesports Lola-Judd. defending race winner Fittipaldi In the Marlboro PenskeChevy 90. Scott Goodyear In the Mackenzie LolaJudd. Pan-cho Carter In the Machinists Lo-laCosworth and Scott Brayton In the AmwaySpeedway I i KiHZNUi I ami JIIUu7l ML 'Ml1' IIIWII" I'" I 'I 13 1 Michael Andretti, shown here leading Danny Sullivan, led wire Michael dominates to wire for his 10th career victory on the Indy-car circuit Detroit Grand Prix lyj EDINAH. ILL.

So what we're left with is two golfers who just wouldn't do what they were supposed to do. 'Hale Irwin was supposed to be past his prime and Mike Donald was supposed to never have one. But in the end, which hasn't ijuite arrived yet. Irwin and Donald had their day. Sunday at the U.S.

Open. Hale Irwin was the guy who had collected his championships 4- two U.S. Opens. 17 titles over all and appeared to be moving jon toward other pastures. At 45.

he was playing the back nine of life, Mike Donald, almost 35. seemed destined to be one of jjolfs grunts, not one of its generals. In 10 years on the Tour he Jiad won once. To the average golf iari. he was the average touring pro a face under a visor.

So, as the final stages of the U.S. Open unfolded before we assumed that the fun least for these two was Irwin would bow out graceful--lyi as past champions do. accepting the polite applause of an appreciative crowd recalling past glories, not present heroics. 1 I And. somewhere along the wayi Donald would need a Heimlich maneuver to dislodge the pressure of playing for a major 'championship from his windpipe.

So much for suppositions and assumptions. This Is how it turned out: With Irwin making five birdies in the last eight holes, rattling the bottom of the cup with a no-brainer at the 18th, sprinting around the green like a defensive back (which he once was) who had just Intercepted the pass and run it back for a touchdown, high-fivtng the fans in the "end zone which, come to think of it. Is what the 18th hole is. And with Donald saying, what pressure?" birdielng his first two holes, stringing together 13 pars and then, on the 72nd hole of the 'National Open, two-putting from the next county. Including a 3-fpot knee-knocker of a second putt that most of us wait to hear those magic words good pick it before we dare address the ball.

So what we're left with is a tie, and an 1 8-hole playoff. Let the guys who were supposed to win Jilt the road Irwin and Donald will be hitting the golf ball on the first tee. "It's a chance of a lifetime," Irwin would say later In the Medinah locker room, after nearly three hours of waiting to see whether his 8-under would get him a trophy, a playoff or a hand-Shake. "It's come down to the two of us Instead of 160. And Mike's a good guy.

We're going to have a Bill Benner good day. I hope he plays well, I hope I play well and I hope it comes right down to the wire. "But whatever happens. It couldn't be any more exciting than today. It just couldn't." Hardly.

As back nines on the final day of National Opens go, Irwin's was one for the ages. As he stood on the 1 1th tee. he was even par for the day. 3 below for the tournament, six shots behind Donald and even three behind his playing partner, Greg Norman, the Shark, whose dorsal fin was ominously circling the field. But then Irwin flew a 7-lron to 6 feet on the 1 1th.

Birdie. A 5-iron to 4 feet on the 12th. Birdie. A 4-iron to 3 feet on the 13th. Birdie.

A pitching wedge to 12 feet on the 14th. Birdie. The WHale suddenly had not only eaten up the Shark, he was threatening to swallow up the entire golf tournament. "It got real exciting real quickly," said Irwin. It stayed that way.

He Just missed birdie at the 16th, and again at the 17th. Then came the 18th. Irwin was 7 under. He figured he needed to be at 8 under just to have a chance at a tie. But on the green, with 45 feet and a hump between his ball and the cup, a two-putt seemed the most likely.

If not the best, possibility. "You have to believe It's makeable," Irwin said later. "I'm not standing there saying I can't do this. "You've got to keep thinking there's still one more opportunity. You can't despair when there's still an opportunity.

You can't ever quit, give up and think you've either lost It altogether or won It altogether. You've got to keep going." Which Is what the putt did. Until it dropped In the cup. And then Hale Irwin, the man who has been described as "stoic." took off on his celebratory lap around the 18th green. "I don't know how you can remain stoic after doing something like that." Irwin said.

"I certainly couldn't, and I didn't. Had I done that without a soul watching I still would have been happy. But when you hear the ringing In your ears, you get a pretty large high out of it. There's no way I could contain my excitement." Almost three hours later, Mike Donald arrived with less excitement, more tension, but the same See BENNER Page 5 iniiir 4.8 seconds behind In the Marl- CART STANDINGS boro PenskeChevy 90. By Lap 1.

Rick Mears 69 30. Sullivan was on Andretti's 2. Al Unser Jr 68 tail and there he remained until 3. Emerson Fittipaldi 62 ip 46 when he made his final 4. Bobby Rahal 61 tJl 5.

Michael Andretti 45 Mr' 6. Arie Luyendyk 40 what transpired decided the 7. Eddie Cheever 28 race. An Impact wrench mal- 8. Danny Sullivan 27 functioned, Sullivan's right rear 9.

Mario Andretti 22 wheel was not attached properly 10. Raul Boesel 21 and the ensuing lap broke the drive pegs on the wheel, putting CART Notebook, Page 2 him out of race. "We had our pressure mo-ran great throughout the race." ments from Danny," Michael Rahal. who finished second said. "He was doing a great job for the third time this season In keeping the pressure on.

When the STPKraco LolaChevy, had he (Sullivan) did finally drop out, too many problems to challenge It was a big relief. AH we had to Andretti. do was bring it home." was concerned about our And that he did. brakes." said Rahal. "I babied Andretti even survived stall- them a little and let Michael get ing his engine on his final pit away.

Emerson caught up with stop to win going away, me. but I knew I could hold him "I thought. 'Here, we go off. I just couldn't catch Mi- Michael said of the mo- chael." mentary bobble on the Lap 50 Starting from the pole, An- stop. "It was Just a case of being dretti outraced Unser into the too careful.

When you start first turn and after Unser slowed thinking about things, that's on the second lap with electrical when you make that big mis-failure, the only driver In Ml- take. But we hardly missed a chad's mirrors was his father beat." and teammate, Mario Andretti. Finishing an Impressive third But after Mario's engine was Eddie Cheever, a veteran of ceased on Lap 14, It cleared the five Formula One races at De-way for Danny Sullivan to pro- troit who had his best drive of vide Michael with his biggest the season In the Target PC-challenge of the day, 18Chevy. After Andretti made his first "It was a very hard race," pit stop on Lap 26. he returned said Cheever.

whose car owner, to the track with Sullivan only Chip Ganassl, has purchased a By RICK SHAFFER STAR STAFF WRITER Detroit Sunday, Michael Andretti showed what he does when his car does not run out of fuel or break an obscure part: He wins big. Andretti clobbered the opposition to capture the Valvollne Detroit Grand Prix Indy-car race before a crowd of 48,000 at the circuit set In the streets of Detroit. Driving the martHavollne LolaChevrolet. Andretti led from start to finish, averaged a race record 84.902 miles per hour In the 155-mlle event and collected the winner's purse of $134,306. In earning his first Indy-car victory of the season, he finished one minute.

48.526 seconds ahead of runner-up Bobby Rahal and made up for last year when he led 52 of 62 laps before retiring with a Jammed throttle cable. Andretti's win also tightened the CARTPPG points race as fourth-place finisher Rick Mears now has 69 points to lead Al Unser Jr. with 68, Emerson Flt-tipaldi with 62 and Rahal with 61. "It's the kind of weekend you dream of," said Andretti, who ran out of fuel with a comfortable lead at Milwaukee two weeks ago. "Everything went like clockwork from practice on.

We Just did some refinements here and there and followed the track conditions. The car just SCORES AMERICAN LEAGUE Toronto 8 New York 1 Boston 6 Baltimore 5 Cleveland 12 Milwaukee 4 California 7 Detroit 3 Minnesota 4 Kansas City 1 Oakland 5 Chicago 2 Seattle 6 Texas 3 NATIONAL LEAGUE St. Louis 7 Montreal 1 New York 4 Pittsburgh 3 Cincinnati 7 Houston 1 San Francisco 9 Atlanta 7 Los Angeles 6 San Diego 3 Chicago 5 Philadelphia 3 AAA ALLIANCE Indians 6 Toledo 3 i.