Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 46

'4 Section 4 Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, June 24, 1997 INSIDE THE SENIOR OPEN Colbert leaves tour for cancer surgery Murdoch's move puts Fox in place to mount challenge Michael Hirsley On Sports Media i -v 5 t- A 4 rM JV j.irrr- A last week. For the year, he ranks eighth on the money list with $468,842. Ready to go: Tom Meeks, director of rules and competitions for the United States Golf Association, has given his stamp of approval to Olympia Fields. "It's in marvelous condition," Meeks said. "(Course superintendent David Ward and his staff have done a terrific job.

They've been very easy to work with. We'd just like to see it get a little firmer and a little quicker." Olympia Fields is playing to a par 70, 6,841 yards for the seniors this week. If the course is going to host a U.S. Open, it would have to get longer. Meeks said there is room to lengthen the course to 7,000 yards, which he says would be suitable Open length.

This year's U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club was the longest in history, playing to 7,213. But next year's Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco will be 6,900 yards, although that's a tight, tight 6,900 yards. Short shots: Palmer and Jack Nicklaus are expected to make their first appearances Wednesday for a practice Hale Irwin will be on the course Tuesday morning. Since joining the Senior Tour in 1995, Irwin has Tribune photo by Charles Chemey Country Club in Highland Park, Melnyk at Olympia Fields Monday.

June weddings go, this is pretty close to perfect in Rupert Murdoch's media mogul world: His FoxLiberty Networks gain an entire family while rival ESPN loses a favorite son. Monday's announced marriage of FoxLiberty and Cablevision's Rainbow Media Holdings creates Fox Sports Net, a national corporate cable TV family of 17 regional networks, which will reach 55 million homes. And that's happening just as ESPN, which reaches 72 million homes, is losing one of its highest profile sports anchors, Keith Olbermann, to MSNBC. Olbermann told reporters Monday that he will do a news-oriented program for the cable component of NBC News and Microsoft Calling the job, which may include work for mother network NBC, "my unspoken dream job," Olbermann said the new show is aiming for a fall debut five days a week in prime time. His last ESPN appearance on "Sports-Center" will be at the end of this month.

Thus, Fox Sports Net is putting together the pieces of its new toy including integrating Fox graphics and promos and reviewing programming of new owned-and-operated regional networks such as SportsChannelChicago (soon to be Fox Sports Chicago) while ESPN is picking up the pieces after losing Dan Patrick's popular partner on "SportsChanneL" And once again, Murdoch is playing homewrecker of another corporate honeymoon. Previously, he's lined up Fox children's programming and Fox news programming to compete against successful predecessors Nickelodeon and CNN News. And he's taking his head-to-head staredown with media mogul Ted Turner to the playing fields, seeking to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers to match Turner's ownership of the Atlanta Braves. The Murdoch-Dodger deal awaits approval from Major League Baseball and for the team to show confidential financial information to Murdoch. Now, just three years after Murdoch's Fox network got into sports programming, Monday's deal makes Fox Sports Net the local telecast rights holder of 17 National Basketball Association teams, 20 Major League Baseball teams, 12 National Hockey League teams and 20 collegiate conferences.

And it has the size to bid for NBA and National Football League national telecast rights. "Murdoch entered the game a little late, but he's going after anyone who looks like they haven't tapped out the TV market Now he's here, finally, to challenge ESPN," said Bill Marchetti. media analyst with Paul Kagan Associates. "He hates to give away a lucrative advertising area to anyone who wants to dominate that area." While it takes time to make up ground on TV predecessors, Mar- WIMBLEDON A By Ed Sherman -Tribune Golf Writer i Jim Colbert putted out Sunday i at the Nationwide Championship fin suburban Atlanta, and everyone expected to see him this week at the U.S. Senior Open at Olympia Fields.

Colbert, though, had other plans, which he apparently kept to himself. Colbert, last year's leading money winner on the Senior (Tour, flew to La Jolla, where he underwent surgery for prostate cancer, Monday at Scripps Hospital. Colbert, 56, will out of action for an undetermined amount of time, but a full recovery is indicated. The players were surprised to hear of Colbert's surgery. He also didn't contact Arnold Palmer, who is recovering from prostate surgery earlier in the year.

According to longtime Palmer assistant Doc Giffin, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem phoned Palmer with the news. "It caught us off guard," Giffin said. Coincidentally, the night Palmer had his cancer confirmed last January, he awarded the Arnold Palmer Trophy for the top money winner to Colbert in a ceromony at La Costa. finished tied for 17th vs. St Ir 1 (j i.i QJs)i) i on J- year, it's $234,000.

The list of players who have won both the U.S. Open and the U.S. Senior Open: Nicklaus, Palmer, Orville Moody, Billy Casper, Gary Player and Lee Trevino. Air-to-tee shuttle plan at Western Flying the green could have a whole new meaning at next week's Motorola Western Open. Western officials are looking into using helicopters to fly players from their Oak Brook hotels to Cog Hill Country Club in Lem-ont, normally a 15-20 minute drive.

They fear that road construction on Route 83 could make travel the equivalent of a par 56 for players trying to get to the course, especially for those trying to fight their way through the expected crush of spectators. "We can't have a player stuck out in traffic and then expect him to come here ready for golf," said tournament director Greg McLaughlin. "The game is hard enough as it is." Landing the players at Cog Hill would be no problem given the complex's many courses. McLaughlin, though, is trying to find a site for a helicopter to take off in the Oak Brook area. Western officials have been trying to get the word to fans that Route 83, the main access road to Cog Hill, is down to two lanes in some spots.

They are advising fans take alternate routes. Greg Norman has his own helicopter, but it doesn't appear that it will be here, as McLaughlin has yet to hear from Norman. McLaughlin is expecting some notable commitments this week, including one from Tiger Woods. Woods has informally committed. Ed Sherman chetti said, "If he acquires NBA or NFL rights, he can make a lot quicker impact than in kids pro- gramming or news programming." Calling the newly constituted Fox Sports Net "quite a behemoth," David Hill, chief executive officer of FoxLiberty Networks and president of Fox Sports, said of imminent bidding for NBA and.

NFL TV contracts: "We'll be taking an opportunis-. tic view to every sports rights deal that comes along." But he and Josh Sapan, president and chief executive officer of Rainbow Media Holdings, insisted the new media giant's emphasis will be to customize regional networks to appeal to those markets' favorite sports and teams. Then, Sapan said, the home team-concentrated schedule will be melded with "national programming of greatest appeal." What he calls a "new TV sports model" seems to be a mix of national and locally chosen programming modeled on the way major TV networks split programming with owned-and-oper- ated affiliates. With sports, how- -ever, it seems that home teams from pros to high schools might dictate that local scheduling dominate. "We haven't got the nuts and bolts worked out yet" Hill said.

Meanwhile, at ESPN. Olbermann characterized his parting as cordial. The move from ESPN's Bristol, headquarters puts him in the New York metropolitan area MSNBC is headquartered in Secaucus, N.J. where Olbermann, who doesn't drive wanted to be. But also, he said, the "95 percent news, 5 percent sports" job is what he wanted.

He jumped at the chance when NBC News president Andrew Lack discussed it with him less than two weeks ago. "Here came the perfect job," he said. "I don't know how Andy Lack knew this kind of a show was a childhood dream of mine. -Two weeks ago, I had no idea we'd do this." His prospective show isn't yet clearly defined. But he says he will do a blend of journalism serious enough to preclude doing future commercial work, such as his Boston Market ads, but light enough to possibly examine issues such as "Why can't they get the same guy to be Batman in every movie?" He said that before taking the MSNBC job, he discussed a sports law and ethics show with Court TV.

"I would have thought the process by which I would leave ESPN would take a lot longer." As it turned out he's a risk- taker who moves almost as quickly as Murdoch. AP photo Diaz Oliva to win her first match ever at Wimbledon, 2-6, 6-0, 6-3. "I don't eat too much grass," said a beaming Majoli. "I was just so excited for this match and just to win it it's like a dream come true." In the only other women's matches played, No. 5 Lindsay Davenport and No.

12 Irina Spirlea also advanced to the second round. Top seeds Pete Sampras and Martina Hingis open play Tuesday, weather permitting. Results in Scoreboard Gary Groh (left), pro at Bob O'LInk talks with golf commentator Steve two wins and four second-place finishes in eight majors. Here's the growth at the U.S. Senior Open: Roberto DeVicenzo pocketed $20,000 for winning the first Senior Open in 1980.

This 1 i i 1 WMMfw DDiflKi (I il Aussie's hopes all but washed away Louis at 7:00 p.m. Major League Baseball's broadcast rules mean you can't see tomorrow's Cubs game on WGN-TV, the usual home of the Cubs. So where can you watch it? Only on only on CLTV! Don't have cable? Call 1-888-4BEST-TV Can't find CLTV? Call 630 -368-CLTV 'V jf Jc rst Associated Press WIMBLEDON, England-As the grim, gray light faded at the end of a miserable opening day at Wimbledon, so did the prospect that Mark Philippoussis might slug his way to his first Grand Slam title. All but beaten by Britain's Greg Rusedski in a match that will resume Tuesday, the seventh-seeded Philippoussis had Monday night to stew over everything that had gone wrong, such as 11 double faults and a deficit of 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (8-6), 3-1. Philippoussis came into Wimbledon high on his game after beating Goran Ivanisevic in a grass-court tuneup for his third title this year.

At 20, the Australian with the fastest serve in tennis seemed primed to join some of his famous compatriots as champion, despite worries over his father, Nick, who is fighting stomach cancer. British fans, for all their suffering with the gloomy, chilly weather, could at least delight in Rusedski's play and the victory by 14th-seeded Tim Henman, who beat Canadian Daniel Nestor 7-6 (13-11), 6-1, 6-4 in the first match on Court 1. "It did feel very much like Centre Court," Henman said of the new stadium. "I think you can notice that it is fractionally smaller, but there's still a great atmosphere out there." In a match interrupted several Jim Courier (right) jokes with Michael Stich after slipping on a wet Wimbledon court. Stich led 7-6 (6-0), 1-2, when play was suspended.

SPORTS times by rain, defending men's champion Richard Krajicek took nearly four hours to beat Mar cello Craca of Germany 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 64. No. 2 Goran Ivanisevic won in straight sets against Dinu Pes-cariu, and Australian Open runner-up Carlos Moya beat American Steve Bryan in four sets. French Open champion Iva Majoli, 0 for Wimbledon before this year, mused that perhaps the best way to prepare for grass was to munch it Majoli overcame a hot start by Grand Slam newcomer Mariana.