The Columbus Ledger from Columbus, Georgia • 10

Sports Thursday October 3 1985 Ledger Sports Editor An Amateur In Name Only Strange things come into your mind during a hot muggy day at Green Island Hills or example when I saw Uni versity of Georgia golf star Peter Persons waiting for his chance to hit off the practice tee I said to myself: Peter Persons picked a peck of pickled peppers Three times And 1 got the alliteration right each time You try it But first meet the man who is playing in this Southern Open one of three ama teurs in a field of professionals 'who would gladly trade antique mashie for the check of $63000 But Persons should he win here (and remember it that long ago that amateur Scott Verplank won a PGA Tour tour nament) will receive only the trophy and handshakes from Gunby Jordan Sam Wellborn and Bo Trotter And a lot of hands on experience since I was a small boy had a dream of one day playing on the professional said Persons as he watched fel low Georgian Bob Tway work on his irons is the first one and That he is Persons from Macon was a finalist in this US Amateur tournament As a freshman at Georgia hewas runnerup in the NCAA tour nament The ready to turn pro But first: want to play my final year at Georgia I think going to have another good And along the way he plans to pick up a degree in business Then and only then will he turn pro Dick Copas the Bulldog coach always seems to have good teams One of the reasons is his ability to spot talented junior golfers and induce them to come Ito Athens grew up a Bulldog fan but I gave North Carolina a lot of consideration too But I chose Georgia And I love it One of the problems he found at UGA was adapting to life in the athletic dorm fun at all tell you that All the football players treated us (members of the golf team) likepipsqueaks Boy was I happy when we were able to move outof the dorm and into an apart When Persons came to the university from Stratford Acad emy in 1981 a friendship began himself and Columbusgolfers Madden Hatcher andWright Waddell been to Columbus several times played Green Island a couple of times a good golf Copas redshirted Persons his first year The following season he nudged out teammate Jack "Larkin for an opportunity to play for the Red and Black in that NCAA golf tournament 'He placed second to Jim Carter of Arizona State by a stroke finish gave me a lot of confidence It proved to me that I It proved it to a lot of other folks too The item on resume you underline in red is his show ing in the US Amateur at Mont clair NJ He placed 30th or so during the medal play which determines the 64 finalists for the match play portion of the event One by one he eliminated his opponents including Georgia teammate Chip Drury in thesemifinals until the final day Then he tackled Sam Randolph the 1985 red Haskins Award winner from Santa Barabara Calif over 36 holes It went to the 36th hole actually won it on the 35th We haved the 36th I lost 1 His high finish qualified him to play in the 1986 Masters in Au gusta think of anything rather do than play in the Masters the dream of all But first things first this Southern Open ready to tee it up right he said Hey this ready Kansas City Pulls Even With Angels rom Wire Reports or the eighth time in two weeks the Kansas City Royals and California Angels are dead even in the American League West Bud Black pulled out of a slump to throw a three hitter and George Brett beat out a three run inside the park homer Wednesday night as the Royals posted a 4 0 victory over the Angels and pulled back into a tie for first plaO victory over the Angels and pulled back into a tie for first place with one game left in their four game series at Kan sas City In the AL East the New York 1 0 loss to Milwaukee as costly as it could have been but they did miss out on an opportunity to whittle away at the four games separating them from first place Toronto a 4 2 loser in Detroit Wednesday night In other games the Cleveland Indians shelled the Seattle Mari ners 12 2 the Oakland routed the Texas Rangers 14 3 and the Minnesota Twins beat the Chi See AMERICAN A 13 AP Photo BaK Buriy Bk bEB Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda Receives a Beer Shower Dodgers Clinch Spot in Playoffs By Dick Brinster AP Sports Writer The Los Angeles Dodgers have a date in the National League playoffs for the third time in the last five seasons Now all that remains to be decided is with whom the St Louis Cardinals or the New York Mets That issue was further clouded Wednesday night when Dwight Gooden whipped Joaquin Andu jar in a battle of 20 game winners as the Mets beat the Cardinals for the second straight night to move within a game of St Louis in the NL East The Mets who beat the Cardinals 1 0 in 11 in nings Tuesday night hung a 5 2 defeat on St Louis They meet again tonight with New York sending Rick Aguilera 10 6 against Danny Cox 17 9 of us are making it inter Cardinals Manager Whi tey Herzog said down now to where got to win or got to win and it gonna rain a hell of a The Dodgers clinched their fifth NL West crown in Manager Tom nine years at the helm when San Diego beat Cin cinnati 5 4 That set off a mid game celebration at Dodger Sta dium where Los Angeles was in the process of beating Atlanta 9 3 find enough words to describe what a job these players have said Lasorda mind ful of the disappointing fourth place finish in 1984 proved a lot of people wrong the Elsewhere in the NL it was Houston 7 San rancisco 2 Pittsburgh 9 Chicago 4 Mon treal 3 Philadelphia 1 in the first game of a doubleheader and Phil adelphia 3 Montreal 2 in the nightcap Mets 5 Cardinals 2 thought I pitched an out standing bailgame if you scratch that last Gooden said be in a better posi tion especially since we've been playing behind St Louis for the last See NATIONAL A 13 Instant Success Playing in Europe Prompted ast Start By Steve Adamek Enquirer Sports Editor Instant success On the PGA Tour some peo ple have it Most people Ben Crenshaw had it He won the first tournament he ever played as a professional Jack Nicklaus had it He won the first US Open he played as a professional Corey Pavin has it He fin ished second in the second tournament he ever played on the PGA Tour Phoenix Three months later he won at Hous ton and he also tied for second at last Southern Open This year won at Colo nial and is currently sixth on the PGA money win ning list So Corey the se cret? no telling how cer tain players adjust more quickly than he said after a practice session for the Southern Open which begins today at Green Island Country Club talking about so many minute things like how a guy deals with pressure how a guy deals with money hard to Pavin figures a 32 month stint in Europe in 1983 helped him There he played against the likes of Seve Ballesteros Bernhard Langer and many of Staff Photo by Ed Ellis Pavin Hits rom airway 1 Bp jHB SfiSk' MSwflppC 2 iiBBMBMBi the other players who have made their marks on the American tour the past couple of years There he beat Bal lesteros once and finished sec ond in another tournament There he learned the differ ence between professional and college golf he played the latter at UCLA and he learned the demands of pro fessional golf really gave me a lot of he said ena bled me to start believing in myself found out that on some of the courses I played as an amateur where a score like 7 under been good enough to win you needed a score like 13 under to win as a professional Six shots is a pretty big Not for Pavin one of the smallest players on tour at a generous 5 feet 9 inches and 140 pounds After missing the cut at his first PGA tourna ment the Bob Hope Classic he took Tom Purtzer down to the final hole at the 1984 Phoe nix Open before settling for second when Purtzer birided 18 He beat former Auburn player Buddy Gardner by a shot to win at Houston and also picked up two other top 10 finishes besides his quiet sec ond place tie at the Southern This year he leads the PGA Tour in top 10 finishes with 12 in 24 tournaments And as if to establish his credentials he won low pro honors during Southern Open pro am with a 5 under 65 like this golf course well suited to my he said has a lot of left to right holes and I like to hit the ball left to right off the Now Playing Like Classic Koch By Larry Gierer Staffwriter Things are going better with Gary Koch these days our weeks of rest and re laxation have made him a new man and he hopes a better golfer really needed a said Koch gotten to where I was just playing terri ble golf I stand my Koch who began play along with 120 other golfers today in the 16th annual Southern Open at the Green Island Country Club took four weeks off the tour after missing the cut in the PGA championship never taken that much time off in the middle of the tour he said I just accomplishing any thing on the course I was hav ing no Koch 32 did not just go home and work on his game either even unpack my clubs for two he said spent the first week at the beach with my wife and kids and the secon'd week I did some work that needed to be done around the house The third week I played a little golf but just for fun with friends It until the fourth week that I started working on my game I spent a couple of days with my coach Bob Toski and was ready to Koch a Baton Rouge La native who makes his home in Tampa la returned to play in the Milwaukee Open three weeks ago and though he play that well he felt better knew take a little time to get back in the Which he appears to be in now See KOCH A ll fcWSsi sis ti rr Iwr rifjtr Iw BBBr BEv jj Staff Photo by Michael Mercier Sophomore QB Mike Nail Is Kendrick's Chief Offensive Threat Kendrick Yearns ar Glory Days By Guerry Clegg Staff Writer They were once the mighty Six times during the 1970s the Ken drick Cherokees ruled the bi city rom 1976 to they were 32 8 In 1979 the Cherokees went 9 1 losing only to powerful Warner Robins Then came the crash Kendrick plummeted to 3 7 in 1980 and 2 8 in and In 1983 the Chero kees hit bottom at 1 9 The mighty had become the meek Then came last year Charles Dowdell an assistant during the glory days and the depression was appointed head coach And the Cherokees showed improve ment going 4 6 not so good in comparison to 9 1 but quite refreshing in comparison to 1 9 Now Kendrick is fighting for a complete recovery The Chero kees are 2 1 the only team in Region 2 AAAA with an overall winning record and tied for first with Jordan and Carver at 2 0 in the region Last Saturday the Cherokees beat Shaw 44 0 had two weeks to pre said Dowdell we felt like we prepared well Things kind of fell into place for us We had a couple big plays right off the bat We returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and then on the ensuing kickoff we recov ered a fumble and scored a cou ple playsjater So we were ahead 14 0 with practically no time gone at Last mild resurgence was due in part to Mike Nail then a freshman quarterback who started eight games After a slow start this season Nail flashed some of that brilliance against Shaw It was Nail who ran the kickoff back 80 yards Nail also threw a 32 yard touch down pass to Otis Walton and ran for two touchdowns passing early in the sea See CHEROKEES A 12 Tech Harrison Expects Tar Heels to Go Upstairs By Larry Gierer Staff Writer Anthony Harrison be lieve what he was reading in the newspapers His Georgia Tech teammates believe their eyes either And boy did they get burned week been reading stories about how North Carolina was going to pass the football against Harrison free safety recalled thought that was all being done for our benefit Carolina was just trying to get us confused It was just something for coach (Dick) Crum to give the reporters We knew Carolina would do what Carolina had always done in the past and try to run the ball right down our And why Harrison and the other Tech defenders be lieve that? In 1982 Carolina ripped Tech 41 0 The Tar Heels did it by rushing for 342 yards and passing the ball just 12 times In 1983 Carolina whipped Tech 38 21 and though the Tar Heels did pass for 271 yards in that game they had to outscore Tech 21 0 in the final quarter to win most of their damage was done on the ground the final two scores com ing on runs of 28 and 52 yards And for further proof that Carolina was just setting a smo kescreen defenders knew that the most passes Carolina had thrown in any of its first eight games was 29 Against NC State the Tar Heels had thrown just nine Against Memphis State thrown just 14 Even when they were losing as they were doing often in the early part of last season rarely did the Tar Heels go to the airways No Tech was not falling for this trick It was no trick Carolina went pass crazy last Nov 10 in Chapel Hill NC The Tar Heels passed the ball 41 times completing 27 for 256 yards and three touchdowns on their way to a 24 17 victory over Tech their fifth consecutive win over the Yellow Jackets really caught us off said Harrison think we really did that bad de fending them when you consider that we were really not prepared for how they attacked The surprise worked Carolina jumped out to a 21 10 lead then after defense adjusted the Tar Heels just hung on for victory Harrison feel there will be any surprises when Carolina and Tech clash in an important Atlantic Coast Conference game Saturday at Grant ield See HARRISON A 15 Tech 's Anthony Harrison MB BKBBu 'J.