Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 33

DETROIT FREE PRESS IIFL QSS3 aftsi DSFL players: The NFL frees its teams to sign players from the dormant USFL, and Kansas City and Washington take advantage. Page 5D. Sports Phone, 1-976-1313 Tuesday, fisg. 12, mm i TENNIS BASEBALL MOVIE GUIDE CJ wtth sports nsw 222 $660 ID PGA Championship Page 3D The PGA may wind up at Oakland Hills in '92 The Shark bites back when cornered Final PGA scorecard, statistics 0 Pl 1 Beached Tway nips Shark By JACK SAYLOR Free Press. Soorts Writer TOLEDO It was a knockout in the 15th round.

Bob Tway, fighting stoically from behind, holed out his 25-foot bunker shot for a dramatic birdie at the final hole Monday, kayoing a staggering Greg Norman and winning the rain-delayed PGA Championship at Inverness Club. Norman, the 31-year-old Australian, was being hailed as the new maestro of the majors. But The Shark's birdie machine came apart at the seams. So did his par machine. He hit only six greens in regulation as he faded to a five-over-par 76.

Tway, a 27-year-old Oklahoman in his second season on the PGA Tour, reacted in uncharacteristic fashion as his sand shot slid into the cup, earning him a two-stroke victory. "All I remember is standing there jumping up and down," said Tway, who trailed Norman by nine strokes after the first 36 holes and still lagged by four strokes going into the final nine. NORMAN, THE only player in PGA history to lead all four majors after three rounds in the same year, was stunned at the virtual sudden-death finish. His sudden loss revived memories of Tom Watson snatching the 1982 U.S. Open crown in similar fashion on the 17th green at Pebble Beach, leaving Jack Nicklaus empty-handed at the 18th.

"You have to swallow a pill every once in a while," said Norman, who won the British Open and was second in the Masters and PGA. Norman was in good spirits after i -in I iiv-'' Free Press Photo by ALAN KAMUDA Greg Norman (right) congratulates PGA champion Bob Tway after Monday's round. PGA's best the defeat, until someone suggested enough," he said. "If I had played half- that a "monkey" had returned to his decently, I would've won. But you back for a third fade-out in the four don't have control over what others do majors.

Jack Nicklaus' back nine at Augus- "I had a chance to win the tourna- ta, and Bob had a good back nine today, ment and obviously didn't play well See pgAj Page 72-70-64-70-276 Bob Tway 65-68-69-76-278 Greg Norman Morris puts lid on 5-0 The poker-faced kid finds a treasure in his sandbox TOLEDO He was jumping up and down in the sand like a kid. Bob Tway? Jumping up and down? All golf season long he had been Mr. Deadpan, the analyst, the troubleshooter, the Swiss watchmaker on a grass workbench. What had they called him? The Poker-Faced Kid? And now he was jumping up and down, waving his fists and kicking up sand, until the sea of people lining the 18th green was cheering and jumping with him, and some people were crying, they were so overwhelmed. And soon he was crying, too.

"How do you feel?" asked a TV reporter who grabbed him as he came off that final hole. "I feel I feel great. he said, a tear rolling down his right cheek. Only a minute earlier he had made the shot of his life, a 25-foot wedge from the right bunker, that lifted to the green in a spray of sand and rolled like destiny to the pin. And went kerplop.

It's twue, it's Tway! He had won the PGA Championship. He had won his first major title. He had beaten Greg Norman, the superstar heir apparent that everyone had been talking about all month. He had done it with one shot from the sand. One incredible shot.

"Were you confident you could make it?" someone asked him afterward. "I wasn't even trying to make it," he said. "I was just trying to get it close. I'm not that good." Blood lust not enough But on this day, he was good enough. The Oklahoma golfer who, despite his 27 years, still looks like Chip from My Three Sons had started where he left off Sunday, when the final round was postponed due to rain.

He was four strokes behind Norman who was 11 under and Norman had looked unbeatable. But on Monday, Norman seemed to be set on playing to Tway's level, and in the end, playing just a shade beneath it. So his lead went from four strokes to two strokes and then one stroke and then no strokes. The two leaders were tied from the 14th on. Tway played what else? steady golf, with often magnificent approach shots and only acceptable putts.

Several times he had chances to leave Norman behind with birdies, but the ball rolled past or came up short. So when they lined up their approach shots on 18, the final hole, the thick crowd was still whispering, "Norman." And when Tway hit the bunker, they figured the "Shark" was smelling blood. Not this day. Norman had a 20-foot chip to the pin, a tough shot at best. But before Norman got the chance, Tway made that magical wedge, knocking his ball from the sand to the superlative.

And Norman knew it was over. "What did you say when his shot went in?" someone asked Norman afterward. "I said, 'Oh, he answered honestly. It's twue. It's Tway.

Norman missed the chip. He shook Tway's hand. Tway's wife ran out and hugged him. He pulled off his visor and waved it high, and the personality was peeled out from under the perfection. No more analyst.

No more watchmaker. "Way to go, Bobby!" someone yelled. "Tway! All the way!" "All right, Bob!" He smiled. He cried. "You've always been so unemotional," someone pointed out.

"I guess I am pretty serious," he said, stopping twice to catch his composure. "But right now, I'm the happiest person in the world." Now let's twy Tway So the PGA is over, with a new champion. And not the one many expected. Norman took his loss well, and his accomplishments are not at all diminished as some may suggest by finishing second at yet another major tournament. It only means that more than anyone else, Norman belongs at the top of the golfing world.

And Tway belongs alongside him. Remember that this win is only the capper on a spectacular year, in which Tway has 13 top-10 finishes, and four victories. The Masters, returned us Jack Nicklaus, the U.S. Open revitalized Ray Floyd, the British hailed Norman and now the PGA celebrates Bob Tway. The, uh, excitable Bob Tway.

"You were really thrilled," someone said. "Oh my," he said. "That shot may never happen again in my career!" He held the trophy, his wife held roses, and the Monday sun was setting as on a weekend on this, a richly satisfying golf season. One with drama at every Grand Slam corner, and now, four worthy champions: two veterans, one new superstlr, and a poker-faced kid, jumping in the sand. The AL East race AL EAST W-L GB TODAY Boston 65-45 at New York 62-52 5 Cleve Baltimore 60-52 6 Tor Detroit 60-53 6 Chi Cleveland 58-54 8 at NY Toronto 59-55 8 at Bal Milwaukee 55-56 10Vt at Tex I A -4 -i i i i i if i By JOHN LOWE Freo Press Sports Writer When Jack Morris went to the mound Monday night, it had been four months and four days since he had beaten the Red Sox on Opening Day at Tiger Stadium.

And if he hadn't done well in this start against the Red Sox, it could have been unofficial Closing Day for the 1986 Tigers. A defeat Monday would have meant the Red Sox had swept this four-game series and taken an 8 -game lead on the middle-of-the-pack Tigers in the AL East. But Morris uncorked a three-hitter in beating Boston, 5-0, giving the Tigers their only win in the four-game series and drawing them back within 6'j games of the Sox. John Grubb and Lou Whitaker hit homers to get the Tigers a 3-0 lead against loser Oil Can Boyd after three innings. 'The Can" couldn't, for the second straight time since coming back from his four-week walkoutsuspension.

Boyd went all the way, allowing 10 hits, four by Darnell Coles. The Tigers added single runs In the sixth and seventh, but didn't need them. The only inning in which the Red Sox had more than one base runner was the third, when Morris retired Jim Rice and Dwight Evans in key spots. "THIS IS a big relief," the Tigers' Darrell Evans said. "We lost three out of four games to them, but we only lost two games to them in the standings.

"We're still a factor. But if we'd lost four in a row, we'd have gone from the 'up' elevator to the 'down' Morris said: "I felt no extra pressure. It was an important game, but alj I could do is give 100 percent." 7 Morris (14-7) won for the seventh" time in eight starts. In those seven wins, he allowed a total of one earned run. Those seven wins include four shutouts (giving him the league lead at four for the season), and also a game in which he came out leading.

12-0. after Free Press Photo bv PATRICIA BECK Oil Can Boyd went all the way Monday night, giving up 10 hits. See TIGERS, Page 50 Pdirish out rest of '86? Carlton will likely face Tigers tonight By JOHN LOWE Fret Press Sports Writer Steve Carlton, who has four Cy Young awards and 4,000 strikeouts, most likely will make his American League debut tonight by pitching for the Chicago White Sox against the Tigers at Tiger Stadium. The White Sox are expected to announce sometime after 2 p.m. today when Carlton clears waivers that they have signed him.

If they had claimed Carlton on waivers before today, they would have to pay his whole salary ($1.1 million this year). If they wait, they must pay him only about $20,000, one-third the major league minimum. Carlton, a left-hander, will be joining his third team this season. The Phillies released him in June, and the Giants would have released him las week if he hadn't announced his supposed retirement. The White Sox want Carlton because they have lost risk further injury to Parrish by play- ing him in meaningless games.

An intensive exercise rehabilitation program was prescribed for Parrish, who has missed 16 games. PARRISH'S BACK has troubled him on numerous occasions the past couple of seasons. Last year a strained lower back sidelined him twice in July and again in September. Parrish's problem is that a fourth vertebra has moved slightly onto a fifth vertebra. It's not the vertebrae themselves that cause the pain, it's ligaments, tendons or nerves around them.

Pain can be brought on by something strenuous, like a catcher squatting. The last game Parrish played, July 26 against Kansas City, he caught all 11 innings. See PARRISH, Page 4D By GENE GJDI Free Press Sports Writer Catcher Lance Parrish out since July 27 with a sore back may have played his last game this season for the Tigers. Parrish was examined Monday in Inglewood, by Dr. Robert Wat-kins, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in back problems.

Watkins diagnosed Parrish'g problem as a "developmental abnormality in his back" the same thing that has troubled Parrish in past seasons and advised that Parrish not play for "several weeks." "Depending upon his progress, he might be able to play in September," Watkins satt. But If the Tigers aren't in the pennant race then, it's unlikely they would See CARLTON, Page 40 Steve Carlton.