European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 10, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday june 10, 1992 the stars and stripes c Page 25road to slam gets Rockie Wimbledon next hurdle for Seles courier by Hal Bock a sports writer now comes the Tough part for Jim courier and Monica Seles each Halfway to that most elusive of Tennis prizes a grand slam. Now comes Wimbledon. Its one thing to win on the Quick hard courts of the australian open and the . Open and the slow red Clay of the French. Its quite another to win on the erratic grass of the very proper All England Lawn Tennis and croquet club where each june they conduct a tournament known simply As the championships. Welcome to Wimbledon where the Ball Jim courier bounces this Way and that sometimes skidding sometimes scooting rarely the same two times in a Row. It can drive the Best players to distraction. Ivan Lendl who never quite solved the mysteries of Wimbledon a skips and Low bounces once stayed Home from the tournament entirely announcing he was allergic to grass. Go argue with that. The All England club sits serenely on the outskirts of Norman May miss out after losing playoff by the associated press Greg Norman May miss the . Open after settling for an alternates spot in qualifying on monday. Norman who has a reputation for coming close to winning golfs major tournaments but losing in heartbreaking ways was Parton an eight Way playoff for the final four spots available at the lakes club in Wester Field Ohio one of 10 qualifying Sites. Norman watched As Kirk Triplett and former masters Champion Larry Mize birdied the second playoff Hole. Peter Jacobsen and Brian Claar won open slots with birdies on the first playoff Hole. Mize won his masters in 1987 during a playoff with Norman by sinking a lengthy Chip shot. Asked if he agreed with having to go through a Quali a 1 the open . Open qualifying Fier to reach. Field he said a a that a the conditions to get in their tournament. You be got to do what they say you have to Tom Lehman the 1991 Ben Hogan player of the year led 18 qualifiers with rounds of 66 and 70. Former . Open Champion Johnny Miller missed out at the Lake Merced Golf and country club in Daly City calif., As did teenage Star Tiger Woods. Miller who blitzed Oakmont for a closing 63 to take the 1973 open shot a pair of 77s and was Well behind. He was trying to reach the tournament for the first time in five years. Woods at 16 the youngest player to tee off in a pea tournament when he played at the los Angeles open in february had a 151. Brandt Jobe shot a 69 in the final round to Lead 10 qualifiers at 142. Ben Crenshaw also a former masters Champion had a 145 at champions Golf club and failed to reach the . Open for the second straight year. Tray Tyner and Tom Jenkins each shot 138 to Lead four qualifiers at the Houston course. Warren Schutte of South Africa the 1991 Mcaa Champion from univ had a 142 and led four qualifiers at big foot country club in Fontana wis. Branded Chamblee and Steve Gotschy each shot 9-under 135s to qualify at the Columbine country club in Littleton Colo. Darryl Donovan a former cobra helicopter Pilot who turned pro seven months ago had a 139 to top three qualifiers at Royal Oaks country club in Van London its Pristine grass carefully cared for fertilized and manicured watered and waiting. By the end of the fortnight Center court will be a scuffed remnant beaten up by two weeks of pounding More dirt than grass. Still it is Wimbledon Prim and proper and unlike any other place in Tennis. It oozes Aura and history. It can be an intimidating setting even for the most mature player. And for All their Success elsewhere courier and Seles remain kids one 21, the other 18. Each is flourishing right now courier a dominating Winner at the French after Seles survived a Marathon struggle with Steffi Graf. Now comes the real Challenge though a the crazy bounces off Wimbledon a grass. Neither has really solved the surface so far. Courier at least is making Progress. He reached the quarterfinals a year ago following a first round elimination in 1989 and a third round wipe out in 1990. A i played Well there last year a he said. A i feel i can play Well there again. Ill do my right now he is the no. 1 player in the world and enjoying every moment of it displaying the kind of Charisma America demands in its Tennis heroes. At the australian he celebrated his Victory by jumping in the Yarra River. At Paris with the Seine too far away he topped off his win by taking a phantom Johnny Carson Golf swing a tribute to the recently retired television entertainer who was at court Side. Then he spoke to the crowd in French butchering the language a bit but a speaking like a Spanish cow he said a but at least making the attempt. Now he has to get serious tug Down on the Bill of his Greg Norman chips during mondays . Open qualifying round at the lakes club at Westerville Ohio. Couver Wash. At the Bay Hill club in Orlando fla., Denis Watson had rounds of 69 and 67 to head six qualifiers. Watson who recently returned to the pea tour after missing seven months with a shoulder injury was competing for just the third time since he left in november. Webb Heintzelman birdied eight of the last 22 holes at the Wood Mont country club in Rockville md., to reach his fourth . Open. Heintzelman who plays on the Hogan tour shot a 71-68-139 to beat Houston open Winner Fred Funk by two strokes. John Flannery who won the Ben Hogan quicksilver open on sunday shot a pair of 69s to Lead five qualifiers at the Sharon Golf club outside of Cleveland. The . Open is set for Pebble Beach june 18-21. Baseball Cap and go after the grass beginning june 22. After that Conics the grand slam Climax the . Open in new York at the end of August. Seles reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 1989 and the quarters the next year before passing last june with what she said was a stress fracture in her leg. She followed her last minute withdrawal with a Madonna act a mysterious comings and goings often hidden under a huge hat. It was certainly not the first time a 17-year-old has pulled that routine but it had the English tabloids speculating on everything from pregnancy to Petal Cnoc. Now a mature 18, Seles May bring a different perspective to Wimbledon this time. Her three quarters slam last year gave Monica sulcs her some food for thought. A i will always have to live with it a she said. A it will always be there. The Little emptiness. For me next year Wimbledon will be the most important. Its the Only one i Haven to won for my this then is her next year. Bowness fired after 1 year As Bruins coach by Howard Ulman Bost on apr Rick Bowness led the Boston Bruins to their 25th straight winning season. But for the 20th straight season they failed to win the Stanley cup. So for the third straight season they will have a different head coach unless Mike Milbury regains the Job he gave up a year ago. Bowness one year As Bostons coach ended with Promise As the Bruins made it to the Stanley cup semifinals with a Young developing team. T hat was t Good enough to prevent his firing monday. A fall organizations Are demanding a assistant general manager Milbury said. A we May be More so a my maybe that a the reason for our Milbury immediately emerged As a leading candidate to resume the Job he abandoned to move into the front office. That created the vacancy that Bowness filled after two years As coach of Bostons minor league team in Maine. His Job was in jeopardy during the season. But the Bruins surged to a 6-3-2 finish completing a 36-32-12 regular season their second worst record in 25 seasons. Then they won the Adams division playoffs by beating Buffalo 4-3 and Montreal 4-0. In the semifinals they were swept in four games by Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh penguins. But Chicago suffered that same Fate in the finals. A we certainly done to blame Bowness for losing to Pittsburgh Quot Sinden said. A we blame Sinden had trouble specifying Why Bowness deserved blame at All. He praised Bowness 37, As Well organized and hard working with an ability to assess Talent. He lacked some a instinctive things that Are difficult to define Sinden said. A other than that kind of a Slippery ingredient that a Tough to put your hand on we Felt that Rick did a Good Job a he said. A a there san element and an instinct in coaching that come to few and we Hope that we can find that in whoever we select. I happen to think that Mike Milbury has that instinctive Quality and there Are others that have one might be Brian Sutter who was fired As coach of St. Louis after the blues playoff loss to Chicago. Sinden said he could be a candidate and added that he had made Calls checking on the availability of others. Each of the last six Boston coaches have come from within the organization. The last outsider 1 red Creighton was fired on March 22, 1980, before completing his first season
