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Sports Briefs: Rock Barn closer to getting title sponsor
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Published: November 26, 2009
Updated: 11/26/2009 12:45 am
The Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn is close to a return appearance in 2010.
The Champions Tour schedule was released Tuesday, and the tournament -- which has had a seven-year run at Rock Barn -- is scheduled for Oct. 1-3, 2010.
There was doubt about the future of the tournament because of the economy, but Don Beaver, the owner of Rock Barn, is close to landing a title sponsor.
Jim Correll, the tournament director, said that even though the tournament is on the 2010 schedule, negotiations about sponsorship are ongoing.
"The Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn has been included on the 2010 Champions Tour schedule as an act of good faith by the tour," Correll said. "We are working diligently toward securing title sponsorship and a renewal with the tour that will allow us to fulfill these dates, and we are very close."
Correll said he hopes to have the title sponsor secured in the next month or so.
Jay Haas won at Rock Barn this year to become a two-time winner.
-- John Dell
Baseball
■ Andruw Jones agreed yesterday to a $500,000, one-year contract with the Chicago White Sox.
Jones hit .214 with 17 homers and 43 RBIs in 82 games with Texas this year and was in the lineup as a designated hitter, left fielder, right fielder and first baseman. Jones, a five-time All-Star who has slumped in recent years, was released by the Los Angeles Dodgers in January and signed with the Rangers the next month.
He agreed to a $36.2 million, two-year contract with Los Angeles in December 2007. Now 32, he can make an additional $1 million in performance bonuses under his agreement with the White Sox.
■ Pitcher Jamie Moyer of the Phillies has been hospitalized because of recurring symptoms from groin surgery in September.
The team announced yesterday that Moyer has been admitted to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital but did not give any more information about his condition.
Tennis
■ Roger Federer has reclaimed his spot at the top of the men's tennis, securing the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fifth time to close in on Pete Sampras' all-time mark of six.
"It means a lot to have returned to No. 1 and to finish the year again at No. 1," Federer said yesterday after accepting a trophy on court at the ATP World Tour Finals. "It was an incredible year for me both on the court and off the court and to be able to break the all-time Grand Slam record and finish the year on top is amazing."
Federer secured the top year-end ranking after winning his first two matches at the season-ending tour finals in London.
Rafael Nadal had a mathematical chance of overtaking Federer for the top spot but lost his opening match.
■ Nadal has officially been chosen to play for Spain in the Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic. He missed last year's championship-match win over Argentina with a knee injury and last played for Spain in March, in a first-round win over Serbia.
Also on the Spanish team for the final Dec. 4-6 on clay in Barcelona are: Fernando Verdasco,
David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez.
The Czech team will be Radek Stepanek, Tomas Berdych, Jan Hajek
and Lukas Dlouhy.
■ Robin Soderling advanced to the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Finals in London by defeating Novak Djokovic 7-6 (5), 6-1 yesterday for his second straight win. Soderling, who entered the tournament as an alternate after Andy Roddick pulled out with a knee injury, also defeated Rafael Nadal in straight sets Monday.
The loss ended Djokovic's 11-match winning streak, his first defeat against Soderling in six meetings.
Miscellaneous
■ Golfer Alison Nicholas will return as Europe's captain for the 2011 Solheim Cup in Ireland, and the Ladies European Tour also announced a change in the qualification criteria yesterday. Europe's team will consist of the leading four Europeans on the tour money list, followed by the leading four tour members in the women's world ranking. Nicholas also will have four captain's picks. The Americans won the cup in August and have an 8-3 lead in the competition, which started in 1990.
■ Ira "Babe" Hanford, who rode Bold Venture to a stunning victory in the 1936 Kentucky Derby as an 18-year-old apprentice jockey, died last weekend in Ocala, Fla., after a long illness. He was 91. Hanford retired in 1953 without ever running in another Derby and is one of 22 jockeys to win the Run for the Roses in their only appearance.
■ ESPN Deportes will broadcast next year's World Cup in the United States with Portuguese commentary in what looks like a challenge to Univision.
ESPN and ABC, part of The Walt Disney Co., own all U.S. telecasts rights to FIFA tournaments through the 2014 World Cup, except for Spanish-language rights. Those are owned by Univision Communications Inc. Brazil and Portugal are the only Portuguese-speaking nations in the 32-team field in South Africa.
■ Alberto Contador's Astana team has been registered to race on the International Cycling Union's ProTour calendar in 2010 but UCI still wants assurances that Astana can meet its budget after some of the team's riders went without some paychecks last season. Contador, the 2009 Tour de France champion, was expected to leave if Astana was excluded from the ProTour.
■ Zach Brown, 8, of Bermuda Run competed for North Carolina in the America's Cup, which is a junior-golf competition against a team from Georgia. Brown, who was a member of the 30-player team, went 2-2 in his matches with Georgia winning the overall title 47-46.
■ The Indy Racing League will open its 2010 season on the streets of Sao Paulo, the first time the IndyCar series has held a race in Brazil.
The race is scheduled for March 14.
Series officials spent much of last summer talking about the possibility of going to Brazil, the home country of last season's biggest sponsor APEX-Brasil, which provides Ethanol fuel for the IndyCars. They had said the season opener would be in Brazil but had not announced the city.
Several prominent drivers in the series including three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, 2004 IRL points champion Tony Kanaan and Raphael Matos, who was last season's rookie of the year, are Brazil natives.
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