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Sports Briefs: Norman, Evert separate after brief marriage
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Published: October 3, 2009
Updated: 10/02/2009 11:45 pm
Just 15 months after they were married, golf star Greg Norman and tennis great Chris Evert announced they have separated.
The announcement yesterday comes three days before Norman is to captain the International team at the Presidents Cup in San Francisco, where wives of the captains take on a visible role.
Norman and Evert, each in the Hall of Fame in their respective sports, did not say whether they planned to divorce.
In a statement, the couple said only, "We will remain friends and supportive of one another's family." The statement said they requested privacy for them and their families.
Norman's spokesman, Bart Collins, said the two-time British Open champion would not comment beyond the statement. Norman's first press conference at the Presidents Cup is Tuesday morning at Harding Park.
They were married June 28, 2008, in The Bahamas. A month later, while still on their honeymoon, Norman was nine holes away from becoming golf's oldest major champion at 53 when he led the British Open. He eventually tied for third at Royal Birkdale.
Norman was coming off an ugly divorce from Laura Andrassy, the mother of his two children, which ended in a settlement that paid her just over $100 million. Evert was married twice previously, most recently to Olympic downhill skier Andy Mill, with whom she had three children. They were divorced in December 2006.
More golf
■ Forbes magazine says that Tiger Woods has become the first athlete to surpass $1 billion in career earnings, estimating that he crested the plateau when he collected $10 million for winning the FedEx Cup on Sunday. Forbes reported on its Web site that Woods entered this season with $895 million since joining the PGA Tour in 1996 and that prize money, appearance fees, endorsement fees, bonuses and his golf-course design business were calculated to have pushed him over $1 billion.
The magazine says that Michael Jordan ($800 million) and former Formula One driver Michael Schumacher ($700 million) are Woods' closest competitors in earnings.
■ Kenny Perry's mother has died after a long battle with blood cancer. He plans to play in the Presidents Cup next week in San Francisco at his family's request.
Mildred Perry died Thursday morning in Franklin, Ky., of multiple myeloma.
Basketball
■ Jerome Burney, a 6-9 junior forward at Maryland, has decided to end his college basketball career because of foot injuries.
He has missed most of the past three season with nagging foot injuries. After redshirting as a freshman, he played in 17 games in 2007-08 and last year played in only nine games, totaling 68 minutes.
Coach Gary Williams said that Burney will remain a part of the team, even though he won't suit up.
■ Akil Mitchell, a 6-7 forward from Charlotte Christian, has committed to play basketball at Virginia, according to a report in the Charlottesville Daily Progress. He chose Virginia over George Washington, SMU, UNC Greensboro, Liberty and others.
■ NBA referees will be able to use instant replay on shot-clock and out-of-bounds calls this season.
The NBA Board of Governors approved the expanded use yesterday.
Referees will be permitted to check replay to see if the 24-second clock expired before a successful shot or a foul.
They can also consult video during the last 2 minutes of regulation and any overtime period to determine which player last touched the ball prior to it going out of bounds.
Soccer
■ The U.S. men's team lost 3-0 to South Korea yesterday in its final pool-round match at soccer's Under-20 World Cup in Egypt but still can advance.
The United States (1-2) finished third in Group C with three points, ahead of Cameroon (1-2) on goal difference and trailing Germany (2-0-1) and South Korea (1-1-1). Four of the six third-place teams will advance to the second round, and the Americans will find out today if they continue.
Kim Young-gwon scored in the 23rd minute, Kim Bo-kyung doubled the lead in the 42nd and Koo Ja-cheol converted a penalty kick in the 75th after Ike Opara was ejected by Italian referee Roberto Rosetti for a foul in the penalty area.
Softball
■ The late Ronnie Osborne, a former fast-pitch softball player from Kernersville, was inducted last night into the N.C. Amateur Softball Hall of Fame in Burlington. He played for five local fast-pitch teams in the 1960s, said his widow, Judy, who attended the induction ceremony.
Osborne, a 1957 graduate of Kernersville High School, was a star pitcher and shortstop in baseball. As a senior, he went 15-0 and had a pitching victory against Williamston and Gaylord Perry in the state playoffs. Osborne was drafted by the Cleveland Indians after high school and played two seasons in the minors. He was inducted into the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County High School Hall of Fame in 1984.
"He later became a very good softball player and was MVP on seven different occasions in tournaments he played in," Judy said. "It's a nice honor."
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