Norman Will Rejoin PGA Tour Next Year

Greg Norman will rejoin the PGA Tour next year, allowing him to play in as many tournaments as he wants.

Norman gave up his PGA Tour membership last year because he played in only 11 events, one short of the minimum.

The two-time British Open champion was allowed only five sponsors’ exemptions in 2002, along with whatever majors or World Golf Championships for which he was eligible. He played 13 times and made the cut in the four majors.

Norman will not claim “home-circuit” status for the 2003 season. Foreign-born players can use that to play their home tours without having to get a release from the tour.

Instead, the tour will allow Norman to play a liberal amount of overseas events without making him play at least 12 tour events to retain his membership. Norman gives up his voting privileges under the compromise.

Norman, 47, has not said how often he plans to play next year. He divides his time among tournaments and a number of businesses, such as golf course design, real estate, apparel and wines.

Norman is eligible to play the tour through a lifetime exemption, which he earned by playing for at least 15 years and winning at least 20 times.

College Basketball

With five returning starters, Arizona was No. 1 in the Associated Press men’s preseason poll for the third time in six years.

Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas -- all of the Big 12 Conference -- held the next three spots in the poll, the third time one conference has had that many teams in the preseason top five.

UCLA, at No. 14, and Oregon, at No. 11, were the only other Pacific 10 Conference teams in the top 25.

Arizona received 50 first-places votes and 1,773 points from the national media panel. The Wildcats were the preseason No. 1 for the 1997-98 and 2000-01 seasons.

Kansas had 14 first-place and 1,715 points, and Oklahoma had six first-place votes.

Pittsburgh, which received one first-place vote, was No. 5 in the poll, with Duke, Florida, Alabama, Michigan State and Xavier completing the top 10.

No. 12 Mississippi State -- the only other team to receive a first-place vote -- was followed by Maryland. No. 15 Connecticut was followed by Georgia, Kentucky, Marquette, Missouri, Western Kentucky, Indiana, Gonzaga, Cincinnati, Minnesota and Tulsa.

Fourteen of last year’s preseason top 25 weren’t in the final poll of the season, including No. 5 UCLA.

Maryland men’s Coach Gary Williams received a raise and contract extension by one year to 2009. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Williams received a base salary of about $190,000 last season and earned additional money from endorsements and appearances. He received $100,000 for winning the NCAA championship.

College Soccer

Two days after winning its first West Coast Conference women’s championship, Pepperdine was seeded No. 3 in the NCAA tournament.

The Waves (16-1-2) will play Wisconsin Milwaukee (11-5-5) in a first-round match Friday at Marquette. Pepperdine could not play host to any regional matches because its home facility is not large enough to meet NCAA standards.

Pac-10 runner-up UCLA was seeded No. 7 and will play host to a four-team regional Friday and Sunday. The Bruins (16-3-0) will play Loyola Marymount (10-6-3) in the first round and USC (10-7-3) will play San Diego (11-6-3).

Top-ranked Stanford (18-1-0) was seeded No. 1 and will play Big West champion Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (14-6-0) on Friday in the first round of a four-team regional at Stanford.

Miscellany

Peter Wells of Newport Beach and Lanee Butler of Aliso Viejo have qualified to represent the United States in the men’s and women’s boardsailing mistral event, respectively, in the 2003 Pan American Games on Aug. 1-17 at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, said a vote on whether to drop baseball, softball and modern pentathlon from the Olympics could be postponed, and the decision might not apply until the 2012 Games rather than the 2008 Beijing Games.

The IOC is scheduled to vote on the proposals at its general assembly in Mexico City on Nov. 27-29.

The International Skating Union, seeking to regain credibility after the Salt Lake City figure skating scandal, has created a restructuring commission.

The commission is the latest measure of damage control by the ISU, which is also testing a new judging system to help clean up the sport.

The 20-member commission is expected to report back with proposals in time for the 2004 congress, the ISU said.

Passings

Longtime Los Angeles sports broadcaster and journalist Chuck Benedict died Saturday after suffering a heart attack at his home in Glendale. He was 83.

Benedict spent 40 years with the Los Angeles Rams in various broadcasting capacities.