FOOTBALL

WR Smith Misses Practice Again

Carolina Panthers All-Pro receiver Steve Smith missed practice again yesterday and remains questionable for the season opener against Atlanta.

“Right now it’s day-to-day and when it comes down to Sunday it will be a game-day decision,” the Panthers’ coach, John Fox, said.

Smith was limited to 10 practices in the preseason because of a strained left hamstring and an ingrown toenail that required stitches. He did not play in any of Carolina’s four preseason games.

Smith then tweaked his right hamstring in practice Tuesday and was held out of Wednesday’s workout.

“Nothing has changed on the injuries,” Fox said.

LB Bruschi Returns To Practice After Wrist Surgery

Tedy Bruschi returned to practice yesterday with a cast on his surgically repaired right wrist and was listed as questionable for the New England Patriots’ season opener Sunday against Buffalo.

The inside linebacker, who broke his wrist on the fourth day of training camp July 31, was on the field for the stretching period that was open to the media. The injury report issued late yesterday said Bruschi missed a portion of the practice.

Bruschi, entering his 11th season, missed the first six games last year after suffering a stroke the previous February. But he played well enough in 10 games to be the co-Comeback Player of the Year with Carolina’s Steve Smith.

GOLF

Wie Shoots a 78 Against Men as Prospects Dim For Making Cut

Michelle Wie hooked her tee shots, played erratically out of bunkers and unraveled on the par-3s.

There was one consistent element, though: She is facing another missed cut playing against men.

Wie shot a 7-over-par 78 yesterday in the first round of the European Masters. It was Wie’s 10th tournament against men — where she has made the cut only once — and her first on the European tour.

“The par-3s ate me alive today,” the 16-year-old star from Hawaii said. “I didn’t have any feel for the game.”

Wie was tied for 146th on the Alpine layout, with only five players shooting a poorer score.

“It sure didn’t go the way I wanted it to,” she said. “I think it was very difficult for me after taking time off, go home, start school and come back and play a tournament. It was very difficult for me to do that. But I grinded out there. I tried my hardest right to the end.”

Wie was 12 shots behind leaders Anthony Wall, Robert Coles and David Carter, who shot 66. Defending champion Sergio Garcia, who has a summer home near the course, shot a 68 to contend in a relatively weak field.

Furyk, Rose Shoot 63s To Top Canadian Open Leaderboard

Jim Furyk and Justin Rose took advantage of perfect scoring conditions yesterday in the first round of the Canadian Open.

Furyk and Rose shot the lowest rounds ever in professional play on the 90-year-old Hamilton Golf and Country Club course, 7-under 63s that left them a stroke ahead of Brandt Jobe, Nathan Green and Frank Lickliter II on the rain-softened layout.

“I shot a low number, but I was obviously aided by the weather and the conditions,” Furyk said, two weeks away from his fifth straight U.S. Ryder Cup appearance.

BOXING

Holyfield To Fight Oquendo in November

Evander Holyfield, the first four-time world heavyweight champion, wants to become the first to win five.

The 43-year-old Holyfield resumes his long comeback Nov. 10 when he fights Fres Oquendo at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

In his most recent bout, Holyfield stopped Jeremy Bates in the second round on Aug. 18 in Dallas.

“I am asked all the time why I still fight,” Holyfield said at a news conference yesterday. “My answer is always the same. I want to reach my goal. And that goal is to become a world champion one more time.

“When I do, I’ll sit down. Until then, I’m going to be in the battlefield.”

— Associated Press