Young stars, old vets compete at Reno-Tahoe Open

AP

Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2002 | 6:03 a.m.

RENO, Nev. AP) - Charles Howell III and Chris Riley, a former UNLV standout who was third at last week's PGA Championship, are among the rising young stars mixing it up at Reno this week with such PGA Tour veterans as Mark O'Meara, Corey Pavin and Lee Janzen.

Past PGA winners Mark Brooks and Bob Tway and 1982 Masters champ Craig Stadler, who formerly lived at nearby Lake Tahoe, are among the other major winners who begin play Thursday at the fourth $3 million Reno-Tahoe Open.

The top 78 players in the world qualified for the World Golf Championship NEC Invitational also being played this week.

That means defending Reno champ John Cook and previous winners Scott Verplank and Notah Begay III will be at the NEC Invitational at Sammamish, Wash., rather than the young tourney at the 7,472-yard, Par 72 Montreux Golf & Country Club on the edge of the Sierra Nevada.

Though the Reno-Tahoe open has helped jump-start the careers of the past winners and has increasingly attracted a crop of rookie talent soon to be ranked among the world's best, it has been unable to secure a title sponsor or network television contract and is struggling to survive beyond this year.

Local sports books have made O'Meara (12 (1)- and Howell 15 (1)- the favorites.

O'Meara, who won both the Masters and the British Open in 1996 and is 15th on the career money list with $12.7 million, has tied for second twice this year and ranks 67th with $682,396 in earnings.

In addition to Howell, 23, Pat Perez, 26, and Riley, 28, have cleared the $1 million mark this year and rank among the Top 40 on the money list.

Riley, whose 70.10 scoring average is 14th on tour, and Perez both have finished in the Top 10 at four tournaments this year. Howell, who tied for 17th at the PGA and was fourth at last year's Reno-Tahoe Open, has three Top 10s this year.

Bryce Molder, 23, third at Reno last year, and Aaron Baddeley, 21, a two-time winner on the Australian Tour, are among the other youngsters aiming for their first PGA win at the Jack Nicklaus-designed course that meanders through towering pines and mountain streams in the shadow of the 10,900-foot Mt. Rose.

Brooks, winner of the 1996 PGA, was third in the International at a similar Castle Pines course in Colorado earlier this month.

Janzen, winner of the 1993 and 1998 U.S. Opens, and Tway both are having decent years - Tway at 48th on the money list with $928,333 and Janzen 51st at $848,459.

Pavin, who won the U.S. Open in 1995, only has had one Top 10 finish over the past two years but tied for 22nd at the British Open last month.

The field also includes Jeff Maggert, Duffy Waldorf, Tim Herron, Billy Mayfair, Estabon Toledo, Dan Forsman, Billy Andrade, Cameron Beckman, J.P. Hayes, Frank Lickliter II and Steve Flesch.

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