Boxing referee dies of apparent suicide

Boxing referee Mitch Halpern, who worked dozens of title fights, has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Las Vegas.

Halpern, 33, was found dead in his home on the city's south side Sunday evening by Metro Police responding to a telephone call, Lt. Wayne Peterson said yesterday. Two other persons were in the home at the time.

Officers responding to the call found Halpern dead of "an obvious self-inflicted gunshot wound," said Peterson, of the homicide department.

Peterson declined to share other details or say whether Halpern left a suicide note.

Golf

Tiger Woods keeps winning, and so do the networks that televise golf's majors.

His duel with Bob May at the PGA Championship drew the event's highest preliminary TV ratings on record.

CBS Sports' coverage of Sunday's final round got a big-market overnight rating of 10.0 with a 23 share.

That means about 10 million homes tuned in, and 23 percent of TVs that were on during the broadcast were tuned to CBS.

The rating is 30 percent higher than the 7.7 overnight that CBS got last year at the PGA, when Woods beat Spanish sensation Sergio Garcia by a stroke.

Woods won $900,000 to push his earnings to $6.69 million for the year, already breaking the PGA Tour record he set last year.

-- Jeff Wilson shot a 4-under-par 67 to share the first-round lead at the 100th U.S. Amateur in Springfield, N.J.

Lucas Glover of Clemson and David Miller of Georgia also had 67s at Baltusrol Golf Club.

-- Paul Azinger, a cancer survivor, made it back to team competition when he was selected as a captain's pick for the Presidents Cup.

Ken Venturi also chose Loren Roberts to round off the 12-man team that will try to win back the cup from an International team Oct. 19-22 at the Robert Trent Jones Club in Virginia.

Tennis

Defending champion Andre Agassi and 1997 winner Martina Hingis were selected top seeds for the U.S. Open.

-- Carlos Moya of Spain beat countryman Albert Portas 6-4, 6-3 in the opening round of the Hamlet Cup in Commack, N.Y.

-- Fifth-seeded Amanda Coetzer beat Karina Habsudova 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 in the Pilot Pen event in New Haven, Conn.

Basketball

Chris Carr, the free-agent guard who spent last season with Golden State and Chicago, signed with Boston.

-- Free-agent guard Anthony Johnson re-signed with Atlanta.

-- Arizona center Loren Woods, recovering from two back surgeries, has been cleared to play this season.

-- Miami forward Elton Tyler has been suspended for the fall semester for academic reasons and will miss at least six games, according to The Palm Beach Post.

Hockey

Carolina re-signed left wing Jeff Daniels to a one-year contract and defenseman Mike Rucinski for two years.

-- Defenseman Radoslav Suchy signed a three-year contract with Phoenix.