Associated Press
OAKVILLE, Ontario ó The Small Unit came up big in the Canadian Open.
Chez Reavie, proudly sporting an Arizona Diamondbacks logo on his light blue shirt, won the national championship Sunday for his first PGA Tour title, closing with a 1-under 70 in near-perfect conditions for a three-stroke victory over Billy Mayfair.
“Oh, man. I’m just so excited,” Reavie said. “I don’t think a lot of people understand when you’re growing up and you’re practicing and you’re working so hard, this is, obviously, your goal. But there are no guarantees.”
At a generously listed 5-foot-9, the 26-year-old former Arizona State player picked up the Small Unit moniker in a joking reference to Randy Johnson, the 6-foot-10 Diamondbacks pitcher known as the Big Unit.
Playing his sixth straight week on the tour, Reavie finished at 17-under 267. He earned $900,000 and spots the next two weeks in the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship.
– EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France ó Helen Alfredsson won her first LPGA Tour title in five years, defeating rookie Na Yeon Choi in a playoff.
– TROON, Scotland ó Bruce Vaughan won the British Senior Open, sinking a 20-foot putt to beat John Cook in a playoff.
ARENA BOWL
NEW ORLEANS ó Matt D’Orazio threw seven touchdown passes and ran for another score to lead the Philadelphia Soul to their first ArenaBowl victory, beating defending AFL champion San Jose 59-56 on Sunday.
Philadelphia scored on all six of its first-half possessions and took the lead for good with three consecutive touchdowns in the second quarter, then survived a frantic San Jose rally in the final minute to hold on in the 22nd ArenaBowl.
D’Orazio, the Arena League MVP in the regular season, hooked up for three scores with wide receiver Chris Jackson, the offensive player of the year.
Jackson finished with 146 yards on 11 catches and D’Orazio threw for 302 yards.
San Jose, which hoped to become the first repeat champion since Tampa Bay in 1995-96, lost for the first time in four Arena Bowl appearances.
NBA
ATLANTA ó Looking to fill the void left when Josh Childress bolted for Greece, the Atlanta Hawks are close to completing a deal with free agent Maurice Evans.
Evans started 47 times for the Magic last season and averaged a career-high 9.3 points. He would fill the sixth-man role left by Childress, a restricted free agent who stunned the Hawks last week by signing with Greek powerhouse Olympiakos. The Hawks would be Evans’ sixth team in seven NBA seasons.
COLLEGE HOOPS
RICHMOND, Va. ó Richmond Spiders basketball player Dan Geriot is expected to miss the upcoming season due to an injury.
University of Richmond basketball coach Chris Mooney says the top scorer and rebounder suffered a knee injury during summer-league competition in Philadelphia.
Geriot is a rising junior who averaged 14.3 points and 5.5 rebounds last season. The 6-9, 235-pounder will be examined by team doctors, but Mooney said he believes there’s only “a hair of a chance” that Geriot will play this season.
CYCLING
PARIS ó Spain’s Carlos Sastre won the Tour de France on Sunday, with cycling’s showpiece event again unable to escape the shadow of doping. Minutes after the victory, it was announced a rider from Kazakhstan used a banned stimulant.
Dmitriy Fofonov tested positive for a “very heavy dose” of heptaminol after Thursday’s 18th stage, said Pierre Bordry, the head of France’s anti-doping agency. Fofonov was immediately fired by his Credit Agricole team.
TENNIS
TORONTO ó Rafael Nadal beat Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday to win the Rogers Cup, his fifth straight tournament victory.
The second-seeded Spaniard has won 29 consecutive matches.
Kiefer, of Germany, was unseeded and ranks 37th in the world. He was playing in his first ATP final since 2005.
It’s Nadal’s second Rogers Cup title.
BASEBALL
BOSTON ó Manny Ramirez would agree to a trade that would make both him and the Boston Red Sox happy, but said he doesn’t think the team will deal him.
Four days before the non-waiver trading deadline, Ramirez said Sunday, “I’m tired of them. They’re tired of me.”
The Red Sox have a $20 million option on him for next year.
He spoke for less than two minutes in Boston’s clubhouse before the game with the New York Yankees.