Els Shoots Record 65 to Win Grand Slam

Tiger Woods, Davis Love III and the elements weren’t enough to stop Ernie Els from winning the PGA Grand Slam of Golf with a record-breaking performance.

The reigning U.S. Open champion shot a record seven-under-par 65 on a soggy Tuesday on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to run away with a tournament reserved for winners of golf’s four majors. He finished with a two-day total of 133, 11 under, to eclipse by a shot the year-old tournament record of Tom Lehman.

Els started the second round of the 36-hole tournament two strokes behind Woods, but he was even by the sixth hole and took the lead for good on the next, a 152-yard, par-three at the 6,957-yard Poipu Bay Resort.

Woods, the record-setting winner of the Masters, closed with a 70 and finished the two-day, $1-million event at 136.

PGA Championship winner Love made an early run with four birdies over the first five holes, but couldn’t make up any more ground when his putter failed him. Love shot a 67 for a 138. British Open winner Justin Leonard had a 73 and finished at 150.

Tennis

Top-seeded Martina Hingis won by a toenail--her opponent’s--in the first round of the season-ending $2-million Chase Championships at New York when Brenda Schultz-McCarthy retired with an injury. Hingis was leading, 7-6 (7-3), 5-2, when Schultz-McCarthy called it quits because of a broken right toenail. Earlier, sixth-seeded Iva Majoli won her first-round match, edging Anke Huber, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-2).

In the night’s final match, second-seeded Jana Novotna defeated Conchita Martinez, 6-4, 6-4.

Hingis, who has won 12 events--including three of the four Grand Slam tournaments--was named Corel WTA player of the year.

U.S. Open finalist Venus Williams was voted newcomer of the year.

Boxing

Bernard Hopkins successfully defended his International Boxing Federation middleweight title, winning a unanimous decision over Andrew Council at Upper Marlboro, Md.

The victory was the sixth successful title defense for Hopkins (33-2-1, 26 knockouts), who has won 12 consecutive bouts.

It sets up a Jan. 31 bout for the Philadelphia fighter against former welterweight champion Simon Brown.

Council fell to 27-6-3.

An attorney for Pernell Whitaker is challenging the validity of the fighter’s positive drug test for cocaine. Whitaker took the test in conjunction with his fight Oct. 17--a victory against Russian Andre Pestriaev in a welterweight bout--at a casino on an Indian reservation near Ledyard, Conn.

Attorney Pat English on Monday asked that the second portion of Whitaker’s urine sample be tested. The sample is divided, with one bottle sent to the lab for testing and the other held by the Mashantucket Pequot Gaming and Athletic Commission.

Miscellany

Olympic favorite Michelle Kwan, the 1996 world and U.S. figure skating champion from Torrance, will be sidelined 10 days to two weeks because of a broken toe. She suffered a stress fracture of the second toe of her left foot during summer training and aggravated the injury last week at Skate Canada in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she made several mistakes during her free skate.

Former Minnesota forward Courtney James, who helped lead the Golden Gophers to the NCAA Final Four last season, was sentenced to two years’ probation for a misdemeanor domestic assault conviction.