Target World Challenge

West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez declined to comment yesterday on a report that he was meeting with Michigan officials about the Wolverines' football coaching vacancy. Rodriguez said little upon arriving at the Morgantown airport on a flight from Toledo, Ohio. "Going to practice. I'm going to practice," he said before getting into his car. The meeting was first reported by Sporting News Radio, which said Rodriguez and his agent were in Toledo to talk with Michigan athletic director Bill Martin and university president Mary Sue Coleman.

Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and soccer star Mia Hamm are engaged. Garciaparra, a two-time American League batting champion, proposed to Hamm, the top scorer in the history of the U.S. women's national team, during the Thanksgiving holiday, the Boston Herald reported yesterday. Garciaparra, 29, proposed to Hamm, 30, by bending down on one knee, the Herald reported. "You know I'm a traditional, old-fashioned guy so I think you can assume that happened," Garciaparra told the newspaper.

Sprinter Michelle Collins was suspended for eight years for a doping violation linked to the Balco scandal and will forfeit results that include 2003 indoor world and U.S. titles in the 200 meters. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said yesterday that a three-member panel of the American Arbitration Association concluded that Collins, 33, used various performance-enhancing substances that allegedly were provided by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. Though Collins never tested positive for banned substances, the appeals panel concluded she used the drugs for several years.

Luke Donald won the Target World Challenge, shooting an 8-under 64 yesterday to rally from six shots behind to beat European Ryder Cup teammate Darren Clarke by two strokes in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Clarke fell apart down the stretch with a bogey on the par-5 16th. Needing a birdie on the 18th to force a playoff, he pulled his approach, and hit his 45-foot birdie putt badly. He wound up with a three-putt bogey for a 72. Donald finished at 16-under 272 and won $1.3 million from the richest event in the silly season, the largest paycheck of his career.

Jason Garey scored two goals in an NCAA soccer tournament-record 15-second span, and top-seeded Maryland beat SMU, 4-1, yesterday to advance to the championship game of the NCAA College Cup, in Cary, N.C. Garey's goals came less than two minutes into the second half. Robbie Rogers found room along the left wing and sent a cross to the back post, where A.J. Godbolt headed the ball down for Garey, who scored at 46 minutes, 41 seconds. Seconds after the ensuing restart, a pass intended to lead Garey on a run toward the SMU goal caromed off the heel of Mustangs defender Mynor Gonzalez, and Garey beat goalkeeper Matt Wideman at 46:56.

Matt Leinart has been helping Southern California teammate Reggie Bush prepare for the Heisman Trophy. "I told him to get ready for the whirlwind," Leinart said yesterday after accepting the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award as the nation's top senior quarterback. "I told him to get ready for some crazy days. " Leinart does not think he will join former Ohio State running back Archie Griffin as the only player to win college football's most coveted award twice. The 2004 Heisman Trophy winner cast his 2005 ballot for Bush and gave Texas quarterback Vince Young his second-place vote.

Tiger Woods turned in his most complete round of a difficult year yesterday, missing only two fairways and one green in closing with a 5-under 66 for a 2-shot victory over Padraig Harrington in the Target World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, Calif. It was Woods' second straight stroke-play title after going without one on the PGA Tour for the first time in his career. He finished at 16-under 268 and won $1.25 million at Sherwood Country Club. He donated the money to his foundation.

Georgia Southern quarterback Jayson Foster won the Walter Payton Award last night as the top offensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision, previously known as Division I-AA. Foster ran for 1,844 yards and 24 touchdowns and completed 109 of 170 passes for 1,203 yards and six TDs. He finished 40 points ahead of Northern Iowa quarterback Eric Sanders and 58 points ahead of San Diego quarterback Josh Johnson in a vote of 100 sports information directors and media.

Golf Channel announcer Kelly Tilghman apologized on television yesterday as she returned from a two-week suspension for using the word lynch in reference to Tiger Woods. "In a recent live broadcast, I used an inappropriate word that was offensive to many," Tilghman said at the start of the Golf Channel's telecast of the Buick Invitational. "Over the last two weeks, I've taken the time to reflect and truly understand the impact of what I said. " Tilghman, Golf Channel's lead play-by-play announcer, said during its coverage of the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship that young golfers trying to compete with Woods, the world's top-ranked golfer whose father was black and mother is from Thailand, should "lynch him in a back alley.

Charlie Weis, the New England Patriots' offensive coordinator, will be introduced at a news conference tomorrow as Notre Dame's new football coach, the Chicago Tribune said last night. Weis agreed in principle to a six-year contract worth about $2 million per year, the paper said, and will fly to South Bend, Ind., tonight after the Patriots' game with the Cincinnati Bengals in Foxboro, Mass. Weis' hiring is effective immediately, but his move may not be complete until February.