Arizona senior golfer Tiger Christensen, ranked No. 13 in college golf by PGA Tour U, has left the Wildcats to compete on the DP World Tour. Christensen finished 58th in the just-completed DP World Tour Q School, after two events in Spain and another in Italy.
It’s a huge loss for UA coach Jim Anderson, whose team has been ranked in the Top 15 all season. Fortunately, the UA has five strong players remaining: Filip Jakubcik, Zach Pollo, Jackson Norwich, Johnny Walker and Griffin Rhoads.
Remember this: in 2018, the UA’s top women’s golfer, Krystal Quihuis of Salpointe Catholic, left the team in December in an attempt to make the LPGA Tour. Five months later, Arizona won the NCAA championship.
In a study released last week by Sportico.com, ex-Arizona point guard Steve Kerr is the third-highest-paid coach in all of sports, making $17.5 million a year. Only Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid ($20 million) and Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton ($18 million) are paid more.
That means Kerr makes more this year than he made over the entire 15 years of his NBA playing career, in which he earned $15.8 million, according to basketball-reference.com.
Lafayette “Fat” Lever was inducted into the inaugural class of the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. He was in sweet company, with among others, Tucson sports icons Rollin Gridley, Ricki Rarick, Alex Kellner, Mike Dawson and Joe Batiste.
Lever, 62, a two-time NBA All-Star, returned to Tucson for last Sunday’s sold-out Class of 2024 ceremony at the DoubleTree Hotel, one that honored his 1978 Pueblo High School basketball team, 28-0, probably the best high school basketball team in Tucson history.
“This never gets old,’’ said Lever. “We got nine guys here today from that team, and it has been 46 years. I enjoy every minute with these guys. I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.”
Pima College’s men’s soccer team finished tied for third in the NJCAA soccer championships last week in Alabama, finishing 20-1-1 on the season, putting coach Dave Cosgrove’s record at 165-25-16 since 2016, which includes national championships in 2018 and 2021.
The No. 1-seeded Aztecs lost to Northeast Community College of Nebraska in a nerve-wracking penalty kicks game Thursday.
The difference between Pima and Northeast is striking: Pima’s roster is almost exclusively built around Southern Arizona players. Northeast has six players from England, four from Denmark, three from France and others from Italy, Brazil, Germany, Belgium and Japan. Only one USA player, Owen Rutledge of Nebraska, started for Northeast.
That gives you an idea of how much difficulty Cosgrove has faced in his 27 years at Pima, yet he continues to succeed at the highest level.
