"Pine Needles really raised the bar."They have been there for us, they love to have us and they've made it perfectly clear for the last six months that they wanted us back."Graham said the golf course is a better test than in '96."I didn't think it could get this much better, but it has," she said. "A lot of it is the little touches, things like the closely mowed areas. When we said we wanted to put them in Pine Needles never hesitated."The club also changed the contour of the fairway on Nos 11 and 18 and put in a new tee box on No. 13 to help the USGA with its setup."It's just the whole look – it's just up a notch," Graham said. "Every little detail has been thought of and considered."The US Open, played at Pinehurst No 2 in 1999, will return there in 2005 Payne Stewart won the last time the men were at No. 2 in 1999.–––LOW AMATEURIt has been quite a two weeks for rising Duke University senior Candy Hannemann.The 20–year–old from Brazil won the NCAA women's individual title last Friday and finished as the low amateur in the Women's Open on Sunday.She became the third woman to pull off the two feats in the same year, joining Kathy Baker in 1982 and Grace Park in 1999."It is two different feelings," Hannemann said.

"I really wanted our team to do well in the NCAAs, and coming out here I wanted to make the cut and get the most experience out of it."Hannemann made a 6–foot putt to save par and shoot a final–round 3–over 73 to beat out Natalie Gulbis as low amateur by one shot."I kind of knew the putt was important," she said. "It was a little tricky."Hannemann had three rounds of 73 and one of 72 for a four–day total of 11–over 291."This has been an amazing two weeks and I'm ready to relax now," said Hannemann, who was given a Brazilian flag by a school friend as she walked off the 18th green.Lutz Hannemann gave his daughter a hug and kiss after her round, and said she plans to return to Duke instead of turn pro.–––SORENSTAM STUCKSince winning the Women's Open at Pine Needles in 1996, Annika Sorenstam has not broken 70 at the national championship for women – a total of 16 rounds.She had scores of even–par 70, 72, 73 and 72 this time and finished at 7–over – 14 shots behind winner Karrie Webb."My score says it all," Sorenstam said. "Coming here I knew I had to work on my drives, I knew I had to work on my bunker play and my chipping, and I did for two weeks. Then I come here and I think those three shots are where I messed up."Sorenstam, who shot a 59 earlier this season and has five wins on tour, said she still loves Pine Needles, but doesn't know if she'll be playing the game when the Open returns here in six years."I'm getting older and in 2003 I'll be getting elected into the Hall of Fame and we'll see what happens after that," she said."I'm not talking about retirement, but we're talking six years from now and I've said I'm not going to play golf forever. If I enjoy the game I'll keep playing, if not, I have a lot of other interests that I want to pursue some day."Sorenstam managed just 10 birdies in four rounds, while carding 15 bogeys and one double."I've had difficulty with club selection here," she said. "Normally, my strength is distance control and I've not had any distance control this week I've been long, I've been short. I just haven't been close."–––UP AND DOWNStanford All–American Stephanie Keever was back on the upswing Sunday in the final round of the Women's Open.The 22–year–old amateur rebounded from a third–round 83, which included a 10 on the 12th hole, to shoot a 2–over 72 and finish at 16–over 296.Throw out Keever's disastrous hole Saturday and she played some pretty solid golf as she gets ready to embark on her professional career.

Keever opened with a 69 Thursday and also had a pair of 72s."Golf is always a roller coaster," said Keever, who was 3 under through 10 holes Sunday before three bogeys and a double in a span of five holes on the back nine at Pine Needles. "I played pretty well most of the week and had just a few bad holes."Keever, who missed the cut in her previous two Opens, will graduate from college on June 17 and head to LPGA Tour qualifying school a month later."I know some areas that I have to work on, things like being more patient That kind of got me Saturday," she said. "But I came here and did what I tried to do, I made the cut and got myself into position to make birdies and score well in an Open."It was a great time at Stanford but I'm ready to head out to the pro ranks."–––EVEN–UPForeign golfers have won 13 of 15 LPGA Tour events this season.And while the two finishers in the Women's Open were from Australia and Korea, five of the top 10 were Americans.. The technical mastery of the Brazilian Alex Barros was obscured by a deluge of incident at the rain-affected Italian Grand Prix here yesterday.

The experienced West Honda rider claimed his fourth career win with a controlled aggression that was lacking in other notable quarters. The technical mastery of the Brazilian Alex Barros was obscured by a deluge of incident at the rain-affected Italian Grand Prix here yesterday. The experienced West Honda rider claimed his fourth career win with a controlled aggression that was lacking in other notable quarters. When the rain arrived, positions at the end of lap eight were used to form the grid for the restarted race, with Max Biaggi holding a slight advantage over Barros and the 500cc championship leader, Valentino Rossi. The Italian provided a taster of the imminent slapstick action by crashing on his way to the grid and was forced to use his second bike after hitching a lift back to the pits on a scooter.Barros quickly developed enough of a time advantage over his rivals to bypass the fun and games of the final three laps. Norick Abe, who was occupying one of the podium berths, hit a puddle and went spinning out of the race, closely followed by Kenny Roberts.

Then Loris Capirossi ran across the grass after losing his front end, allowing Rossi, who had gradually picked his way through the field, to storm into second place on corrected time.With a hard-earned 20 points seemingly within his grasp, Rossi clipped a painted kerb on the final lap and disappeared into the gravel. That caused Capirossi to lose concentration and he was forced to pull off an incredible saving manoeuvre, bouncing the bike back upright with his knee, in order to clinch second place. Gallingly for Rossi, his arch-rival Biaggi profited to claim third.The Briton Chris Walker crashed out on the 12th lap and Jeremy McWilliams lost the front end of his Aprilia when lying second in a 250cc race won by Tetsuya Harada. Germany's Katja Poensgen became the first woman to win points in the 250cc championship when she finished 14th.. Jason Plato made inroads into the lead of his Vauxhall team-mate Yvan Muller's with a double BTCC win at Silverstone on Saturday evening. Jason Plato made inroads into the lead of his Vauxhall team-mate Yvan Muller's with a double BTCC win at Silverstone on Saturday evening. The Englishman out-raced his French colleague in the sprint race and then took advantage of problems suffered by Muller in the pits to win the night feature race.Plato's early sprint struggle with Muller on a dry track was a real highlight of one of two night race meetings scheduled this season. The two works Vauxhalls ran nose to tail, Plato behind and feinting aggressively left and right until he finally worked his way past at Brooklands corner on his third attempted pass in three laps.