England’s Ross McGowan and John Bickerton shared the third-round lead yesterday at the Johnnie Walker Classic on a day the second-round leaders would like to forget.
McGowan had a seven-under-par 65 and Bickerton shot 66 to have 14-under totals of 202 on the Vines Resort composite course.
They have a two-shot cushion over four players — Raphael Jacquelin of France (66), Felipe Aguilar of Chile (68), Australia’s Terry Pilkadaris (68) and New Zealand amateur Danny Lee (69), winner of last year’s US Amateur title.
The players who started the day on the leaderboard tumbled badly in 40˚C temperatures.
The US’ Anthony Kim, two strokes out of the lead after Friday, had a 9 on the par-5 third and shot 75, moving from a tie for sixth to a tie for 46th. He was joined by second-round co-leader Anthony Kang of the US, who shot 77, putting the two Korean-Americans nine shots back.
Ireland’s Damien McGrane, tied with Kang after the second round, shot 72 yesterday and was tied for 12th in the tournament sanctioned by the European, Australasian PGA and Asian tours.
The 26-year-old McGowan is looking for his first European Tour win. His previous best result was fifth at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in 2007.
Camilo Villegas of Colombia and Greg Norman, in his first main, non-senior tournament since finishing third at last year’s British Open, both failed to make the cut and had the weekend off. Norman used the tournament to begin his preparation for this year’s US Masters.
■NORTHERN TRUST
AP, LOS ANGELES
With darkness rapidly descending, Scott McCarron shot a 3-under 68 for a two-shot lead over Steve Stricker and Tommy Armour III halfway through the Northern Trust Open on Friday.
“I usually do my best work at night,” McCarron quipped.
Phil Mickelson will need to do better on the weekend if he wants to successfully defend his title at Riviera Country Club. He was nine shots worse than his opening-round 63, but it was easy to see the upside after a 72 put him in the group only three behind.
“This is the first time I’m in contention heading into the weekend, and I’m excited about it,” Mickelson said.
■ACE GROUP CLASSIC
AP, NAPLES, FLORIDA
Vicente Fernandez and Don Pooley shot 4-under 68s to share the first-round lead in the ACE Group Classic, while Jay Haas finished a stroke back after a two-stroke penalty for hitting a piece of pine straw in a hazard on Friday.
Wayne Levi matched Haas with a 69 on the new TPC Treviso Bay, and Bernhard Langer, Loren Roberts, Gene Jones, Dan Forsman, Fulton Allem, Mike Goodes and Jim Chancey opened with 70s. Goodes won the Allianz Championship last Sunday for his first Champions Tour victory.
Chancey made it into the field as a Monday qualifier.
Curtis Strange (78), Hale Irwin (79), and defending champion Scott Hoch (80) were among those who struggled. Hoch is playing despite tendinitis and arthritis in his left wrist that forced him to skip the season-opener in Hawaii and withdraw last week from the Allianz Championship.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but