Tiger Woods criticized rules officials at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday after he overhauled Irishman Padraig Harrington to win the elite tournament for a record seventh time.
The American world No. 1 effectively sealed victory with a birdie at the par-five 16th, where he struck a superb eight-iron to a foot after he and Harrington had been put on the clock for slow play.
Harrington’s bid for a first title in 12 months on either the PGA or European tours unraveled on that hole as he ran up an ugly triple-bogey eight after hitting his fourth shot into water.
PHOTO: AFP
Woods slammed European Tour chief referee John Paramor for his decision to put them on the clock.
“I’m sorry that John got in the way of a great battle because it was such a great battle for 16 holes,” Woods told reporters after clinching his 70th PGA Tour victory by four shots. “We’re going at it head-to-head, and unfortunately that happened. I think being on the clock influenced him.”
While on the clock, players must play their shots within an allocated time or risk an initial warning followed by a US$5,000 fine and a one-shot penalty for a second offense.
PGA Tour rules official Slugger White supported Paramor.
“I don’t think John did get in the middle of it,” he said. “John is doing his job ... It’s just a regulation, guys. That’s what it amounts to.”
■RENO-TAHOE OPEN
REUTERS, LOS ANGELES
American John Rollins survived a topsy-turvy final round to win the Reno-Tahoe Open by three shots in Nevada on Sunday.
Four ahead of the chasing pack overnight at Montreux Golf and Country Club, Rollins carded a level-par 72 for a 17-under total of 271. Britain’s Martin Laird closed with a 69 to share second place with American Jeff Quinney.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier