Off the wire
GOLF Park builds 2-shot lead
Inbee Park finally made a bogey, but she still finished with a 4-under 67 Saturday and a two-shot lead over Sei Young Kim heading into the final round of the season-opening Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Park, a 19-time winner on the LPGA Tour, hadn’t made a bogey since November’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. But she finally dropped a shot when she three-putted the difficult 211-yard par-3 18th. To that point, she’d been precise and consistent and had a decent day with the putter. She hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation and made five birdies. Three consecutive birdies starting at the par-4 13th built her lead to three shots. Closest to Park is Kim, whose three victories in 2019 included the lucrative CME Group Tour Championship. Kim made five birdies in a wild second nine and shot 67. Nasa Hataoka shot 68 and will begin today three shots behind the leader. Gaby Lopez (University of Arkansas) is five strokes back and tied for fifth at 8-under for the tournament.
Westwood on top
Lee Westwood, chasing his 25th European Tour win, moved into a one-shot lead after the third round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on Saturday. Westwood carded a seven-under 65, including an eagle on the par-five eighth, to move to 14-under for the tournament. Bernd Wiesberger and second-round leader Francesco Laporta are one shot off the lead, with Matthew Fitzpatrick a shot further back on 12-under. Sergio Garcia and Kurt Kitayama are on 11-under. The topranked Brooks Koepka recovered from a poor round on Friday to fire a two-under 70 and is tied for 48th, nine shots off the lead.
Vega ahead in Mexico
Jose Vega of Colombia withstood another tough day of wind Saturday at Mayakoba for a 1-over 72 that gave him a two-shot lead going into the final round of the Latin
American Amateur Championship in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. At stake for the 26-year-old Vega is a spot in the Masters at Augusta National in April and in the British Open at Royal St. George’s in July. Despite a bogey on the final hole at El Camaleon Golf Club, Vega remained the only player under par from the 52 players who made the cut. He was at 2-under 211. Abel Gallegos birdied his last two holes for a 70. He was at even-par 213.
Jimenez wins in a playoff
Miguel Angel Jimenez made a 12-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a playoff Saturday with senior newcomer Ernie Els to win the PGA Tour Champions’ season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Ka’Upulehi-Kona, Hawaii. Fred Couples dropped out on the first extra trip down the par4 18th at windy Hualalai, missing a short par putt. Jimenez, paired with Couples in the second-to-last group, birdied Nos. 13-15 in a 5-under 67 to match Els and Couples at 14-under 202. The 56-year-old Spaniard has won in all seven his senior seasons. Second-round leader Woody Austin had a 73 to tie for ninth at 10 under. John Daly (Dardanelle, Razorbacks) shot a 74 on Saturday and finished at 5-under 211.
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
McGregor wins in 40 seconds
Conor McGregor stopped Donald Cerrone with a head kick and punches 40 seconds into the first round at UFC 246 on Saturday night, announcing his return to mixed martial arts with his first victory since 2016. The Irish former two-division champion returned from a three-year stretch of inactivity and outside-the-cage troubles with a performance that echoed his greatest fights during his unparalleled rise. McGregor (22-4) floored Cerrone (36-14) only 20 seconds into the bout with a perfectly placed kick, and he mercilessly finished on the ground to the delight of a sellout crowd at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. McGregor’s hand hadn’t been raised in victory since November 2016, when he stopped lightweight Eddie Alvarez to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold two championship belts simultaneously. With his fame and fortune multiplying, McGregor fought only his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather in 2017, and he lost a one-sided UFC bout to lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in late 2018.
FOOTBALL Butt-swat charges dropped
A misdemeanor simple battery warrant for Cleveland Browns wide receiver and former LSU star Odell Beckham Jr. has been rescinded, the New Orleans Police Department confirmed Saturday. The warrant was issued Thursday as video posted on social media appeared to show Beckham swatting a security officer’s buttocks during LSU’s locker room victory celebration after Monday night’s college national championship game in the Superdome. LSU players were seen smoking cigars — forbidden in the Superdome — in pictures from the post-game celebration. Authorities reportedly warned them they could face arrest. In a 27-second video available on Twitter, a security officer is seen standing over an LSU player sitting on a locker room bench. The officer appears to be searching around the bench and pointing to the floor. He can be heard talking about a “burn mark” just before Beckham approaches him from behind and appears to swat his backside.
TENNIS
Barty, Rublev win in Australia
Top-ranked Ash Barty has finetuned for the first tennis major of the season by winning her first title on home soil with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over No. 24-ranked Dayana Yastremska in Saturday’s Adelaide International final in Adelaide, Australia. The French Open champion had reached finals in Australia before, finishing runner-up twice at the Sydney International after losses to Angelique Kerber in 2018 and Petra Kvitova last year. She’s now the first Australian woman to win a tour-level title at home since 2011. Andrey Rublev became the first man in 16 years to win two titles in the first two weeks of the season when he beat Lloyd Harris 6-3, 6-0 in Adelaide to follow up on his victory in Doha. Dominik Hrbaty won the Adelaide and Auckland titles in 2004 before the Australian Open.
SKIING Two share GS victory
In a World Cup race that nearly ended in a triple dead heat, Federica Brignone and Petra Vlhova shared a giant slalom victory in Sestriere, Italy, Saturday in which Mikaela Shiffrin finished 0.01 seconds behind in third. “I’ve also been on the good side of the hundredths many times,” Shiffrin said. “It happens sometimes like that, too.” Brignone led after the first leg and was ahead at the final checkpoint of her second run on the Giovanni Agnelli course before crossing with the exact same time as Vlhova. “It felt like having a heart attack,” Brignone said. “The race was right on the razor’s edge.” Brignone, the Olympic bronze medallist in GS, claimed her 13th career World Cup win and third this season.
Feuz claims downhill title
Beat Feuz struck back in his season-long rivalry with Dominik Paris to win a World Cup downhill on Saturday in Wengen, Switzerland. Switzerland’s best downhiller showed his mastery of the Alpine nation’s most storied event to win the Lauberhorn race for a third time, matching the record of Austrian great Franz Klammer and delighting his home fans in a 32,000 crowd. Feuz finished 0.29 seconds ahead of Italy’s Paris down a shorter 14/5-mile course that started lower down the mountain due to overnight snowfall, the first in several weeks at Wengen. Thomas Dressen of Germany was third, 0.31 behind Feuz. That completed a podium of the only winners of the five World Cup downhills so far this season.