Woods falters, Day leads at The Barclays
Golf: Jason Day can’t get a straight answer from doctors on the mysterious health issues sapping away at his energy. He at least knows exactly where he stands after two rounds of The Barclays in Paramus, N.J.
A tournament that once looked as though it might belong to Tiger Woods shifted late Friday to the hands of the 22-year-old Australian, who showed some of his great promise with three late birdies for a 4-under-par 67 and a one-shot lead.
Nine players had at least a share of the lead at some point during the second round until Day’s late surge. He was at 8-under 134, one shot clear of Kevin Streelman (63) and Vaughn Taylor (70) going into the weekend of the FedEx Cup’s first playoff event.
“I just tried to stay as patient as possible, and it just kind of fell in my lap, which was really good,” he said.
Woods didn’t so much lose his patience as much as his putting stroke. Part of that was playing in the afternoon on greens that became bumpy under foot traffic and a day of blazing sun, as Woods expected.
He wasn’t planning on missing a 20-inch par putt on the fifth hole, or failing to make a single birdie on the easier front nine.
“I didn’t hit it bad at all,” Woods said. “I hit it really good. As I said, I didn’t putt really well. I hit it as good as I did yesterday. If I don’t make putts, I don’t score.”
He wound up with a 73, eight shots worse than his opening round.
The good news for the world’s No. 1 player – he will stay atop the world ranking for at least another week after Phil Mickelson missed the cut, and he’s still very much in contention.
Ferris graduate Alex Prugh shot a 74 and missed the cut.
• Wie atop field at Canadian Women’s Open: Michelle Wie’s second round didn’t have the wow factor of a hole-in-one, but a 3-under 69 was enough to keep the American atop the leaderboard late in the second round of the Canadian Women’s Open in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The Hawaii native posted a two-round total of 10-under 134, three strokes ahead of Jiyai Shin of South Korea, who had a second-round 67.
Wendy Ward of Edwall, Wash., shot an 80 and missed the cut.
• Price leads at Boeing Classic: Nick Price birdied five of his last seven holes and surged into the lead with a 9-under 63 in the first round of the Champions Tour’s Boeing Classic at Snoqualmie, Wash.
Tom Pernice Jr. had a pair of eagles and is two shots back after a 64, and Hal Sutton and Bernhard Langer each shot 66.
• An advances to semifinals at U.S. Amateur: Defending champion Byeong-Hun An, top-ranked American amateur Peter Uihlein, Stanford’s David Chung and UCLA freshman Patrick Cantlay have advanced to the semifinals of the 110th U.S. Amateur at University Place, Wash.
All four of the quarterfinals made it to the 18th hole. Cantlay needed 20 holes to beat Jed Dirksen after Dirksen three-putted the 18th to keep Cantlay in the match.
Thomas to start at QB for Oregon
College Football: Darron Thomas will be No. 11 Oregon’s starting quarterback for the opener against New Mexico, taking over the Ducks after the dismissal of Jeremiah Masoli.
Thomas has been competing for the job against senior Nate Costa throughout fall camp in Eugene, Ore. While Costa is more of a traditional passer, Thomas is more of a threat on the ground, much like Masoli.
Thomas, a 6-foot-3, 212-pound sophomore, played in five games as a true freshman in 2008, completing 16 of 33 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns.
Masoli, now a walk-on at Mississippi, was projected to be a possible Heisman Trophy candidate before his fall from grace at Oregon. Masoli pleaded guilty to charges connected to the theft of two laptops and a guitar from a campus fraternity house in January.
• Williams selects Huskies: All-state wide receiver Kasen Williams says he’s staying home to play for the University of Washington next season.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pound senior helped Skyline of Sammamish win its third consecutive state championship last fall while catching 74 passes for more than 1,200 yards and 20 touchdowns.
• Broncos make push for stadium expansion: Boise State wants to expand its football stadium again and is courting the donors who can help pay the costs. Preliminary plans call for adding more than 19,000 new seats, more luxury boxes and a two-story football complex with offices for coaches and training facilities and locker rooms.
Baseball: Three days, three elimination games and three wins for the boys from Waipahu, Hawaii, at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa.
The West region champs rallied from four runs down against Columbus, Ga., and scored all its runs over the final three innings in a wild 12-5 win.
The Little League final four is set. Hawaii will play Pearland, Texas, in the U.S. championship game today, while Japan and Taiwan will meet for the international crown. The winners play Sunday for the World Series title.
Gay earns honor with victory in 100
Miscellany: American Tyson Gay earned the Diamond League trophy as the season’s top performer in the 100 meters, finishing in 9.79 seconds to beat Jamaican Nesta Carter in Brussels.
In the absence of injured world record holder Usain Bolt, Gay was looking to beat his best of 9.69, the time he shares with Bolt as second fastest, but the 60-degree weather at the King Baudouin proved to be too damp and unseasonably cold.
• Wozniacki moves into final: U.S. Open top seed Caroline Wozniacki came back from a break down in the third set to beat Russian Elena Dementieva 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) and earn her third consecutive trip to the finals of the Pilot Pen tennis tournament at New Haven, Conn.
She will play Nadia Petrova in today’s final.
In the men’s draw, Sergiy Stakhovsky moved into the finals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands. Stakhovsky will play Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the final.
• Briscoe takes pole: Ryan Briscoe won the pole position for the IndyCar series race at Chicagoland Speedway, turning a lap average of 216.346 mph in qualifying at Joliet, Ill.
Dario Franchitti qualified second for the race, followed by Will Power, Helio Castroneves and Marco Andretti.
• Busch wins trucks race in overtime: Kyle Busch withstood two late challenges for the lead from Todd Bodine, and hung on to win the NASCAR Camping World truck series race at Chicagoland Speedway.