In brief: Charley Hoffman leads at Deutsche Bank while Jordan Speith misses cut

Golf: In a year of first feats for Jordan Spieth, he accomplished another Saturday in the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Massachusetts.

Only this one was nothing to celebrate.

Spieth didn’t make a birdie until the 18th hole, and by then it was too late. It salvaged a 3-over-par 74, not nearly enough to avoid missing the cut in consecutive events for the first time in his career.

“I’ve done a lot of things I’ve never done positively this year. This is something I’ve never done that’s negative,” Spieth said. “Whatever is going on … normally my mental game is a strength of mine. And it’s something I feel like I have an advantage over other players on. These past two weeks it was a weakness for me.”

Charley Hoffman, who five years ago closed with a 62 to win on the TPC Boston, made birdie on half of his holes for a 63 that gave him a three-shot lead over Brendon de Jonge after 36 holes. Rickie Fowler (67) and British Open champion Zach Johnson (65) were another shot behind.

Rory McIlroy, who returned to No. 1 last week without playing, needed a par on the final hole to make the cut on the number. He got up-and-down from a bunker and made birdie for a 74 and made it with one shot to spare.

PGA champion Jason Day kept alive his hopes to be No. 1 for the first time with another 68 that left him in a tie for 10th, six shots behind.

Hamlin rallies for win at Darlington

Auto racing: Nobody had anything for Denny Hamlin at Darlington Raceway, even after a fueling issue wrecked his strategy in the Xfinity Series race in Darlington, South Carolina.

Hamlin had to make his final pit stop early because his Joe Gibbs Racing team failed to get enough gas in his tank on his prior pit stop.

When teammate Daniel Suarez tried to steal the win by stretching his fuel to the finish, it briefly seemed as if Hamlin would lose a race he dominated. Instead, he ran down Suarez with three laps remaining to deny Suarez his first career victory.

Hamlin led 117 of the 147 laps to give Toyota and JGR the win. JGR drivers have won eight of the last 10 series races at Darlington, and six of the last 12 Xfinity Series races this season.

JGR driver Kyle Busch passed Suarez for second, and Suarez finished third as the fleet of Toyotas swept the top three spots.

Kevin Harvick finished fourth in a Chevrolet and was followed by series points leader Chris Buescher in a Ford. Buescher has a 29-point lead over Ty Dillon, who finished 15th. • Keselowski wins pole: Brad Keselowski won the pole for today’s race at Darlington Raceway, where he’ll start up front for the first time all season.

Keselowski turned a lap at 178.874 mph to earn his first pole of the season. The Team Penske driver put his Ford in the top starting spot five times last year.

Kurt Busch qualified second in a Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, and was followed by teammate Kevin Harvick. Busch has qualified on the front row five times this year.

Keselowski teammate Joey Logano was fourth, and Jeff Gordon, making his final start in the Southern 500, will start fifth.

Danica Patrick hit the wall in the first round of qualifying and her team pulled out a backup Chevrolet.

De Marchi wins Spain stage; Aru still leads

Miscellany: Alessandro de Marchi surged upward into the mountain fog to win the 14th stage of the Tour of Spain cycling race, while fellow Italian Fabio Aru fought successfully to keep the leader’s red jersey in Alto Campoo, Spain.

De Marchi pulled away from four other escapees near the end to win the 215-kilometer (113-mile) ride — the longest of the three-week Grand Tour – in 5 hours, 43 minutes, 12 seconds.

The grueling stage started in Vitoria and ended at the special-category Fuente del Chivo summit.

With visibility reduced to meters by the thick fog, Aru recovered from a late attack by Nairo Quintana and Joaquin Rodriguez to cross the line just behind the title rivals.

Aru’s overall lead was reduced by one second to 26 seconds ahead of Rodriguez with mountain stages coming over the next two days.

Quintana is still 3 minutes behind, but Rodriguez and the Colombian could attack again on the summit finishes over the next two days before a rest day. That will be followed by a crucial individual time trial on stage 17.

Today’s stage is a 175.8-kilometer (110.9-mile) ride starting in Comillas and finishing at the Sotres summit..

• Braehmer TKOs Konrad: Juergen Braehmer defeated fellow German Konni Konrad by an eighth-round technical knockout to retain his WBA light heavyweight title in a one-sided bout in Dresden, Germany.

Konrad looked out of his depth, and was sent staggering back against the ropes in the first round.

Braehmer floored Konrad in the sixth with a counterpunch, though Konrad survived the count.

He quit with an eye problem before the eighth began.

Braehmer improved to 47-2 (37 KO) after making the fifth defense of the vacant title he won by defeating Marcus Oliveira in December 2013.

The Montenegro-born Konrad dropped to 22-2-1 (11 KO).

• High school player dies: A coroner’s investigator in Winnsboro, Louisiana, says a high school football player died from an injury during a game.

Johnny Ogden, an investigator with the Franklin Parish coroner’s office, said the Franklin Parish High School player collapsed on the field after impact with another player on Friday night.

He was transported to the emergency room at Franklin Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Sheriff Kevin Cobb identified the victim as 16-year-old Tyrell Cameron.

• China takes lead at WC: China beat Russia 25-23, 25-15, 23-25, 25-20 to move into first place at the women’s volleyball World Cup in Nagoya, Japan.

Ting Zhu scored a match-high 29 points as China improved to 27 points atop the standings.

China faces host Japan today, the final day of competition. Russia, which dropped to 8-2 and is in third place, next faces Algeria.

In other matches, Jelena Nikolic scored 11 points as Serbia won its ninth straight with a 25-11, 25-14, 25-19 victory over Kenya.

Serbia is in second place with 24 points and will face Argentina today.

Elsewhere, the Dominican Republic beat Algeria 25-11, 25-12, 25-7 while Cuba rallied from a set down for a 13-25, 25-16, 25-18, 25-19 win over Peru.