Jimmy Walker didn’t make every birdie putt he saw during the first round of the Houston Open on Thursday. It only seemed that way.
Walker tied the course record with a 9-under-par 63 to take a two-shot lead over Josh Teater and Nick O’Hern. He needed only 23 putts, the fewest of any player on the first day, to make up for hitting just five of 14 fairways (136th of 142 players) on a warm, placid day at Redstone in Humble, Texas.
“I just kept stroking it,” Walker said. “I felt like I kind of got back to feeling that stroke that I was using earlier in the year, when I was putting so good and playing so good.”
The San Antonio resident changed putters at the start of the season, and he’s made six cuts in eight starts and already has three top-10 finishes this year. His round Thursday matched the lowest of his career.
He equaled the scoring record set by Johnson Wagner and Adam Scott in the first round of the 2008 tournament.
LPGA: Brittany Lincicome and Stacy Lewis overcame the stifling desert heat for 6-under 66s, taking the first-round lead at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in Rancho Mirage (Riverside County). … Sandra Gal and Mika Miyazato were one shot back at the LPGA’s first major of the year. … Temperatures topped 90 degrees by midday in the Palm Springs area, and caddies were given permission to take off their jumpsuits when it rose above 100 during the afternoon rounds.
PGA Europe: Peter Lawrie of Ireland shot an 8-under 64 that included two eagles to take the first-round lead at the Hassan Trophy II in Agadir, Morocco, two shots ahead of John Bickerton of England.
DAYTON — It took UT San Antonio’s Melvin Johnson III more than 12 minutes to score his first basket of the second half in Wednesday’s NCAA Tournament First Four game against Alabama State, a 3-pointer from the right wing that rolled softly through the net.
This was not a problem, really, because he’d already rung up 25 points before halftime. That outburst gave UTSA a lead that never would be seriously challenged as the Roadrunners subdued Alabama State and advanced to a second-round game Friday against No. 1-ranked Ohio State.
“I can’t really think of a game I had like that in a while,” Johnson said. “It seemed like everything was going in for me. The second half, I don’t know what was going on. I guess they came back with a little more fire than we did. We came out with the victory, and that’s all you can ask for.”
UTSA’s road from here carries the team to Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena. After the Roadrunners’ stunning first half they might as well have commenced their journey then.
Champions of the Southland Conference, they picked up their 20th victory against 13 losses and their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory — in any sport, according to coach Brooks Thompson.
A 6-5 sophomore from Dallas, Johnson actually recorded a career-best total with his effort in the first half. He’d only produced seven prior 20-point games this season. But he completed his first NCAA Tournament game with 29 points, making him the clubhouse leader in scoring average with BYU’s Jimmer Fredette and Connecticut’s Kemba Walker still to play the course.
“Johnson had a phenomenal game there in the first half,” Alabama State coach Lewis Jackson said, and he could not have put it better.
UTSA built a 48-21 halftime lead, turning over the ball only four times and hitting nearly 53 percent of its shots.
“We came out a little lethargic, playing too tight and too timid,” Jackson said. “San Antonio took advantage of the things we weren’t doing well. The first half, everything they put up seemed to fall for them.”
Alabama State (17-18) struggled to generate quality scoring opportunities against UTSA’s halfcourt defense but did make a decent run at the end of the game by turning on a desperate fullcourt press.
With 3:07 remaining and the Hornets’ pressure at its most intense, UTSA turned over the ball on an offensive foul, and guard Tramayne Moorer connected on a baseline jumper to cut their deficit to single digits, 64-55, for the first time since it was 15-4 in the first half.
There were two chances from there for the Hornets to continue narrowing the gap, after a UTSA turnover and later a missed free throw, but Alabama State failed to score either time and never got closer than the final margin.
UTSA freshman Jeromie Hill, a native of Australia, was impressed by the large crowd at UD Arena. He said he never experienced anything quite like the NCAA Tournament — the First Four — back home.
“If it gets any bigger than this, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to handle it,” he said with a smile.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kurt Busch declared himself the favorite for Sunday’s Daytona 500, and it was hard to argue after he won the first of two 150-mile qualifying races Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.
Busch is 2 for 2 at Daytona this month, having captured the exhibition Budweiser Shootout last Saturday. So far, no one has performed better in the new tandem-racing style that has emerged at Daytona since a repaving of the surface this year. nfl jerseys wholesale But Busch will have some debate from Jeff Burton and the strong Richard Childress Racing team. Burton won the second qualifier and will start fourth over all Sunday.
“I would say we’re hard pressed not to be the favorite,” Busch said.
Busch qualified third but will move up and start on the pole on Sunday. That is because Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had won the pole when the front row was set last Sunday, crashed during practice Wednesday. Earnhardt was forced to go to a backup racecar and will have to start at the back of the field.
Busch won his qualifier because he partnered with and was pushed all race long by Regan Smith’s racecar. The two worked together throughout the race, as has become necessary at Daytona since the track was repaved and the bumpers on the cars redesigned. The tandem style made its debut during the Shootout and continued during the qualifying races.
Burton was pushed by his Childress teammate Clint Bowyer to the win in the second qualifier. Another Childress driver, Kevin Harvick, finished third in the first qualifier behind Busch and Smith. That means three Childress drivers will be in the first seven spots on the grid.
Among the feel-good stories of the day, the independent driver Brian Keselowski, 29, who builds his own racecars on a shoestring budget, raced his way into the 500 on Thursday. He finished fifth in the second qualifier and will start 12th on Sunday. Keselowski was pushed by his younger brother, Brad Keselowski, 27, who races for the high-profile Penske Racing organization and will start 16th on Sunday.
“He’s always been kind of a snotty little kid,” Brian Keselowski said of his brother, laughing. “I hate to say that because he just pushed me in the Daytona 500. He knows I love him. But it’s just part of it.”
The Free Press learned that Michigan decided to part ways with the embattled coach. Nonetheless, the university released a statement Tuesday evening saying that athletic director David Brandon hadn’t rendered a final decision.
The hesitation in publicly acknowledging what many deem inevitable might have less to do with Rodriguez and more to do with his eventual successor, considering reports that the perceived front-runner — Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh — has ruled out a return to his alma mater.
Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, Jim’s older brother, said he believes Michigan no longer is an option for his brother on his weekly radio show Tuesday.
Even if athletic director Dave Brandon can’t deliver Harbaugh as Rodriguez’s successor, it’s still better long-term for this storied program to sever ties with Rodriguez because it’s important to send the message that the last three years were emphatically unacceptable.
Michigan didn’t want another Matt Millen.
The Lions kept the bumbling chief executive around much longer than necessary. It was obvious early that Millen wasn’t working out — and wouldn’t work out — but ownership didn’t want the public dictating policy.
Admit the mistake. Clean up the mess and move forward.
The Rodriguez legacy becomes one of colossal embarrassment and historic infamy. He leaves Michigan football under NCAA probation for the first time in its long history, guilty of five major violations. His Big Ten winning percentage of .250 stands as the worst three-year period since 1934-36 when the Wolverines collective Big Ten record was 2-14 under Harry Kipke.
Hindsight will reveal all the reasons why this didn’t work:
* Rodriguez didn’t properly respect enough of the sainted Michigan traditions he inherited.
* His offensive system predicated on placing small, athletic specialists in space simply couldn’t succeed long-term in the Big Ten.
* He was doomed to fail from the beginning because those deeply embedded in what Michigan should represent in their minds never gave Rodriguez the opportunity to win them over.Firing Rodriguez was easy for Brandon. The trick now is finding the right replacement. This next step will forever define Brandon’s tenure as Michigan’s athletic director, just as the disastrous Rodriguez hire will forever diminish former AD Bill Martin’s many achievements during his time at the helm.If it’s not Harbaugh, would Brady Hoke electrify the masses?That’s unlikely.But he’ll at least fit in more comfortably from the outset.When U-M hired Rodriguez in December 2007, I wrote that if the gamble worked, it would be like when Steve Spurrier came to Florida with his run-and-gun offensive pyrotechnics and transformed the way they played offense in the SEC.But if he didn’t work, he’s John L. Smith who came to Michigan State with big talk but left as an even bigger joke.Stamp one last L on the Rodriguez era.
