Rahm jumps out to a two-stroke lead at Bay Hill
Jon Rahm started his round strong and ended it even better Thursday, closing eagle-birdie-birdie for a 7-under 65 and a two-shot lead in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Fla.
Not even the brute test of Bay Hill was a match for golf's hottest player.
That doesn't mean it was perfection by any means. Rahm, playing in the afternoon when the greens became a bit more crusty, opened with three straight birdies. He held steady the rest of the way until his big burst at the end allowed him to zoom past Honda Classic winner Chris Kirk and Cameron Young.
He hit only eight fairways. He twice was blocked by trees, one time escaping with par with a 30-foot putt on the 15th hole.
But oh, that finish. Rahm hit 5-iron to 25 feet on the fringe at the par-5 16th and holed it for eagle. On the par-3 17th, he hammered a 7-iron that cleared the bunker and landed in just the right spot to roll out to 2 feet. And on the closing hole, he hit a soft 9-iron to a front pin that settled about 6 feet away.
Kirk had seven birdies for a 67 during the morning round. Young also had a 67 in morning conditions that might be as easy as Bay Hill gets all week.
They were joined by Kurt Kitayama, who had a chance to challenge Rahm until dropping his lone shot on his final hole at No. 9.
The group at 68 included defending champion Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.
• Carson Young gave his rookie season on the PGA Tour quite a spark when he made three eagles on his way to a 9-under 63 for a three-shot lead after the opening round of the Puerto Rico Open in Rio Grande.
Young has made only three cuts in 12 starts, most recently Sunday in the Honda Classic. He shared the 18-hole lead at PGA National and finished in a tie for 29th, his best finish of the season. The 28-year-old from South Carolina found Grand Reserve to his liking.
He made two eagles on the front nine, then expanded his lead with a third eagle on the par-5 15th.
Young had a three-shot lead over Max McGreevy and Akshay Bhatia.
Richardson, Panthers founder, dies at 86
Jerry Richardson, the Carolina Panthers founder and for years one of the NFL's most influential owners until a scandal forced him to sell the team, has died. He was 86.
Richardson died peacefully Wednesday night at his Charlotte home.
He became the first former NFL player to own a team since Chicago's George Halas when he landed the expansion Panthers in 1993.
A former teammate of Johnny Unitas who caught a touchdown pass in the Baltimore Colts' win over the New York Giants in the 1959 NFL title game, Richardson only spent two years in the NFL before venturing into the restaurant business. He used his championship bonus money to open the first
Hardee's in Spartanburg, South Carolina — close to where he had attended Wofford College.
He went on to make his fortune in the restaurant business, becoming chief executive officer of Flagstar, the sixth-largest food service company in the country at the time.
The Spring Hope, North Carolina native spent years trying to persuade the NFL to put a team in the Carolinas, ultimately succeeding through a relatively original concept of funding a new stadium through the sales of permanent seat licenses.
Carolina began play in 1995 and Richardson quickly built the Panthers into one of the league's model franchises.
But Richardson's reputation took a tremendous hit when he announced he was selling the Panthers on Dec. 17, 2017 — the same day Sports Illustrated reported that four former Panthers employees received significant monetary settlements due to inappropriate sexually suggestive language and actions by Richardson.
He sold the team to David
Tepper, a hedge fund owner, in May 2018 for a then-NFL record $2.27 billion. The following month the NFL fined Richardson $2.75 million for alleged workplace misconduct.
OC coach Sand suffers heart attack
Orange County figure skating coach Todd Sand, a two-time Olympian, suffered a heart attack early Thursday morning in Calgary, Alberta, where he was coaching at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships.
Jenni Meno-Sand, his wife, co-coach and former skating partner, was on her way from Orange County to Alberta on Thursday morning.
Sand, 59, coached the Orange County-based pairs team of Sophia Baram and David Tioumentsev in Wednesday's pairs short program.
Sand and Meno, coached by Hall of Fame coach John Nicks, skated to a silver medal at the 1998 World Championships and also collected World bronze medals in 1995 and 1996.
After retiring, Sand and Meno-Sand established themselves as one of the nation's top coaching teams. They currently coach reigning World champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier and are based at Great Park Ice in Irvine.
— Scott M. Reid
Djokovic, Medvedev to meet in Dubai semis
Top-ranked Novak Djokovic beat Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 7-5 and will face former No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals at the Dubai Championships.
The five-time Dubai champion's 20th straight victory set the stage for a match against Medvedev, who defeated Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in the nightcap at the hard-court tournament.
Defending Dubai champion Andrey Rublev will face Alexander Zverev in the other semifinal match.
Rublev advanced by defeating Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 7-6 (3). Zverev topped Lorenzo Sonego 7-5, 6-4.