Oosthuizen leads in Mexico as pair of newcomers shine
MEXICO CITY » Louis Oosthuizen made a short eagle putt late in his round and birdies on two of the short par 4s for a 7-under 64 to lead the Mexico Championship.
Right behind were two players making their first appearances in a World Golf Championship.
Chris Paisley of England, who followed up his first European Tour victory with top 5s in the tour’s strongest events in the Middle East, was atop the leaderboard for much of a warm Thursday afternoon at Chapultepec Golf Club until a late bogey. He was at 65.
Shubhankar Sharma, a 21-year-old from India, waited through a 30-minute delay from the threat of storms and nearly holed his approach to No. 9 on his final hole for a bogey-free 65.
Xander Schauffele, playing in his third WGC but making his debut in the Mexico event, also shot 65.
Defending champion Dustin Johnson opened with a 69.
Song leads by 2 shots
SINGAPORE » Jennifer Song shot an opening 7-under 65 to take a two-stroke lead at the Women’s World Championship.
The 28-year-old American reeled off seven birdies at the Sentosa Golf Club in a round that was interrupted for two hours by lightning.
Michelle Wie and Ji EunHee (both 67) were tied for second while another nine players finished a further stroke back at 4 under.
Top-ranked Shanshan Feng (70) bogeyed the last hole, while No. 2 Lexi Thompson (75) struggled in making five bogeys.
Still chasing her LPGA win eight years first after turning professional, Song took the outright lead when she made five birdies in an eight-hole stretch.
Wawrinka to skip 2 events to rest knee
LONDON » Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Stan Wawrinka is skipping hardcourt events in the United States to rest his injured left knee.
Wawrinka says in a statement he will miss the Masterslevel Indian Wells and Miami events to prepare for the European clay-court season.
The 2015 French Open champion says “coming back from a big surgery is complicated” and his body needs more time to heal.
Wawrinka, who will turn 33 during the Miami Open this month, ended his 2017 season with knee surgery in August.
He lost in the Australian Open second round in January, then the first round at the Rotterdam indoor tournament, before retiring from his second-round match last week in Marseille, France.
Pouille closing in on 3rd straight ATP final
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES » Lucas Pouille moved to within a win of reaching three consecutive tennis finals when he overcame Yuichi Sugita 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championships.
The second-seeded Pouille won in Montpellier last month and was runnerup in Marseille last week.
Standing between the Frenchman and a place in the final is seventh-seed Filip Krajinovic of Serbia, who beat Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 6-1, 6-2.
Sun Belt signs 8-year deal with ESPN
The Sun Belt Conference has signed a new eight-year contract with ESPN that gives the network exclusive multimedia rights to all of the league’s sports.
Terms were not disclosed, but the Sun Belt announced that the new agreement included enhancements to the current contract with ESPN that runs through the 201920 academic year.
The enhancements guarantee the new Sun Belt football championship will be broadcast starting this season on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. All Sun Belt home football games will continue to be available on either an ESPN television or digital platform, including the soon-to-be unveiled ESPN Plus subscription streaming service. Over the next two seasons, the number of Sun Belt men and women’s basketball games shown on ESPN platforms will increase to a minimum of 100 in 2018-19 and a minimum of 150 in 2019-20.