Kuchar battles dizziness at Canadian Open
OAKVILLE, Ontario — Matt Kuchar fought dizzy spells in the first round of the RBC Canadian Open on Thursday, four days after finishing second behind Jordan Spieth in the British Open.
“I had a couple of spells where I got a little bit of dizzy and I feel weak,” Kuchar said. “I don’t know where it came from. I’ve had plenty of time to get over the travel. Hopefully, it’s just something that passes real quick. … I shook it off the couple times it happened.”
The 39-year-old American became dizzy marking a ball and sought medical attention during the morning round at Glen Abbey. After playing the first 11 holes in 4 under, he made a double bogey on the par-4 third and bogeyed the par-4 eighth en route to a 1-under 71.
Kuchar was six strokes behind leaders Kevin Chappell, Matt Every, Hudson Swafford, Brandon Hagy and Ollie Schniederjans in the round that was suspended because of darkness after afternoon play was interrupted for nearly two hours by lightning and rain.
Defending champion Jhonattan Vegas, Vijay Singh, Bubba Watson Jim Herman, Peter Malnati and Martin Flores had 66s. In other golf news: • Bernhard Langer shot a 2-under 69 in wind and rain at Royal Porthcawl in Bridgend, Wales, to take the first-round lead in the Senior British Open. The 59-year-old German star had five birdies and three bogeys for a one-stroke lead over 64-year-old Carl Mason of England and Mauricio Molina of Argentina. Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie was two strokes at 71 back along with Americans Tom Lehman, Billy Mayfair, Tom Pernice Jr. and Billy Andrade, Australians Peter Lonard and Peter Fowler, France’s Jean-Francois Remesy and South Africa’s Chris Williams.
• Hall of Famer Karrie Webb shot a 7-under 65 to take a one-stroke lead over Cristie Kerr in the Ladies Scottish Open. Webb played the final 10 holes in 7 under at Dundonald Links in Irvine. The 42-year-old Australian star birdied the par-4 ninth, made five consecutive birdies on Nos. 11-15 and added another birdie on the par-5 18th. She won the last of her 41 LPGA Tour titles in 2014 at the Founders Cup. Fellow major champions Stacy Lewis and Inbee Park were tied for third at 69 along with Sei Young Kim, Lina Boqvist and Pornanong Phatlum.
Schmid returns as Galaxy coach
The Los Angeles Galaxy fired coach Curt Onalfo just 20 games into his first season and rehired veteran coach Sigi Schmid to take over the struggling MLS club.
Onalfo went 6-10-4 after being promoted from the Galaxy’s developmental squad last winter when longtime coach Bruce Arena went back to the U.S. national team.
Onalfo never got consistent results from a high-priced roster of international talent including Ashley Cole, Giovani Dos Santos, Romain Alessandrini, Jermaine Jones and Gyasi Zardes.
The Galaxy sit ninth in the Western Conference after losing six consecutive games across all competitions in July, including an embarrassing 4-3 loss to New England last weekend.
With mounting pressure to get results, team president Chris Klein scuttled his preseason plan with Onalfo and re-hired Schmid, the winningest coach in MLS history and a two-time league champion. Schmid first coached the Galaxy in 1999, and his largely successful tenure included the franchise’s first MLS Cup title in 2002.
Klein said Schmid is not an interim hire, calling him “the best person to coach our team for the remainder of this season and into the future.” In other news: • Bob Bradley was named the first coach of the Los Angeles Football Club, the MLS expansion franchise scheduled to begin play next year. Bradley, 59, is the former coach of the U.S. men’s national team and the most accomplished American coach in international club soccer history. He had long been rumored to be a target of the deep-pocketed LAFC ownership group, which hopes to make an immediate MLS splash when it enters the nation’s second-largest market to compete with the LA Galaxy, the five-time MLS Cup champions.
• Angel Maria Villar, who is jailed in Spain on suspicion of financial wrongdoing as head of the Spanish football federation, resigned his top positions at FIFA and European governing body UEFA. FIFA confirmed that Villar resigned as its senior vice president, which followed UEFA’s announcement he had left its executive committee after 25 years. He was suspended as Spanish federation president Tuesday amid a criminal investigation into allegations of corruption.
Long Island gets best of Skeeters
Ruben Gotay’s RBI single in the seventh inning broke a tie and lifted Long Island to a 9-8 Atlantic League victory over Sugar Land at Central Islip, N.Y.
Bryan Pounds drove in four of the Skeeters’ runs on a sacrifice fly in the first inning and a three-run homer in the second.