McIlroy has one-shot lead in Abu Dhabi tourney
Rory McIlroy will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the seasonopening Abu Dhabi Championship after posting a 5-under-par 67 on Saturday in the United Arab Emirates.
McIlroy holed out from 73 yards to eagle the 10th and added five birdies to go 13 under, wrestling control of the tournament from Tyrrell Hatton (71), who trails by a shot.
“I thought I did well today. Obviously, had that big stroke of luck on 10, the ball hitting the pin and going in,” the four-time major champion said. “Sometimes that’s what you need in golf tournaments to be in contention and to end up winning is those little strokes of luck every now and again.”
Tommy Fleetwood (67) had six birdies to put himself two shots behind McIlroy and alone in third place. He rolled in a putt on the 12th from nearly 50 feet. David Lipsky and Marc Warren both shot 68 and share fourth place, three shots back.
Elsewhere: Danielle Kang played great, tying her career low with an 8-under 63 and protecting her lead in the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Lake Buena Vista. Jessica Korda owned the day. A sizzling 28 on the back nine — 9-under — at Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club Orlando lifted Korda to an 11-under 60, just one shot off the LPGA Tour scoring mark. Kang was at 21under 192 through three bogey-free rounds. Her total tied an LPGA mark for raw score through 54 holes (shared by three others) and shattered the tournament’s 54-hole record (200). She will take a two-shot lead over Korda into Sunday in what sets up as a terrific shootout for the LPGA’s season opener: Kang leads Jessica Korda by two and Nelly Korda
A(67) by six. … Max Homa has been tearing up the Stadium Course at The American Express for two days. If he can do it one more time Sunday, the Southern California native could be raising his second career PGA Tour trophy. Homa made nine birdies and shrugged off a double bogey on the way to a 7under 65 in the third round, joining Tony Finau and Si Woo Kim atop the leaderboard at 15-under 201. Richy Werenski also shot a 65 and moved within a shot of the lead on the Stadium Course at PGA West near Palm Springs.
ETC.
Soccer: Last season’s FA Cup winner Arsenal was eliminated from the competition in the fourth round thanks to Gabriel’s
Aown-goal in a 1-0 loss to Southampton, while Manchester City survived a scare to beat fourth-tier Cheltenham 3-1. In an otherwise close game, Gabriel’s decision to try to block a shot from Kyle Walker-Peters proved decisive for Arsenal losing its hold on the cup.. … Youssef En-Nesyri scored a hat trick to lead Sevilla to a 3-0 win over Cádiz, lifting the Andalusian side into third place in the Spanish league. En-Nesyri has 12 goals in 19 rounds. The Morocco striker also scored a treble in a 3-2 win over Real Sociedad two weeks ago. … After a week marked by the highly anticipated arrivals of former Juventus forward Mario Mandžukić and Chelsea defender Fikayo Tomori, AC Milan was expected to celebrate winning Serie A’s halfway title in style. Instead, the Rossoneri were handed a humbling 3-0 defeat at home by Atalanta and saw its lead over city rival Inter Milan trimmed to two points.
MLB: Jurickson Profar is staying with the San Diego Padres, agreeing to a three-year, $21 million contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. Profar, who turns 28 on Feb. 20, was acquired by San Diego from Oakland in December 2019 and hit a career-best .278 in the pandemic-shortened season with seven homers and 25 RBI.
Tennis: Five-time Australian Open finalist Andy Murray withdrew from the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, saying he could not figure out a workable quarantine that would allow him to compete amid the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement comes a little more than a week after Murray, who has won three Grand Slam singles titles elsewhere, said he tested positive for COVID-19 shortly before he was due to board a charter flight to Melbourne.
AA