SWAFFORD’S LATE BIRDIE LEADS TO VICTORY
Hudson Swafford stopped his slide with a 10-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole, and he finished with an 8-foot par putt to hold on for a one-shot victory Sunday in the Corales Puntacana Club and Resort Championship in the Dominican Republic.
Swafford closed with a 3under 69, doing most of his work on the front nine with a 31 that took him from a two-shot deficit to a three-shot lead.
Heled by four shots with six holes to play when he made double bogey on the 13th and bogey from the fairway on the 15th, falling into a share of the lead with Mackenzie Hughes and Tyler McCumber.
Swafford hit 6-iron to a front pin on the 210yard 17th hole, with the wind coming off the Caribbean Sea on the right. It landed 10 feet to the left and he pumped his fist when he saw the putt drop for his first birdie since the eighth hole.
That gave him a one-shot lead overmccumber, who had rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th for a 66. Ahead of him was Hughes, who made bogey from short of the 18th green for a 70 to fall two shots behind.
Swafford was on the front portion of the green and left his 40-foot putt up the ridge 8 feet short. He made that to avoid a playoff, finishing at 18under 270.
Swafford’s second PGA Tour victory — the other was the Desert Classic in 2017 — gets him into themasters next April. He has not played in a major in more than three years.
More golf
Ameerican John Catlin birdied three of his last four holes to close with a 6-under 64 and storm from behind for a two-shot victory in the Irish Open at Ballymena, Northern Ireland, his second in three weeks on the European Tour.
WNBA
Breanna Stewart scored a career playoff-high 31 points— tying Seattle’s franchise playoff record— and Sue Bird had 16 points and nine assists, and the Storm beat Minnesota 9271 at Bradenton, Fla., to sweep the Lynx and advance to the Wnbafinals.
Angel Mccoughtry scored 16 of her 29 points in the third quarter as Las Vegas took control and the Aces beat the Sun 84-75 in Game 4 of the best-of-five WNBA semifinals. Game 5 is Tuesday.
College football
No. 6 Ohio State, No. 10 Penn State and No. 14 Oregon returned to The Associated Press college football poll, weeks before they start playing, creating a Top 25 as unusual as this season. At the top of the rankings this week, Clemson remained No. 1 with 55 first-place votes, followedby Alabama at No. 2 with three first-place votes.
• Zach Wilson threw for a career-high 392 yards and two touchdowns, leading No. 18 BYU(2-0) to a 48-7 victory over Troy (1-1) late Saturday night.
Georgia State said the positive COVID-19 tests that caused Saturday’s football game at Charlotte to be postponed were the result of errors in reading the test results.
Soccer
Jamie Vardy scored a hat trick containing two penalties as Leicester came from behind to stun host Manchester City in a wild 5-2 win and collect a third straight victory to open the Premier League season.
Tottenham fell foul of the Premier League’s newly adopted interpretation of defensive handballs, conceding a penalty deep into stoppage time to draw 1-1 at home to Newcastle.
Even on a night when Juventus was outplayed for long stretches, the nine-time defending Serie A champion managed to salvage a point in a 2-2 drawat Roma.
Alejandro Pozuelo broke a tie in the 59th minute andtorontofc(8-2-4) beat themlsleading Columbus Crew (92-3) 3-1 in their temporary home in Connecticut.
Horse racing
Swiss Skydiver will become the first filly since Rachel Alexandra won in 2009 to run against males in the Preakness on Saturday. Trainer Kenny Mcpeek confirmed the decision. Jockey Robby Albarado, who won the 2007 Preakness aboard Curlin, will replace Tyler Gaffalione on Swiss Skydiver.
Claimed out of his last three starts on turf, 5-year-old gelding Cupid’s Claws ($17) tried dirt for the first time, as he waltzed to a 7¼-length win in the marathon Grade III, $100,000 Tokyo City Cup at Santa Anita. In a thriller, trainer Peter Miller’s C Z Rocket ($4.80) prevailed over Flagstaff in the Grade II, $200,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship.
Also
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley was in jail Sunday on charges of drug possession and receiving and concealing stolen property, after his arrest the night before. The Athletic first reported Beasley’s arrest Saturday night at his home in Plymouth, a suburb of Minneapolis. ESPN reported that police obtained a search warrant for Beasley’s home after a complaint that he brandished a weapon at a person and officers found marijuana and guns in the home.
Unbeaten Israel Adesanya defended his middleweight title in style with adominant second-round stoppage of Paulo Costa at UFC 253. Poland’s Jan Blachowicz also stopped Dominick Reyes late in the second round to claim the light heavyweight title vacated by Jon Jones on Fight Island, the mixed martial arts promotion’s bubble performance venue in the Middle East.