Steele takes 1-shot lead at Honda Classic
Brendan Steele made a couple of big mistakes down the stretch, and still was more than good enough to grab the outright lead at the midpoint of The Honda Classic.
Steele shot a 3-under 67 on Friday, getting to 5 under for the week and putting himself a shot clear of J.T. Poston (69), Lee Westwood (69) and Luke Donald (66) after the second round at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
The cut was 3 over, and most of the biggest names in the field aren’t sticking around for the weekend. Among them: Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose.
Steele had a chance to take an even bigger lead into the weekend. His tee ball on the par-3 15th went around the back of the hole before lipping out and stopping inches shy of an ace, and he followed that up with another birdie on the par-3 17th.
Steele missed a chance for a victory in January in Hawaii, falling to Cameron Smith in a playoff after taking a three-stroke lead into the final round.
U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland put himself squarely in the mix with a 67 and thinks there’s a simple reason why tough courses like PGA National appeal to him.
Woodland was tied for fifth at 3 under with Sepp Straka (67), Cameron Davis (67) and Nick Watney (66). QUIGLEY SHOOTS 64 TO TAKE CHAMPIONS LEAD >> Brett Quigley birdied six of the last seven holes for a 9-under 64 and the first-round lead in the PGA Tour Champions’ Cologuard
Classic in Tucson, Arizona.
Robert Karlsson was second, making five back-nine birdies in a 65, The 50-year-old Swede is making his second career start on the 50-and-over tour.
Steve Stricker, John Daly, Glen Day and Rod Pampling shot 67. Hall of Famers Fred Couples and Bernhard Langer were another stroke back along with Ken Tanigawa.
Quigley followed the victory in Morocco with a ninth-place tie in Florida in the Chubb Classic. WOODS TO SKIP BAY HILL >> Tiger Woods is taking a third straight week off by deciding against playing the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida.
Woods hasn’t played since his 7677 weekend at the Genesis Invitational, where he finished 68th.
Brooks Koepka committed to Bay Hill after missing the cut at the Honda Classic.
Tennis
DJOKOVIC SAVES 3 MATCH POINTS TO MAKE DUBAI FINAL >> Novak Djokovic saved three consecutive match points to beat Gael Monfils and set up a Dubai (United Arab Emirates) Championships final showdown against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Monfils led 6-3 in the second-set tiebreaker, but Djokovic saved all three match points and ended up winning 2-6, 7-6 (8), 6-1.
No. 2-seeded Tsitsipas beat Daniel Evans 6-2, 6-3.
KVITOVA TO FACE SABALENKA IN QATAR FINAL >> Petra Kvitova beat No. 1-ranked Ashleigh Barty for the first time in more than a year to play for her second Qatar Open title. Kvitova won 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in two hours and will face Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the final today.
Sabalenka defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-3 in their semifinal.
College football
NCAA COMMITTEE PROPOSES 2-MINUTE LIMIT ON REPLAY REVIEWS >> Players ejected from games for targeting will be allowed to remain in the bench area and replay reviews will be limited to two minutes if proposals by the NCAA football rules committee are passed.
The committee wrapped up several days of meetings in Indianapolis by issuing its recommendations.
Proposals must be approved by the NCAA playing rules oversight panel, which is scheduled to discuss changes April 16. New rules would go into effect for the upcoming season.
Swimming
CHINESE OLYMPIC CHAMPION SUN
YANG BANNED FOR 8 YEARS IN DOPING CASE >> Chinese swimmer Sun Yang was banned for eight years for breaking anti-doping rules and will miss the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport found the three-time Olympic champion guilty of refusing to cooperate with sample collectors during a visit to his home in September 2018 that turned confrontational. In a rare hearing in open court in November, evidence was presented of how a security guard instructed by Sun’s mother used a hammer to smash the casing around a vial of his blood.