Westwood grabs Bay Hill lead with a 65

Lee Westwood made a pair of 30-foot putts over the final three holes Saturday, one for eagle and the other a closing birdie, for a 7-under 65 that gave England’s ageless wonder a one-shot lead in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Fla.

Westwood turns 48 next month and is feeling younger by the years, coming off a third European Tour title and still easily among the top 50 in the world.

Now he goes up against U.S. Open champion Bryson Dechambeau, whose 68 included a birdie on the par-5 sixth hole in which he cut off so much of the water he had only 70 yards for his second shot on the 531yard hole.

Corey Conners of Canada, who started with a one-shot lead, could only manage a 71 on a cool, breezy day at Bay Hill. He also was one shot behind.

“It’s nice to still be playing in these tournaments,” Westwood said. “You’ve got to be top 50 in the world and if you would have said to me 20 years ago will you still be top 50 in the world at 48 I might have been slightly skeptical. And it just shows that I’m still capable of playing well in these tournaments with all the good young players around me and obviously contending, because that’s what I’m doing this week.”

Jordan Spieth opened with a birdie and a hole-inone, took the lead by holing a bunker shot on the par-3 seventh, saved par after a tee shot into the water and shot 68.

He was two shots behind, along with former PGA champion Keegan Bradley, who had the low score of the week at 64.

Westwood, who first played the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 1998, was at 11-under 205. He posted his lowest score ever at Bay Hill and made only six pars.

He had eight birdies and the eagle on the 16th hole, along with a pair of threeputt bogeys.

• Justin Rose withdrew on the fourth hole because of back issues during the third round. Rose said he woke up with soreness in his lower back and it never loosened up.

He hit three shots into the water while carding a quintuple-bogey 9 on the par-4 third hole at Bay Hill Club. After his fourth shot on the par-5 No. 4, Rose called it a day.

KUPCHO EAGLES 18TH, TRAILS ERNST BY ONE >> Jennifer Kupcho made a 12-foot eagle putt on the final hole to cut Austin Ernst’s lead to a stroke in the LPGA Tour’s Drive On Championship in Ocala, Fla.

Kupcho shot a 2-under 70 at Golden Ocala, setting up the eagle with a fairway wood that just cleared the rocks and water fronting the green on the par-5 18th. Ernst parred the last six holes in a 69. The twotime LPGA Tour winner was at 13-under 203.

Baseball

ASTROS REACH DEAL WITH RHP JAKE ODORIZZI >> The Houston Astros are in agreement with free agent right-hander Jake Odorizzi on a two-year deal with a player option, multiple outlets reported. MLB Network reported the deal is worth up to $30 million. Odorizzi, who turns 31 later this month, was a 15-game winner and an All-star in 2019 and went 0-1 with a 6.59 ERA in four starts in 2020.

Winter sports

SHIFFRIN BEATS VLHOVA, CLAIMS 45TH WORLD CUP SLALOM VICTORY >> Mikaela Shiffrin denied her Slovakian rival Petra Vlhova a home victory, winning the first World Cup slalom following the world championships.

Shiffrin trailed first-run leader Vlhova by 0.27 seconds on a hill where the Slovakian regularly trains in Jasna, Slovakia. But the American had a blistering final run to win the race by 0.34 as the pair continued its dominance in the discipline. They combined have won 31 of the 32 World Cup slaloms held since January 2017.

ALASKA’S IDITAROD SLED DOG RACE IS ON, WITH COVID-19-ALTERED COURSE >> The word “Iditarod” derives from an indigenous Alaskan name for a “far distant place.” Due to precautions made necessary by the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which starts today, will be an especially distanced event.

The trail for the world’s most famous sled dog race has been drastically rerouted to avoid almost all the communities that normally serve as checkpoints.

The biggest change for this year’s 49th edition of the race is the course. Instead of running to Nome, the Bering Sea town that is normally the finish line, the 2021 route will be an outand-back loop taking teams to an uninhabited checkpoint called Iditarod and the abandoned mining settlement of Flat, then back to the starting point in Willow, about 75 miles north of Anchorage. The total distance is about 860 miles, roughly 100 miles shorter than the traditional course.

Motorsports

ALLMENDINGER HITS JACKPOT WITH XFINITY WIN >> A.J. Allmendinger took the lead and held off the field on a final race restart with 12 laps remaining to earn his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series win in the last 16 races, winning the Alsco Uniforms 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

This is the 39-year-old Californian’s first full time season racing in NASCAR since 2018 when he competed in the Cup Series.