Simpson shares lead at WGC event
Webb Simpson ran off three straight late birdies for a share of the lead Thursday in the Workday Championship. Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau ran up some big numbers.
Simpson matched Matthew Fitzpatrick with a 6-under 66 at The Concession in the World Golf Championships event moved from Mexico to Bradenton, Florida because of COVID-19 circumstances.
Simpson birdied the par-4 15th and 16th and par-5 17th. The 2012 U.S. Open champion won twice last season and has seven PGA Tour victories.
Fitzpatrick had a bogey-free round. The Englishman has six European Tour titles.
Former world No. 1 Lydio Ko shot an opening-round 7-under 65 to take a two-stroke lead at the Gainbridge LPGA in Orlando, Fla. Retired 50-year-old Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam, playing in her first LPGA event in more than 12 years, shot a 75 on her home course at Lake Nona.
Baseball: Free agent OF Shin-Soo Choo agreed to a one-year, $2.4 million contract to play for a club in his native South Korea. The 38-year-old Choo, who spent the last seven seasons with the Rangers and hit .275 with 218 HRs, 782 RBIs and 157 steals in a 16-year MLB career, will join a team based in Incheon, just west of Seoul.
College basketball: Illinois star G Ayo Dosunmu is out indefinitely after suffering a facial injury during the team’s loss to Michigan State on Tuesday. Dosunmu, a Wooden Award candidate, is averaging 21.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists for the fifth-ranked Illini . ... The NCAA placed South Carolina on probation for two years for former assistant coach Lamont Evans accepting between $3,300 and $5,800 in bribes from a sports agent. The Gamecocks largely avoided more serious penalties like a postseason ban for what the NCAA deemed a Level I infractions case. Coach Frank Martin wasn’t named in any allegations. Evans worked at South Carolina for four seasons before leaving for Oklahoma State following the 201516 season. He pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy for taking some $22,000 to steer players at the schools to certain financial advisers and business managers.
NBA: The Jazz are cooperating with a league investigation into former G Elijah Millsap’s allegation that executive VP of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey made bigoted comments during a 2015 end-of-season meeting . ... The league suspended Timberwolves G Malik Beasley 12 games without pay for his recent guilty plea to a felony charge of threats of violence. He was sentenced earlier this month to 120 days in jail for the Sept. 26 incident, when he pointed a rifle outside his home in suburban Minneapolis at a family on a house-hunting