The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Playoff at Torrey Pines extended
Jason Day watched the flight of his wedge for as long as he could and had to listen to the crowd to realize he nailed it.
“I can’t see,” he said to his caddie.
Alex Noren was 5 feet away from extending the playoff Sunday at the Farmers Insurance Open, a putt he could easily have missed except that the Swede could rely on experience. He had a similar putt in regulation and knew it broke off to the right.
Day and Noren went at it for 77 holes at Torrey Pines, and after five sudden-death playoff holes, it still wasn’t enough to crown a winner. They matched birdies in the dark on the par-5 18th, and then had no choice but to return Monday morning to decide the longest playoff in the 67year history of the event.
“We both played some pretty good golf, especially down 18 going back and forth, back and forth, which is good entertainment for the fans,” Day said. “It’s good to be back in the action, good to be back where I’m at right now. But I’ve got to get some rest.”
Day has gone 20 months since his last victory.
Both players had a good chance to end it — Noren from 12 feet on the 18th in regulation, Day from 12 feet on the third playoff hole at the par-3 16th.
“It’s so important over every shot, and maybe not as much as stroke play, you know, you can play safe sometimes and you can play aggressive here,” Noren said. “Here, you need to play aggressive to finish it out.”
Ryan Palmer began the playoff with them at 10-under 278. He was eliminated with a par on the 18th on the first extra hole.
College basketball
NO. 1 VILLANOVA HOLDS ON» Called on to start, Donte DiVincenzo supplied Villanova with a lift from the opening tip and never let up.
The top-ranked Wildcats avoided another upset in Milwaukee by surviving an injury scare to preseason All-American Jalen Brunson and getting key contributions from DiVincenzo in place of sidelined guard Phil Booth.
Brunson scored 31 points despite leaving briefly with an ankle injury, while DiVincenzo added 23 and a key bucket late in an 8582 win Sunday over Marquette.
The Wildcats (20-1, 7-1 Big East) turned away surge after surge from Marquette (13-8, 4-5) in front of a rowdy crowd at the Bradley Center.
It was a year ago that Marquette upset a thenNo. 1 Villanova team in another down-to-thewire thriller .
The Wildcats dodged another takedown despite some sloppy stretches of play.
NHL
PACIFIC DIVISION WINS ALL-STAR GAME » Rickard Rakell had two goals and rookie Brock Boeser, Johnny Gaudreau and Drew Doughty also scored to help the Pacific Division win the NHL All-Star game with a 5-2 victory over the Atlantic Division on Sunday.
Pacific goalies MarcAndre Fleury and Mike Smith teamed to allow just four goals in the two games their team captured to claim the $1 million shared by the winners of the four-team divisional tournament played in an entertaining three-on-three format.
The Canucks’ Boeser, the only rookie among 15 first-time All-Stars, also had a goal in the Pacific’s 5-2 semifinal victory over the Central Division and named game MVP.
Mike Green had two goals for the Atlantic, one off both Fleury and Smith in the final.
All-Star weekend began with a free outdoor concert headlined by Fitz and the Tantrums and also featured a three-day fun fest for fans, as well as the annual skills competition that wrapped up Saturday’s festivities.
Adding spice to the experience was Tampa’s annual Gasparilla Pirate Invasion, which drew what officials estimated as an additional 200,000 people to the downtown waterfront for a parade.