Green takes 1-shot lead into Palos Verdes finale
Hannah Green held onto the lead Saturday in the Palos Verdes Championship after a frustrating start on the hilly, windswept course perched above the Pacific Ocean.
Three strokes ahead of Lydia Ko and three other players entering the day, Green overcame bogeys on the first two holes to shoot a 1-over 72 and take a one-shot lead over playing partner Ko into the final round.
“I got off to a horrendous start, I guess you could say,” Green said. “Just short-sided myself too many times today, so I was actually pretty happy with the 1-over score. Just hit a couple of funny wedge shots and also didn't read the lies and the wind direction.”
Green closed the back nine bogeyeagle-bogey-birdie and also dropped a stroke on the par-4 12th. The Australian birdied the par-5 16th and parred the last two to finish at 8-under 205 in the first-year event that wraps up the LPGA Tour's two-week, Los Angeles-area stay.
“It's hard,” Green said. “You know there are some opportunities on this golf course, but you also know there are a couple tough holes. You just have to stay patient like every other golf course, but it's hard when Lydia is breathing down your back and there are so many good scores from earlier in the day.”
Ko shot a 70, also overcoming a bad start. The New Zealander had a double bogey on the par-4 second and a bogey on the par-4 fourth.
“I think I made it a little harder than it was,” Ko said. “But considering how I started, to finish under par for the day, upwards and onwards.” RAHM LEADS MEXICO OPEN >> Jon Rahm birdied the last two par 5s and got some help from a couple of poor chips by Cameron Champ to take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Mexico Open.
Rahm, whose last victory was the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines last summer, pumped his fist Saturday when he holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th for a 3-under 68.
He liked how he played tee-togreen. Rahm said he hopes he can see a few more putts drop.
“That one on 18 was the first one outside 10 feet I saw roll in,” Rahm said. “If I can just keep that going and make putts like I did the first two days, I think tomorrow I'll give myself a really good chance.”
An hour or so before that key birdie on the 18th, Rahm was two
shots behind and trying to keep up with Champ, one of the game's longest hitters whose penetrating ball flight has been ideal for breezy conditions at Vidanta Vallarta,
Champ went over the back of the green on the 15th and stubbed a chip that didn't reach the green, leading to bogey. He went just over the back on the next hole, and this time clipped it too hard and watched it roll some 10 feet by the hole, leading to another bogey.
From just right of the 18th in two, Champ's chip came up some 15 feet short and he had to settle for par and a 67.
Kurt Kitayama was tied with Champ after a 66 that also featured some late struggles. He was tied for the lead when he blocked his tee shot on the par-3 17th so far to the right that it ran across a cart path onto a dirt lie under the trees. He did well to make bogey.
Then, the former UNLV player with two European tour wins had 109 yards to the par-5 18th and came up 25 feet short, having to settle for a par.
Rahm was at 13-under 200, two clear of Champ and Kitayama.
Motorsports
HAMLIN APOLOGIZES >> Denny Hamlin said someone sent him a crass antiAsian meme that poked fun at Kyle Larson's driving and out it went without a care — from his mobile phone to Twitter.
“I thought it was hilarious,” Hamlin said. “Also, it's insensitive. I understand.”
He didn't laugh long. NASCAR and scores of fans and casual observers who lashed out at Hamlin for linking Larson's ancestry — he's half Japanese — with an offensive stereotype linked to Asian drivers certainly didn't find the meme funny.
Hamlin is headed to NASCARmandated sensitivity training after he posted the anti-Asian meme from the television comedy “Family Guy” to criticize Larson's driving last weekend on the last lap at Talladega Superspeedway.
“I respect their decision. I understand where they are with it,” Hamlin said Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway.
Hamlin deleted the tweet Monday night and apologized.
Tennis
HALEP BEATS NO. 2 BADOSA >> Simona Halep played some of her best tennis at the Madrid Open again in defeating home crowd favorite Paula Badosa in straight sets to reach the last 16 on Saturday for the seventh time in 11 appearances.
The two-time Madrid Open champion defeated No. 2-ranked Badosa 6-3, 6-1 on the Caja Mágica center court.
“I knew that I have to be for every point focused and to give everything I have, and I did it great today,” the 21st-ranked Halep said.
Halep will next face Coco Gauff in the third round. Gauff defeated twotime French Open quarterfinalist Yulia Putintseva.