Hot putter in hand, Hadwin goes into Valspar last round up by four

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Adam Hadwin only wants a chance to win when he tees it up on the PGA Tour, and he’s never had a chance like this one.

Birdie putts from 35 feet and 55 feet on the back nine Saturday at the Valspar Championship stretched his lead to four shots. Equally important to him was the slick, bending 6-foot par putt on the final hole.

“Three shots is much easier to come back from than four shots is,” Hadwin said after a clean card of 4-under 67. “That extra shot could be everything tomorrow. That was a big putt for me, I think, mentally going into tomorrow.”

The 29-year-old Canadian overcame a brief bout of nerves on the practice range with a flawless day in a strong, warm breeze on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook. That 6-foot par putt made it 31 straight holes without a bogey, put him at 14-under 199 and gave him the fourshot lead over Patrick Cantlay.

It was the third time in the last four PGA Tour events the 54-hole leader was up by at least four shots, and all of them won comfortably — Jordan Spieth at Pebble Beach, Dustin Johnson at Riviera and Rickie Fowler at PGA National.

More than a big lead, there is not a lot of experience chasing the Canadian. Of the three players within six shots of him, only Jim Herman has experienced winning on the PGA Tour. Herman won the Shell Houston Open last year for his first victory. He had a 71 playing in the final group and fell five shots behind.

Hadwin also had a 54-hole lead in the CareerBuilder Challenge when he shot 59 in the third round. He closed with a 70 and was runner-up to Hudson Swafford. He started that final round with a one-shot lead over Bozzelli.

Four shots is a lot bigger than one, though Hadwin said it could work both ways. He knows enough about Innisbrook to realize it can disappear quickly.

A one-out throwing error in the ninth inning capped UNLV’s tworun rally in its 6-5 victory over Air Force in a Mountain West baseball game Saturday at Wilson Stadium.

Nick Rodriguez and Ernie De La Trinidad hit consecutive singles after a one-out walk to load the bases in the ninth.

Justin Jones then hit a ground ball that second baseman Shaun Mize threw away, and the tying and winning runs scored in the Rebels’ second walk-off win over the Falcons (6-8, 0-5) in as many days.

De La Trinidad and Bryson Stott had two hits each for UNLV (7-8, 3-2), which was outhit 12-10.

Mize and Ashton Easley had three hits apiece for Air Force, which trailed 4-0 after two innings.

SOFTBALL: At Eller Media Stadium, Morgan Ettinger (12-3) pitched a four-hit shutout, and Mara Kemmer had two hits and scored on a sixth-inning groundout to lead UNLV (16-8) to a 1-0 win over New Mexico State (8-11) in the Rebel Classic. In the Rebels’ second game of the day, Kiley Harrison hit a two-run double in a six-run first inning in their 7-5 win over Portland State (1-17).

MEN’S GOLF: At Siena Golf Club, freshman Justin Kim posted his first collegiate tournament victory, shooting a final-round 4-under-par 68 for a 13-under 203 total and a onestroke win in the 12-team, 67-player Jackrabbit Invitational. The Rebels fired the best final-round score, 12-under 276, and placed second at 34-under 830 — seven strokes behind champion UNR.

WOMEN’S GOLF: At Tucson, Ariz., the Rebels shot nine strokes worse than in the opening round and dropped to fourth place in the 13-team, 75-player Mountain View Invitational. UNLV is at 13-over 589, 28 shots back of first-place Arizona. Harley Dubsky, who leads UNLV, is in a tie for 10th at 1-over 145.

MEN’S TENNIS: At Fertitta Tennis Complex, Jakob Amilon and Evaldo Neto each won twice in singles and combined for two doubles victories, to help UNLV (7-2) to 4-1 wins over Brigham Young (9-8) and Northern Arizona (5-5).

Shaman Ghost beat Midnight Storm by three-quarters of a length to win the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap in Arcadia, California.

Ridden by Javier Castellano, Shaman Ghost ran 1¼ miles in 2:01.57 as the 6-5 favorite.

Owner-breeder Frank Stronach was on hand to see his 5-year-old horse win a big race at Santa Anita, which Stronach owns.

Also at Santa Anita, Mastery won the $400,000 San Felipe Stakes by 6¾ lengths and was pulled up after the finish, leaving trainer Bob Baffert worried about his 3-yearold colt’s future. Mastery, the 4-5 favorite, led all the way.

Will Power won the pole for IndyCar’s season-opening race at St. Petersburg, Florida, proving he still is the best driver at navigating the temporary street circuit.

The pole is the seventh in eight years at St. Pete for Power, who also won the pole for this race last year. But he became ill after his qualifying lap, and IndyCar benched him for the race because of concussion-like symptoms.

Claressa Shields became the first woman to headline a fight card on premium cable, stopping Szilvia Szabados in the fourth round Friday in Detroit in their fight for the NABF middleweight title on Showtime.

Referee Harvey Dock stopped the bout 1:30 into the fourth, after the 21-year-old Shields (2-0) landed a strong left to the head of the 26-year-old Szabados (15-9).

WBA: At Ludwigshafen, Germany, American Demetrius Andrade (24-0, 16 knockouts) defeated Jack Culcay (22-2, 11 KOs) by split decision to take the Ecuadorian-born German’s super welterweight title.