Fog clouds Abu Dhabi golf
Andy Sullivan made a triple-bogey on the ninth hole before the horn sounded to suspend play, falling out of the third-round lead he had held all day in the weather-affected Abu Dhabi Championship in the United Arab Emirates. It left a five-way tie at 10under atop the leaderboard among Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Ian Poulter, Branden Grace and Joost Luiten.
There are 21 players within three shots of the lead, including Jordan Spieth, who shot a fourunder 68. Spieth started the third round seven shots back and finished it in the fog-laden gloom after barely beating the horn, which sounded at the top of his backswing, on the ninth tee. It was Spieth’s final hole, and meant he was able to complete his third round, unlike most of the field, and avoid an early-morning return Sunday to finish.
Spieth and playing partners Soren Kjeldsen and Pablo Larrazabal joined on the green the trio ahead of them — Eddie Pepperell, Tyrrell Hatton and Kiradech Aphibarnrat.
“I’ve not played a six-ball before, that was a first,” Spieth said. “We didn’t really know what to do. We kind of felt bad because we were asking the guys in front of us if they wanted to go finish, we’ll play behind you because that’s the way it’s got to be.
“Pablo just decided to hit,” added Spieth, “so we just decided to just hit with them.”
Duffy Waldorf made a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole to beat Tom Lehman by a stroke in the PGA Tour Champions’ season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Kaupulehu-Kona, Hawaii. The 53-year-old Waldorf shot a six-under 66 to finish at 18-under 198 at Hualalai Golf Course. He played all 54 holes without a bogey, becoming the fourth player and second winner to accomplish the feat in the tournament. John Cook also was bogeyfree in his 2013 victory. Lehman also closed with a 66. After Waldorf holed his birdie putt on the 18th, Lehman left his 15-footer inches short.
Gracie Gold bounced back from a shaky short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships with a f lawless free skate to win her second national title. Gold trailed Polina Edmunds by 7.69 points going into the long program at St. Paul, Minn., but Gold landed seven triple jumps cleanly and earned high artistic marks to overtake the teenager. Gold scored 147.96 points for a total of 210.46. The 17-year-old Edmunds had 137.32 points in her free skate for 207.51 total. Three-time U.S. champion Ashley Wagner was cruising through her program with just one more jump to land when she did only one rotation of a planned triple lutz. In the end, those lost points didn’t matter, she would have finished third behind Gold and Edmunds even with them.
Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea won their first national pairs title, and siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani won their first U.S. ice dance title.
Keith Thurman (26-0, 22 knockouts) and Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) agreed to fight for Thurman’s WBA welterweight title March 12 at Mohegan Sun Casino Resort in Uncasville, Conn. Talk of a Thurman-Porter bout has been ongoing since September, but a difficult negotiation and a problematic search for the right date and site delayed the deal from being finalized. The 28-year-old Porter is trained by his father, Ken, and counts Shane Mosley as one of his sparring partners. The title fight will be CBS’ first prime-time boxing event since Leon Spinks defeated Muhammad Ali by decision on Feb. 15, 1978.
Driver Terry Labonte, a two-time Cup champion, headed a class of five inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C. The group included Bruton Smith, executive chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc.; driver Jerry Cook ,a six-time NASCAR Modified champion; driver Bobby Isaac, the 1970 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion; and driver Curtis Turner, who helped raise the profile of stock car racing during NASCAR’s early days.
A blizzard socking the Eastern United States disrupted the sports schedule for a second day, forcing the postponement of two more NHL games and several college basketball games and stranding two college teams on the snow-choked Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The NHL postponed the Philadelphia Flyers’ game at the New York Islanders, which had been scheduled for Saturday night. It also postponed Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals. Makeup dates were not set for either game.