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.
The top-ranked Johnson had two double bogeys in a 77. DeChambeau and Bubba Watson also shot 77, with DeChambeau making a triple bogey on the par-4 16th.
Brooks Koepka was a stroke back with Billy Horschel, Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner. Koepka won the Phoenix Open this month for his eighth PGA Tour title.
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 2015-16 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 . ... Pittsburgh junior G Au’Diese Toney, the team’s No. 2 scorer at 14.4 points per game, will enter the transfer portal. The news comes a day after No. 3 scorer Xavier Johnson left the program with plans to transfer.
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 tour.
Soccer: Megan Rapinoe scored two firsthalf goals and the U.S. women’s team won the SheBelieves Cup title with a 6-0 victory over Argentina on Wednesday night in Orlando, Fla. It was the 37th straight victory for the U.S.