Play of the Day – Jamal CrawfordPlay of the Day – Jamal Crawford
Jamal Crawford uses the whole bag of ball handling tricks to get to the bucket for a beautiful lay in.
Day: March 26, 2017
Johnson proves human — but not for longJohnson proves human — but not for long
AUSTIN, Texas – He proved human Saturday afternoon. Walking off the 12th green at Austin Country Club, Dustin Johnson was all square in his quarterfinal match against Sweden’s Alex Noren. It was the first time this week at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play that he has not held the lead, breaking a streak of 71 consecutive holes. Hmm, maybe things were about to get interesting. The match, once in hand, was now surprisingly tight. Johnson himself acknowledged it was “a lot tighter” than he would have liked. Had Superman just encountered his Kryptonite? Hardly. Johnson promptly went out and birdied three of the next four holes to close out the match. His detour into mortality Saturday lasted less than 15 minutes. Maybe Johnson is superhuman right now. It seems he can’t lose. He entered this week having won his last two PGA TOUR events. The first one made him world No. 1. The second one cemented his position. His match record is a perfect 5-0, and if he wins two more matches Sunday, he’ll put a significant distance between himself and No. 2 Rory McIlroy, possibly the largest gap in the world rankings since Tiger in 2013. He’ll enter his semifinal match against Japan’s Hideto Tanihara full of confidence. Asked what he knows about Tanihara – a 13-time winner on the Japan Tour – Johnson responded, “Nothing.” No need to worry about bulletin board material when you’re playing as well as DJ is right now. Of course, given the vagaries of match play and the depth among golf’s elite players, nothing is a given. The final four survivors this week prove that. Sure, Dustin is the top seed, but Tanihara – making his Dell Match Play debut — came in 54th overall. In the other semifinal, you have No. 42 Bill Haas against No. 21 Jon Rahm. Anybody of the four can win. Theoretically at least. “He’s playing pretty well,” Johnson said of his opponent. “I feel like I’m going to have to go out and play some pretty good golf again.” But Tanihara knows he’s the underdog. “He looks unbeatable,” joked the 38-year-old from Tokyo. “I hope he doesn’t feel good tomorrow, so maybe I have a chance.” Should Johnson take care of business, he’ll face a championship foe who’s more familiar to him. Haas, of course, is a six-time TOUR winner and past FedExCup champ. The two have been teammates on a couple of winning Presidents Cup and have shared nine rounds together, including earlier this year at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. Rahm and Johnson have yet to be paired together on TOUR. But Rahm has already won this year at the Farmers Insurance Open, and earlier this month at the WGC-Mexico Championship, he tied for third, two strokes behind Johnson. Both players know that DJ is red-hot right now. But that’s no reason to be intimidated. “Dustin is playing incredible golf,” said Haas, who used seven birdies to knock off Phil Mickelson in the quarterfinals. “And he hits it so much further than anybody and I would say he’s one of the straightest hitters. That’s a hard combination to compete with. And I think if he’s on his game, he’s just probably going to win or be up there most of the time. “But with that said, I made seven birdies today. I could make seven birdies again. And that will be tough to beat. He would have to play his best to beat me, I think, if I did that.” Rahm’s 7 and 5 win over Soren Kjeldsen on Saturday afternoon tied for the most lopsided win of the week (Daniel Berger beat J.B. Holmes by the same score in the first round). He’s yet to be pushed past the 14th hole in his last three matches. If you go strictly on the last two days, his scores are more impressive than DJ’s. And while Johnson leads the TOUR in average driving distance at 316.2 yards, Rahm is no slouch, ranked 20th at 303.6. If he faces Johnson in the final, Rahm will be careful to avoid being swept up if Johnson gets dialed in. “When you’re facing an opponent like Dustin, it’s one of those people that you might benefit not looking at what he’s doing, just because he’s such a great player,” Rahm said. “You know he’s going to hit it a mile off the tee, and a great wedge player, and obviously the best player. He’s the hottest player we have right now on TOUR, and he’s a hard guy to beat. “If I end up playing against him, I’ll do my own thing and not look.” Johnson said he hasn’t seen any of his opponents this week trying to press in order to keep up with him. Whether he has intimidated anybody at Austin Country Club, he isn’t sure. “You’ll need to ask them,” he said. But there’s no doubt Johnson enters the last day here as the favorite. He came in as the top seed and he’s yet to be beaten. He’s played 76 holes and has led 75 of them. But at least somebody has been on equal footing with him this week. Not that it lasted very long.
Larson holds off Logano, wins Xfinity Series race at Fontana (Sports Betting News)Larson holds off Logano, wins Xfinity Series race at Fontana (Sports Betting News)
Kyle Larson hopes his NASCAR Xfinity race victory will catapult him to a weekend sweep at Fontana. Larson held off Joey Logano on the final lap to win another Xfinity race dominated by Cup drivers on Saturday. Larson thrived out of a late restart with smart moves and a clever lane choice on Fontana’s five-wide asphalt.
Larson holds off Logano, wins Xfinity Series race at Fontana (Sports Betting News)Larson holds off Logano, wins Xfinity Series race at Fontana (Sports Betting News)
Kyle Larson hopes his NASCAR Xfinity race victory will catapult him to a weekend sweep at Fontana. Larson held off Joey Logano on the final lap to win another Xfinity race dominated by Cup drivers on Saturday. Larson thrived out of a late restart with smart moves and a clever lane choice on Fontana’s five-wide asphalt.
Match Play at a glance (Sports Betting News)Match Play at a glance (Sports Betting News)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A brief look at Saturday’s rounds in the Dell Technologies Match Play (All times EDT):
Match Play at a glance (Sports Betting News)Match Play at a glance (Sports Betting News)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A brief look at Saturday’s rounds in the Dell Technologies Match Play (All times EDT):
Bryant homers in Vegas return for CubsBryant homers in Vegas return for Cubs
Chesny Young, Kris Bryant and Ian Happ all homered in the fifth inning on Saturday to spark the Cubs to an 11-7 victory over the Reds in a split-squad game at Cashman Field.
Arrogate comes from last to win $10M Dubai World Cup easily (Sports Betting News)Arrogate comes from last to win $10M Dubai World Cup easily (Sports Betting News)
Arrogate showed his class again as he came from dead last out of the stalls to win the Dubai World Cup by an impressive 2 1/4 lengths on Saturday. With the win, four-year-old Arrogate became the highest-earning racehorse ever, surpassing California Chrome, winner of the same race last year. In the second richest horse race in the world at $10 million, run over dirt and 2,000 meters at Meydan Racecourse, Arrogate produced a powerful finish under jockey Mike Smith to beat Gun Runner and Neolithic in a 1-2-3 for the U.S.
Chris Stroud takes 1-shot lead in Puerto RicoChris Stroud takes 1-shot lead in Puerto Rico
RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico — Chris Stroud has gone 276 tournaments over the better part of a decade trying to win on the PGA TOUR. A birdie on the final hole Saturday in the Puerto Rico Open gave him his first 54-hole lead, and he hopes his experience will keep him calm. Looking over his shoulder could make that very difficult. Stroud kept a clean card at Coco Beach Golf and Country Club for a 5-under 67, giving him a one-shot lead over Bill Lunde and D.A. Points. What makes the final round more challenging is 10 players were within three shots. “I feel like at this point in my career — it’s my 11th year on tour — I’ve got experience on my side,” Stroud said. “I was very calm today. Nothing really freaks me out. Middle of the round, I got a little loose, but I’m going to draw from that. I feel like I’m way overdue.” Stroud was at 15-under 201. Points is a two-time PGA TOUR winner, most recently in 2013 at the Shell Houston Open. Lunde won the Turning Stone Resort Championship in 2010, and only got into the Puerto Rico Open as a past champion. This is his first event in five months, so winning could not come at a better time. The Puerto Rico Open is opposite a World Golf Championship, so it does not include an automatic invitation to the Masters. But it offers a two-year exemption, and that would mean everything to Stroud and to Lunde, who do not have full status. Stroud is a conditional member from finishing out of the top 125 last year. “That would be the biggest change, versus kind of waiting around to play my five, six events a year,” Lunde said. “It would give me somewhere to play all the time. That would be the greatest thing that would come with a win tomorrow.” Wesley Bryan, who needed a victory for any hope of moving into the top 50 and getting into the Masters, shot 73 to fall out of contention. That no longer is an issue, anyway, because with Hideto Tanihara (semifinals) and Ross Fisher (quarterfinals) advancing in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Bryan could not crack the top 50. Stroud simply wants a victory. He twice shared the 54-hole lead. The closest he came to winning was losing in a playoff to Ken Duke in 2013 at the Travelers Championship. Andrew “Beef” Johnston of England shot a 66 and was two shots behind. Also two shots back was the local favorite, San Juan native Rafael Campos, who shot a 69 and was warmed by the loud ovation as he approached the 18th green. Campos has as much pride in his local event as anyone on the PGA TOUR. “I don’t really mind me playing good or bad, I just want to make golf visible here,” he said. “And seeing that many people following me and all that, I think to myself, `OK, I’m pretty sure after the week at least two or three guys will want to start picking up golf here.’ That’s my main goal right now, try to promote the game. Yeah, obviously it’s great when I’m playing good.” Former U.S. Amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau also was two shots behind after a 70, while former Puerto Rico Open champion Scott Brown and Peter Uihlein, a former U.S. Amateur champion who plays the European Tour, were three shots back. Sam Saunders, the grandson of Arnold Palmer, shot 67 and was five behind.