August 2, 2009 in Sports

Woods rallies into lead at Buick Open

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Associated Press photo

Tiger Woods watches his tee shot on the sixth hole during the third round of the Buick Open golf tournament on Saturday.
(Full-size photo)

Golf: Tiger Woods drove on adjacent fairways twice on the back nine, hit a cup of beer in a spectator’s hand, got rattled by a bug and was relegated to shaping some shots around trees and under branches.

He still managed to shoot a 7-under-par 65 on Saturday in the third round of the Buick Open at Grand Blanc Township, Mich., giving him a 17-under 199 total and a one-stroke lead when Michael Letzig (68) double bogeyed the last hole.

“The whole idea of the game is put the ball in the hole, and I did that,” Woods said.

Woods opened his first tournament since missing the cut at the British Open with a 71 after what he said was probably his worst putting day.

When he was eight shots behind first-round leader Steve Lowery, Woods said he couldn’t make up ground in one day at Warwick Hills. It took him two.

Woods roared back into contention with a 9-under 63 in the second round Friday and took the lead with his third-round 65.

He moved into a tie for the lead with Letzig with a 33-foot birdie putt at No. 17.

Letzig hit a poor shot out of a greenside bunker at No. 18, barely clearing it and leaving him with a tricky lie. He fell to 16 under while Woods was on the practice range.

•Funk in front at Senior Open: Fred Funk shot a 4-under 68 at the U.S. Senior Open to take a one-stroke lead over Greg Norman and Joey Sindelar after the third round in Carmel, Ind.

Funk is at 13 under heading into today’s final round.

Amateur Tim Jackson, the overnight leader, shot a 73 and is three shots behind.

•Matthew leads at Women’s British Open: Catriona Matthew of Scotland opened up a three-shot lead at the Women’s British Open after a 1-under 71 in the third round at Lytham St. Annes, England.

Matthew bogeyed the third and fourth holes but recovered with three birdies to reach 4-under 212.

Christina Kim of the United States was second at 1 under after a 71.

Williams wins easily, moves into final

Tennis: Second-seeded Venus Williams advanced to the finals of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, Calif., beating third-seeded Elena Dementieva 6-0, 6-1 in a match that lasted just more than an hour.

She will play Marion Bartoli in the final. Bartoli beat Australia’s Samantha Stosur 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 in the other semifinal match.

•Querrey into final: Sam Querrey upset top seeded Tommy Haas 6-3, 7-5 to reach the finals of the L.A. Tennis Open in Los Angeles.

Querrey will play qualifier Carsten Ball, who beat Leonardo Mayer 7-5, 7-6 (3).

•Bellucci, Beck advance: Unseeded Thomaz Bellucci and Andreas Beck advanced to the final of the Swiss Open at Gstaad, Switzerland.

Stewart wrecks, loses pole position

Auto racing: Tony Stewart lost his pole position and will start from the back of the pack after wrecking his car during practice for the Pennsylvania 500 in Long Pond, Pa.

Stewart leads the points standings and was the pole sitter at Pocono because rain washed out Friday’s qualifying.

•Keselowski bests Busch: Brad Keselowski passed Kyle Busch with eight laps left and held on to win the inaugural Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa.

•Hornaday Jr. wins fifth straight: Ron Hornaday Jr. raced to his record fifth straight NASCAR Camping World Trucks victory, easily holding off Brian Scott in a green-white-checker finish at Gladeville, Tenn.

•Briscoe rallies to victory: Ryan Briscoe slipped past Ed Carpenter in the final yards to win the IndyCar Kentucky 300 at Sparta, Ky.

Phelps beats Cavic, breaks world record

Miscellany: Michael Phelps beat Milorad Cavic again. No doubt about it.

With a defiant performance in a supposedly inferior suit, Phelps stayed close over the outward lap and rallied on the return to become the first swimmer to break 50 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly, beating the Serbian with a time of 49.82 in Rome.

Cavic also broke 50 seconds, but 49.95 only got him a silver – and plenty of words to eat. He wasn’t nearly as close as last year’s Beijing Olympics, when Phelps famously won by one-hundredth of a second and Cavic always maintained that he touched first.

•Rodriguez, Cranmer, Fiolek win at X Games: Paul Rodriguez won Skateboard Street in the 15th edition of the X Games at Carson, Calif., his first gold medal in the event since becoming the only person to capture back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005.

Scotty Cranmer executed a near-flawless final run to capture BMX Freestyle Park.

Motocross teen sensation Ashley Fiolek, who has been deaf since birth, captured first place in Women’s Moto X Super X.

•Mine That Bird comes up short: Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird’s classic finishing kick wasn’t strong enough in the West Virginia Derby at Chester, W.Va.

Mine That Bird finished third behind long-shot winner Soul Warrior and Big Drama in the $750,000 race.

•Serbia wins water polo title: Serbia won a dramatic shootout at the world championships, claiming the gold medal in men’s water polo 14-13 over Spain in Rome.

Croatia defeated the United States 8-6 to win bronze.

•Alexander wins belt: Devon Alexander won the WBC 140-pound title when Junior Witter quit before the ninth round of their bout for the vacant belt, citing a hand injury at Rancho Mirage, Calif.

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