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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pettersson takes first-round lead at familiar course

Carl Pettersson acknowledges the crowd at the 17th green Thursday as he closes in on an 8-under-par 62. (Associated Press)
From Staff And Wire Reports

Golf: If any member’s bounces went Carl Pettersson’s way Thursday at Sedgefield Country Club, well, there’s a good reason for that.

“That’s right – I am a member,” Pettersson said, laughing. “I forgot.”

Pettersson shot an 8-under-par 62 to take the first-round lead in the Wyndham Championship at Greensboro, N.C.

David Mathis and Tim Clark were a stroke back, Tom Gillis, Scott Stallings and Troy Matteson shot 64, and Matt Every had a 65 in the final event before the FedEx Cup playoffs.

The top of the leaderboard had a decidedly local flavor. Pettersson went to high school in Greensboro and lives in Raleigh, and both he and Clark played at North Carolina State. Mathis grew up in Winston-Salem, played collegiately at Campbell and lives north of Raleigh in the town of Wake Forest.

Pettersson, a Swede who became an American citizen during the offseason, had the best first round of his PGA Tour career and his best round at this event since 2008, when he set the tournament record with a second-round 61 and went on to win in his adopted hometown.

Starting on the back nine, he reeled off consecutive birdies on Nos. 5-8 to move to 8 under. He had a chance to match his record on No. 9, but pushed his 30-foot birdie putt roughly a foot to the right of the hole.

California opens LLWS with victory

Little League: Starting pitcher Bradley Smith struck out seven and went 4 for 4, and Petaluma, Calif., held on for a 6-4 victory over Fairfield, Conn., in the Little League World Series at South Williamsport, Pa.

The 13-year-old Smith strikes an imposing pose with his 6-foot-3 frame. He homered to center, doubled twice and added a sixth-inning single.

But California couldn’t shake Connecticut. Will Lucas tripled home a run before scoring on a passed ball to get Connecticut within a run in the bottom of the fifth.

Connecticut threatened again in the sixth, but reliever Andrew White got a double play and strikeout to end the game. The 12-year-old lefty pumped his fist after he left the mound to be greeted by giddy teammates.

Biagio Paoletta homered for Connecticut.

Also at the tournament, starting pitcher Brock Myers struck out eight and homered, and Goodlettsville, Tenn., beat Kearney, Neb., 12-1; Kotaro Kiyomiya and Noriatsu Osaka combined for a two-hitter as Japan defeated Curacao 7-0; and Li-Wei Chiang homered and drove in four runs, and Feng Chen went 3 for 3 with three RBIs as Taiwan beat Germany 14-1 in four innings.

NHL talks reach difficult position

NHL: The first truly tense moments of the NHL’s collective bargaining negotiations have arrived.

With NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL Players’ Association head Donald Fehr not scheduled to sit across from one another until the middle of next week and the sides unable to even agree on the core issues that need to be addressed, a sense of uneasiness has suddenly enveloped the talks.

After Wednesday’s session in Toronto, in which the NHL dismissed the union’s initial proposal, Fehr set off for scheduled player meetings in Chicago. The union boss will also oversee a session with players in Kelowna, British Columbia, before returning to Toronto for CBA discussions on Wednesday.

At that point, the league and the NHL Players’ Association will have just 24 days left to reach a new agreement and avoid a lockout. The current CBA runs out on Sept. 15. The regular season is slated to begin Oct. 11.

Where do they go from here? There is little common ground between the proposals each side has put forth and neither seems particularly willing to move off its current position.

In simple terms, the owners want to pay players less – much less. Despite the fact the NHL’s revenues grew from $2.2 billion before the 2004-05 lockout to $3.3 billion last season, a number of teams are still struggling. The financial success of the wealthiest franchises over the last seven years ended up hurting the poorer ones.

Williamses advance; Murray fades in heat

Tennis: Serena and Venus Williams moved into the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Open at Mason, Ohio, by handling the heat, humidity and wind. The conditions were too much for Andy Murray.

Murray’s off-day turned into the tournament’s biggest upset. He lost in two sets to France’s Jeremy Chardy, leaving him with little hard-court experience heading into the U.S. Open.

Roger Federer, Mardy Fish and Juan Martin del Potro also reached the quarterfinals. Novak Djokovic advanced in the evening when Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko had to quit after one set because of a sore shoulder.

On the women’s side, Serena Williams won her 19th straight match, her last 12 in straight sets. Venus Williams also won in two sets. Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska needed three sets to advance.