Watney, Garcia share Barclays lead
Golf: The common phrase this year – “Tiger’s back” – took on a new meaning Friday at The Barclays in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Woods felt a twinge in his lower back when he awoke and felt pain throughout the second round at Bethpage Black. He managed to overcome a bogey-bogey start and get within range of Nick Watney and the resurgent Sergio Garcia.
Garcia, who won last week for his first PGA Tour win in four years, had a 68. Watney had a 69, giving him a share of the 36-hole lead and a chance to salvage a dismal year.
They were at 8-under 134.
Vijay Singh shot 67 and Bob Estes had a 66 to tie for second place, one stroke behind.
Woods had a 69 and was three shots out of the lead going into the weekend, where some two dozen players were separated by only five shots.
• Calcavecchia leads: Defending champion Mark Calcavecchia eagled the par-5 eighth hole and finished with a 7-under 65 to take the first-round lead in the Boeing Classic in Snoqualmie, Wash.
Steve Pate, Jeff Sluman, Joe Don Blake, Eduardo Romero and former Pullman resident Kirk Triplett were tied for second at 68.
Seattle’s Fred Couples withdrew because of back problems on the first hole.
• Teen shares lead: Teen star Lydia Ko shot her second straight 4-under 68 for a share of the lead with Chella Choi in the Canadian Women’s Open in Coquitlam, B.C.
Ko, the 15-year-old South Korean-born New Zealander who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur two weeks ago, birdied four of the last seven holes in a bogey-free round to match Choi at 8 under.
Isner, Berdych will play for title
Tennis: Defending champion John Isner advanced to the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Open final, beating France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 3-6, 7-6 (7-3).
Isner, seeded third and ranked 10th, will face seventh-ranked Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over seventh-seeded Sam Querrey.
• Kvitova faces Kirilenko in final: Second-seeded Petra Kvitova advanced to the New Haven (Conn.) Open final with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Italy’s Sara Errani.
The Czech star will play Russian Maria Kirilenko today. Kirilenko advanced when four-time defending champion Caroline Wozniacki retired from their match with a knee injury after losing the first set, 7-5.
• Tennis referee appears in court: A professional tennis referee accused of killing her 80-year-old husband has made her first court appearance in Los Angeles after being extradited from New York.
Lois Goodman’s appearance was brief. Her arraignment and a bail hearing were postponed to Wednesday.
Police brought Goodman back to Los Angeles late Thursday from New York City, where she was to have served as a line judge for next week’s U.S. Open, one of many high-profile tournaments she had worked since 1979.
Her husband, Alan, died on April 17 at the couple’s condominium. Authorities briefly accepted her explanation that she returned home to find a broken coffee mug on the floor and her husband lying unresponsive in bed after most likely falling down the stairs.
Vandersloot scores big in Chicago loss
Miscellany: Riquina Williams scored eight of her 22 points in the final 3:17 of regulation to help the Tulsa Shock overcome an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter en route to an 81-78 overtime victory over the Chicago Sky in WNBA action in Tulsa, Okla.
Former Gonzaga University star Courtney Vandersloot led Chicago with a career-high 23 points.
• NFL union renews claim: The NFL Players Association claims league owners have a “never-ending belief that they are above the law” in the latest court filing in a collusion complaint against the NFL.
U.S. District Judge David Doty will hear oral arguments Sept. 6. The union wants to reopen a 1993 settlement that Doty oversaw until last year’s lockout, claiming owners set a secret $123 million salary cap during the uncapped 2010 season that cost the players at least $1 billion in wages.
• Paralympic cauldron lit: Paralyzed marathon participant Claire Lomas lit the Paralympic Games cauldron in London. The opening ceremony is Wednesday.
• Wenatchee man wins cycling stage: Tyler Farrar raced to his second sprint victory in the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado Springs, Colo., and fellow American Tejay van Garderen maintained the overall lead through a tiebreaker.
Farrar, the Wenatchee, Wash., rider for Garmin-Sharp, completed the 117.9-mile leg from Breckenridge in 3 hours, 58 minutes and 27 seconds.