In brief: Woods storms to front at CA Championship
Tiger Woods followed a key par with three straight birdies on his way to a 6-under-par 66 Friday for a two-shot lead over Rod Pampling, putting the world’s No. 1 player back on track for a third consecutive victory in the CA Championship at Miami.
Woods was at 7-under 137 and will play in the final group today with Pampling (69).
Others within striking distance include Ernie Els (70), Henrik Stenson (73), Charles Howell III (71), Thomas Bjorn (72) and Trevor Immelman (68).
“Lorena Ochoa made two eagles to take a one-stroke lead over Catriona Matthew in the suspended second round of the Safeway International at Superstition Mountain, Ariz. The Mexican star was 9 under with four holes remaining when play was suspended because of darkness.
Wendy Ward of Edwall, Wash., shot a 71 and is at 143. Rathdrum’s Tracy Hanson was 5-over for the tournament when play was stopped while she was on the ninth hole.
Figure skating
Meissner places fourth
Fresh off acupuncture treatment, South Korea’s Kim Yu-Na soared ahead of the competition in her World Figure Skating Championships debut, compiling the highest score in the women’s short program at Tokyo. With 71.95 points, she has a commanding lead over Japan’s Miki Ando (67.98) and European champion Carolina Kostner (67.15).
Defending champion Kimmie Meissner of the United States was fourth, scoring 64.67 points.
College football
Beavers name coach
Dave Ungerer was named special teams coordinator at Oregon State. Ungerer has served for the past four seasons as an assistant at Alabama.
Basketball
Wyoming hires coach
Wyoming hired Heath Schroyer as its men’s coach, reuniting him with the man who gave him his last head coaching job.
Schroyer comes to Wyoming from Fresno State, where he was associate head coach for two years. Before that, Schroyer was head coach at Portland State for three years. He was hired there by athletic director Tom Burman, who now holds the same job at Wyoming.
“Brad Greenberg, the associate head coach on brother Seth Greenberg’s staff at Virginia Tech, was introduced as the men’s coach at nearby Radford University.
“Former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson is taking over the Mexican national team.
Miscellany
FIFA bids up in air
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the system of rotating the World Cup among continents could end after the 2014 tournament, a move that could hurt the United States’ bid for 2018.
Under the rotation system, the 2018 tournament would be in the North and Central American region.
“The U.S. men’s water polo team took its first defeat, losing to Croatia 10-8 today at the world championships in Melbourne, Australia.
The U.S. women finished group play with a 3-0 record.