MIRABEL, Que. — Soft, receptive greens courtesy of early-week rain have turned the CN Canadian Women’s Open into a $2.25-million putting contest.
There are birdie opportunities galore for players at Hillsdale Golf and Country Club outside Montreal this week.
Round 1 co-leader Ai Miyazato is now the round-two co-leader thanks to a four-under par 68 on Friday.
The smooth-swinging Japanese star teed off in the morning and caught fire in the early afternoon birdieing three of her final five holes to take the clubhouse lead.
“I played really good,” Miyazato said. “I feel like I holed a lot of putts today.”
After sharing the lead for two days, Miyazato is careful not to get ahead of herself.
MINNEAPOLIS — Justin Verlander has picked up his teammates many times this season. Saturday, they returned the favor.
In a big way.
Verlander notched his 20th win when the Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-4, at Target Field.
He is the first Tiger to win 20 since Bill Gullickson in 1991 and is the first in the majors to win 20 before the end of August since Curt Schilling of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2002.
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“Feels great,” Verlander said. “A team win.”
Verlander struggled from the beginning, needing 28 pitches to escape the first inning.
“Didn’t look good,” said manager Jim Leyland.
Verlander settled in briefly before allowing back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning. A
Usain Bolt was today disqualified from the final of the 100 metres in the World Championships in Daegu for a false start.
Bolt had looked in brilliant form in the heats and semi-final, feeling all the hard work he had done on his start had finally paid off.
But the Jamaican star got it all wrong in spectacular fashion this evening, springing from his blocks before the gun and pulling his running vest off in frustration, instantly realising he would be disqualified.
While Bolt was still slapping a wall near the start in frustration, compatriot Yohan Blake powered to the title in 9.92 seconds, with American Walter Dix taking silver and veteran Kim Collins the bronze.
Blake said the win felt like a dream, and thanked training partner Bolt.
“I can’t find words to explain it,” he told Channel 4.
MIRABEL, QUE. – Heading into this week’s Canadian Women’s Open no two players had more eyes on them than Saturday’s unlikely 10 a.m. pairing.
Lorie Kane is a big deal in Canada. The LPGA veteran is endorsed by tournament sponsor CN and is quite comfortable in her role as de facto tournament host.
Yani Tseng is a big deal everywhere. The world No. 1 is expected to contend every week and seems more and more comfortable in her role as one of golf’s biggest stars.
Both players started the day at two-under after shooting matching 71s on Thursday and Friday.
Although Tseng was just seven years old when Kane made her LPGA debut in 1996, the two are far from strangers and enjoyed each others company during Saturday’s Round 3 at Hillsdale Golf and Country Club outside Montreal.
St. Cloud, Minn. Sam Pandolfo, a man who tried to make St. Cloud a mecca for automobile manufacturing during the early 1900s, is coming home this weekend. But he’s been dead for more than 50 years.
Pandolfo first came to St. Cloud in 1917 and founded the Pan Motor Co. It went out of business just four years later. And then Pandolfo did time in federal prison for fraud related to the company. He died in 1960, while hoping to make a new fortune in Alaska.
That’s where he was buried until this year, but it’s not where he wanted to end up.
In 1926, Pandolfo sent an open letter to the St. Cloud community.
“I shall be with you again,” he wrote. “For the information of all, when I die I desire to be buried here. Read more…
Sadly, very little of it was created by the competitors in the tournament’s rather humdrum field, as the really big noises were being made by the Perthshire course’s resident insect population.
Player after player trooped off the course complaining of the bug-life hell they had just been through.
“I kept getting wasps flying right by my ball in the middle of my stroke,” said Ross Fisher after a 71 that had included an eagle and a triple-bogey. “It happened about three times in two or three holes. There were wasps on every hole. It was very strange.”
The theories behind the plague of stingers were stranger still. The unlikel