GOLF
Reed in lead
Rory McIlroy's road to the Masters hit a speed bump Friday at the Honda Classic. He gets the weekend off. McIlroy made only one birdie in the rain at PGA National, and three bogeys on his last four holes led to a 4-over 74. The cut officially will not be made until today because of a rain delay of nearly four hours, though he knew the score. He was 7-over 147, four shots below the cut line, when he took his short drive home. The day was pleasant enough for Patrick Reed, who recovered from a double bogey early in his round to post another 67. He was the clubhouse leader at 6-under 134. No one from the afternoon groups had enough light to finish. Brooks Koepka, who grew up in West Palm Beach, played with McIlroy and Dustin Johnson and opened with a 78. On the 18th, his approach hit a cart path and bounced over the sky box and onto the other side. It took a rules official some time to even figure out where he was. He received a free drop on the other side, 70 yards away, hit wedge to 20 feet and holed the putt. That was the centerpiece of three consecutive birdies. He shot 64 to finish at 2-over 142. Johnson, a contender at Pebble Beach and Riviera the last two weeks, wasn't so fortunate. He three-putted from 3 feet on the seventh hole, shot 75 and finished at 12-over 152 to miss his second cut this year. Luke Donald had a 67 and was two shots behind. Russell Knox, who lost in a four-man playoff at PGA National last year, had a 68 and was at 3-under 137. David Lingmerth (Arkansas Razorbacks) was unable to finish his second round. Ken Duke (Arkadelphia, Henderson State) had one birdie, six bogeys and a double bogey for a 7-over 77 (150) and will not make the cut.
• The PGA Tour is completing plans to bring the Match Play Championship to Austin, Texas, starting in 2016. Three people aware of the negotiations told The Associated Press that Texas-based Dell will be the title sponsor of the World Golf Championship event that features the top 64 players from the world ranking. They spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement has not been made. The Match Play would be held next year on March 23-27, the week after the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and the week before the Shell Houston Open. The Masters is April 7-10 in 2016, which could be ideal for international-based players to stay in America in the weeks leading to Augusta National. PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said the tour would have no comment.
BASKETBALL
Rose back this season
The Chicago Bulls expect Derrick Rose to return this season after having surgery to repair a medial meniscus tear in his right knee on Friday. General Manager Gar Forman says the star point guard will be out four to six weeks. He described the procedure as minor and said that Rose is able to bear weight on his legs. Rose played in only 10 games last season before having surgery for a similar injury in November 2013, cutting short his long-awaited comeback from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. He had the meniscus reattached in that operation. This time, team physician Dr. Brian Cole removed the damaged part of the meniscus.
• The NBA will begin revealing whether it determined referees' crunch-time calls to be right or wrong. Starting Monday and continuing throughout the playoffs, the league will release play-by-play reports of all calls and relevant no-calls in the final minutes of close games. Such information had been shared only internally. The assessments will be released by 5 p.m. the day after each game and will stand as the league's comment on whether the most disputed calls were correct. The reports will focus on the last two minutes of games that were within five points at the two-minute mark and all of any overtime periods. The reports will say how the play was graded -- correct or incorrect -- and will be accompanied by a comment and video link. The reports will be posted at NBA.com/official and also on the league's media site.
MOTOR SPORTS
Busch out of hospital
Kyle Busch has been released from the hospital following surgery on his left foot after breaking it during a crash at Daytona International Speedway. Dr. Robert Anderson of OrthoCarolina performed the surgery on Wednesday. Busch broke his right leg and left foot last Saturday in the Xfinity Series race when he crashed into a concrete wall at Daytona. He missed the season-opening Daytona 500 and is out indefinitely. He had surgery on his leg after the crash. He was transferred Tuesday from Daytona to Charlotte, where he was released Friday. David Ragan is driving the No. 18 Toyota this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Busch's sponsor put "Get well, Kyle!" on the back of the car.
• Travis Kvapil's NASCAR Sprint Cup car was stolen early Friday, forcing him to withdraw from a race this weekend near Atlanta. A trailer with the red No. 44 car inside was hitched to a black 2004 Ford F-350 pickup truck parked outside a hotel in Morrow, Ga., about 15 miles south of Atlanta, police said. Surveillance video shows the truck and trailer being driven out of the parking lot around 5:30 a.m., Morrow police Detective Sgt. Larry Oglesby said. The trailer is plain white with no markings. The person who stole it likely didn't realize the racecar was inside, and may have thought it was lawn equipment or something else he could easily sell, Oglesby said. "Hopefully they'll open this one up and say, 'Oh no, this isn't what we thought,' and will drop it off at the nearest vacant lot or apartment complex or somewhere," Oglesby said. The 2015 Chevy NASCAR racecar inside the trailer is valued at $250,000, according to a police report. Also inside the trailer was a spare engine valued at $100,000 and racing equipment valued at $17,500. A spokesman said the No. 44 team has withdrawn from this weekend's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
TENNIS
Djokovic, Federer in final
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic will face defending champion Roger Federer in the final of the Dubai Championships after a three-set win over Tomas Berdych on Friday. Djokovic, who had a set and a service break lead in the match, eventually beat the fourth-seeded Berdych 6-0, 5-7, 6-4. Federer secured his passage to today's final with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over lucky loser Borna Coric. Federer offered Coric three break point opportunities and had his serve broken once in the match, in the fifth game of the first set. Federer or Djokovic have won the Dubai title 10 of the last 12 years. Federer's won six times and Djokovic's looking for his fifth victory.
• Victoria Azarenka reached the final of the Qatar Open in Doha on Friday after recovering from one set down to beat Venus Williams. Two-time champion Azarenka beat Williams 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. "Venus was kicking my butt left and right and I didn't know what to do. In the second set I took control," said Azarenka, who fired 36 winners in the two hour, eighteen minute battle. Azarenka will face Lucie Safarova in today's final, after she beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-2 in the other semi. Safarova, the Czech No.3, hardly broke a sweat in the 77-minute encounter in which Navarro committed 21 unforced errors.
GOLF
Lewis holds lead in Thailand
CHONBURI, Thailand — Stacy Lewis (Arkansas Razorbacks) shot an unblemished round of 8-under-par 64 for a three-shot advantage over Amy Yang after the second round of the LPGA Thailand on Friday.
Lewis, the world No. 3, enjoyed four consecutive birdies from hole Nos. 4-7, plus four more on the back nine, to produce a two-day total of 14-under 130. She also led at Siam Country Club at the halfway stage in 2013, when she finished third.
“It really was a pretty easy day,” Lewis said. “I didn’t cause myself too much stress.”
Yang had five birdies and eagled the par-5 10th in a 66 and is at 11 under overall. She has three top-five finishes in her past four tournaments.
Four players were another three shots back at 8 under: Germany’s Caroline Masson, South Koreans Jenny Shin and Mirim Lee, and Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn.
Former world No. 1 and two-time champion Yani Tseng of Taiwan, an overnight leader with Lewis and Brittany Lang, carded 72 to drop to 6 under, while Lang shot a 73 to be at 5 under.
Sports on 02/28/2015