GOLF
Hughes leads Classic
A great start to the week got even better for Stewart Cink on Thursday. Three days after his wife, Lisa, received a good report on her stage 4 breast cancer, she was in the gallery at Sea Island as he posted a career-low 62 to finish one shot behind in the RSM Classic. Mackenzie Hughes, the Canadian rookie, flirted with a sub-60 round until pars on the final three holes on the Seaside course for a 61 and a one-shot lead over Cink and Jonathan Byrd. All of them were at Seaside in ideal conditions for scoring. Hughes actually thought about a 58 when he reached 9 under with four holes to play. Byrd had five birdies in a six-hole stretch late in his round. No one shot better than a 7-under 65 on the Plantation Course, which is where Cink plays today. Tournament host Davis Love III shot even-par 72 on the Plantation. Bryce Molder (Conway) shot a 5-under 67 and is tied for 23rd. Tag Ridings (Arkansas Razorbacks) had a 4-under 68. Ken Duke (Arkadelphia, Henderson State) had a 3-over 73.
Feng ahead by 1
Shanshan Feng was right back on top of an LPGA Tour leaderboard Thursday, shooting a 6-under 66 to take a one-shot lead over So Yeon Ryu and Charley Hull after the first round of the CME Group Tour Championship at Naples, Fla. Coming off consecutive victories in Malaysia and Japan, Feng is one of nine players who entered the season finale with a chance to win the Race to the CME Globe season title and a $1 million bonus. The Chinese star had a bogey-free round. Ha Na Jang, Sei Young Kim, In Gee Chun, Amy Yang, Lizette Salas, Beatriz Recari, Ryann O'Toole and Mo Martin all shot 68. Top-ranked Lydia Ko had a 70. Ariya Jutanugarn and Brooke Henderson, who like Ko are guaranteed the points crown if they prevail this week, each shot 72. Stacy Lewis (Arkansas Razorbacks) shot a 1-under 71. Gaby Lopez (Razorbacks) had a 6-over 78.
Westwood on top
The four golfers in contention for the Race to Dubai title were upstaged by Lee Westwood in the first round of the DP World Tour Championship on Thursday. Westwood shot a 6-under 66 in swirling winds to take a one-stroke lead at the European Tour's season-ending event in Dubai. Danny Willett and Alex Noren were best-placed of the players bidding to finish the season as Europe's No. 1 after shooting 71s on the Earth course of Jumeirah Golf Estates, while Henrik Stenson -- the leader in the Race to Dubai standings -- shot 72. Rory McIlroy started the week as the big outsider to win the Race to Dubai and his chances are even slimmer after shooting 75, ending a run of 28 consecutive rounds of par or lower at the World Tour Championship. Westwood, 43, the winner of the inaugural edition of the World Tour Championship in 2009, made just one bogey on a day when winds made scoring difficult. France's Julien Quesne and Belgium's Nicolas Colsaerts were tied for second place after 67s, while No. 12 Spaniard Sergio Garcia was tied for fourth after a 68.
BASEBALL
Yankees trade McCann
The New York Yankees traded veteran catcher Brian McCann and $11 million to the Houston Astros on Thursday for a pair of young minor league pitchers. Houston sent right-handers Albert Abreu and Jorge Guzman to the Yankees. McCann is a seven-time All-Star, but his playing time diminished in the second half of the season as rookie Gary Sanchez emerged as a power hitter behind the plate. Sanchez hit 20 home runs in just 53 games. McCann, 32, hit .242 with 20 home runs and 58 RBI this year. McCann made his big league debut with the Braves in 2005. He has 245 career home runs with 888 RBI while batting .266. This was McCann's third season in New York after signing an $85 million, five-year deal as a free agent. He is due $17 million in each of the next two seasons, and the Yankees will pay $5.5 million both years. Abreu, 21, was a combined 3-8 with a 3.72 ERA for two teams in Class A. Guzman, 20, was a combined 3-4 with a 4.05 ERA with two rookie-level teams.
FOOTBALL
Manziel reaches deal
Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel has reached a deal with prosecutors for the conditional dismissal of a domestic assault case involving his former girlfriend. Defense attorney Jim Darnell said there was still work to be done to finalize the deal, but said after a Thursday morning hearing in Dallas that he was encouraged. A judge set another hearing for Dec. 1, when the case could be settled. The troubled former Cleveland quarterback left the courtroom without responding to questions. Manziel, 23, is accused of hitting and threatening former girlfriend Colleen Crowley during a night out in January. The former star at Texas A&M faces a misdemeanor assault charge that carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
Rams break ground
The Los Angeles Rams have broken ground on their billion-dollar stadium and its surrounding entertainment district. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Rams owner Stan Kroenke and Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts donned hard hats and turned over ceremonial shovelfuls of dirt Thursday to mark the official start of construction on the former site of the Hollywood Park racetrack, next door to the famed Forum. The huge site is already buzzing with crews working toward the scheduled August 2019 opening of the estimated $2.6 billion project. The stadium already is booked to host the Super Bowl in February 2021. The stadium is the first built specifically for an NFL team in Los Angeles. Kroenke returned the Rams to the market after a 21-year absence.
BASKETBALL
James supports exhibit
LeBron James is giving back to a champion who shaped his life. The Cavaliers star is donating $2.5 million to support an exhibit honoring Muhammad Ali at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. "Muhammad Ali: A Force for Change" opened in September to honor the legacy of the boxing champ, social activist and world ambassador whose contributions transcended the sports world. James' business partner, Maverick Carter, also is contributing as part of the donation. The exhibit includes artifacts such as Ali's headgear and the training robe worn at Dundee's Fifth Street Gym. It celebrates the late champion's achievements in community activism, resistance, politics, spirituality and culture. Ali died in June at age 74.
NFL
Report: Team doctors have conflicts of interest
BOSTON — Doctors who decide whether an NFL player is healthy enough to go into the game shouldn’t be paid by the teams that have a stake in winning and losing — an “undeniable conflict of interest.”
That’s what a report released on Thursday by Harvard University experts in medicine, law and ethics says.
The study by the NFL Players Association-funded Football Players Health Study also recommends a short-term injured reserve for athletes recovering from a concussion, much like the system that baseball adopted five years ago.
The 500-page report includes 76 recommendations addressed to 20 NFL stakeholders — everyone from players and teams to equipment manufacturers and government regulators. The biggest message: Player safety will never be the top priority as long as those involved have competing calls on their loyalty.
“So long as the club doctor is chosen, paid and reviewed by the club to both care for players and advise the club, the doctor will have, at a minimum, tacit pressures or subconscious desires to please the club by doing what is in the club’s best interests,” the report said.
To resolve the conflict of interest, the report recommends that the league and the union contribute to a fund used to pay doctors assigned to teams.
Although the study called the arrangement “an undeniable conflict of interest,” the league did in fact deny it.
In a 33-page response, the NFL said it was “disappointed that the report appeared to start with the premise that the health care system in the NFL suffers from an ‘inherent conflict of interest.’ ”
“The report ultimately promotes the untenable and impractical recommendation that NFL players receive care from ‘two distinct groups of medical professionals,’ ” the league wrote, saying that would “have unintended but extremely detrimental effects on NFL players’ care.”
The NFL said the report fails to note any examples where a doctor put a team’s interest ahead of the player’s, or establish any link between a doctor’s job security and player or team performance. The league said the collective bargaining agreement establishes that team doctors’ responsibility is to the player only, and that they are bound by the AMA and other professional codes of ethics.
Sports on 11/18/2016