GOLF
Thomas leads by 1
Justin Thomas made a hole-in-one and surged into the lead with a 5-under 66 on a day of high entertainment in the Mexico Championship at Mexico City. Thomas hit a 6-iron from 239 yards into the cup on the par-3 13th Saturday. He wound up at 12-under 201 and a shot ahead of Dustin Johnson. Thomas already has three victories this season. Johnson thought only the greens were conspiring against him. On Saturday, it was a tree. His shot on the 16th hit a tree and never came out. Right after he hit his fourth shot, the ball fell from the tree. Johnson salvaged a bogey and finished with a 66. Phil Mickelson (68) and Rory McIlroy (70) were two behind, setting up the potential for a dynamic final round.
Wie ahead by 2
Michelle Wie shot a 5-under 67 Saturday to lead the LPGA's Women's Champions tournament in Singapore by two strokes after the third round. The American followed up her previous rounds of 66 and 69 to reach 14-under 202 and lead an LPGA event after 54 holes for the first time since she won the 2014 U.S. Open. No. 1-ranked Lydia Ko birdied the last hole for a 67 to end the day in a three-way tie for second. She was joined by last year's British Open champion Ariya Jutanugarn (69) and the big-hitting Park Sung-Hyun (68). Rio Olympic gold medalist Park In-Bee, who led overnight, shot a 71 to finish three shots behind Wie and level with the defending champion Jang Ha-Na (68). Former Arkansas Razorback Stacy Lewis (69) was at 6 under and tied for 22nd.
Pair remain on top
Alexander Bjork and Scott Jamieson will fight it out again as they retained a share of the lead Saturday heading toward the final round of the Tshwane Open in Pretoria, South Africa. The second-round co-leaders were still top of the leaderboard after 54 holes, both moving to 13-under 200 at Pretoria Country Club. Bjork, seeking his first European Tour title, opened a two-shot lead at one point but slipped up with bogeys at Nos. 13 and 15. He and Jamieson carded 68s and birdied their last hole to open a one-shot lead over Jorge Campillo and Dean Burmester, and break a four-way tie for the lead. Campillo and Burmester put themselves in contention with 6-under 65s on the par-71 layout.
TENNIS
Murray takes title
Andy Murray captured his first title of the year and became the first British man to win the Dubai Tennis Championships in its 25-year history when he defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday. This was Murray's seventh final in his last eight tournaments, and 14th in his last 16 dating to last May in Madrid. The first three games were service breaks as the players attempted to find their range in the final. Verdasco had the service break until the Spaniard was broken by Murray in the sixth and then the eighth games to take the first set. Murray broke Verdasco's serve twice in the second set, in the third game with a forehand winner, and in the seventh on a third break point.
MOTOR SPORTS
Busch takes Xfinity
Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second year in a row Saturday. With a helping hand from lapped cars, pole-winner Busch was able to hold off Brad Keselowski by 0.606 seconds. No one else was within 2 seconds of the winner. Keselowski won the first 40-lap stage, Kevin Harvick took the next 40-lap phase and Busch was leading at the end -- a promising start to a busy weekend in Atlanta, where he is competing in all three of NASCAR's top series. After celebrating in Victory Lane and a brief stop in the media center, he hustled back to pit road for the Truck Series race. Christopher Bell held off Matt Crafton on a restart with two laps to go and completed a dominating victory in the Truck Series race. Bell started from the pole, took the first two 40-lap stages and passed Crafton for the lead with 16 laps remaining.
SOCCER
France, Germany draw
French goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi stopped a first-half penalty kick, and France and Germany played to a scoreless draw Saturday in the second round of the SheBelieves Cup at Harrison, N.J. The game at Red Bull Arena began with temperatures at 28 degrees. The result gives France four points in the round-robin tournament that ends Tuesday in Washington. Germany, which lost to the U.S. 1-0, has one point. Bouhaddi dived left to stop Many Islacker on the penalty kick that was set up when the goalkeeper took down Hasret Kayikci in the box in the 23rd minute. Bouhaddi finished with five saves, including a point-blank stop on Sara Doorsoun in the 72nd minute.
GYMNASTICS
Smith finishes on top
Ragan Smith overcame a miscue on the balance beam to finish with a flourish and pull away from the field at the 2017 American Cup on Saturday in Newark, N.J. The 16-year-old from Lewisville, Texas, posted an all-around total of 56.099 in the first major international meet for the Americans since the 2016 Olympics. Smith was an alternate on the women's team in Rio that captured the gold medal. She put up the top scores on both vault and floor exercise to finish well ahead of Asuka Teramoto of Japan and Melanie De Jesus dos Santos of France. Yul Moldauer, a sophomore at Oklahoma, pulled off an upset in the men's event. He edged 2016 Olympic all-around silver medalist Oleg Verniaiev of the Ukraine. Moldauer's all-around score of 85.931 was just clear of Verniaiev's 85.699.
Sports on 03/05/2017