Off the wire

GOLF

Daly, Allen in lead

John Daly (Dardanelle, Arkansas Razorbacks) and Michael Allen took the second-round lead Friday in the cool and breezy Champions Tour Legends of Golf at Ridgedale, Mo. Daly and Allen shot an 8-under 46 on the Top of the Rock par-3 course with wind gusting to 15 mph and the temperature only in the high-50s at Big Cedar Lodge. Daly and Allen had three birdies on the front nine in alternate-shot play and added five more on the back in better-ball play to get to 13 under. On Thursday, they opened with a 66 on the regulation Buffalo Ridge course. Defending champions Vijay Singh and Carlos Franco were a stroke back along with Bernhard Langer-Tom Lehman and Paul Broadhurst-Kirk Triplett. First-round leaders Jeff Maggert and Jesper Parnevik had a 52 at Top of the Rock to fall three shots back at 10 under. Glen Day (Little Rock) and Wayne Levi shot a 1-under 38 and are 5 under going into the weekend.

Johnson, Moore out front

Zach Johnson rode the momentum of a big finish to a 7-under 65 and a share of the early lead with Ryan Moore at the PGA Tour's Texas Open at San Antonio. Johnson was 2 over through 13 holes in the first round when he finished with an eagle and three consecutive birdies. He then ran off six birdies over an eight-hole stretch Friday. Moore birdied three of his last five holes on the AT&T Oaks Course at the TPC San Antonio for a 67. He and Johnson were at 9-under 135, three shots ahead of Ben Crane (66). Sergio Garcia shot 72 and finished at 2-over 146. He is in jeopardy of missing the cut depending on afternoon scores.

Elder Jutanugarn leads

Moriya Jutanugarn took the lead into the weekend at the LPGA Tour's LA Open in her latest bid to join younger sister Ariya as a tour winner. Moriya Jutanugarn shot a bogey-free 5-under 66 on Friday at Wilshire Country Club to get to 8-under 134 in the tour's first event in Los Angeles since 2005. The 23-year-old from Thailand started fast with birdies on the par-5 second, par-4 third and par-3 fourth and added two more on the par-4 11th and par-5 13th. Ariya Jutanugarn has seven tour victories. Marina Alex was second after a 68. So Yeon Ryu was 6 under after a 69, and fellow South Korean players Inbee Park (71) and Eun-Hee Ji (69). Park was the first-round leader at 66. Lexi Thompson was 3 under after a 71. Top-ranked Shanshan Feng followed her opening 74 with a 67 to get to 1 under. Ariya Jutanugarn (71) was even par, and Michelle Wie (70) was 1 over. Brooke Henderson, the Canadian star who won last week in Hawaii, had a 79 to miss the cut.

Quiros moves up

Alvaro Quiros shot a solid 2-under 70 in windy conditions to push into a one-shot lead after two rounds of the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco on Friday. Quiros fought the elements, carding seven birdies and five bogeys to move to 7 under overall and take the outright lead at the halfway point of the European Tour event. The Spaniard was one clear of Andrew Dodt, who moved into contention with a 4-under 68 at the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam course. Dodt dropped two shots in his first six holes but the Australian recovered from that shaky start to collect four birdies and an eagle. Erik van Rooyen of South Africa was another shot back in third on 5 under after his 71. Bradley Dredge of Wales, who shared the first-round lead with Quiros, slipped off the pace with a 1-over 73. He's tied for fourth with Austin Connelly of Canada (71), 4 under par and three shots behind Quiros.

TENNIS

Nadal advances

Rafael Nadal won nine consecutive games to open his match against Dominic Thiem, quickly advancing to the semifinals of the Monte Carlo Masters with a 6-0, 6-2 victory on Friday. The top-ranked Spaniard is on course for a record-extending 11th Monte Carlo title. Thiem, an Austrian who is seeded fifth and beat Nadal twice before on clay, earned sympathetic cheers from the crowd when he finally won a game in the second set. Nadal will next face Grigor Dimitrov. The fourth-seeded Bulgarian beat No. 6 David Goffin 6-4, 7-6 (5) in an error-strewn match. Goffin led 4-0 in the second set but the Belgian missed three set points at 5-4.

Stephens to open

U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens will open play for the U.S. against Pauline Parmentier of France in the Fed Cup semifinals at Aix-en-Provence, France. France No. 1 Kristina Mladenovic and CoCo Vandeweghe will follow today in the second singles at the new 6,700-capacity Arena Pays d'Aix. France has opted for an indoor clay court. Mladenovic and Amandine Hesse are set to face Madison Keys and Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the doubles on Sunday following the reverse singles. France and the United States meet for a 14th time, with the Americans holding an 11-2 winning record. The French won their most recent meeting, in 2014. Both teams are missing their highest-ranked player: No. 8 Venus Williams for the U.S., and No. 7 Caroline Garcia for France. Germany is facing the Czech Republic in the other semifinal in Stuttgart.

GYMNASTICS

Lawsuit settled in Georgia

USA Gymnastics has reached a confidential settlement in a Georgia lawsuit that spurred a newspaper investigation into the organization's practices for reporting child abuse. A former gymnast filed the lawsuit against USA Gymnastics in 2013. It alleged the organization that trains Olympians received at least four warnings about a coach who videotaped her in various states of undress. Court records show a judge in Effingham County, Ga., dismissed the lawsuit on April 12. The gymnast's lawyer said USA Gymnastics admits no wrongdoing or liability in the settlement. Both parties have declined to comment on the settlement. The suit sparked The Indianapolis Star's investigation of USA Gymnastics, which exposed abuse by Larry Nassar, a former Michigan State University sports doctor, and spurred the resignations of the organization's president and board.

GYMNASTICS

Karolyis deny knowledge of Nassar’s abuse

NEW YORK — Former USA Gymnastics women’s national team coordinator Martha Karolyi and husband Bela told NBC they were unaware of the abusive behavior by a former national team doctor now serving decades in prison.

Martha Karolyi led the national team for 15 years before retiring after the 2016 Rio Olympics. She told Savannah Guthrie in “no way” did she suspect Larry Nassar was sexually abusing athletes under the guise of treatment.

“The whole gymnastics community couldn’t recognize this,” Martha Karolyi said in an excerpt provided to The Associated Press on Friday by NBC. “Everybody said, ‘Larry Nassar is a good doctor. Larry Nassar is a good guy.’ ”

The Karolyis spoke as part of a Dateline NBC special Silent No More scheduled to air Sunday. The one-hour special looks at the fallout from revelations about years of abuse by Nassar involving hundreds of former athletes, including several members of the U.S. Olympic team.

“The whole thing is just like an explosion, a bomb exploding,” Bela Karolyi said. “Boom.”

The Karolyis have been named as co-defendants in several civil lawsuits filed against Nassar and USA Gymnastics. Several victims, including two-time Olympic medalist McKayla Maroney, said they were abused at the Karolyi’s ranch near Houston. The ranch served as the training home for USA Gymnastics during most of Martha Karolyi’s highly successful tenure running the national team.

Guthrie spent hours with the Karolyis at the ranch after the couple agreed to speak publicly for the first time since Martha Karolyi’s retirement following the 2016 Olympics.

“I think they felt like it was time for them to tell their side of the story,” Guthrie said. “I think they’ve watched and seen as their reputation has really taken a hit and people have asked a lot of questions about what they knew and just as importantly what they should have known.”

Sports on 04/21/2018

Upcoming Events