Woods finishes fast, ties for lead

Last update: November 7, 2009 - 12:26 AM

No one pulled away at the HSBC Champions on Friday in Shanghai, so Tiger Woods made sure he caught them.

Woods birdied five of his last 10 holes for another 5-under 67, giving him a share of the 36-hole lead with Nick Watney in the final World Golf Championship of the year.

"The guys weren't running off and hiding, either," Woods said. "I knew if I could just play the back nine at 3 under par ... I figured that would probably be a good number. And I did a couple better than that."

Seven of the top nine players on the leaderboard are from the United States. Phil Mickelson made three birdies over the last four holes for a 66, putting him a shot behind the leaders, tied with Ryan Moore and Alvaro Quiros of Spain.

HOCKEY

U.S. reaches Junior A final

The United States advanced to the final of the World Junior A Hockey Challenge, getting a goal from Nick Mattson of Chanhassen on the way to a 6-3 victory over Russia in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.

The United States, winner of last year's 19-and-under tournament in Camrose, Alberta, will face Canada West, which beat Canada East 9-1. The final is Sunday.

U.S. wins in Four Nations Cup

Meghan Duggan scored the winner in the second period, and the United States beat Canada 3-2 in their final group game of the Four Nations Cup in Vierumaki, Finland. Both teams had already advanced to today's final. Natalie Darwitz of Eagan also scored for the United States.

AUTO RACING

Gordon keeps pole roll going

Jeff Gordon captured his first pole of the season, waiting until the second-to-last race to extend his streak of 17 consecutive seasons with a pole, with a qualifying lap of 191.117 miles per hour at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Only David Pearson and Richard Petty have longer streaks than Gordon of seasons with a pole. Pearson went 20 consecutive seasons (1963-82) and Petty had 18 (1960-77).

Gordon is third in points. The points leader, Jimmie Johnson, qualified 12th, and Mark Martin, second in points, qualified seventh.

Kyle Busch wins truck race

Kyle Busch won his fifth Truck Series race in a row, beating Matt Crafton by 0.725 seconds at Texas Motor Speedway.

TENNIS

Federer, Djokovic stay on course

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic reached the semifinals of the Swiss Indoors in Basel, staying on course to meet in the final.

Federer beat Russian qualifier Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 6-2, and Djokovic won a 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka.

AROUND THE HORN

College soccer: University of New Mexico junior defender Elizabeth Lambert has been suspended indefinitely from the women's soccer team after her rough play during a match against BYU in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament. Video from Thursday's game in Provo, Utah, shows Lambert pulling the hair of BYU's Kassidy C. Shumway, bringing her to the ground.

Track and field: Glen Mills, coach of Jamaica's track team for 22 years, is stepping down, though he will continue to work with record-setting sprinter Usain Bolt. Under Mills, the team won 71 world championships medals and 33 Olympic medals.

Speedskating: Shani Davis of the United States began his drive to the Vancouver Olympics, breaking the course record in winning the 1,000-meter race at the season-opening speedskating World Cup in Berlin. Davis finished in 1 minute, 8.53 seconds.

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Mark Craig: The importance of kicker Ryan Longwell can't be overlooked - November 7, 2009

Mark Craig: The importance of kicker Ryan Longwell can't be overlooked - As long as the Vikings keep winning, we'll be dishing out praise to the Brad Childress regime. (Warning: This exercise could end extraordinarily abruptly with a first-round playoff exit). Childress and the organization have gotten well-deserved credit for the Jared Allen trade. Chasing and catching Brett Favre. Doing background work on Percy Harvin (so far, so good). But watching the Texans fall to 5-5 [Monday] night when kicker Kris Brown missed a last-second field goal for the second consecutive week made me think about one of Childress' first decisions as a Vikings coach: Ryan Longwell. Remember how bad the Vikings' kicking situation was under Mike Tice? Even Tice has admitted that kickers were his Achilles' heel. Well, Childress came in before the 2006 season and on Day 1 of free agency, one of the players he locked up was Longwell. Longwell has a career field goal percentage of 82.7, third-best in NFL history. He's 85.9 percent since he joined the Vikings. Longwell has made 15 of 16 field goal attempts this season. Just thought I'd throw that out there after watching Brown miss a 49-yarder that would have sent Monday night's game against Tennessee into overtime. It came a week after he missed a 42-yarder as time expired in a 20-17 loss to the Colts. More