Saturday's sports briefs

May 3, 2015 at 5:39AM
Driver Jeff Gordon smiles during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Saturday, May 2, 2015, in Talladega, Ala. Gordon, who is in his last season, qualified first for the pole. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
80 and going strong Jeff Gordon, in his farewell season, won the 80th pole of his career Saturday with a blistering lap around Talladega Superspeedway, where he’s a six-time race winner. The four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion will start first Sunday and have all three of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates surrounding him. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Barely able to see, Rory McIlroy and Paul Casey were forced to return Sunday morning at TPC Harding Park to see who made it to the semifinals of the Match Play Championship in San Francisco.

McIlroy missed from 12 feet on the 18th hole to force a playoff. Casey had a chance to win on the second extra hole when his 18-foot putt stopped one turn short. McIlroy missed from 6 feet on the third extra hole.

They were to resume at 6:45 a.m. Sunday on the par-5 opening hole for the right to play Jim Furyk, the No. 5 seed who reached his first semifinal with a 4-and-2 victory over Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa.

Gary Woodland got up big early against John Senden and coasted to a 5-and-3 victory. He will face Danny Willett of England, who beat his third consecutive countryman with a 4-and-3 win over Tommy Fleetwood.

"I had a couple of opportunities to close it out and couldn't quite convert," McIlroy said. "Come back in the morning and try again."

McIlroy had to cancel his plans to fly to Las Vegas for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight.

newsmakers

The victor: Joey Logano at the Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. It was his third win of the season on that circuit. He withstood an intense final race to the checkered flag.

A first: For top-seeded Andy Murray, who reached his first final on clay with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain. He will face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the final.

Suspended: Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who will miss the first game of next season for running over Chicago's Mike Dunleavy in an NBA playoff game.

golf

Thompson and Park share lead

Lexi Thompson finished a round of 3-under 68 with a birdie after a fortunate ricochet to share the third-round lead with Inbee Park in the LPGA Tour's North Texas Shootout.

The approach by the long-hitting Thompson at the par-5 18th was a screamer well left of the hole. But the ball struck the front facing of a temporary grandstand and ricocheted onto the green, skimming just over the top of a bunker. That set up a long two-putt birdie to get to 9-under 204.

• Michael Allen birdied the final two holes for a 4-under 68 and a one-stroke lead after the second round of the Champions Tour's Insperity Invitational at the Woodlands, Texas. The 56-year-old Allen had a 10-under 134 total.

hockey

U.S. improves to 2-0 at worlds

A goal by Minnesotan Brock Nelson broke a 1-1 tie in the second period as the United States made it two wins in two games by edging Norway 2-1 at the ice hockey world championship in the Czech Republic.

The United States will next face Russia on Monday (9:15 a.m., NBCSN). Russia announced that forward Pavel Datsyuk, who was planning to join the team after Detroit Red Wings were eliminated in the NHL playoffs, won't arrive because of an ankle injury.

Newcomer Austria beat Switzerland 4-3 in a shootout in its opening game. Switzerland, the 2013 runner-up, took the lead three times. But Austria answered each time, and forward Michael Raffl equalized with 50 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime.

AROUND THE HORN

Soccer: Lionel Messi notched his 50th and 51st goals in all competitions to help Barcelona match its biggest away win in Spanish league history, 8-0 over Cordoba. Cristiano Ronaldo's three goals took his league-leading tally to 42 (two ahead of Messi) as Real Madrid dealt Sevilla its first home loss since February 2014 with a 3-2 victory. Barcelona leads Madrid by two points with three games left to decide which replaces Atletico Madrid as champion.

Tennis: Top-seeded Roger Federer rallied past Diego Schwarzman 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 to reach the Istanbul Open final after a near two-hour match. Federer will face third-seeded Pablo Cuevas in the final of the clay-court tournament.

Track and field: The United States, anchored by Ryan Bailey, won the 4x100 relay, defeating Usain Bolt's Jamaica at the IAAF World Relays meet in the Bahamas. The Americans, with Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers also running, clocked 37.38 seconds with Jamaica finishing in 37.68.

Obituary: Frank Olivo, the fill-in Santa whose downfield jaunt at a Philadelphia Eagles game in 1968 lives on in sports history for the hail of snowballs and shower of boos that rained down on him. He was 66.

TODAY'S NUMBER

43Age of Jaromir Jagr, who extended his record as the oldest player ever to score at the world hockey championship with a goal in the Czech Republic's 4-2 victory over Latvia on Saturday.


NASCAR auto racing driver Joey Logano gets into his car a he prepares for a practice round for the Sprint Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 auto race at Kansas Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014, in Kansas City, Kan. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga) ORG XMIT: KSEZ104
Newsmaker 1 (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Britain's Andy Murray watches the ball during the quarterfinal match against Lukas Rosol from Czech Republic at the BMW Open tennis tournament in Munich, Germany, on Saturday, May 2, 2015. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Newsmaker 2 (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo (34), Zaza Pachulia (27), and Michael Carter-Williams (5) get back on defense during Game 4 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Chicago Bulls Saturday, April 25, 2015, in Milwaukee. ORG XMIT: MIN2015050216451147
Newsmaker 3 (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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The "winners" have all been Turkeys, no matter the honor's name.

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