Thursday's sports briefs

Palmer stops at Grand Forks Arnold Palmer is pleased with the design of King's Walk Golf Course. He should be, he designed it.

"I can't tell you how much pleasure I felt," he said after touring the course for the first time since 2002, when it was mostly black dirt.

The 18-hole municipal course was built after the Red River flood devastated Grand Forks, N.D., in 1997. Palmer designed it for $500,000 less than his normal rate.

Palmer signed autographs and had a question-and-answer session with fans. He didn't play the course.

"I would love to play King's Walk, but the way I play these days, I'm not real anxious to put my game on display," said Palmer, who turns 79 next week. "It was my business to put my golf game on public display for a long time, but now it's private."

• The first round of the BMW Championship on the PGA Tour was washed out by storms that dumped three inches of rain on Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis.

• Annika Sorenstam will play her last tournament in Europe this weekend at the Nykredit Masters in Helsingoer, Denmark. "I'm on a kind of goodbye tour and am happy to play in some of the countries that I don't get the chance to visit too often," Sorenstam said.

NHL, Russian league squabble A newly formed Russian hockey league accused the NHL of poaching two of its players when the Los Angeles Kings agreed to terms with two draft prospects last week.

As a result, the Continental Hockey League (KHL), announced it was no longer obligated to abide by a moratorium reached in July, when the leagues agreed against signing players that were under contract.

In a news release, the KHL said the NHL violated that agreement when the Kings signed their 2008 second-round draft pick, defenseman Vjateslav Voinov, and 2008 fifth-round pick, center Andrei Loktionov, on Aug. 27. The KHL said Voinov is under contract with Chelyabinsk while Loktionov is under contract with Yaroslavl.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly disputed the KHL's claims in an e-mail sent to The Associated Press. Daly said the league approved both contracts "on the basis of evidence that the two players were free of contractual obligations elsewhere. The NHL is not in violation of any agreement with the KHL."

• The Atlanta Thrashers signed first-round pick Zach Bogosian to an entry-level contract. The 18-year-old defenseman was selected third overall after scoring 11 goals and 61 points with Peterborough of the Ontario Hockey League.

• WNBA: Sue Bird scored 19 points to help the Seattle Storm (20-10) clinch a playoff berth with a 70-62 victory over the host Chicago Sky. Jia Perkins scored 22 points and rookie Sylvia Fowles added 12 for Chicago (11-18)