Golf
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Ryan Palmer is starting to turn the corner with his game, adding a 5-under 65 to take the early lead in the second round of the Honda Classic.
He is at 9-under 131 and one shot ahead of Rickie Fowler, who had a 66.
Palmer’s game is not the only thing with an improved prognosis. He took off the last four months of the year to tend to his wife, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. He says she should be done with treatment in August and is doing well.
He received plenty of emotional support from Stewart Cink, whose wife is battling breast cancer. And he says Phil Mickelson, whose wife was diagnosed in 2009, put him in touch with the right doctors.
JOHANNESBURG – Paul Waring led by one shot after 12 holes of his second round when play was suspended for bad light at the Joburg Open on Friday.
The Englishman made five birdies in those holes on the West Course at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington to move 12 under par, ahead of South Africans Darren Fichardt and Dean Burmester.
Fichardt was in the clubhouse with a second 66, thanks mainly to a sizzling opening nine on the East Course. Fichardt picked up six shots in those nine holes with four birdies and an eagle. Burmester was 11 under with three holes of his second round to complete.
Organizers have been playing catch-up since rain led to a waterlogged course on Thursday, forcing 98 players to finish their first rounds on Friday morning.
Skiing
CRANS MONTANA, Switzerland – Half of the U.S. ski team, including overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn, pulled out of the Alpine combined race Friday because of dangerous conditions on the course.
The race was postponed for nearly an hour and the start was lowered after Ilka Stuhec, Tessa Worley and Denise Feierabend all fell at nearly the same point in the super-G part of the race.
The U.S. ski federation announced that its team of Shiffrin, Vonn, Laurenne Ross, Jaqueline Wiles, Breezy Johnson and Stacey Cook would not compete. But Wiles, Cook and Johnson did start, with only Johnson finishing. She was in 36th place ahead of the second leg, 3.56 seconds behind Stuhec, the leader after the super-G.
Stuhec, who is from Slovenia, was 0.52 seconds ahead of Federica Brignone and 0.69 faster than Michaela Kirchgasser ahead of the slalom part of the discipline.
KVITFJELL, Norway – Bostjan Kline earned his first career World Cup victory in a downhill on Friday, and Kjetil Jansrud finished third to move into the lead in the discipline standings.
Kline, a Slovenian skier who started fourth, finished 0.19 seconds ahead of Austrian rival Matthias Mayer, with Jansrud one-hundredth of a second further back.
Kline’s win continues a run of different skiers winning each men’s downhill this season.
LAHTI, Finland – Johannes Rydzek retained his Nordic combined world title as he led a German podium sweep in the men’s individual normal hill event on Friday.
Rydzek was second to fellow German Eric Frenzel after the ski jumping stage, and started the cross-country with a 14-second disadvantage, but swiftly closed up to Frenzel and began to open up a lead after halfway.
Rydzek cheered and waved a German flag as he crossed the line 14.9 seconds ahead of 2014 Olympic champion Frenzel.
Bjoern Kircheisen rounded out the all-German podium 15.1 seconds later.
The result means Germany has won the individual normal hill event at the last three editions of the world championships going back to 2013.
Associated Press
