College Football
MOSCOW, Idaho – Idaho will drop to the Football Championship Subdivision beginning in 2018 and intends to join the Big Sky Conference.
Idaho President Chuck Staben made the announcement Thursday. The Vandals will remain at the Football Bowl Subdivision level for the next two seasons as part of the transition to the lower division. The move is pending approval from the Idaho State Board of Education.
Idaho first made the jump to the FBS in 1996 along with fellow in-state member Boise State. But the Vandals struggled at the higher level with conference stability and the increased expenditures. Idaho’s decision came after the Sun Belt announced in March that it would go with 10 teams and drop the Vandals as a football member.
Cycling
MORGINS, Switzerland – Nairo Quintana was awarded victory, and took the overall lead, after stage two of the Tour of Romandie on Thursday when Ilnur Zakarin was demoted for impeding him.
Zakarin, the defending champion from Russia, finished first in a sprint to complete a climb to the Morgins ski station but veered right across Quintana’s racing line in the final 50 meters.
Quintana got first place plus time bonuses that lifted the Colombian 18 seconds ahead of Zakarin in the overall standings.
Golf
AVONDALE, La. – Brian Stuard shot an 8-under 64 on Thursday to top the leaderboard in the suspended first round of the Zurich Classic.
The 33-year-old Stuard had only 21 putts in his bogey-free round at TPC Louisiana, finishing his final hole after a rain delay of nearly five hours. He’s winless on the PGA Tour.
None of the afternoon starters were able to finish before darkness suspended play.
Retief Goosen was second after a 65. The 47-year-old South African is a two-time U.S. Open champion.
Top-ranked Jason Day bogeyed his final two holes for a 69. The Australian is the first No. 1 player to play in the event since David Duval in 1999.
BEIJING – Hennie Otto had seven birdies and an eagle in an opening round of 63 on Thursday to lead the China Open at 9 under.
It was Otto’s lowest round in a European Tour event since he won the 2014 Italian Open.
The 39-year-old South African started on the 10th and had three birdies before turning in 33, then added birdies at the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th before chipping in for eagle on the par-5 8th.
IRVING, Texas – Mi Jung Hur topped the South Korean-dominated leaderboard Thursday in the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout, opening with a 5-under 66 in breezy conditions.
Based in the area in McKinney, Hur made five straight birdies on the 15th to the first hole. The two-time LPGA Tour winner bogeyed the par-4 fifth and rebounded with a birdie on the par-4 eighth.
South Korean players held six of the top eight positions. So Yeon Ryu and Eun-Hee Ji were tied for second with American Gerina Piller at 67, and Sei Young Kim, Amy Yang, Jenny Shin and Scotland’s Catriona Matthew shot 68. Piller, the U.S. Solheim Cup star who lives in nearby Plano, birdied four of her last seven holes.
Fifth-ranked Brooke Henderson had a 69. The 18-year-old Canadian has eight straight top-10 finishes.
Associated Press
