Cycling
ARNHEM, Netherlands – Another superb performance from Marcel Kittel saw the German cyclist claim a second successive sprint victory at the Giro d’Italia and replace Tom Dumoulin as the overall leader after the third stage on Sunday.
Set up perfectly by his Etixx-QuickStep teammates, Kittel opened his sprint 200 meters out and crossed the line several bike lengths ahead of Elia Viviani of Italy.
The stage win and bonus moved him nine seconds ahead of Dumoulin. It is 10 years since a German wore the leader’s pink jersey.
Golf
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – James Hahn beat Roberto Castro with a par on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff Sunday in the Wells Fargo Championship to snap a three-month slump.
Hahn, who failed to make the cut in his previous eight tournaments and hadn’t shot a round in the 60s since February, made a 4-foot putt on the par-4 18th to win his second career PGA Tour title.
Castro’s tee shot on the playoff hole found the creek on the left side of the fairway and his third shot landed in a spectator’s shoe on the side of the green, leading to a bogey.
RABAT, Morocco – Wang Jeung-hun of South Korea won his first title on the European Tour after beating Nacho Elvira in a playoff at the second extra hole in the Trophee Hassan on Sunday.
Wang hit three clutch putts on the 18th green, the first from 18 feet on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with the Spaniard. Wang (70) and Elvira (69) finished on 5-under 283.
The South Korean rolled in a 50-foot putt on the first extra hole to match Elvira’s birdie, and they played No. 18 again. Wang then converted a 20-foot birdie putt for the win.
PRATTVILLE, Ala. – Ariya Jutanugarn held on for her first LPGA Tour title Sunday, closing with a 1-under 71 at the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic.
The 20-year-old had four birdies and three bogeys a day after tying the tournament record with a 63.
She gave cheering fans a wave and smile as she approached the final green, chipping to 5 feet to set up a par putt. Jutanugarn finished at 14-under 273 on the Senator Course at Capitol Hill.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Jesper Parnevik won the Insperity Invitational for his first PGA Tour Champions victory, shooting a 5-under 67 for a four-stroke victory Sunday.
The 51-year-old Swede won in his 23rd career start on the 50-and-over tour.
John Daly tied for 17th at 2 under in his PGA Tour Champions debut.
MLB
CHICAGO – Bryce Harper brought one of those pink bats most major leaguers use on Mother’s Day to home plate at Wrigley Field seven times Sunday. He never swung it. Six times, the Chicago Cubs walked him, tying a major league record. Once, they hit him. No player in baseball history had ever compiled a day like his: seven plate appearances, no official at-bats. He saw 27 pitches. Two were strikes.
Harper went 1 for 4 in this weekend’s four-game series with the Cubs. They walked him 13 times. None of the last 11 times he appeared at the plate count as official at-bats, because he walked 10 times and hit a sacrifice fly.
The Cubs swept the Nationals. Their strategy was a success.
Associated Press
