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Monday, June 24, 2013
SPORTS
TROY DAILY NEWS • WWW.TROYDAILYNEWS.COM
■ Golf
Ken Duke wins Travelers Championship in playoff CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Ken Duke needed 187 starts on the PGA Tour to get his first win, securing it at a tournament that is building a reputation for such breakthroughs. The 44-year-old journeyman made a 2 foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole Sunday to beat Chris Stroud at the Travelers Championship. Stroud, who also was looking for his first title, had chipped in from 51 feet
on the 18th hole, to get to 12-under par and force the playoff. But Duke made the better approach shot on the second extra hole, bouncing his ball in front of the flag and rolling it close. “Yeah, it’s been a long time,” said Duke, who turned pro in 1994.” I’ve been on the Canadian tour, the mini tours, Asian Tour, South American Tour, all of them; Web.com, and it’s just great to be a part of
this big family on the PGA Tour.” Duke, who came in ranked 144th in the world, is the sixth golfer in eight years to get his first PGA Tour win here, joining J.J. Henry (2006), Hunter Mahan (2007), Bubba Watson (2010), Fredrik Jacobsen (2011) and Marc Leishman last year. Canadian Graham DeLaet finished a stroke back in third place with a 269. Watson finished
fourth, two shots behind, after making a six on the par-3 16th hole. “You gotta believe in yourself in everything you do,” Duke said. “That’s why those guys at the top are winning week in, week out because they believe they can do it. It’s kind of one of those things once you finally do it it might come easier the next time. That’s kind of the way I feel.” Duke wouldn’t have been in position to win at
all had luck not intervened on the 10th hole, when his ball ricocheted off a tree and onto the green to about 5 feet from the pin, allowing him to make birdie. After a 17-foot birdie putt on the next hole, he made a 45-footer on the 13th hole, a shot that looked as though it might go past the hole to the right, before falling in. He battled Watson for the lead down the back
nine, until the former Masters champion found trouble on the 16th. Watson put his drive into the water and put his next shot over the green. He finished two strokes back in fourth place. “The wind affected the first shot, and the wind didn’t affect the next shot,” Watson said. “I flew it three feet past the hole, which you can’t do right now because the greens are so firm.”
■ Auto Racing
■ Major League Baseball
Truex Jr. ends streak
Reds
Sonoma win breaks 218-race losing skid SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — The post-race party was a blur after Martin Truex Jr.’s first win in 2007. The celebratory cool-down lap, the burnouts, the drive to Victory Lane all happened so fast. So he planned to savor every minute of his next win. He just didn’t think it would take six years. Truex snapped a 218race winless streak Sunday with an easy victory on the road course at Sonoma Raceway. It was only the second win of Truex’s career, but it put Michael Waltrip Racing in Victory Lane for the second year in a row after Clint Bowyer won here last season. with Overwhelmed emotion as he crossed the finish line, Truex made the celebration count. “I was a freaking mess. It was terrible,” he said. “I had to stop and start doing donuts because I couldn’t think about what I was doing. I tried to key the radio once and I couldn’t even talk. So I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to do some donuts and wave to the fans.’ But after I stopped the first time and did that, I calmed down a little bit and I just wanted to make sure I took my time coming back, because I remember at Dover it all happens way too fast. You never know when you’re going to that opportunity get again.” Truex blew out his rear tires, tried to wave to every single fan he saw, and took a slow drive around the picturesque road course on his way to Victory Lane, where the MWR crew was waiting to drink from the winner’s enormous wine glass. “I told them on the radio, if they’re waiting on me, too bad. I’m taking my time,” he said. “You can’t explain the feeling. When it’s been that long and you worked so hard and you’ve been so close … when you think at times, ‘Man, is this ever going to happen again?’ You can’t explain the feeling. It’s pretty surreal.” Truex worked his way to the front and used strategy to stay with the leaders. He then pulled away after the final restart and built a healthy lead of more than six seconds over Juan Pablo Montoya, who was running second until he ran out of gas on the final lap. “I’m ecstatic. But I’m not exactly sure how that happened,” said Truex, who admitted he wasn’t
AP PHOTO
Martin Truex Jr. celebrates after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race on Sunday in Sonoma, Calif. pleased with his car following Friday’s practices. “The car was just phenomenal all day long and once I was near the front and didn’t have to run the car 110 percent, it just would stay with me on the long runs and I was able to drive away from everyone.” Montoya, who came into the weekend knowing if he didn’t win he would at least have a huge points day, dropped all the way to 34th after having to coast to the finish. He took a shortcut to skip the final turn, drifted to the finish line and parked. He then walked back to the garage, annoyed his Chip Ganassi Racing team never told him to save fuel. “We’ve got tools to prevent things like that from happening,” Montoya said. “I don’t know if all the fuel didn’t go,” Montoya said. “This is what we’ve been doing all year. We all work together and we’re all trying to do the best we can. Half the reason we’re 20-something in points we’re not 20-something in points because we’re not running fast. We’re 20something in points because we had a lot of
mechanical problems and days like this we throw them away.” Crew chief Chris Heroy was perplexed about the shortage. “We don’t know what happened we were on the same strategy as (Truex),” Heroy said through a team spokeswoman. “We’re going to go back to the shop and figure it out.” Montoya got little sympathy from Kyle Busch, who was spun by Montoya early in the race when Montoya drove too deep into a corner and wheelhopped over a curb. “Awww. My heart melts for jpmontoya who ran out of gas,” Busch tweeted moments after the race. Jeff Gordon finished second a week after he was wrecked six laps into the race at Michigan, but felt like he might have had a chance to win if he had not already committed to pit seconds before a caution came out early in the race. “I mean, I really do think we had a shot winning this race. We had a tremendous car,” Gordon said. “I knew we were screwed. There was nothing I could do; I was hard
on the brakes, fully committed. I couldn’t turn away from it, I just knew we had to eat it and go on, and that’s what we did.” Carl Edwards was third, followed by Kurt Busch, who climbed back from a pair of speeding penalties. “Yeah, we were fast, even on pit road. Twice,” Busch laughed. “I messedup, flat-out. I didn’t hit my tachometer right and I was speeding both times. It was one of those where I’m like, how does that happen? I just put myself in a position that was poor trying to get too much on pit road.” Bowyer wound up fifth in a strong day for the MWR Toyotas. Kasey Kahne was sixth and followed by Marcos Ambrose, who was extremely disappointed he didn’t win a race in which he was heavily favored. “It’s OK. We got a top-10 out of it,” Ambrose said. “I wanted to win. Of course I wanted to win, but that’s the way it goes.” Greg Biffle was eighth and followed by Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick in the top 10.
■ Golf
Park’s birdie earns NW Arkansas win ROGERS, Ark. (AP) — Inbee Park took some time off for rest and relaxation last week following her win at the LPGA Championship. The world No. 1 looked every bit at ease on her way to a second straight win her fifth of the year on Sunday at the LPGA NW Arkansas Championship. Park sank a 4-foot birdie on the first playoff hole against So Yeon Ryu , capping her final-round rally and once again
reminding the golf world who is clearly in control of the LPGA Tour this year. Sunday’s win was Park’s second straight in a playoff, following her final-day 39-hole effort at the PGA Championship. It came after she began the day two shots back of a group of four leaders, each who fell by the wayside as the South Korean took control at Pinnacle Country Club on her way to her seventh win in her last 23 starts. That kind of success
that has led to Park’s meteoric rise from 26th in the world rankings a year ago to the unquestioned top player leading into next week’s U.S. Open. “I’ve won a lot of times this year, but I still feel the pressure coming into the final round every time,” Park said. “I definitely felt a lot of pressure in the playoff. I think that’s going to happen no matter how many times I win. “It gets more exciting and more exciting, that’s
for sure.” After opening with a 2under 69 on Friday, Park vaulted to the top of the leaderboard with three straight birdies on the front nine on Sunday. She dropped a shot with a bogey on the par-3 11th before birdies on 14 and 18 sent her to the playoff. Park and Ryu finished the tournament tied at 12 under, one shot ahead of Mika Miyazato. It’s the second straight year Miyazato has finished as the runner-up.
■ CONTINUED FROM 13 him out of the game. You are not going to win them all.” After blowing a save in Cincinnati’s 4-3 loss on Saturday, Aroldis Chapman gave up a run in a shaky ninth but still got his 19th save. The loss snapped Arizona’s four-game winning streak. In the ninth, Chapman got the first two batters to bounce out to shortstop before Cliff Pennington singled and went to second on defensive indifference. Pinch-hitter Wil Nieves singled in Pennington to cut it to 4-2. A wild pitch moved Nieves to second, then Chapman hit Gerardo Parra in the right forearm with a 100 mph fastball. Pitching coach Bryan Price went to the mound to settle down Chapman, and the left-hander got Willie Bloomquist to pop out to center to end the game. Latos fanned six in a row in the third and fourth Delgado, Parra, Bloomquist, Paul Goldschmidt, Miguel Montero and Jason Kubel all swinging. Of Latos’ season-high 110 pitches, 79 were strikes. “Can’t complain with that,” Latos said. The big strikeout number was a mixed blessing, he said. “You start striking out a lot of players, you start throwing a lot of pitches,” Latos said. “Maybe it would have been great to go all nine and not strike out 13, but I’ll take it. It was a good win.” He said his slider “felt good coming out of my hand.” “That and the changeup,” he said. “The changeup is a pitch I’ve been working on all season.” The Reds jumped on Delgado from the start. Choo hit an 0-2 pitch into the swimming pool area in right field, his fourth leadoff homer of the season and ninth of his career. Zach Cozart followed with a double, then
after Joey Votto struck out looking, Phillips’ homer to left made it 3-0. Choo and Phillips each have 11 home runs this season. Phillips had been hitting .164 since missing four games after he was hit by a pitch in the left forearm at Pittsburgh on June 1. “It felt good to come through for the team,” he said. “I haven’t been doing my job lately but you know I’m trying, I’m trying to step my game up. I’m not my normal self. I’m not 100 percent, but the thing is there’s no excuses. I’m still in the lineup so I’ve got to do my job.” Cincinnati added an unearned run in the second. Xavier Paul led off with a double, then Pennington bobbled Devin Mesoraco’s grounder down the third base line for an error. Latos sacrificed the runners to second and third, and after Choo walked to load the bases, Cozart brought Paul home with a sacrifice fly to the wall in left-center. Delgado went five innings, allowing four runs three earned and six hits. The right-hander, who came to Arizona from Atlanta as part of the Justin Upton trade, made his second start since being called up from Triple-A Reno to bolster a rotation depleted by the 10-game suspension of Ian Kennedy and a shoulder injury to Brandon McCarthy. The Diamondbacks broke through in the eighth when Parra doubled with one out, then advanced to third on Bloomquist’s groundout. Goldschmidt drew a twoout walk and Montero singled Parra home to make it 4-1, maintaining Arizona’s status as the only team in the majors not to be shut out this season. Left-hander Manny Parra relieved Latos and got Jason Kubel to ground out to first to end the inning.
■ National Basketball Association
Clippers land new coach in Doc Rivers BOSTON (AP) — Doc Rivers will be the next coach of the Los Angeles Clippers if the NBA approves the rare but not unprecedented trade of an active coach, a Boston Celtics official told The Associated Press on Sunday night. The deal would bring Boston a first-round draft pick in 2015, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal couldn’t be final until a trade call with the NBA office. Rivers, who had three years and $21 million left on his contract with the Celtics, must also reach an agreement on a new deal with the Clippers. Celtics spokesman Jeff Twiss said the team had no announcement. The tentative agreement on Sunday wraps up weeks of haggling over the deal and frees Rivers from
presiding over the dismantling of the team that won the franchise’s 17th NBA title in 2008. The Celtics and Clippers have also discussed sending Kevin Garnett to Los Angeles in a package with Rivers for draft choices, center DeAndre Jordan and point guard Eric Bledsoe. But NBA commissioner David Stern nixed those talks this week, saying teams aren’t allowed to trade active players for a coach. Rivers took over the Celtics in 2004 in the midst of the longest title drought in franchise history and with thanks to the New Big Three of Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen guided them to the 2008 NBA title. They returned to the NBA Finals two years later, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games.