who stood on the putting g
who stood on the putting g
PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- Tiger Woods walked off the 18th hole and past Jason Dufner and Adam Scott, who stood on the putting green still waiting to tee off as the last group of the PGA Championships third round. Woods is usually the one starting his day well into the afternoon on the weekend at a major. But he keeps heading the wrong direction from the leaders at Oak Hill. The worlds No. 1 golfer shot a 3-over 73 on Saturday, leaving him at 4 over for the tournament. Woods scuffled from his very first swing. He missed the fairway on No. 1, teeing off just after 11 a.m., almost four hours before Dufner and Scott. He bogeyed that hole and had another at the third. Even when he straightened out his tee shots for a bit, Woods putting failed him. He didnt make a birdie until this 11th hole, and that would be his only one of the day. His swing went awry again late in the round, dooming him to bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17. "I didnt start off very good, and I didnt finish very good," Woods said. "In the middle part," he added, "I was grinding just to kind of hang in there around par." So the 14-time major champ must wait until April to resume his now more than 5-year-old pursuit of No. 15. Not that Woods would ever concede the chase is getting to him. Asked if hes pressing, he deadpanned, "Yeah, at times when Im underneath the trees and Im in bunkers and trying to get up-and-down." He had plenty of experience with both of those predicaments Saturday. Woods hit 5 of 14 fairways and needed 32 putts. After Fridays round, he squeezed in some time on the practice range with coach Sean Foley. Didnt seem to help. "I just havent got my takeaway right; its off," Woods said. "Consequently the whole patterning is off. Just one of those weeks where its just a fraction off, and a fraction off on a setup like this, its going to cost me." Especially when his putting wasnt rescuing him. "When I do it right, I hit some sweet shots. And when I do it wrong, Im struggling," Woods said. "On top of that, today for some reason I kept blocking every putt. I burned a few edges out there." On the par-4 seventh, Woods hit his second shot to within about 10 feet, but his birdie try lipped out, and he could only look away in disgust. He briefly appeared to be building some momentum after that birdie on No. 11, but his birdie putt on the 12th from about 5 feet slid by the right side of the hole. Other than sharing a few laughs with playing partner Keegan Bradley as they walked the course, Woods was rarely demonstrative Saturday, after shots good or bad. Despite tying for 39th the last time the PGA was at Oak Hill a decade ago, Woods calls the course "fantastic." "Unfortunately I just havent put it together at the right time," he said. He hasnt done that at a major in more than five years. Cameron Maybin Jersey . The club says its first-choice centre back "underwent medical tests on Wednesday morning" which confirmed he has injured his right hamstring. The injury was caused in the second minute of Tuesdays 4-1 league win over Real Sociedad in the Camp Nou when teammate Sergio Busquets accidentally struck Mascherano just above the knee with an outstretched boot. Martin Maldonado Jersey . The Rays hope to stay alive for the postseason and salvage the finale of this series Sunday at Rogers Centre, where they dropped a 7-2 decision Saturday. Chris Archer lasted 2 1/3 innings in the no-decision, charged with a run and five hits, and Alex Torres suffered the loss in relief. http://www.angelsteamshop.com/Customized/. -- Michael Bennett gambled last off-season that playing on a one-year deal in Seattle would pay off in the future with the long-term contract he always wanted. Darin Erstad Jersey . Liriano pitched in and out of trouble in his duel with Josh Beckett, and Ike Davis homered to help the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 Friday night. Luis Valbuena Jersey . -- Atlanta Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson is being checked for a possible concussion after blowing a tire on his way to the first workout of spring training.NEW ORLEANS - In what has become a highlight of the NBA calendar, All-Star Saturday festivities will commence from Smoothie King Center. The night starts off with the Shooting Stars competition, followed by the Skills Challenge, the 3-Point Shootout and the main event, a showcase of athleticism known as the Slam-Dunk Contest. You can catch all of the action live starting at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2. Or, one could call All-Star Saturday, "Damian Lillard Day." The Portland All-Star, who competed in the Rising Stars game on Friday, is scheduled to participate in the Skills Challenge, 3-Point Shootout and Slam- Dunk Contest on Saturday. "Im happy that Im really a part of the weekend. I get to compete in all these events, and just to be in these guys company with all these stars," said Lillard. "It lets you know that the hard work is paying off." This year, much like last, Saturdays competitions are broken down into East vs. West. Paul George of the Indiana Pacers is the East captain, while Steph Curry guides the West. Both are starters in Sundays All-Star game. Saturdays happenings start at 8 p.m. ET. Up first will be the Shooting Stars, a simple enough competition where current NBAers join a legend and a WNBA star in a shooting contest from all over the floor. The first round will feature teams from the same conference against each other. The winning teams advance to the final round for the title. Each competitor will be stationed at one of the first three places, and the shot must be made before the next can be attempted. All three will chuck it up from near half-court and the team with the best time wins. Its a family affair for two of the teams as Curry will join his father Dell Curry and Becky Harmon of the San Antonio Silver Stars. On the East team, Tim Hardaway, Jr. of the New York Knicks will partner with his dad Tim and Elena Delle Donne of the Chicago Sky. Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder will pair with Karl Malone and Skylar Diggins of the Tulsa Shock. The other East team is the defending champion trio of Miamis Chris Bosh, Dominique Wilkins and Swin Cash of the Sky. The Skills Challenge underwent some changes this year. Now, there will be two two-man teams from each conference competing against each other to reach the East vs. West final. It will now be a relay format. The Eastern teams will be rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and All-Star DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors as well as rookies Michael Carter-Williams of the 76ers and Orlandos Victor Oladipo.dddddddddddd The West will be represented by Lillard and Utah Jazz first-year player Trey Burke and the tandem of Goran Dragic of the Phoenix Suns and Reggie Jackson of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The 3-Point Shootout remained largely untouched, although the East v. West format remains intact. The player from the Eastern Conference with the most points will meet the player from the Western Conference with the most points. However, there is one new wrinkle this year. Each player can make one of the five locations to a full rack of five money balls, each worth two points. Defending champion Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers anchors the East team of Orlandos Arron Afflalo, Washingtons Bradley Beal and Joe Johnson of the Brooklyn Nets. Curry and Lillard are on the West team alongside All-Star starter Kevin Love, who won the title in 2012, and San Antonio Spur Marco Belinelli. And now, its time for the main event. This years edition of the Slam-Dunk contest will see many changes, first of which is a Freestyle Round. Lets let the NBA explain: "In a significant first in the events history, the competition will tip off with a Freestyle Round where the dunkers for each conference will have 90 seconds to showcase as many dunks as they want. At the conclusion of the Freestyle Round, the panel of judges will then choose a winner by voting East or West. The winning conference will earn the advantage of deciding whether its dunkers will dunk first or second in the head-to-head battles that take place in the Battle Round." The Battle Round? "The Battle Round will feature head-to-head matchups pitting East dunkers vs. West dunkers, with the judges choosing a winner for each battle. Upon losing a head-to-head battle, that dunker is then eliminated from the competition. The first team to win three battles will win the competition and be crowned 2014 Sprite Slam Dunk champions." No individual champion? "At the conclusion of the team competition, fans will then have the opportunity to vote for the player of their choice as the Sprite Slam Dunker of the Night through SMS, Twitter, NBA.com and the NBA GameTime app." For the first time since 1988, there will be three All-Stars in the Slam-Dunk Contest. George and John Wall of the Washington Wizards team with defending champion Terrence Ross of the Toronto Raptors, and out West, Lillard, Golden States Harrison Barnes and Sacramentos Ben McLemore round out the team. ' ' '