Sports Briefs October 25, 2010
Fred Couples left Corey Pavin and everybody else way behind in the Champions Tour Administaff Small Business Classic, shooting a 9-under 63 on Sunday for a seven-stroke victory at The Woodlands, Texas.
Two strokes behind Pavin at the start of the round, the 50-year-old Couples played the final eight holes in 7 under, making an eagle - his second of the round - and five birdies.
• In a swift and shocking finish, Jonathan Byrd won a three-man playoff with a hole-in-one on the fourth extra hole in the PGA Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital Open in Las Vegas.
Moments earlier, Byrd stood on the 18th green with Martin Laird and Cameron Percy as they discussed whether there was enough light to continue. They agreed to play one more hole - the 204-yard 17th at the TPC Summerlin.
• Jimin Kang won the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia for her second LPGA Tour title, beating Juli Inkster by a stroke in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when the 50-year-old Hall of Famer bogeyed the final hole.
Kang, the 30-year-old South Korean player who went to high school in Edmonds, Wash., and starred at Arizona State, made a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th for a 6-under 65 and a 9-under total at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.
Football
The other team from Alabama surged toward the top of the AP poll while another set of Tigers has emerged as the Big 12's unexpected national title contender.
Auburn jumped two spots to No. 3 behind top-ranked Oregon and Boise State in the media poll, and Missouri vaulted 11 spots to No. 7.
Oregon, which moved to No. 1 for the first time last week and followed up with a 60-13 victory against UCLA on Thursday night, received 44 first-place votes. Boise State had 11, Auburn received three and No. 4 TCU received two.
Michigan State is fifth and Alabama, last year's champion and the preseason No. 1, is sixth.
Missouri's big move came after the Tigers beat previously undefeated Oklahoma 36-27. The Sooners dropped eight spots to No. 11. Missouri was last ranked this highly in 2007, when the Tigers reached No. 1 and finished the season No. 4.
Rangers 3, Devils 1: Michal Rozsival and Ryan Callahan scored second-period goals and host New York earned its third straight, beating Ilya Kovalchuk and slumping New Jersey.
Kovalchuk, in the first season of a 15-year, $100 million deal, returned to New Jersey's lineup a night after he was benched by coach John MacLean for undisclosed reasons.
Flames 4, Sharks 0: Miikka Kiprusoff made 27 saves for his second shutout of the season and 36th overall and Rene Bourque scored twice in host Calgary's win over San Jose.
Predators 4, Lightning 3: At Tampa, Fla., Rookie Anders Lindback made 42 saves to help Nashville complete a weekend road sweep.
Tennis
Roger Federer beat Germany's Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-3 to win the Stockholm Open and match Pete Sampras' total of 64 career titles.
• Victor Troicki of Serbia claimed his first title and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus won her fifth women's crown in the Kremlin Cup finals in Moscow.
The 43rd-ranked Troicki rallied to beat fourth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, while Azarenka downed Russian doubles partner Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-4.
Auto Racing
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso overcame treacherous conditions to win the inaugural Formula One Korean Grand Prix in Yeongam, South Korea, surging to the top of the drivers' championship standings with just two races left, and within sight of his third title.
Sitting first and second in the standings entering the race, and qualifying first and second, everything looked set for the Red Bull drivers to stake their claim to the championship, but neither Mark Webber nor Sebastian Vettel finished the race.
- The Associated Press