Jason Day set the 36-hole record at The Players Championship on Saturday morning. By the end of the day he was hanging on for dear life on a TPC Sawgrass course that was as frightening as ever.
One aspect never changed: Day looks like he’s going to be tough to beat at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
On a vastly different course with greens that felt like glass compared with the opening two rounds, Day overcome two double bogeys with a strong finish for a 1-over 73 to keep his four-shot lead.
The world’s No. 1 player was on the verge of dropping more shots when he chipped in from 50 feet for par on the 15th hole, made birdie on the par-5 16th and finished at 14-under 202.
Ken Duke (65), Hideki Matsuyama (67) and Alex Cejka (72) were four behind.
SOCCER
MLS: Lee Nguyen scored on a right-footed blast in the 22nd minute and the New England Revolution added a late goal to beat the Chicago Fire 2-0 at home.
Nguyen’s goal came after he played his corner kick short and slipped unmarked into the left side of the area. Scott Caldwell fed it back to Nguyen, who one-timed it into the far corner of the goal.
Femi Hollinger-Janzen made it 2-0 for the Revolution (2-3-7) in the 84th minute.
SPAIN: Barcelona won its second straight league title after defeating Granada 3-0 with a hat trick from Luis Suarez in the final round.
The result capped a five-game winning streak that allowed the Catalan club to finish one point ahead of Real Madrid.
FRANCE: Zlatan Ibrahimovic set a record for league goals in a single season by a Paris Saint-Germain player, saying farewell with two goals in a 4-0 win over Nantes.
Ibrahimovic, who is leaving the French champions at the end of the season, moved to 38 league goals, ahead of Carlos Bianchi, who had 37 in 1977-78.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR: Erik Jones won the Xfinity Series race at Dover International Speedway and took a $100,000 bonus from the series’ Dash-4-Cash program.
INDYCAR: Simon Pagenaud pulled away to win the Grand Prix of Indianapolis for his third straight victory and second in three years on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Pagenaud is the first IndyCar driver to win three in a row since Scott Dixon in 2013.
FORMULA ONE: Lewis Hamilton edged Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg for the first time this week to earn pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona.
HOCKEY
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Canada secured a place in the quarterfinals by beating Slovakia 5-0 at St. Petersburg, Russia, while Finland and host nation Russia also qualified with two games remaining.
Finland’s fifth win of the tournament was a straightforward 3-1 victory over France.
Forward Patrik Laine, a contender for the No. 1 spot in next month’s NHL draft, registered a goal and an assist as Finland scored three times within 10 minutes of the second period.
CYCLING
GIRO D’ITALIA: Gianluca Brambilla moved into the overall lead of the Giro d’Italia with his first-ever Grand Tour stage win after a solo attack at the end of the eighth stage at Arezzo, Italy.
Fellow Italians Matteo Montaguti and Moreno Moser made it a one-two-three day for Italy.
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