MARANA, Ariz. — Youth gave way to power in the Match Play Championship on Friday with J.B. Holmes and Bubba Watson blasting away in the high desert to advance to the quarterfinals at Dove Mountain.
Watson was 7-under-par through 13 holes and had 10 feet for birdie when two-time champion Geoff Ogilvy hit into the sand and conceded the 6-and-4 victory.
“I didn’t play that bad,” Ogilvy said. “I didn’t play ‘6-and-4’ bad.”
Then came Holmes, who applied enough pressure on Jason Day to win the last two holes and escape with a 1-up victory. That set up a Holmes-Watson quarterfinal.
Other winners were Luke Donald, Matt Kuchar, Martin Kaymer, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Ryan Moore and Y.E. Yang.
With cold weather due Sunday, the schedule was changed to avoid frost delays. The quarterfinals will be this morning, followed by the semifinals.
• Chris Stroud made eight straight birdies — one off the PGA Tour record — and shot a 63 to take a three-stroke lead at 11-under 131 after the second round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Kent Denver High School graduate Kevin Stadler (66), Cameron Percy (66) and Sunghoon Kang (67) were tied for second.
• Chie Arimura of Japan shot a 6-under 66 for a two-stroke lead over Karrie Webb (66—136) after the second round of the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore.
• State Farm announced this year’s LPGA State Farm Classic — to be played in June in Springfield, Ill. — will be the last sponsored by the insurance company.
Riesch wins, extends Cup lead
ARE, Sweden — Maria Riesch won a World Cup super-combined race after a strong slalom run, while Lindsey Vonn of Vail finished sixth in her first race since withdrawing from the world championships because of the lingering effects of a concussion.
Riesch extended her lead over Vonn at the top of the World Cup overall standings to 216 points, finishing in 1 minute, 59.60 seconds. Vonn had the fastest super-G run, but dropped to sixth place after a patchy slalom run. Tina Maze of Slovenia was second, 0.40 seconds behind, while Elisabeth Goergl of Austria finished third.
Footnotes.
Gold-medalist gymnast Shannon Miller is cancer-free after doctors removed a baseball-sized tumor on her ovary last month and will undergo nine weeks of preventive chemotherapy.
• Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre will miss at least the first week of spring training games, and likely more, because of a bothersome right calf strain.
• The NCAA placed the California men’s basketball program on two years’ probation for making more than 300 impermissible recruiting phone calls in 2008.
• Kirby Hocutt resigned as Miami’s athletic director to take the same job at Texas Tech.
• Kyle Busch led the final 107 laps to win a wreck-filled NASCAR Trucks race at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz.
• Rain forced cancellation of qualifying runs at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.
