11/21/2008 - West Palm Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Katherine Hull posted a one-under 71 Friday to maintain a one-shot lead after two rounds of the ADT Championship.
Hull completed 36 holes at five-under-par 139.
However, the big story was Annika Sorenstam's Hall of Fame career coming to a close as she missed the cut by two strokes.
Sorenstam is stepping away from the game and this was her final LPGA Tour event. She managed a three-over 75 to end in a tie for 18th at five-over 149.
The Swede managed just one birdie to go with a double-bogey and two bogeys on Friday.
"I know it is (over), but in my mind I have very mixed emotions. This is the decision I made," said an emotional Sorenstam. "There are certain things I'm going to miss, there is no doubt about it.
"It's been an incredible year and amazing career. I never thought about this when I first picked up a club 20 or 30 years ago. It's a tough moment, but there are good things ahead."
Angela Stanford, who has posted five straight top-five finishes, including a pair of wins, fired the low round of the week with her five-under 67. That moved her into second place at four-under-par 140.
Christina Kim (71), Paula Creamer (71) and In-Kyung Kim (73) are tied for third place at minus-two at Trump International Golf Club.
With women's world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa missing the cut, Creamer could move past Ochoa and win the money title with a victory here this week. Ochoa posted a 74 to finish alongside Sorenstam at plus-five.
Hull led by one entering the round and opened with 14 straight pars to begin her round.
During that time, she fell behind Eun-Hee Ji, who birdied three straight holes to climb to six-under. Ji fell apart down the stretch, though, and that opened the door for Hull.
Hull birdied the par-five 15th to move to minus-five. She parred the final three holes to remain atop the leaderboard.
Stanford connected on back-to-back birdie chances from the second to move into red figures at minus-one. Birdies at six and 11 got her within one of Hull.
The two-time Solheim Cup performer stumbled to a bogey on the 13th. Stanford atoned for that mistake with birdies at 15 and 16 to end alone in second place.
Jeong Jang and Angela Park both posted two-under 70s Friday to share sixth place at 143. Seon Hwa Lee and Ji-Yai Shin are one back at even-par.
This unique event has the top-16 players advancing to Saturday's third round. Scores will be re-set prior to the round so all 16 players are tied entering round three.
The field will be cut to eight players for Sunday's final round and the same thing will happen with the scores re-setting.
Along with Sorenstam and Ochoa, Laura Diaz, Maria Hjorth, Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel were among the 15 players who finished over the three-over par cut line.
<< Hoffenheim eyes top spot against Koln
Cologne, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hoffenheim's Jan Schindelmeiser admitted he
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of the Bundesliga, "just as no one here would have."
But Hoffe, promoted to the
<< Packers Can Badly Injure Saints' Playoff Hopes
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Monday night could represent something of a last stand for
the New Orleans Saints.
Despite being picked by many to win the NFC South prior to the season, Sean
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<< Thompson rallies to take medalist honors at Champions Q-School
Coral Springs, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robert Thompson carded a pair of late
birdies Friday to shoot two-under 70 and take medalist honors at the Champions
Tour National Qualifying Tournament.
Thompson finished at seven-under-par 281.
J
<< Knicks swap Crawford for Harrington
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Knicks traded guard Jamal
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Crawford was averaging 19.6 points and 4.4 assists through 11 games this
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Spain, Argentina tied at 1-1 in Davis Cup final >>
Mar del Plata, Argentina (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2008 Davis Cup World Group
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The best-of-five championship round g
Bengals place CB Joseph on IR, sign Castille >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Bengals placed cornerback
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U.S. men to open 2009 schedule against Sweden >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The United States men's national team will kick
off a busy 2009 schedule when they face Sweden on Jan. 24.
The game, at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., follows a training camp
that begins the first
Griffins' Wilson recalled by Dallas >>
Grand Rapids, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Grand Rapids Griffins left winger Landon
Wilson was recalled by the Dallas Stars on Friday, the American League Hockey
club announced.
Wilson, 33, leads the AHL with seven power-play goals and rank
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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