Sports Digest / US Tour Golf: Sweden's Carl Pettersson battled his way to final round even-par 71 to claim a one-shot victory over American Chad Campbell and his first career US PGA Tour win at the Chrysler championship yesterday.
Clinging to a one-stroke advantage walking onto the 18th green at the Westin Innisbrook Resort's Copperhead golf course in Tampa Bay, Florida, Pettersson held his nerve over a tricky four-foot par putt. Campbell returned a final round four-under 67 to finish alone in second at eight-under 276, three shots clear of a group of seven players tied for third.
Japan's Hidemichi Tanaka (67) and Americans Stewart Cink (67), Tag Ridings (67), Tim Herron (70), Bo Van Pelt (70), Tom Pernice, (72) and Steve Lowery (75) all finished on five-under 279.
EQUESTRIAN: Jessica Kurten picked up the only Irish win of the weekend on the international show jumping circuit when claiming the accumulator class in Zuidlaren, Holland, yesterday. The German-based rider rode the nine-year-old mare Lou Lou to a comfortable victory, taking the honours by a two-second margin from British speed ace Robert Smith, writes Grania Willis.
Kurten had finished as runner-up in Friday night's young horse class with Carrera Negra and went on to slot into fourth in Saturday morning's speed class, in which world champion Dermott Lennon finished second with Zora.
But there was no joy for any of the three Irish in yesterday afternoon's Grand Prix, with Kurten, Lennon and Harry Marshall all missing the cut for the timed decider with 12 faults apiece in the first round.
BASKETBALL: St Vincent's let a great opportunity to make headway in the Southern Conference of the Superleague slip yesterday when they coughed up a 14-point lead at home to Ballina, reports Gavin Cummiskey.
With three minutes to go, and the game seemingly wrapped up, the Dublin club began to run their bench but this is where it all went horribly wrong. Ballina replacement Brian O'Malley shot a three pointer with his first contribution of the night to get his teams confidence flowing.
Americans Stephen Mills and Dan Zapier did the rest to ensure a remarkable turnaround to win 87-83. UCD Marian's Lorcan Precious delivered on Saturday night with 42-points as his team overcame Shamrock Rovers Hoops 113 to 101.
WOMEN'S GOLF: Jee Young Lee won the LPGA CJ Nine Bridges Classic in Jeju, South Korea, by three strokes from Sweden's Karin Koch despite a one-over-par final round of 73. Lee finished five under par and that was good enough for victory as Koch shot a one-under 71 but was let down by her second-round 76.
MOTOR SPORT: Ray Breen and Andrew Purcell, the newly crowned Dunlop National Rally Champions, finished the season with victory in the final round of the Marine Fastnet Rally run out of Skibbereen-Glandore, writes Brian Foley.
Breen powered his Ford Focus WRC to fastest times over the last two stages to beat the long-time leaders Denis Cronin and Helen O'Sullivan (Subaru WRC) by 21 seconds.
