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Sports Briefs May 1, 2011

Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 13 years, 8 months AGO
| May 2, 2011 9:00 PM

Bubba Watson won the Zurich Classic on Sunday in Avondale, La., for his second PGA Tour victory of the year and third overall, holing a 3-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a playoff with Webb Simpson.

After his 329-yard drive narrowly stayed out of the water and landed in a fairway bunker, Watson hit his second shot 210 yards to the green on the 568-yard, par-5 18th.

Simpson's second shot landed in a bunker short of the green, and he blasted out to 12 feet.

After Simpson narrowly missed his birdie putt, Watson holed out for the victory.

• Maria Hjorth took advantage of Alexis Thompson's collapse in a failed bid to become the youngest LPGA Tour winner, rallying to win the Avnet LPGA Classic in Mobile, Ala., for her fifth tour title.

The 37-year-old Swede shot her second straight 5-under 67 to finish at 10-under 278, two strokes ahead of Song-Hee Kim (71) on The Crossings course at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's Magnolia Grove complex.

The 16-year-old Thompson, tied for the lead with Kim entering the round, had a 78 to drop into a tie for 19th at 1 under.

Baseball

Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell was suspended for two weeks without pay by Major League Baseball for inappropriate comments and gestures he made toward fans before a game in San Francisco.

The suspension is retroactive to Friday, when McDowell was placed on administrative leave by the Braves. He also was fined an undisclosed amount for the April 23 incident.

Tom Thibodeau waited about two decades to become an NBA head coach. It didn't take him long to be recognized as one of the best once he got the chance.

Thibodeau is the NBA's Coach of the Year after leading the Chicago Bulls to 62 wins in his first season to tie a league record set by Paul Westphal.

Tennis

Novak Djokovic defeated Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (4), 6-2 in Belgrade, Serbia, to win the Serbia Open for his fifth title and 27th straight victory this season.

Auto racing

Del Worsham raced to his second straight Top Fuel victory and third in five events this season, beating teammate Larry Dixon at the NHRA Spring Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas.

Worsham had a 3.880-second run at 318.99 mph, while defending series champion Dixon finished in 3.900 at 316.82.

Jeff Arend (Funny Car), rookie Vincent Nobile (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won their divisions.

The 19-year-old Nobile used a near-perfect reaction time of 0.007 seconds to earn his first Pro Stock victory. Nobile became the youngest driver to win in the history of NHRA's 41-year-old factory hot rod category.

• IndyCar's Sao Paulo 300 was postponed until today (5 a.m., VS) because of heavy rain.

IndyCar officials made the call after Sunday's race was stopped for more than two hours and track conditions failed to improve. Only 14 laps were completed, 11 of those under the yellow flag.

Running

Simon Ndirangu of Kenya won the men's elite group at Bloomsday in Spokane with a time of 33:58. Misiker Mekonnin of Ethiopia was the women's elite winner at 40:23. Both top finishers took home $7,000.

Josh Moen was 10th, the top U.S. male finisher and Janet Cherobon-Bawcom the first U.S. woman finisher (6th).

Aarib Gordian won the men's wheelchair open division, and Amanda McGrory won the women's wheelchair open division.

All told, 51,260 finished the 12k course.

Boxing

Former heavyweight boxer Henry Cooper, one of Britain's most popular sportsmen who was best known for knocking down Muhammad Ali while he was still known as Cassius Clay, has died. He was 76.

The first boxer to be knighted and receive the title "Sir" from a British monarch, Cooper died just two days before his 77th birthday, the British Boxing Board of Control said. He died at his son's house in Oxted, Surrey, in southern England, after an extended illness.

- The Associated Press

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