BELMONT, Mich. -- Inbee Park found a new putter -- and her old touch. The South Korean player took the second-round lead Friday in the Meijer LPGA Classic, birdieing her first three holes en route to her second straight 5-under 66. The third-ranked Park finished on the front nine, adding birdies on the par-5 fifth and eighth holes in her bogey-free round at Blythefield Country Club. She won six times last year and took the Manulife Financial in June in Canada for her 10th LPGA Tour title. "My putting feels like Im back to last year," Park said. "Hopefully, I can hole some more putts the next two days." After using a mallet putter since 2008, Park tried a friends blade putter Tuesday and started making putts. She hasnt stopped since with 27 putts in each round after having TaylorMade quickly make her an identical version. "I just never used that style of putter for a long, long time and I just wanted to have a change because I tried everything else and it didnt really work," she said. "This was pretty much my last option." She said the improved putting was especially obvious in the second round. "Yesterday I hit a lot of the shots closer, but today I made 15 to 20-footers, at least a couple of them," she said. Fourth-ranked Suzann Pettersen was a stroke back. The Norwegian player matched the course record with a 64. South Koreas Mirim Lee also shot 64 to reach 8 under, and South Koreas Amy Yang was fourth at 7 under after a 67. Second-ranked Lydia Ko, the 17-year-old New Zealand player coming off a victory in the Marathon Classic in Sylvania, Ohio, was tied for fifth at 5 under after a 68. Germanys Sandra Gal, the first-round leader, also was in the group at 5 under, following her opening 65 with a 72. Top-ranked Stacy Lewis, a three-time winner this year, was even-par after a 72. Pettersen, who won the last of her 14 LPGA Tour titles last year, is coming off a three-week break from competition, but free from back pain that hampered her earlier this year and eager to play again. She said it was nice to go low. "Its not like the easiest course if you miss the fairways," she said. "I just tried to play to my strength, hit fairways, hit greens and I made a couple of putts." Lee said she hit the fairways and made long putts. She was clearly elated with her play. "Best round," she said. Ko seemed surprised to be in the hunt and admitted she isnt hitting the ball well. "I had to make an up-and-down a lot of times," she said. "I mean, I was kind of struggling with my long game but luckily my chipping and short game worked really well." Pettersen, who played in the same group, called Ko the chipping queen on the tour. "Its just phenomenal to see such a great touch around the greens," she said. Womens British Open winner Mo Martin withdrew Friday morning because of a thumb injury. It was unclear if she will play next week in the LPGA Championship. U.S. Womens Open champion Michelle Wie withdrew after nine holes Thursday because of a wrist injury. . The kind he has every so often. The kind he has when Dwyane Wade sits. James scored 43 points -- 25 in a bewildering first-quarter shooting display -- and Chris Bosh added 21, leading the Miami Heat to a 100-96 win Tuesday night over the Cleveland Cavaliers, who played their first game without injured All-Star guard Kyrie Irving. . -- DeMarcus Cousins had 25 points and 16 rebounds to help the Sacramento Kings snap a seven-game losing streak by defeating the Chicago Bulls 99-70 on Monday night.
http://www.cheapnetsjerseysauthentic.co ... ert-jersey. Murray, the defending champion and No. 3 seed, claimed his first match win at Queens in 2005 and went on to win the Wimbledon warmup three times. But he failed to take advantage of eight set points after leading the first-set tiebreaker 6-2, and Stepanek survived to convert with his second set point. . Teams one through twenty competing in Englands top flight are each fatally flawed. A wide-open, highly competitive and mistake-filled season has followed. . A groundswell for raising the number of playoff qualifiers to seven in each conference figures to get plenty of support from the 32 owners. Most notably, Arizonas Bill Bidwill, who saw his Cardinals go 10-6 and not get in, while Green Bay (8-7-1) qualified by winning the NFC North.LOS ANGELES, Calif. - UFC fighters will wear uniforms made by Reebok next year after the promotion agreed to a sponsorship deal with the sports apparel company.UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said the six-year deal will change the esthetics and economics of the worlds dominant mixed martial arts promotion by creating a professional, standard look for fighters shorts and additional gear in a famously individualistic sport. The uniforms will be revealed shortly before the fighters don them in July.It elevates the sport, UFC President Dana White said. For everybody to be dressed the same, to look the same, it just makes everything more professional. Every year, we take this thing to another level.The UFC will no longer allow its fighters to sell sponsorship patches on their trunks, a time-honoured tradition in MMA and boxing. White and Fertitta said the new deal largely will make up for the lost revenue, and the fighters still can have sponsorship deals outside the octagon.Fertitta said the promotion is distributing the vast majority of the money from its Reebok deal directly to its fighters, partly in a tiered system based on divisional rankings. White said the UFC itself will make almost no money from the deal for the first few years.Weve done a lot of research in the last two to three years, Fertitta said. We feel like weve created a program thats going to be worth at least as much, and in some cases more, than theyre making (with sponsorships).Some fighters have criticized the prospect of UFC uniforms when the idea was floated by White in recent years, concerned about the interruption of sponsorship deals that sometimes pay the fighters more than their UFC contracts. Other fighters welcome their piece of a major sportswear deal while fighting in uniforms comparable to the gear worn by athletes in the other major sports.I think its good for the UFC brand, welterweight title contender Robbie Lawler told The Associated Press. I think its going to be nice for the fighters to get a little extra money, and I think in the end its going to be a little easier. Were going to be getting some of the sponsorship money that the UFC is already getting. Its going to be big for the sport.dddddddddddd.Yet the UFC will eliminate many of its fighters current methods of making money in a sport thats notoriously unprofitable for up-and-coming fighters. For instance, the UFC also is doing away with those garish, sometimes amateurish sponsorship banners typically hung behind competitors during MMA fight introductions.It makes me physically sick to my stomach when I see those guys rolling out that banner, but I never stopped it because I didnt want to take money away from guys when I couldnt supplement that money, White said. Now we can give them something better.Fertitta said the UFC could put corporate logos on its uniforms in the future, although the deals probably would be limited to one sponsor at one event.If we do put a company on there, its going to be a major global brand, he said. Think along the lines of European soccer.The UFCs deal with Reebok is its biggest financial agreement outside its television contracts, White said, although the UFC is a private company that is notoriously reluctant to discuss its finances, including fighter pay.Not all individuality will be lost under the deal. Fighters will be free to choose from different styles of uniforms, from the board shorts worn by many fighters to the tighter bicycle shorts favoured by former welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and others. Women will have the option of wearing shorts with a skirt front.UFC executives have chafed in recent years when its fighters uniform misadventures reflected negatively on a company pursuing a more polished, professional image in line with its Fox broadcast deal and increased international presence.Welterweight Dennis Hallman became a viral sensation — and not in a good way — after wearing incredibly skimpy blue shorts at UFC 133 in August 2011, briefly exposing himself during a first-round loss to Brian Ebersole. Hallman claimed he lost a bet.At a Fox show in Sacramento last December, lightweight Cody McKenzie wore plain white basketball shorts with the tags still attached and a Nike logo crudely drawn on the leg. McKenzie, who was subsequently released by the UFC, said he had forgotten his fight shorts at the hotel. ' ' '
