GOLF
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) - Brooks Koepka backed up his record-tying 63 in the first round of the PGA Championship with a round that put him in a league of his own. With three birdies in a four-hole stretch at the start and at the end, the defending champion posted a 5-under 65 Friday that shattered the 36-hole score for a major championship.
More important to Koepka was a seven-shot lead over Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott going into the weekend at Bethpage Black. That set another PGA Championship record and was the largest at the halfway point of any major since Henry Cotton led by nine in the 1934 British Open.
Koepka was at 12-under 128, breaking by two shots the record shared at all four majors, most recently by Gary Woodland in the PGA Championship last year at Bellerive.
NBA
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The NBA has banned Indiana Pacers guard Tyreke Evans at least two years for violating the league’s anti-drug policy.
The league announced that Evans had been dismissed and disqualified on Friday. He can apply for reinstatement in 2021.
Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard declined comment at the NBA draft combine in Chicago. The team said it in a statement it would reach out to Evans to offer our support.
A 10-year veteran who will be a free agent after the season, Evans averaged 10.2 points in 69 games after signing with the Pacers in July. He scored 19.4 points per game for Memphis in 2017-18 and previously played for Sacramento and New Orleans.
HOCKEY
John Davidson is going back to the New York Rangers organization he has been synonymous with for much of his hockey career.
Davidson was hired as team president Friday hours after leaving his post with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He returns to New York where he spent parts of eight seasons as a Rangers goaltender and was a TV analyst for almost a decade.
The 66-year-old leaves the Blue Jackets in a much better position than they were in when he took over as president of hockey operations seven years ago.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - The NCAA has granted Memphis quarterback Brady White a sixth year of eligibility due to several medical issues he dealt with while playing at Arizona State.
Memphis announced the extension Friday.
White started all 14 games last season for Memphis. But he suffered a foot injury in 2016 after playing in three games that wiped out the rest of that season and all of the 2017 season. White, who sat out 2015 as a redshirt, graduated from Arizona State at the end of the 2017 season and enrolled at Memphis in January 2018.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Guard Boogie Ellis has signed his national letter of intent to play at Memphis, joining a vaunted recruiting class for coach Penny Hardaway going into his second season.
Memphis announced Friday that Ellis officially is a part of the Tigers’ 2019 recruiting class.
A four-star combo guard from San Diego, Ellis was released from his commitment to Duke earlier this spring. The 6-foot-2 guard is the No. 32 prospect nationally on 247Sports’ composite rankings.
Ellis joins a recruiting class that also includes Damion Baugh of Tennessee Prep, Lester Quinones of Brentwood, New York, D.J. Jeffries, Malcolm Dandridge and the nation’s No. 1 recruit in James Wiseman.
SOCCER
LOS ANGELES (AP) - LA Galaxy forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been suspended two games by Major League Soccer’s disciplinary committee for his conduct during last weekend’s game against New York City FC.
The league said Friday that Ibrahimovic’s actions against NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson constituted violent conduct. Ibrahimovic was bumped in the back by Johnson following a missed shot in the 87th minute of a 2-0 loss Saturday. Ibrahimovic grabbed Johnson by the neck with his right hand before both players fell.
It is the second time the former Sweden star has been fined for on-field since he joined the league last year.
HORSE RACING
BALTIMORE (AP) - A filly collapsed and died while running at Pimlico Race Course on Friday, the day before the track hosts the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Congrats Gal faltered in the upper stretch of the Miss Preakness Stakes in 83-degree heat and was eased to the finish line.
The Florida-bred 3-year-old was running her sixth career race. She came in last in the eighth race on the card and fell to the dirt about 100 yards past the finish line.
Clearly distraught, Congrats Gal jockey Trevor McCarthy said the filly felt hot walking on the track before the race. As a medical team rushed to the scene, McCarthy said, “She’s clearly sound. Nothing’s broken or anything like that.”
After being treated on the scene, Congrats Gal was taken from the track by ambulance.
BALTIMORE (AP) - Maximum Security owner Gary West has issued a multimillion dollar challenge to the owners of four horses that benefited from his horse’s historic disqualification in the Kentucky Derby.
In a statement released Friday, West says he’ll pay each of those owners $5 million apiece if Country House, War of Will, Long Range Toddy or Bodexpress finish ahead of Maximum Security in the next race against him through the end of the year.
West offered an alternate possibility of a $1.86 million wager - the winner’s share for the Kentucky Derby.
ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) - A 24th horse has died at Santa Anita, the first since March 31.
Commander Coil broke down during training hours Friday, sustaining a shoulder injury while galloping that required the 3-year-old gelding to be euthanized, according to a statement from The Stronach Group, which owns the track.
The statement called it an “uncommon injury.”
The horse had not yet made his racing debut. He was trained by Marcelo Polanco and owned by Jose Romero.
COLLEGES
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A now-dead Ohio State team doctor sexually abused at least 177 male students from the 1970s through the 1990s, and numerous university officials got wind of what was going on over the years but did little or nothing to stop him, according to a report released by the school Friday.
Dr. Richard Strauss groped or ogled young men while treating athletes from at least 16 sports and working at the student health center and his off-campus clinic, investigators from a law firm hired by the university found.
Ohio State President Michael Drake said at a news conference the school is sorry the incidents happened, using words like “shocking,” ’’horrifying” and “heartbreaking” to describe the findings.
He said there was a “consistent institutional failure” at Ohio State, the nation’s third-largest university, with nearly 65,000 students and a half-million living alumni. The school “fell short of its responsibility to its students, and that’s regrettable and inexcusable.”
COURTS
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Florida prosecutors are appealing a judge’s decision to block them from using video that allegedly shows New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft engaging in paid sex at a massage parlor.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office on Friday filed a notice to appeal Monday’s ruling that Jupiter police did not follow proper procedures after installing the hidden cameras that secretly recorded Kraft visiting the Orchids of Asia Day Spa twice in January.
The judge wrote that detectives did not do enough to minimize the invasion of privacy of customers who did not commit crimes.
Prosecutors say the warrant obtained to install the cameras was legal and aimed at stopping a felony-level prostitution operation.
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