SUNDAY, AUGUST ,8 2010 GOLF ROUNDUP O’Hair, Palmer tied for lead in Bridgestone ASSOCIATED PRESS


akron, ohio — Sean O’Hair and Ryan Palmer kept firing at flags and making birdies until they wound up tied for the lead Saturday in the Bridgestone In- vitational. The way this tourna- ment is going, that only means they get to tee off last in the final round. Palmer birdied three of his


last five holes for a 7-under 63. O’Hairmade aneagle early inhis round and found confidence late with a wedge to a dangerous pin for birdie that led to a 64 to join Palmer in the lead. They were at 9-under 201,


one shot ahead of Matt Kuchar (66). “It doesn’t matter if you’re in


the lead or one shot back, two shots back. It doesn’t matter,” O’Hair said. “There’s 18 holes of golf left (Sunday), and in my opinion, there’s no leaders. It’s just a shootout.” That’s what it looked like


underperfect scoring conditions Saturday, with 35 players shoot- ing in the 60s. The group did not include


seven-time Firestone champion Tiger Woods. He went through the motions on his way to a 75, finishing another poor round some two hours before the lead- ers even teed off. Woods was 20 shotsbehind, in78thplace out of 80 players in this World Golf Championship. PhilMickelsonfailedto break


par, but he’s still in the tourna- ment, with a shot to replace Woods as No. 1 in the world. He got within one shot of the lead with a birdie on the par-3 sev- enth, but stumbled coming in with two bogeys for a 71. That dropped him into a tie


for 10th, four shots out of the lead. Mickelson would have to finish alone in fourth place to reach No. 1 in the world ranking for the first time in his career.


KLMNO


K EZ


SU SOCCER


United suffers another defeat


Determined effort under new coach


can’t prevent 1-0 loss BY STEVEN GOFF


foxborough, mass. — Ben


Olsen leaned over the signboard separating D.C. United’s bench from the Gillette Stadium field, barking instruction to a misera- ble team that had become his unenviable responsibility this week after Curt Onalfo’s dismiss- al.


Olsen’s energywas contagious


Saturday night, translating into a determined and coordinated ef- fort, but his influence couldn’t solve United’s scoring crisis, which deepened with another woeful display of finishing. Those problems, coupledwith


a defensive lapse late in the first half, sent United to a 1-0 loss to the New England Revolution, extending its losing streak to four and winless skid to seven. United (3-13-3) was shut out


for the 13th time, and in the past 396 minutes of MLS play, D.C. has scored just once. Rookie Andy Najar is the only player to produce a league goal for United since early June. Olsen’s lineup choices weren’t


ANDY LYONS/GETTY IMAGES


Co-leaderRyan Palmer lines up his putt on the 18th hole at the Bridgestone Invitational. Ernie Els finished with back-


to-back birdies for a 64 and was only two shots out of the lead.He was at 7-under 203 along with Peter Hanson of Sweden (68)


and Justin Leonard (69). l CHAMPIONS TOUR: David


Frost shot a 6-under 66 and was tied with Mark Calcavecchia for the lead after two rounds of the


BASEBALL


particularly radical. He replaced veteran goalkeeper Troy Perkins with Bill Hamid— a predictable move after Perkins’s poor perfor- mance at Real Salt Lake last weekend — and inserted Chris Pontius at forward for Danny Allsopp, who has scored just twice in 13 league appearances. In defensive midfield, Ste-


3M Championship in Blaine, Minn. John Cook (67), Kirk


Hanefeld (64) andDavid Peoples (66) were two shots back.


phen King stepped in for Clyde Simms,whowillmiss up to three weeks with a calf injury suffered last week. United had the better of play


formuch of the first half,moving the ball fluidly on the artificial turf to create promising chances. But the club continued to lack menace in the attack, and its few efforts on goal failed to test goalkeeperMatt Reis. Perhaps the finest sequence came on a counterattack in the


20th minute, but with Pablo Hernandez bearing down on Reis, defender Darrius Barnes made an outstanding challenge to take away the ball. Revolution defender Cory Gibbs could have broken the deadlock eight min- utes later, but his eight-yard header missed the near upper corner. New England (5-9-3)made no


such mistakes on a set piece late in the half. From the edge of the center circle, Chris Tierney served a free kick deep into the box. Pat Phelan shed Branko Boskovic’s lazymarking and nod- ded an eight-yard header beyond Hamid’s reach for his first goal in 48 career league appearances. United’s finishing frustration


continued 11 minutes into the second half. Boskovic set up Hernandezwith awell-weighted, one-touch pass onto the running Argentine forward’s right foot. But after one touch, Hernandez offered an unimaginative and soft shot from 12 yards that Reis blocked without difficulty. AfterHernandez’s inadequate


touch let twomore opportunities go to waste, Marc Burch’s dan- gerous left-side cross nearly con- nected with Pontius at the six- yard box. Olsen made his first move in


the 69thminute, removing Bosk- ovic in favor of former New England forward Adam Crist- man. It was Cristman’s first ap- pearance since recovering from hernia surgery. United pressed for the equal-


izer. In the 73rd, King whistled a one-timer fromthe top of the box narrowly wide of the right post. Seven minutes later, Hernandez served an ideal corner kick to Cristman on the back side. Un- marked and six yards from the target, Cristman produced a ter- rible downward header that bounded wide of the near post— a typical failure in a season that grows worse by the week. United Notes: D.C. will play


its first league homematch in 27 days this Saturday against FC Dallas at RFK Stadium.


goffs@washpost.com


D5


PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK


Saints’ defense shines at intrasquad scrimmage


ASSOCIATED PRESS The New Orleans Saints’ de-


fense racked up sacks, broke up passes, nearly returned a fumble for a score and left Drew Brees muttering to himself on the side- line. Saturday’s annual Black and Gold scrimmage was not the best of days for Sean Payton’s vaunted offense,which had led theNFL in yardage three of the past four seasons. Brees started fast, completing


PHIL SANDLIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS Newly enshrinedHall of Famer Andre Dawson will be honored by theNationals on Tuesday atNationals Park. Nats connect the dots to their Expos past expos from D1 “We have a much bigger con-


nection [to Dawson] than to just any Hall of Famer,” Kasten said. “Obviously, he played for this franchise in another city. As you know, in Washington we made the decision to recognize Wash- ington’s baseball history more than this franchise’s history. We’re trying to do a little of both. “We don’t know where the


line is drawn. Butwhenyou have a player this great, both on and off the field, and he has this connection to our franchise, we felt it was particularly appropri- ate to recognize him.” Dawson, like virtually all ex-


Expos, is grateful that the Na- tionals have retained their con- nection to the franchise’s Mon- treal roots — otherwise, the Ex- pos would be little more than a memory that fades a little more each year. “There’s a lot of history there,”


Dawson said. “I don’t think [the Nationals] owe anything to the fact the team played inMontreal all those years. You have your own organization you have to tend to. But I think they’re tak- ing some steps in the right direc- tion. “A lot of my old teammates


are still baffled by the fact the team doesn’t exist in Montreal anymore, and any way or form that you are embraced by the [city] that has taken over the franchise, that’s a meaningful thing.” But PhilWood, a local broad-


caster and the unofficial custodi- an ofWashington’s baseball his- tory, thinks theNationals should have left the Expos’ history in Montreal, rather than lug it all the way back to Washington, where plenty of homegrown his- tory already resided. And — is this awkward? —


Wood will be the one making the presentation to Dawson on the field Tuesday night. “I think it’s nice, baseball-


wise” to honor Dawson, Wood said, “because it probably makes more sense for the Nationals to do it than for anyone else to do it, since he spent so many years with the franchise. But I really don’t think D.C. fans have any feel at all for guys who played for the Expos.” Wood suggests that the Na-


tionals, if they honor anybody, should make it Whitey Herzog, the longtime St. Louis Cardinals manager who was inducted into Cooperstown alongside Dawson last month, because Herzog ac-


tually played inWashington, for the original Senators, from 1956 to 1958. “Let’s be honest,” Wood said.


“There aren’t a lot of us left who remember the Senators. In order to remember the Senators at all, you’d have to be at least 40 years old. But you can’t just ignore those years, the ’24World Series and the other pennants [the Sen- ators] won. I think in 20 years, those will be just words in a book, and you’ll be looking at [current Nationals] like [Ryan] Zimmerman and [Stephen] Strasburg. “But I think it’s more impor-


tant to remember those days than it is to celebrate the Expos.” But if theNationals disowned


their Montreal roots, where would that leave the Expos’ his- tory? Shoved into some musty corner of Olympic Stadium, muchas the Senators’ history lay dormant during the 34 years in which baseball was absent from Washington? At least now, thanks to the presence of the Nationals, there is a proper ven- ue for the celebration of the Senators’ legacy. But with no baseball in Montreal (and little chance of it ever returning), the Expos’ history has no such vehi- cle.


“I have great empathy for the


fans in Montreal who lost their club,”Wood said. “Iknowexactly what it feels like. To hang on to those records means something to those people. But I can’t imag- ine there are more than a few hundred people [in Montreal] following the Nationals on a regular basis.” For Dawson, after the hectic, six-month build-up between his election to Cooperstownin Janu- ary and the actual induction ceremony in July, he is thankful Tuesday night’s affair will be a simple one. “I had a strange sense of calm


about me when I received word back in January, as if a weight had been lifted,” said Dawson, whowaselected in his ninth year on the ballot. “It felt like it was a long time coming. As for the [Cooperstown] ceremony, my family was probably more excit- ed about it than I was. I guess I was dreading the idea of how many activities were involved and how drained I’d be by Sun- day.


“Nothing else that happens


for me can compare to that Hall of Fame weekend.” sheinind@washpost.com


his first four passes for 64 yards while leading a touchdown drive that ended on Reggie Bush’s six- yard run. After that, Brees con- nected on only two of his next 12 passes as the defense routinely stalled drives. Newly acquired lineman Jim-


myWilkerson was among the de- fensive standouts, making one of his unit’s six sacks and nearly re- turningafumbleforatouchdown.


l BROWNS: Jake Delhomme


threw a touchdown pass in his first appearance for his newteam atClevelandBrowns Stadiumand cornerback Brandon McDonald returned an interception for an- other score as the Brown team beat the White team, 14-6, in an intrasquad scrimmage. Delhomme, slated to be Cleve-


land’s startingquarterback, threw a five-yard scoring pass to tight end Ben Watson in the fourth quarter for the Brown team. He completed 10 of 15 passes for 78 yards andno interceptions.


during the first 1 1/2


l PANTHERS:Muchof thetalk weeks of train-


ing camp focused onthe improve- ments the Carolina Panthers made in the passing game after finishing 27th in the league last year. However, it didn’t look that


way at FanFest scrimmage. The first-team offense man-


aged just two first downs in three possessions as quarterback Matt Moore finished 4 of 9 for 26 yards while an experienced offensive line looked out of synch and al- lowed regular pressure from the


second-teamdefense. The second-team offense


wasn’t any better. Led by quarter- backs Hunter Cantwell and Jim- my Clausen, it managed just one first down during its 12-play se- quence. The only points of the scrimmage came when the third- team offense managed to get in field goal range for veteran kicker JohnKasay.


l GIANTS: New York wide re-


ceiver Steve Smith says he hopes to return froma groin injury next week. The four-year veteran said doctors say he suffered a mild straininpractice onFriday. . . . The starting job in New York’s


backfield is up for grabs.Brandon Jacobsnolonger isalocktoget the first call. The big guy is being pushed by his training camp roommate, andAhmadBradshaw seems to have pulled ahead. Coach Tom Coughlin played


down the significance of Brad- shawliningupwiththe first team, but the days of Jacobs wearing down defenses early to set up Bradshaw running late might be changing. Now Bradshawmay be tiring opponents early so Jacobs canrunthemover later. Bradshawdodgedthequestion


ofwhether his rolewas changing. “I’mexpecting a lotmore fromthe offense, and I’mexpecting to help out a lot,” he said. However, it’s clear that Bradshaw is going to have a bigger role if he can stay healthy.


l CARDINALS: Arizona wide


receiver Early Doucet sat out the morning practicewith an abdom- inal injury. Cardinals Coach Ken Whisen-


hunt said the move was just pre- cautionary and that he expected Doucet to return to practice soon. The team is off Sunday and will resume training campMonday. Doucet, a third-year pro out of


LSU, is expected to be the teams No. 3 receiver behind Larry Fitzgerald and SteveBreaston.He has a larger role this season after Arizona traded wide receiver An- quan Boldin to Baltimore in the offseason.


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