Jason Day claims Deutsche Bank lead; Tiger Woods’ No. 1 ranking in jeopardy

Australia’s Jason Day capped an exciting day at the Deutsche Bank Championship on Sunday with a routine birdie to take the lead after the third round at Norton, Mass.

Day watched a three-shot lead evaporate in two holes, only to get it back on the par-five 18th with a shot just off the back of the green, leaving him a simple two-putt for birdie and a five-under 66. He had a one-shot lead over American Brandt Snedeker, who made a mess of the 18th until chipping in for par and a 67.

England’s Luke Donald was a stroke further back in third place after he birdied the last hole for a 66. The rest of the leaderboard has Steve Stricker and Charley Hoffman at 13 under and Phil Mickelson leading a group of four tied at 12 under.

Tiger Woods could manage only one birdie over the last 11 holes and shot a two-under 69, leaving him tied for 23rd and 10 shots out of the lead. That set the stage for either Sticker or Mickelson to end Woods’ spell at the top of the rankings after more than five years.

Day was at 17-under 196, matching the 54-hole record at the TPC Boston set by Mike Weir two years ago.

“I played great today and [made] just one little mistake,” said Day, 22, who won his only PGA Tour event in May. “Overall I feel very happy with how I played and how I handled myself. Tomorrow I’m just going to try to do what I did today.”

Woods, who opened the tournament Friday with three birdies and four bogeys but rebounded Saturday with his first bogey-free round of the year, had a bogey on each side Sunday to offset his four birdies on the TPC Boston course.

“Overall today I think I played better than what my score indicated,” Woods said. “I had a lot of putts that I didn’t make today. I made a couple nice par putts, but boy, I missed a lot of birdie putts. I kept getting double-breaking putts.

“I had to really grind and stay committed to what I was doing out there. I did it for the most part. Early on I was struggling a little bit, but fixed it, got it, and hit a lot of good shots after that.”

Ted Schulz won the First Tee Open for his first Champions Tour title, holing an eight-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole at Pebble Beach en route to a two-under 70 and a one-stroke victory over Tom Pernice Jr.

The 50-year-old Schulz — in the field as an alternate in his 12th start on the 50-and-over tour — finished at 14-under 202. It was his first victory since winning the 1991 Nissan Open for the second of his two PGA Tour titles.

Pernice finished with a 67. Mark Calcavecchia and Tom Kite closed with 69s to tie for third at 12 under. Fred Couples (68) followed at 11 under.

Jeff Sluman, the 2008 and 2009 winner, shot a 71 to finish at six under.

Miguel Angel Jimenez won the European Masters, shooting a four-under 67 to beat Edoardo Molinari by three strokes at Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland.

Jimenez finished at 21-under 263 to secure his third European Tour victory of the year.

Molinari also shot a 67, and fellow Italian Matteo Manassero had a 68 to finish third two more shots back.

BASKETBALL

Storm reaches WNBA finals

Sue Bird made a tiebreaking three-pointer with 2.8 seconds remaining, and the Seattle Storm advanced to the WNBA finals with a 91-88 victory over the defending-champion Mercury at Phoenix, closing the game with a 15-0 run.

Diana Taurasi, who finished with 28 points, missed a contested three-pointer at the buzzer for Phoenix.

Swin Cash had 23 points and eight rebounds, helping Seattle erase an 88-76 deficit in the second game of the best-of-three conference finals. League most valuable player Lauren Jackson scored 20 points and had eight rebounds.

Angel McCoughtry scored 13 of her 21 points in the fourth quarter, leading the Atlanta Dream to an 81-75 victory over the host New York Liberty in the opener of the Eastern Conference finals.

Turkey used a 21-4 run spanning the second and third quarters to eliminate France from the world championship with a 95-77 win at Istanbul.

Phoenix Suns forward Hedo Turkoglu scored 20 points and Sinan Guler had 17 for Turkey, which played its first tournament game in the new Sinan Erdem Dome. A near-capacity crowd of 15,000 watched the home team shoot 35 for 55 from the field in the round of 16 game.

Jaka Lokovic scored 19 points and Slovenia made 16 of 33 three-pointers to eliminate Australia, 87-58, in the round of 16 in the world championships at Istanbul.

Lokovic’s corner three-pointer in the game’s opening seconds sparked a 12-0 run, and Slovenia never looked back. Primoz Brezec of the Milwaukee Bucks had 12 points, and Goran Dragic had 10 points and eight assists for Slovenia.