WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017 SPORTS Kim joins elite group and shows where he belongs

PONTE VEDRA BEACH: Si Woo Kim earned playoff event). He was No 18 in the world access to a room reserved for winners of The when the Australian won at Sawgrass. Perks Players Championship. He now shares locker was No 203 in the world who had never No. 4 with Lanny Wadkins, the former PGA won on the PGA Tour or competed in The champion and Ryder Cup stalwart. Locker Players Championship until the 35-year-old No. 5 belongs to Lee Trevino, the six-time Kiwi chipped in for eagle on the 16th hole, major champion. Both are in a far more made a 30-foot birdie putt on the island- exclusive club located about 30 minutes green 17th and chipped in for par from away at the World Golf Hall of Fame. Kim is behind the 18th green to win by two. That still 21. The strength of The Players turned out to be his only victory. This was Championship is the depth of its field, the the second PGA Tour title for Kim. He shot size of its purse and the pedigree of so many 60 in the second round of the Wyndham winners. Now that Kim has joined the list, all Championship last August and won by five. but 12 winners in the 44-year history also By winning The Players Championship, are major champions. By all accounts, the Kim became only the fourth player over the South Korean is just getting started. last 25 years with multiple victories before Kim showed remarkable calm amid turning 22. The others were Tiger Woods, inevitable chaos at the TPC Sawgrass to Sergio Garcia and Jordan Spieth. Not to be become the youngest winner of The overlooked is how Kim reached this stage Players Championship. He took the lead in the first place. Five years ago, Kim decid- with a 25-foot birdie putt on the seventh ed to try Q-school on the PGA Tour because hole and never gave it back. He missed the it was the final year for players to gain green 10 times and saved par each time. instant access to the big leagues. Kim went Playing in the penultimate group, he had through all four stages (starting with a pre- the second-best score in the final round qualifier) and earned his card. (69), and he was the only player in the field to not make bogey. Lost year It will rank as one of the best Sunday The problem was that Kim could not performances on the scary Stadium Course become a PGA Tour member until he at TPC Sawgrass. And maybe the most sur- turned 18 the following June, so 2013 prising. Statistics and scores going into The effectively was a lost year. Kim wound up Players Championship would not have led playing eight PGA Tour events and didn’t anyone to pay attention to Kim. The tour’s make a cut. He spent a full year on the “strokes gained” statistic measures how a Web.com Tour in 2014 and had only one player performs against the field and has top 10, and the following year he won the PITTSBURGH: goalie Craig Anderson, center, reacts to allowing the game-winning by ’ Phil Kessel become the most reliable standard. Stonebrae Classic and earned his way back during the third period of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final in the NHL hockey . — AP to the big leagues. Major victories “I was a little pressured that I qualified at Going into last week, Kim was ranked Q-school when I was 17 years old,” Kim said Penguins knot series with outside the top 200 in three categories through a translator. “Because I was very related to the long game (driving, pressured, I think I didn’t do well for two approach shots and tee-to-green). He was years. However, the Web.com Tour experi- better in putting, the most important cate- ence actually really helped me to get more 1-0 victory over Senators gory in golf. Kim was at No 183. As for his experience. And from that experience, I think results? He did not have a top 20 all year. that made me win this tournament.” Kim He had only made two cuts against a full now has a victory in each of his two seasons. PITTSBURGH: Mike Sullivan calls the energetic thing tangible: a lead and a tie series. “I caught they spent most of the night down two men field (Bay Hill and the Texas Open). Kim, More importantly, he has a five-year back-and-forth on the Pittsburgh Penguins an edge, simple as that,” said Anderson, who fin- after forward Bryan Rust and defenseman Justin who has been dealing with a nagging wrist exemption on the PGA Tour, along with a bench “a man’s argument.” If his players have ished with 28 saves. “A defenseman or forward Schultz left in the first period with injuries. injury, also withdrew from three tourna- three-year exemption to the Masters, US something to say, Sullivan wants them to get it catches an edge, he falls down, nothing hap- Rust was on the losing end of a clean check by ments this year after opening rounds of 83, Open and British Open. He also faces out. Enter Phil Kessel, the mercurial forward with pens. I catch an edge, it’s in the net.” Ottawa’s Dion Phaneuf 4:58 into the game. 81 and 76. So is he another Adam Scott or mandatory military service in South Korea the blistering shot and occasionally blistering That was enough for Marc-Andre Fleury, Schultz, who has become Pittsburgh’s most another Craig Perks? unless he wins a major or an Olympic gold tongue. Frustrated by an inability to get any- who stopped 23 shots for his second shutout of important blue liner with and Trevor Scott won The Players in 2004, though medal. For now, that place in the winners- thing by Ottawa’s Craig Anderson, cameras the playoffs and 10th of his postseason career. Daley out, slid awkwardly into the end boards by then he already had five victories world- only locker room at the TPC Sawgrass is a caught Kessel pounding his fists and ordering Fleury’s 62nd playoff win moved him ahead of after getting bumped off the puck by Senators wide, including the Deutsche Bank good place to be. Kim will have plenty of his teammates to look for him. Henrik Lundqvist for the most by an active forward Mike Hoffman about midway through the Championship (before it was a FedEx Cup time to show where else he belongs. — AP Consider the message delivered. Kessel took a goaltender, heady territory for a guy who lost first. Sullivan offered no updates on either player. feed from Evgeni Malkin and zipped a wrist shot his starting job to Matt Murray during the Somehow, the Penguins found a way to make by Anderson 13:05 into the third period as the course of the season. Now Fleury is the main it work. The five remaining defensemen all Penguins evened the Eastern Conference final reason the Penguins are three wins from a played at least 20 minutes, including 24:49 from with a 1-0 victory in Game 2 on Monday night. return trip to the Cup finals. 37-year-old Ron Hainsey, who is in the playoffs Game 3 is Wednesday in Ottawa. “To be honest I This victory, however, wasn’t the byproduct for the first time in his career. “After a while the think I yelled more than once tonight, so I don’t of 60 minutes of brilliance. Fleury spent long rotation is kind of set and away you go,” Hainsey remember that time,” Kessel said with a laugh. stretches with nothing to do as the Penguins said. “You don’t have time to really mentally That’s just Kessel being Kessel. If anything, his hemmed Ottawa in its own end. The Senators think about any mistakes good or bad, because outburst was simply the physical manifestation went nearly 19 minutes between the second you’re going right back out there. You don’t have of Sullivan’s order to stop looking for the perfect and third period without recording a single shot, any other choice.” shot and just start peppering Anderson looking a testament to Pittsburgh’s ability to play keep- Pittsburgh’s ability to hog the puck hardly for a sliver of space. The moment came with just away on the other end of the ice. “We were seemed to bother the Senators, who have less than 7 minutes remaining when Malkin pleased with the way we dictated the terms out proven repeatedly during their deepest playoff gained the zone and found Kessel in the slot. there,” Sullivan said. run in a decade they’re just fine sitting back and waiting for an opening to counter. It’s a style Second playoff shutout Lacking pressure that produced both goals in Game 1. This time, it Kessel’s first shot smacked off Jean Gabriel A marked departure from Game 1, as eventually caught up to them. “The third period Pagueau and came right back to him. It hap- Pittsburgh struggled to generate any sort of they stepped it up a notch and we didn’t,” pened so quickly Anderson didn’t have enough extended pressure in a 2-1 overtime loss. The Ottawa coach Guy Boucher said. “They were time to reset, his left pad flailing as Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup champions responded by heavily surging. They were aggressive. We didn’t man- game-long domination finally resulted in some- tilting the ice at times, remarkable considering age it as well.” — AP Lakers, 76ers have plenty

FLORIDA: Si Woo Kim of South Korea, holds The Players Championship Trophy, riding on the NBA lottery Sunday, May 14, 2017, in Ponte Vedra Beach. — AP

NEW YORK: Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Steve lands inside the top three on Tuesday - and there’s Alonso begins IndyCar crash Nash are gone, though they won’t be forgotten. about a 53 percent chance it won’t. The former All-Stars have as much to do with this course with practice session NBA draft lottery as the players of tomorrow. The 76ERS Boston Celtics can benefit in a big way from trad- The winners of last year’s lottery will really INDIANA: Fernando Alonso was back in an the Monaco Grand Prix and Le Mans. “I ing two former champions, while the Los Angeles “Trust the Process” if they win even bigger IndyCar and briefly at the top of the timing think the most difficult thing will be the Lakers hope a failed trade for one point guard Tuesday. If the Lakers fall out of the top three, charts on Monday as the twice Formula race itself, all the things that happen in a won’t cost them a shot at another. their pick goes to the 76ers, who would get it One champion continued his buildup to race like this one, which are the traffic and Even though the Celtics will play in the from Phoenix per terms of a three-team trade the Indianapolis 500 later this month. learning all the little tricks to overtake,” Eastern Conference finals this season, they have a with Milwaukee at the 2015 deadline. And since Alonso, who flew directly from Barcelona to said Alonso, already a winner on the 25 percent of landing the No. 1 pick. The Lakers it starts in the No. 4 spot with its own pick, Indianapolis after a 12th place finish at his streets of Monaco. “I don’t have that expe- had the NBA’s third-worst record in the league Philadelphia can arrive at next month’s draft home Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, start- rience and I don’t have that time, so I know but are in danger of not having a lottery pick at potentially owning a pair of top-four selections. ed the first full day of practice at the that I will be weaker in some of these all if the balls bounce the way the odds say they Brickyard by setting the pace in the rookie aspects. “I need to learn as quick as I can in will. A look at some of the teams to watch PELICANS orientation session with a speed of 221.634 the next 10 days, 12 days.” Tuesday, and how they got in their spot: New Orleans made a big move in February mph (357 km/h). Alonso’s McLaren Honda Andretti when it acquired DeMarcus Cousins from The Spaniard would improve on that Autosport team mate Marco Andretti was CELTICS Sacramento, and now the Pelicans will figure out performance later in the afternoon, charg- the fastest on day one with top speed of When Boston sent Pierce and Garnett to how costly it was. Their pick is only top-three pro- ing around the sun-kissed 2.5 mile oval at 226.338 mph followed by 2008 winner Brooklyn as part of a draft-night trade in 2013, tected, so if the Pelicans don’t move up from the 223.025 mph but could only manage the Scott Dixon of New Zealand. Ed Carpenter, the Celtics not only acquired the Nets’ first-round 10th spot into the top three spots, the pick goes 19th best effort among the 32 drivers tak- twice a pole sitter at the Brickyard, was picks in 2014, 2016 and 2018, but also the right to the Kings. ing part. The practice session marked the third quickest followed by Frenchman to swap first-round selections in 2017. The timing LOS ANGELES: In this Aug 23, 2016 file photo, start of a two-week crash course in IndyCar Sebastien Bourdais, who spent parts of two couldn’t have worked out better, as the Nets former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic MAVERICKS racing for Alonso, who will miss the next seasons in Formula One with Toro Rosso. It tumbled all the way to the worst record in the Johnson speaks at a groundbreaking cere- Dallas is in pretty unfamiliar territory even stop on the F1 calendar in Monte Carlo to was just the second time in an IndyCar for NBA this season. Boston can select no lower than mony for a stadium which will be home to being in the lottery, where it has appeared just race the Indy 500 on May 28, the second Alonso, who flew to Indianapolis for a pri- fourth in the June draft. the Los Angeles Football Club. — AP one other time since 2000. The Mavericks start jewel in motor racing’s Triple Crown with vate test earlier in the month. — Reuters the two stars in separate trades, but Nash made it the night in the No. 9 spot and are hoping to LAKERS through just 65 games over two seasons because move into the top three for the first time since Nash and Dwight Howard were on the cover of of back problems. The Lakers only get to keep the taking eventual co-Rookie of the Year Jason Sports Illustrated in 2012 after the Lakers acquired pick they dealt to Phoenix as part of the deal if it Kidd in 1994. — AP Super Bowl halftime coming to College Football Playoff

DALLAS: The College Football Playoff is bring- former with broad appeal. For years the Super culture includes marching bands performing ing a Super Bowl-style halftime show to the Bowl has featured marquee artists such as at halftime.” national championship game without bump- Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce’, U2 and Prince Hancock said ESPN approached CFP officials ing the marching bands. ESPN and the College performing at halftime. with the idea of a concert in Centennial Football Playoff say that a musical guest will The marching bands for each participat- Olympic Park at halftime as part of the national perform at halftime of this season’s title game ing school will still perform in the stadium at championship game broadcast and live watch in Atlanta on Jan 8, 2018, and the performance halftime of the national title game and that party. Fans without tickets to the game will be will be aired on ESPN. performance will be aired on an ESPN chan- able to watch the game and attend the concert The halftime concert will be held in nel to be determined as part of the network’s in Centennial Park for free. “This will be a win- Centennial Olympic Park, near the new megacast. “Traditions are an important part win, enhancing the viewing experience for a Mercedes-Benz Stadium. An artist has not yet of college football,” College Football Playoff broad section of fans at home and in the park, been booked, but ESPN is taking the lead on Executive Director Bill Hancock said in a while maintaining the culture of the game securing what it hopes will be an A-list per- statement to the AP on Monday “This rich inside the stadium,” Hancock said. — AP INDIANAPOLIS: Fernando Alonso, of Spain, walks in front of his car during a practice ses- sion for the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. — AP