Fog ruins Day Three at Torrey

Fog made for a farcical third day of the Farmers Insurance Open in La Jolla, California, which is now set to finish on Monday.

Tiger Woods held a two-shot lead after the second round but never got out on to the Torrey Pines course as only half a dozen players started their third rounds.

Former Ryder Cup player Hunter Mahan had time to par the 10th hole, as did playing partners Robert Garrigus and John Mallinger.

Boo Weekley was in the rough to the right of the first fairway after his tee shot, with Mike Weir and Chez Reavie in the short grass to his left, but that was the extent of the day's play.

Former world number one Woods will resume on Sunday on 11 under par, with Billy Horschel his nearest challenger on nine under.

There are six players a further shot behind while the seven-strong group at seven under includes England's Ross Fisher, Korean Charlie Wi, Nick Watney and Tag Ridings, who hit a hole in one in the first round.

Play will resume at 10am ET (3pm GMT) and continue as long as there is daylight, with tournament organisers expecting to have to return on Monday to complete between nine and 12 holes. The 87 players who made the cut will play in the same threesomes for both remaining rounds.

Defending champion Brandt Snedeker, who shared the lead after an opening 65 but fell to four under yesterday, reflected on a frustrating day.

"We have these days from time to time," he told pgatour.com. "You realize it's a different week, and could be a Monday finish now and be ready for that.

"You catch up with some guys you haven't seen in a while, you do a lot of storytelling.

"Tomorrow [Sunday] you'll have to go low. It's going to be a weird day. You'll play a lot of golf tomorrow, and probably play more than 18 holes.

"We need to get out here with the mindset that we need to make a lot of birdies, try to get back in contention and do as well as you can."

The aborted day's play had been designated "University Day", with players urged to wear their school colours and with the opportunity to win cash prizes for their university.

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Wood: Qatar Masters win a dream

Darren Clarke was right after all - Bristol's Chris Wood does have what it takes to be a European Tour winner.

A closing 12-foot eagle putt gave Wood a thrilling first victory on the circuit at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in Doha.

It came two years after he was four strokes clear with a round to play in Majorca, but shot 76 and handed the title to stablemate Clarke.

"We don't have to worry about him - he will win and it will be sooner rather than later," said Clarke, who two months later became Open champion.

Wood, who a year earlier closed with a 76 when leading the BMW PGA Championship, had taken his total of top-10 finishes to 19, including three second places, when he stood on the final tee in Doha on Saturday one behind Sergio Garcia and George Coetzee.

Having led by three at the start of the day, he was in grave danger of suffering more bitter disappointment.

Instead, however, he hit a 300-yard drive into perfect position, a towering six-iron over water to 12 feet and, after looking at the leaderboard for the first time all day, sank the putt.

"It feels amazing - a dream come true," said the 25-year-old who came fifth in the 2008 Open as an amateur and then a year later missed out on the play-off between Tom Watson and Stewart Cink at Turnberry only by bogeying the final hole.

"I've been knocking on the door a few times and it's not happened.

"Winning on the European Tour is not easy. Now there's an enormous weight off my shoulders and I feel I can go on and win more."

"You don't get many chances in a play-off, so I knew that was my chance - and I took it."

Although he had won the Thailand Open in August last year, this was on an entirely different level with two of the world's top five - Justin Rose and Louis Oosthuizen - and a host of Ryder Cup stars and major winners in the field.

"I probably went to sleep about midnight and woke up probably three, four, five, six (times). I knew I was having a lot of support from all of the text messages - a couple of them woke me up at one o'clock in the morning!" he said.

He and Garcia now move on to Dubai for the last leg of the Tour's three-week Desert Swing. Lee Westwood plays his first tournament of the year there.

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Giants slump to opening defeat

World Series champions the San Francisco Giants drew a blank in their opening game of the new season as they slumped 4-0 on the road against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Left-hander Clayton Kershaw played the starring role with a four-hit shutout and the tie-breaking homer in the four-run eighth inning.

A pair of home runs from 20-year-old Bryce Harper led the reigning NL East champions theWashington Nationals to a 2-0 home success over the Miami Marlins.

Freddie Freeman, Justin Upton and Dan Uggla all homered as the Atlanta Braves toppled thePhiladelphia Phillies 7-5, while a grand slam from Collin Cowgill in the seventh inning helped theNew York Mets to their 11-2 trouncing of the San Diego Padres.

The Chicago Cubs edged the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1, with a two-run homer from Anthony Rizzo.

Elsewhere in National League action, the Milwaukee Brewers sneaked a 5-4 home win after 10 innings against the Colorado Rockies, courtesy of Jonathan Lucroy's sacrifice fly, while theArizona Diamondbacks beat the St Louis Cardinals 6-2.

For the first time, the opening day featured an interleague fixture, and after 13 innings it went the way of the Los Angeles Angels who toppled the Cincinnati Reds 3-1. Chris Iannetta, who homered in the third inning, also hit the two-run single to clinch victory.

American League champions the Detroit Tigers were 4-2 winners against the Minnesota Twins, while the Boston Red Sox romped home 8-2 against the New York Yankees, and the Kansas City Royals went down 1-0 in Chicago to the White Sox.

Franklin Gutierrez's two-run single in the fifth inning delivered a 2-0 win for the Seattle Marinersagainst the Oakland Athletics.

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Boxing: Fury camp considering Cunningham

Former cruiserweight world champion Steve Cunningham is being considered as a possible opponent for Tyson Fury's American debut in New York.

Fury had been hoping for a St Patrick's Day fight on 17 March, but the bout has been pushed back to 20 April and Cunningham could be in the opposite corner.

The American dropped a disputed points defeat to Tomasz Adamek in December and the Fury camp want to make a big impact in the US with a convincing win over Cunningham.

Trainer Peter Fury told World Boxing News: "The date of April 20 is now 100% for Tyson and we are looking at getting Steve Cunningham or one of two others for Tyson's American debut.

"We have been in training now for a March fight so we tried to get a fight in between in Germany, but (promoter Mick) Hennessy said not possible so we will be easing Tyson back a bit.

"A four month camp is too long, but we are looking forward to getting out there and making a statement in the USA.

"I think a fight with Cunningham is a good fight, especially when everyone says he beat Adamek. So if Tyson does a good job on him, it will send a message to everyone and have no doubts he will do."

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Toothless Spurs defeated by Leeds

Toothless Tottenham bowed out of the FA Cup at the fourth-round stage as they were beaten 2-1 at npower Championship side Leeds.

With Jermain Defoe reportedly injured and Emmanuel Adebayor on international duty, manager Andre Villas-Boas went into the Elland Road clash without a recognised striker and it showed as Spurs, Clint Dempsey's consolation strike aside, repeatedly failed in front of goal.

Leeds actually had striking problems of their own ahead of the game - leading scorer Luciano Becchio was not involved as a move away from Elland Road looms - but they gave no suggestion of it as Luke Varney and then Ross McCormack found the target to send Spurs packing.

McCormack's effort was a stunning 50th-minute strike that gave Neil Warnock's side some breathing space. Varney's 15th-minute opener had earlier set the tone, with Leeds sharper in the final third.

With no out-ball up front, Villas-Boas relied heavily on wing pair Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon but the duo rarely got any change out of full-backs Sam Byram and Aidy White and, when chances did come to Dempsey, he was largely unable to take them.

With 19-goal Becchio watching at home as his agent and the club disagree over a contract offer, it was surprising to see Leeds so sprightly in attack, even if they did have to weather an early Tottenham storm during which Dempsey dragged wide and Gylfi Sigurdsson headed at Jamie Ashdown.

Dempsey also put a header over but after that Leeds settled and went ahead through Varney, a player who has been a target for the boo boys this season for his anaemic record in front of goal.

This was just his second of the campaign but he took it with the confidence of a man who had more, opening his body to beat Brad Friedel after he got clear on Michael Brown's hopeful punt forward, with El-Hadji Diouf's faux flick confusing the visiting defenders.

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Ferrari: Alonso to miss Jerez

Ferrari have said that Felipe Massa will debut their new car at Jerez next month, with Fernando Alonso not taking the wheel until the second pre-season test in Spain.

In a statement on their website, the Scuderia said that Massa will be in the cockpit for the first three days of the Jerez test, starting on February 5, with Pedro de Rosa taking over on the fourth and final day.

De la Rosa, 41, was announced as Ferrari's development driver at the start of the year. They said Alonso would instead "intensify his physical training" during the first half of February.

However, the double World Champion will do the lion's share of the work during the second test at the Circuit de Catalunya, which starts on February 19, with Alonso driving for three days to Massa's one.

Each will get two days in the cockpit at the final test, also in Barcelona, between February 28 and March 3.

Ferrari said it was important for de la Rosa to have time in the cockpit, given that his primary role as a test driver will involve simulator work.

That work will prove particularly important for Ferrari as they struggle to reconcile the discrepancy they have experienced in recent years between their cars' performance in the wind tunnel and on track.

De la Rosa's contribution "will allow both the team and the driver to work specifically on looking at the correlation between the virtual and the real experience", Ferrari added.

Ferrari's own tunnel is currently being overhauled, with their 2013 challenger developed instead using a facility owned by Toyota. It will be launched at Maranello next Friday (February 1).

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Bryans make history with Australian win

Bob and Mike Bryan became the most successful doubles pairing of all time after winning their 13th grand slam title at the Australian Open on Saturday.

The American twins surpassed the previous record they held jointly with Australians John Newcombe and Tony Roche with a 6-3 6-4 defeat of Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling.

The Dutchmen started well with an early break but the Bryans then rattled off four consecutive games to take the initiative.

They closed out the opening set and then cruised through the second to win their sixth Melbourne crown.

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