Sports
Ricky Castillo grabs lead at Puerto Rico
Mar 1, 2026; Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA; Ricky Castillo plays his shot from the second tee during the final round of the Cognizant Classic golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images Ricky Castillo leveraged a hot streak of four birdies over five holes in the middle of his round Saturday to grab the lead heading into the final round of the Puerto Rico Open at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
“This is the position that all of us have dreamed of and want to be in a chance to win a golf tournament,” Castillo said. “I’ve been fortunate to have that opportunity a few times and haven’t gotten it done, so, hopefully, we’ll do it tomorrow.
“In the end, we’re just trying to play the best we can and just stick to my process and focus on what I can control.”
Castillo, who went bogey free, has remarkably fired a matching 4-under-par 68 through each of his first three rounds to get to 12 under for the tournament, one stroke ahead of the competition.
That consistency was again on display Saturday, as Castillo rarely found himself in trouble despite windy conditions giving other golfers fits.
“It was really whipping out there and blowing and it could really get tricky at times,” Castillo said. “When it’s blowing that much, it’s really hard to trust yourself and trust the line, especially when it’s gusting. But I felt like I did a really good job of managing my game, managing my emotions today really well, so it was good.”
Rookie Chandler Blanchet had been grabbing the headlines through the first two rounds of the alternate event opposite the Arnold Palmer Invitational as the pole-setter, but his day was all over the place, beginning with three bogeys over his first five holes (including the first two).
After two pars, he went birdie, bogey, birdie, par, birdie before adding another bogey for good measure on No. 14, leaving him at 2-over 74 to fall into a tie for second place.
“Yeah, it was a grind. No one said it was going to be easy,” Blanchet said. “The more you’re in these positions, the more comfortable you’re going to be. The more often you can get in this, the more often it’s going to go in your favor towards the end.”
Tied with Blanchet at 11 under are England’s John Parry (68), Germany’s Matti Schmid (68) and 18-year-old Blades Brown (69).
Parry teed off with three birdies over his first four, while Schmid took a little longer to get going, getting birdies on Nos. 9-11 and 14. In contrast, Brown suffered two early bogeys and rescued his day with an eagle on 14 thanks to a winding putt.
“It broke right and then left, and then left again. Then as it went down the hill, it just broke right,” Brown described. “And luckily enough, I got the speed correct and it snuck in the left side.”
Davis Thompson (65) and Germany’s Jeremy Paul (70) are also within striking distance, two strokes behind Castillo at 10 under.
Gordon Sargent, in second place 24 hours earlier, fell into a tie for eighth by turning in an even card. That still leaves him just three shots off the pace, underscoring the width of the leaderboard, where 19 players are within four strokes of Castillo.
One of those players is amateur John Daly II, son of two-time major champ John Daly, who got to 9 under with a 2-under 70.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Alex Ovechkin becomes 2nd NHL player with 1,000 career goals
Mar 20, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) reacts after defeating the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin became just the second player in NHL history with 1,000 career goals, including regular season and playoffs, with a power-play goal on Sunday to join Wayne Gretzky.
Ovechkin, 40, eclipsed Gretzky for the most regular-season goals in league history on April 6, 2025, with goal No. 895.
On Sunday, Ovechkin reached the milestone mark in the third period against the visiting Colorado Avalanche, ripping a slap shot past goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood to tie the game at 2 with 5:43 left in regulation. Colorado rebounded to win 3-2 in overtime.
The Russian legend has 26 goals and 27 assists in 70 games this season, his 21st in the NHL — all with the Capitals, who made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2004. For his career, Ovechkin has 1,676 points (923 goals, 753 assists) in 1,562 regular-season games. In the postseason, he has 147 points (77 goals, 70 assists) in 161 games.
Among the numerous awards he has accumulated over his brilliant career, Ovechkin is a three-time Hart Memorial Trophy winner as league MVP, a 12-time All-Star and a Stanley Cup champion with Washington in the 2017-18 season.
–Field Level Media
Sports
South Korea's Sungjae Im maintains Valspar lead for third straight day
Mar 21, 2026; Palm Harbor, Florida, USA; Sungjae Im putts on the sixth green during the third round of the Valspar Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images South Korea’s Sungjae Im sank a 13-foot putt on the final hole to shoot 2-under-par 69 and stretch his lead to two strokes through the third round of the Valspar Championship on Saturday at Palm Harbor, Fla.
Im had gone nine holes without a birdie on Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club’s Copperhead Course before sinking his last birdie attempt. He enters Sunday’s final round at 11-under 202 in search of his first PGA Tour win since the 2021 Shriners Children’s Open.
Brandt Snedeker posted 67 to pull into a share of second place with David Lipsky, who turned in an erratic 70.
Snedeker’s bogey-free round — beginning with three birdies on the first four holes — gave him a score that matched the best rounds of the day.
England’s Marco Penge and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick shot matching 68s to hold a tie for fourth place at 8 under. That’s two shots clear of South Korea’s S.H. Kim and Belgium’s Adrien Dumont de Chassart, a duo that shared the day’s best round with Snedeker.
Lipsky moved into a share of the lead with a birdie on No. 15 before giving it back with a bogey — his third of the back nine — on the next hole. His round included five birdies and four bogeys.
Im, who hadn’t led through 36 holes of a PGA Tour event since 2021, finished at 69 for the second day in a row. He saved par on No. 16 after a tee shot settled on a cart path.
Penge was at 2 over for the round after a double-bogey 6 on No. 6, but he played the backside bogey-free at 4 under.
Fitzpatrick was steadier. He fashioned nothing but pars — save a three-hole stretch of birdies on Nos. 10-12.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Ryan Odom strives for another shining moment as Virginia faces Tennessee
Mar 20, 2026; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Virginia Cavaliers guard Jacari White (6) takes a jump shot during the second half against the Wright State Raiders during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images PHILADELPHIA — Ryan Odom engineered a massive one-year turnaround at Virginia. Seven years removed from the program’s only national title, Odom has his players visualizing their own shining moment.
The third-seeded Cavaliers are on the verge of the Sweet 16 but first must handle Ja’Kobi Gillespie and sixth-seeded Tennessee in a Midwest Region second-round matchup on Sunday.
Virginia (30-5) officially doubled its win total from last season when it pulled out an 82-73 win over Wright State in Friday’s opener. The Cavaliers hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since the 2019 national final.
Odom — the same coach who pulled off UMBC’s historic 16-over-1 upset of Virginia once upon a time — said afterward that he’d shown his players a montage of their season set to “One Shining Moment,” the tournament’s unofficial theme song.
After being hired from VCU last March, Odom had to assemble a new team quickly and primarily through the transfer portal. He has gotten his players to buy into Virginia’s history and the part they can play in writing a new chapter.
“When he brought us here, he emphasized the importance of what it is we’re actually playing for and not just ourselves, and playing for the university and trying to continue the legacy that was left behind by the players before,” said Virginia senior guard Jacari White, who transferred in from North Dakota State. “And so we honor that and take pride in that, and I feel like that shows in our play.”
Virginia’s 3-point marksman off the bench, White scored a season-high 26 points to propel the Cavaliers past the upset-minded Raiders. The first five of his six 3-pointers either tied the game or put Virginia in front.
“He’s one of the best shooters in the country when he’s locked and loaded there and feeling it,” Odom said. “You have to see that first one go in on game day, and he did, and then he was kind of on from there.”
Tennessee (23-11) is familiar with countering 3-point specialists after it held Eian Elmer to 0-for-7 shooting and Brant Byers to 1-for-6 in Friday’s 78-56 win over Miami (Ohio). Elmer shot 42.9% from deep for the year and Byers was at 39.2%.
“It’s similar. They put up around 30 threes a game or something like that,” Tennessee guard Bishop Boswell said of Virginia. “They’re also doing a (good) job attacking it early if they have the open three, so I think kind of just the same thing as we kind of did last game, just being in gaps early and playing out, guarding the 3-point line as best we can, but they’re balanced so just trying to take away as much as we can.”
Gillespie racked up 29 points and nine assists to carry Tennessee on a day where star freshman Nate Ament went scoreless in 18 minutes. Ament has been battling a high ankle sprain, yet had a 27-point showing and a double-double in the final two games of the SEC tournament last week.
“Last night, we could tell he was struggling with it,” coach Rick Barnes said Saturday. “That’s why we didn’t put him back in the game. …
“We need Nate. He knows it, but he will give us everything that he can, and that’s really all I can say about it. If it’s up to him, he would play every minute if he could. We’ll see game time.”
Ament averages 17.0 points and 6.5 rebounds while Gillespie leads Tennessee with 18.3 points and 5.6 assists per game.
Belgian freshman Thijs De Ridder tops Virginia at 15.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per contest.
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media
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