Kaymer keeps up hot pace, holds lead in TPC

* Martin Kaymer followed up his opening-round, course-record 63 with a 3-under-par 69 yesterday to take a one-shot lead over Jordan Spieth after two rounds of The Players Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Kaymer capped off his round with a pitching wedge to 4 feet on an island green with a back pin on the 17th hole. The 29-year-old German was at 12-under 132. That matched the best 36-hole score on the Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass in 20 years, dating to Greg Norman's record performance. Norman made only one bogey that week.

Spieth hasn't made a bogey all week, though he made a couple of tough chips look easy to keep a clean card.

Adam Scott kept alive his hopes of going to No. 1 in the world this week with three birdies in his last four holes for a 67. That was a 10-shot improvement from Thursday and enabled him to make the cut on the number at even-par 144.

Rory McIlroy shot 42 on the front nine and appeared headed home early until making birdie on the 18th hole to salvage a 74 to make the cut.

Phil Mickelson missed his birdie attempt on No. 18 and had a 70 to miss by one. Mickelson now has missed the cut in the two biggest events of the year - the Masters and The Players.

* Scotland's Scott Henry shot a 5-under 67 to take a two-shot clubhouse lead in the first round of the European Tour's Madeira Islands Open, which was shortened to 54 holes because of foggy conditions. England's Andrew Marshall, Spain's Pedro Oriol and Austria's Martin Wiegele were tied for second. Finland's Tapio Pulkannen hit a hole-in-one at the par-3 17th but finished with an 80.

* The NBA chose Dick Parsons, a former Citigroup chairman and former Time Warner chairman and CEO, as interim CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers. Parsons will oversee the franchise while the league tries to force owner Donald Sterling to sell it following his lifetime ban for making racist remarks.

* France stunned Canada in their first game of the ice hockey world championships, winning 3-2 after a shootout. The Flyers' Brayden Schenn had a goal for Canada. The other favorites avoided similar stumbles, as the United States, coached by former Flyers boss Peter Laviolette, brushed aside host Belarus, 6-1, and Russia blanked Switzerland, 5-0.

* West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins said guard Terry Henderson is transferring, but did not give a reason why the rising junior is leaving.

* Georgia Tech junior defensive end Jabari Hunt-Days was declared ineligible for the 2014 football season for failing to meet NCAA standards. Highly regarded freshman running back Travis Custis is transferring to Georgia Military College. The school said he will pursue academic and athletic opportunities.

* Archbishop Ryan senior Brendan Horan will play college basketball at DeSales. Horan, a 6-2 wing, was a second-team, All-Catholic League coaches' selection last season and led the Raiders in scoring.