GOLF

Matt Jones tied the course record at PGA National in the first round of the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, with a 9-under 61, opening a three-stroke lead.

Jones, an Australian ranked No. 83 in the world, was flawless with nine birdies and no bogeys. He strung together four consecutive birdies on holes 2-5 to grab the early lead, then added birdies on the par-4 11th and 13th before revving up again for the finish. He made a 6-footer for birdie at the par-4 16th, connected again from about 25 feet to birdie the par-3 17th and 5-footer for the course-record-tying birdie at the par-5 finishing hole.

Aaron Wise and Russell Henley were tied for second at 6 under.

Brian Harman shot a 61 at PGA National in the second round of the 2012 Honda. Tiger Woods shot a 62 in the final round that same year. Until Thursday, they were the only rounds of 8 under or better since the event moved to PGA National 15 years ago.

Jones has just one PGA Tour victory, that coming with a chip-in to win a playoff at the 2014 Houston Open. He hasn’t made the cut in a major since the 2016 British Open and has never finished better than tied for fourth at the Honda.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Benjamin Herbert shrugged off a bogey on his first hole to card a 7-under 64 for the first-round lead at the Kenya Open.

The Frenchman followed his slip at No. 1 with four birdies in his next six holes at Karen Country Club in Nairobi to go one shot clear of six players tied for second. Herbert picked up six birdies in all and an eagle three on No. 12 to set the early pace. He clinched the lead and broke clear of an eight-man tie for the lead with a birdie on the last.

Adrian Meronk, Sam Horsfield, Raphael Jacquelin, Bernd Ritthammer, Kalle Samooja, Calum Hill and Connor Syme all shot 65s.

Herbert has never won on the European Tour. He missed out in playoffs at three tournaments in 2019.

SOCCER

OLYMPIC QUALIFYING: Jesus Ferreira scored in the 35th minute and the United States opened its bid to reach the Olympic men’s soccer tournament after a pair of misses by beating Costa Rica, 1-0, in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The U.S. last qualified in 2008, failing to reach the 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

EUROPA LEAGUE: Paul Pogba returned from injury to score the winner as Manchester United beat AC Milan 1-0 to reach the quarterfinals, while Mislav Orsic netted a hat trick as Dinamo Zagreb eliminated Tottenham with a stunning 3-0 victory.

Pogba was brought on at halftime and had an immediate impact as he scored two minutes later to help United secure a 2-1 aggregate victory.

Arsenal, Roma, Ajax and Villarreal also advanced.

COLLEGES

NCAA: The NCAA Division I Council plans to vote in April on lifting the ban on in-person recruiting that has been in place for more than a year because of the pandemic.

The NCAA announced that member schools “generally support” lifting the extended dead period and bringing back in-person recruiting by June 1.

The council also said it wants to vote in April on a legislative proposal to allow all athletes the opportunity to compete immediately after transferring. Currently, athletes in Division I football and basketball must sit out a season after they transfer to another school in the same division.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY: Skylar Fontaine scored at 19:34 of overtime and top-ranked Northeastern overcame its first two-goal deficit of the season to defeat Minnesota Duluth 3-2 in the Frozen Four semifinals in Erie, Pennsylvania.

It was the 14th goal of the season for Fontaine, sending Northeastern, in its first Frozen Four, into Saturday’s championship game against second-seeded Wisconsin, a 4-2 winner over Ohio State. The Huskies (22-1-1) ran their unbeaten streak to 22 games.

OLYMPICS

In yet another setback for the postponed Tokyo Olympics – and another involving comments about women –  creative director Hiroshi Sasaki resigned on Thursday after making demeaning comments about a well-known female celebrity in Japan.

Sasaki was in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics, which are scheduled to begin on July 23. He also designed the Tokyo handover ceremony at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and arranged a one-year-to-go event in July at Tokyo’s new National Stadium.

Last year he suggested to planning staff members in online “brainstorming exchanges” that well-known entertainer Naomi Watanabe could perform in the ceremony as an “Olympig.” Watanabe is a fashion icon, and very famous in Japan.

The story was first reported by the weekly magazine Bunshun, and the corresponding controversy took off almost instantly.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike called Sasaki’s comments “extremely embarrassing,”

“When we are talking about what we deliver from Tokyo, or from Japan, we shouldn’t be sending a negative message,” Koike said Thursday.

The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to open in just over four months, dogged by the coronavirus pandemic, record costs, and numerous scandals. And all of this converges as the Olympic torch relay starts next week from northeastern Japan, a risky venture with 10,000 runners set to crisscross Japan for four months.

In February, the president of the organizing committee Yoshiro Mori was forced to resign after making sexist comments, saying women talk too much in meetings. Two years ago, the head of the Japanese Olympic Committee Tsunekazu Takeda was also forced to step dow n in a bribery scandal connected to vote-buying involving IOC members.

JAPAN’S CENTRAL GOVERNMENT officially decided Wednesday that spectators from abroad will not be allowed to enter the country to watch the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The government is expected to hold a five-way meeting around Saturday with the Tokyo Games organizing committee, the metropolitan government, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to make a final decision.

The meeting is being organized to be held online before the start of the torch relay on March 25, according to several government sources. The reason for the decision not to accept overseas spectators is because the coronavirus is not yet under control in many countries, and the spread of new variants is becoming more serious.

“It is virtually impossible to control the activities of all the people entering the county and take thorough prevention measures,” a senior government official said.

TRACK AND FIELD

DOPING: Russian athletes will be allowed to compete internationally again under a neutral flag as their national federation edges closer to having its longstanding doping suspension lifted.

The World Athletics council voted to revive the “authorized neutral athlete” scheme, which can grant individual exemptions from the suspension after vetting the athlete’s drug-testing record. As before, there will be a cap of 10 for the Olympics.

That paves the way for athletes like three-time high jump world champion Mariya Lasitskene and former hurdles world champion Sergei Shubenkov to return to the Diamond League circuit ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. Thursday’s decision comes after World Athletics approved RusAF’s road map for anti-doping reforms. It includes more drug testing for athletes and encourages whistleblowers to share what they know about drug use.

• Olympic hammer throw champion Dilshod Nazarov of Tajikistan has been banned for two years in a doping case and will not be able to defend his title at the Tokyo Games, the Athletics Integrity Unit said.

Nazarov was handed a two-year ban backdated to September 2019. That was when Nazarov was first provisionally suspended after a retest of his sample from the 2011 world championships came back positive for the banned steroid turinabol. Nazarov’s results from August 2011 to August 2013 have also been disqualified, stripping him of the hammer title he won at the 2013 Asian championships.

Nazarov’s gold from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games is Tajikistan’s only Olympic victory as an independent nation. He was a world championship silver medalist the year before.

SKIING

WORLD CUP: More races were canceled Thursday in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, because of bad weather, leaving Petra Vlhova as the favorite to win her first overall World Cup title ahead of Lara Gut-Behrami.

The super-G races for women and men at the World Cup Finals were called off one day after the last downhills of the season also could not start. Vlhova and Alexis Pinturault lead the overall standings ahead of their preferred slalom and giant slalom races this weekend.

Vlhova needs only one top-15 finish in her final two races to win the giant crystal globe as overall champion. She would be the first Slovakian champion in the 54-year World Cup history.

Pinturault’s lead is only 31 points over Marco Odermatt, the breakout star of the men’s season who was a contender in the super-G race. Wins are worth 100 points.

TENNIS

WIMBLEDON: Wimbledon organizers are working on the basis of having a reduced number of spectators for this year’s tournament because of coronavirus restrictions. The All England Club said it was remaining “flexible” as it reacts to changing circumstances amid the pandemic as the British government follows a roadmap out of lockdown.

There will be a mandatory requirement for all players, their support teams and tennis officials to be in an official tournament hotel rather than in private houses, the club said.

“Although the promise of a return to a more normal existence is on the horizon, we are not there yet,” All England Club chairman Ian Hewitt said.

There will no official ballot for tickets this year, with organizers instead providing an online platform for ticket sales some time in June. Wimbledon is scheduled to run from June 28-July 11.