Golf

Furyk atop the leaderboard in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- Jim Furyk only wanted to give himself a chance in the BMW Championship, and it took 36 holes to do it on a marathon Saturday at Bellerive that put him atop the leaderboard for the first time all year.

Whether he stays there when everyone finishes the third round is still to be determined.

Furyk finished with five straight birdies to set the course record at Bellerive with an 8-under 62 in the second round, then followed with a 66 that put him at 12-under 198 and gave him the clubhouse lead.

Camilo Villegas, who shot 66 in the morning for a one-shot lead through 36 holes, also was 12 under and had five holes left in the third round when play was suspended by darkness.

He will have to return Sunday morning to finish his round in a tournament twice interrupted by weather. Rain kept the BMW Championship from starting until Friday, and the plan for everyone to play 36 holes on Saturday was disrupted by a 90-minute fog delay in the morning.

But it was packed with all kinds of drama.

Sergio Garcia made the first hole-in-one of his professional career, a 5-iron from 205 yards on the third hole in the morning that put him into the mix. Bart Bryant made an ace in the afternoon, on No. 13, four holes after learning he had been docked a two-shot penalty simply for opening his mouth.

• European Masters: At Crans-Sur-Sierre, Switzerland, teenager Rory McIlroy shot a 5-under 66 Saturday to take a four-stroke lead after the third round of the European Masters.

The 19-year-old player from Northern Ireland had a 13-under 200 total.

England's Robert Dinwiddie (64) was tied for second with France's Christian Cevaer (65), Switzerland's Julien Clement (67), Argentina's Juan Abbate (69), Spain's Alejandro Canizares (69) and France's Jean-Francois Lucquin (69).

• Nykredit Masters: At Helsingoer, Denmark, England's Melissa Reid eagled the final two holes for a 7-under 66 and a six-stroke lead over Swedish star Annika Sorenstam and Germany's Martina Eberl after the second round of the Nykredit Masters.

MLS

RSL, Galaxy battle to draw

CARSON, Calif. -- Edson Buddle scored his 13th goal of the season in the 69th minute to lift the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 2-2 tie with Real Salt Lake on Saturday night.

Bryan Jordan added his first goal in Major League Soccer for the Galaxy (6-9-8), which set a team record by extending its winless streak to 11 games.

Yura Movsisyan and Will Johnson scored for Real Salt Lake (8-8-7), which moved within four points of first-place Houston in the Western Conference.

The Galaxy played without David Beckham and Landon Donovan, who were competing in World Cup qualifying for England and the United States, respectively.

Buddle tied the game by converting an 8-yard shot after the Galaxy's Alan Gordon deflected a pass from Jordan from the right side of the penalty area.

Johnson put Real Salt Lake ahead 2-1 in the 52nd minute. Movsisyan's return pass on a give-and-go freed Johnson, who scored on a 13-yard shot that ricocheted off the inside of the right post.

Jordan gave Los Angeles a 1-0 lead in the 9th minute with a 3-yard shot but Movsisyan tied the score in the 21st minute on a 16-yard shot off Kenny Deuchar's header.

Also missing from the Galaxy's lineup because of World Cup qualifying were midfielder Eddie Lewis (United States) and defender Ante Jazic (Canada). Missing from Real Salt Lake for World Cup qualifying was Andy Williams (Jamaica).

World Cup Qualifying

U.S. tops Cuba 1-0 in 1st trip to island in 61 years

HAVANA -- With few fans in the stands and little light on the field, the United States hung on to win its first soccer game in Cuba since 1947, beating the hosts 1-0 in a sloppy, sleepy World Cup qualifier Saturday night.

Clint Dempsey scored late in the second half and Tim Howard made two key saves to give the United States its third straight road win in qualifying from the North and Central American and Caribbean region.

"They've got a lot of pride and of course this was never going to be easy for us," goalkeeper Tim Howard said.

Half of the lights at rain-soaked Pedro Marrero Stadium went out in the 86th minute, causing a brief delay before the final minutes of the low-energy match were played out in the gloom.

In the 39th minute, Oguchi Onyewu sent a pass into the box from midfield and Dempsey jumped up with two Cuban defenders, one of whom mistakenly headed the ball straight to Brian Ching.

Ching held off a defender and dropped the ball to Dempsey, who was all but unmarked and netted from 12 yards out.

The U.S. embargo meant there were almost no Americans among the roughly 8,000 in the stands, though a few officials from the U.S. Interests Section, which Washington maintains in Havana instead of an embassy, organized a special trip to the game.

A few brave souls even came with faces obscured by sunglasses and bandannas patterned like the American flag to prevent identification and retribution by the U.S. government for breaking the trade sanction against the country that has been in effect since 1962.