Goosen, Durant tied for lead

Retief Goosen figured East Lake would be a pushover during the practice rounds. When the temperatures plunged and the wind swirled, he was thrilled to escape with a two-under par 68 on Thursday to share the lead with Joe Durant after one tough round at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

“You felt like you could have shot seven under yesterday,” Goosen said. “Today you just felt like you needed to hang in there, because you know that nobody is going to shoot 62.”

It was the highest score to lead the first round at East Lake since the Tour Championship came to this tree-lined course in 1998.

Only eight players in the 27-man field managed to shoot par or better.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson might have gotten off easy by deciding to skip this year, sparing themselves a test that some players said was the toughest on the PGA Tour since the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

Jim Furyk took a huge step toward winning the Vardon Trophy, recovering from a nasty patch in his back nine to birdie two of the last four holes for a 69, leaving him tied with 2002 winner Vijay Singh.

“It was playable, but I also wasn’t able to eliminate the mistakes,” Furyk said. “The blustery conditions, the cool, windy weather, it made those bogeys easy to find out there. I didn’t play probably as consistent as I would have liked to, but I made a bunch of birdies to cover up those mistakes and had a good day.”

Singh had a chance to reach three under until missing a six-foot birdie putt on the 16th -- no one made birdie there in the first round -- and three-putted from 40 feet to make bogey on the 17th.

“I played pretty well,” Singh said. “It’s unfortunate about a few putts, but I’ll take it in these conditions.”

Also at 69 were Adam Scott, Tom Pernice Jr., Stewart Cink and Stuart Appleby.

BASEBALL

Rogers is among

AL Gold Glove winners

Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers, whose smudged left hand created a lot of suspicion during the World Series, won his fourth consecutive Gold Glove and fifth overall.

Tigers teammate Ivan Rodriguez won his 12th Gold Glove, extending his record for catchers.

Seattle right fielder Ichiro Suzuki, Minnesota center fielder Torii Hunter and Oakland third baseman Eric Chavez won the award for the sixth consecutive season.

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and Toronto center fielder Vernon Wells won for the third time in a row, Texas first baseman Mark Teixeira won for the second consecutive season and Kansas City second baseman Mark Grudzielanek was a first-time winner.

St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds filed provisionally for free agency, awaiting a decision by the team on his $10-million option for 2007. St. Louis has until Nov. 11 to decide on the option.

City officials in San Francisco will refund the Giants $6 million in property taxes after a ruling established the baseball team’s stadium had been overvalued.

Dave Dombrowski, the Detroit Tigers’ general manager, president and chief executive officer, was given a four-year contract extension that runs through 2011.

The Houston Astros gave General Manager Tim Purpura a one-year contract extension. His agreement now runs through the 2008 season.

The Colorado Rockies exercised their $2.5-million option on right-hander Byung-Hyun Kim for next season.

TENNIS

Robredo, Nalbandian

headed to Masters Cup

Tommy Robredo and David Nalbandian qualified for the season-ending Masters Cup.

Robredo defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu, 6-4, 7-6 (1), in the third round of the Paris Masters and Nalbandian, who skipped the tournament, advanced because James Blake lost, 6-4, 6-2, to Tommy Haas.

Defending champion Kim Clijsters cruised into the quarterfinals of the Gaz de France after beating Martina Mueller, 6-3, 6-2, at Hasselt, Belgium. She will face Sandra Kloesel, who upset seventh-seeded Samantha Stosur, 7-6 (3), 6-2, 6-3.

Top-seeded Jelena Jankovic advanced to the quarterfinals of the Bell Challenge, defeating Vania King, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, at Quebec City, Canada. Jankovic will face eighth-seeded Olga Poutchkova, a 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 winner over Tanja Ostertag.

John McEnroe defeated Bjorn Borg, 4-6, 6-4, 10-4, in an exhibition match at Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

MISCELLANY

New York Racing Assn.

files for bankruptcy

The New York Racing Assn., the private entity that has held the state horse racing franchise since 1955, filed for protection from creditors in bankruptcy court.

NYRA President Charles Hayward said filing for bankruptcy court protection was a “last option.”

“The goal of the filing is to maintain the current schedule of racing dates, purse structure, stakes program and all other racing operations,” he said.

A former co-owner of the New York Islanders was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a $400-million accounting fraud scandal at one of the world’s largest software companies.

Sanjay Kumar, the 44-year-old former chief executive of Computer Associates International, pleaded guilty in April to obstruction of justice and securities fraud charges at the company, which since has become known as CA Inc.

Nextel Cup rookie Clint Bowyer topped qualifying for tonight’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ Silverado 350K at Fort Worth, Texas, with a record average speed of 184.464 mph. Mike Skinner took the second spot in a Toyota with a run at 184.332 mph.

World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Sergei Liakhovich (23-1, 14 knockouts) weighed 238 pounds for Saturday’s title defense against Shannon Briggs (47-4-1, 41 KOs), who weighed 268 pounds.

FC Dallas goalkeeper Dario Sala was suspended six games and fined $3,500 by Major League Soccer for violent conduct after a playoff loss Saturday night to the Colorado Rapids.

After Pablo Mastroeni scored on the Rapids’ final kick as Colorado defeated FC Dallas, 5-4, on penalty kicks to advance to the Western Conference championship game, Sala punched Colorado players Hunter Freeman and Jovan Kirovski while they celebrated.

Chivas USA’s Juan Pablo Garcia was suspended two games and fined $2,000 for a serious foul on Houston Dynamo forward Brad Davis after the final whistle Sunday in Chivas’ loss to the Dynamo. Chivas defender Claudio Suarez was fined $750.

The suspensions carry over to the 2007 regular season.

The U.S. soccer team defeated the Netherlands, 2-0, at Suwon, South Korea. However, Abby Wambach sprained her ankle and will probably miss the final of the Peace Queen Cup.

Darren Fells had 17 points to lead UC Irvine to an 82-65 victory over St. Xavier in an exhibition men’s basketball game at Irvine. Julian Scott had 11 points for St. Xavier.

Five Matadors scored in double figures led by Jonathan Heard’s team-high 16 points as Cal State Northridge defeated Cal State Los Angeles, 97-82, in an exhibition men’s basketball game at Northridge.