GOLF

LOVE, FURYK TAKE EARLY LEAD AT PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP Davis Love III steered clear of trouble on the TPC at Sawgrass with seven birdies inside 10 feet for a 7-under 65, giving him a share of the lead with Jim Furyk at the Players Championship in Ponte Vedre Beach. Fla. As Love navigated his way around the Stadium Course without a bogey in the morning,attention shifted to the parking lot when Tiger Woods showed up after a cross-country trip to California to visit his 74-year-old father, Earl Woods, who is battling cancer. Woods left Tuesday night not knowing if he would come back. He returned some 12 hours before his tee time, and his play was sporadic – five birdies, five bogeys, and a 72 that left him seven shots behind.

Bernhard Langer continued his mastery of the island-green 17th, the most terrifying par 3 in golf, with his 20th career birdie that carried him to a 67, along with Robert Allenby and Miguel Angel Jimenez. Vijay Singh was bogey-free in his round of 68 that left him tied with a group that included Jose Maria Olazabal, Ben Crane, and Pebble Beach winner Arron Oberholser. Phil Mickelson had five birdies, but he dunked his tee shot on the 17th for double bogey, hit a tee shot in the water at no. 15 and scrambled for bogey, and wound up with a 70.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

HUGGINS TAKES OVER AT KANSAS STATE Bob Huggins is returning to college basketball as Kansas State’s coach after 16 years at Cincinnati, where he turned the Bearcats into a national power but was ousted following a drunken-driving conviction and a clash with the school’s president. Huggins, who left Cincinnati in 2005 and did not coach this season, will replace Jim Wooldridge, who was 15-13 this year.The Wildcats have not been to the NCAA tournament since 1996.

Huggins was 399-127 at Cincinnati, leading the Bearcats to 14 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, including the 1992 Final Four. He won 10 regular-season Conference USA titles and was honored as the league’s coach of the decade. He also coached at Walsh and Akron and has a record of 567-199 during a 24-year career. Huggins had a heart attack in September 2002 but showed up for the team’s first practice two weeks later and coached the entire season.

FOOTBALL

COWBOYS SIGN VANDERJAGT MikeVanderjagt, the NFL’s most accurate kicker, signed yesterday with the Dallas Cowboys. Vanderjagt wasn’t re-signed by the Colts, who instead signed former Patriot Adam Vinatieri earlier this week.

After depending so long on inexperienced or inexpensive kickers, the Cowboys didn’t pass on Vanderjagt, a former Pro Bowl kicker and unrestricted free agent. Contract details weren’t immediately known.Vanderjagt, who will turn 36 on Friday, has the highest field goal accuracy rate in NFL history (217-of-245 kicks, 87.5%) and holds the record for making 42 straight. But on his last attempt for the Colts during the AFC divisional playoffs in January, he badly missed a 46-yarder that would have forced overtime against Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh.

VIKINGS SIGN SAFETY WILLIAMS, QB MCMAHON The Minnesota Vikings signed quarterback Mike McMahon and safety Tank Williams yetserday. McMahon, who played his college ball at Rutgers, spent last year with the Eagles under offensive coordinator Brad Childress – now Minnesota’s head coach. He played in nine games for Philadelphia last season and went 2-5 as a starter.

SOCCER

ARENA REGRETS U.S. FRIENDLY WITH GERMANY A day after his team’s fiasco against Germany, U.S. coach Bruce Arena blamed himself for scheduling the game. An undermanned American team was overwhelmed by the Germans 4-1 Wednesday in Dortmund,and Arena didn’t offer much encouragement in his assessment.Because of injuries and club commitments, Landon Donovan, Brian McBride, Claudio Reyna, DaMarcus Beasley, Oguchi Onyewu, and Eddie Lewis weren’t with the team.

“We’ve worked real hard to build our team to where it is today, and to not prepare properly to play a game of that magnitude is a mistake, and I accept the full responsibility for that,” Arena said. “If I felt that it wasn’t the right time for us to play that game, I should have been a little bit strong in saying this is not the right time to play.”

– Associated Press