Sports: In brief

In brief

By BRANT JAMES, TIMES WIRES

Daly loses temper and tournament

John Daly threw his putter and ball in the water near the 18th green. Then he shook hands with his playing partners and walked up the fairway to his villa on the course.

Daly was through for the afternoon and tournament after shooting 78 Friday to complete a frustrating few days at the Australian PGA Championship in Coolum.

Playing a week after his mother's death, Daly was disqualified for failing to sign his scorecard after the second round. Jarrod Moseley shot 6-under 66 for 13-under 131 and a one-stroke lead.

Daly was fined $5,600 by the Australasian PGA Tour, the Associated Press reported. He was ordered to write a letter of apology to the tour official he verbally abused and to his playing partners, Craig Parry and Greg Norman.

Daly was upset with an official's ruling on the 13th and played the final six holes 9 over. He refused to sign his scorecard, resulting in his disqualification.

"We don't condone what John did out there, but he came out here under a lot of pressure, and he pulled a lot of people to the tournament," operations director Andrew Langford-Jones said.

MORE GOLF: Ernie Els shot 7-under 65 for a one-stroke lead over Chris DiMarco (68) at the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City, South Africa. Els finished the second round at 135. ... Jyoti Randhawa shot 7-under 62 to share the second-round lead with six others in the Hong Kong Open. Also at 9-under 129: Stephen Dodd, Henrik Bjornstad, Tony Johnstone, Klas Eriksson, Marten Olander and Wang Ter-chang.

HORSES: Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar rejoined the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and passed without incident through the opt-out window in its contract with the Tampa Bay Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association. Also, two races -- the Tampa Bay Derby for 3-year-olds and Florida Oaks for 3-year-old fillies -- retained Grade III status. ... Sightseek won the $150,000 Grade II Top Flight Handicap for fillies and mares at Aqueduct. ... Multiple stakes winner Lido Palace won the $457,200 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs. ... Atlantic Ocean won the $200,000 Miesque Stakes at Hollywood Park. Texas Glitter won the $200,000 Hollywood Turf Express for 3-year-olds and older.

COLLEGES: Auburn track athlete Charlie Spencer, 21, who died Tuesday in Mobile, Ala., while jogging, had an undiagnosed coronary condition, according to a coroner's report. ... In volleyball, Tampa's Amber Langston, a Tampa Prep product, is South Region freshman of the year. Krissi MacIntyre, Gretchen Naruta and Ania Ruiz made the all-region team. Florida swept Illinois State 3-0 in the Conference Challenge in Orlando. The Gators face Northern Iowa at 2 p.m. today. Freshman Emily Watts' 15 kills, 10 assists and 13 digs led host Central Florida past Kentucky 3-1. UCF faces Arkansas at 7 tonight.

AMERICA'S CUP: After his New York-based Stars & Stripes was eliminated 4-0 in the quarterfinal of the challenger series by Seattle's OneWorld in Auckland, New Zealand, four-time winner Dennis Conner said it may be his last Cup.

WINTER SPORTS: World champion Irina Slutskaya of Russia finished fourth in the women's short program at the NHK Trophy in Kyoto, Japan. Yoshie Onda was first, followed by Japanese compatriots Shizuka Arakawa and Fumie Suguri. In the pairs final, world champions Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao of China won gold. In the ice dancing original program, world champs Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh of Russia were first. ... Olympic champion Apolo Ohno (2 minutes, 20.034 seconds) won a 1,500-meter short-track speed-skating race in St. Petersburg, Russia, his first World Cup win of the season. ... Former World Cup champion Primoz Peterka of Slovenia won a season-opening ski jump in Kuusamo, Finland, with jumps of 131.5 and 143.5 meters. Finland's Hannu Manninen won a World Cup Nordic combined in 22:21.5. ... Germany's Hilde Gerg (1:17.89) won a World Cup super-G in Aspen, Colo. ... Olympic silver medalist Sandra Prokoff of Germany won a World Cup bobsled race in Park City, Utah, in a combined 1:38.78.

OLYMPICS: The IOC will decide whether to drop baseball, softball and modern pentathlon after the 2004 Athens Games. ... Russian cross-country skiers Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova lost appeals to overturn drug-related, two-year suspensions stemming from the Salt Lake City Games.