INSIDE: COMICS, OPINIONS & CLASSIFIEDS
B
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 2021
WOMEN’S PGA
CHAMPIONSHIP
Nelly Korda ties
record, takes lead
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. —
Nelly Korda realized there
were low scores available
Friday at Atlanta Athletic
Club. For the longest
time, she couldn’t find
them in the Women’s PGA
Championship.
And then the birdies
came in bushels, one af-
ter another, six straight to
close her second round
that put her in the record
book with a 9-under 63
and gave her a one-shot
lead over Lizette Salas go-
ing into the weekend.
“Golf is easy when you
have days like this,” Korda
said. “But it’s not always
like this.”
Over her final six holes
on the front nine, Korda
made birdie on both par
3s guarded in front by wa-
ter. She had eagle putts
on consecutive holes —
one of them on the par-4
sixth, with the tee moved
up to make it play 229
yards — and narrowly
missed them both.
On the hardest hole
on the course, she had
to deal with a tree root
in front of her ball to get
to the green and then
made a 45-foot birdie
putt. Korda closed out
her round with a pitching
wedge into 8 feet.
She was at 11-under
133, one shot ahead
of Salas, who hit all 18
greens in regulation, shot
another 67 and has yet
to make a bogey through
36 holes.
Korda tied the cham-
pionship record, last set a
year ago when Sei Young
Kim closed with a 63 to
win at Aronimink. She
had the third round of 63
at Atlanta Athletic Club
in a major, joining Steve
Stricker in 2011 and Mark
O’Meara in 2001 at the
PGA Championship.
Celine Boutier drove
the sixth green to 8 feet
for an eagle on her way
to a 64 that left her four
shots back at 7-under 137
with Cydney Clanton (67)
and Alena Sharp (68).
bendbulletin.com/sports
U.S. OLYMPIC TRACK & FIELD TRIALS
Bend’s Rebecca Mehra does not
advance to the 800-meter final
BULLETIN STAFF REPORT
EUGENE — Bend’s Rebecca
Mehra finished fifth in her
heat in the women’s 800-meter
semifinals Friday at the U.S.
Olympic Track & Field Trials
at Hayward Field and failed to
advance to Sunday’s final.
Mehra finished in a sea-
son-best time of 2 minutes,
1.33 seconds. The top three
runners in each of two heats
and the next two fastest on
time qualified for Sunday’s fi-
nal.
Athing Mu posted the fast-
est time on Friday, finishing in
1:59.31. She was followed by
Kate Grace in 1:59.43 and Ajee’
Wilson in 1:59.49.
It was the fifth race in eight
days for Mehra, who finished
11th in the women’s 1,500-me-
ter final on Monday.
Mehra, 26, runs for the
Oiselle-sponsored Littlewing
Athletics team in Bend. She
beat out two of her Bend team-
mates — Sadi Henderson and
Angel Piccirillo — in the first
round of the 800 on Thursday
night to advance to Friday’s
semifinals.
Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard
Bend’s Rebecca Mehra, right, races in the 800-meter preliminaries at the
U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field on Thursday night.
U.S. OLYMPIC TRACK & FIELD TRIALS
A satisfying
performance
— Associated Press
Bend’s Mel Lawrence competes in
the women’s steeplechase final at
the U.S. Olympic Track and Field
Trials in Eugene on Thursday night.
NBA
Mavericks hire
Kidd as coach
DALLAS — Jason Kidd
is coming back to Dallas
again, this time to re-
place the coach he won a
championship with as the
point guard of the Maver-
icks 10 years ago.
Kidd and the Mavericks
agreed on a contract Fri-
day, eight days after Rick
Carlisle resigned abruptly
in the wake of general
manager Donnie Nelson’s
departure, a person with
direct knowledge of the
agreement said.
Dallas also found Nel-
son’s replacement in Nike
executive Nico Harrison,
who will carry the titles
of GM and president of
basketball operations, the
person told AP.
It is the third head
coaching stop for the
48-year-old Kidd, who
took Brooklyn to the sec-
ond round of the playoffs
in his debut in 2013-14
before bolting for Mil-
waukee.
Kidd’s success in Dal-
las will depend how he
develops Luka Doncic, a
two-time All-Star whose
playmaking skills had
Carlisle calling him one of
the five best players in the
world before the coach’s
unexpected departure.
Harrison has been in
Nike’s basketball divi-
sion for nearly 20 years,
rising through the ranks
through relationships
with stars such as the late
Kobe Bryant.
— Associated Press
Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard
Bend’s Mel Lawrence reflects on Olympic trials experience and ponders her future in running
BY MARK MORICAL
The Bulletin
M
el Lawrence
is happy and
satisfied,
and she wants those who pay
attention to her sport only once
every four years to know that.
No, the runner from Bend did
not qualify for the Tokyo Games,
but she has come away content
with her seventh-place finish in the
women’s steeplechase final at the
U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials
on Thursday night at Eugene’s Hay-
ward Field.
“I think track and field doesn’t
get looked at a lot, which is fine,”
Lawrence said. “But because of that,
when an Olympic trials happen,
in any sport, I think a lot of peo-
ple look at every single athlete who
doesn’t get top three and they feel
bad for them.”
Lawrence does not want anybody
to feel bad for her, as she set a per-
sonal best time and made every ef-
fort to stay with the leaders.
“It wasn’t my A-plus goal, but I
am very happy with how I executed
race strategy, and I told myself I’d be
happy with certain things, and I did
those certain things,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence, 31, finished the
3,000-meter steeplechase in 9 min-
utes, 26.15 seconds.
The top three finishers quali-
fied for Tokyo. Emma Coburn, the
2016 Olympic bronze medalist,
won the race in a trials-record time
of 9:09.41, followed by Courtney
Frerichs (9:11.79) and Val Constien
(9:18.34).
Lawrence stayed in the mid-
dle of the pack for the first half of
the race but started to lose pace
with the leaders when Coburn and
Frerichs began to pull away from
the 14-runner field.
See Lawrence / B2
MOTOR SPORTS | NASCAR CUP SERIES
Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick will try
at Pocono to end long losing streaks
BY DAN GELSTON
Associated Press
Matt Slocum/AP file
Denny Hamlin celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series race
at Pocono Raceway, in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, in 2020. Hamlin and
Kevin Harvick flipped their 1-2 finish in Pocono’s doubleheader week-
end last year but they each come back for this weekend’s races winless .
LONG POND, Pa. — Denny
Hamlin swept Pocono as a
rookie in 2006 and won again
last season, his track record-ty-
ing sixth victory. Kevin Har-
vick joined Hamlin in the win
column on the same weekend
at Pocono in 2020, his first vic-
tory at the tri-oval track, and
they both left the June twinbill
weekend seemingly positioned
as the drivers to beat in the
championship race.
Chase Elliott spoiled their
chances when he won the 2020
title.
This season, NASCAR won-
ders, can anyone catch Kyle
Larson, who goes to Pocono
Raceway for a weekend double-
header on a four-race winning
streak that includes the non-
points $1 million All-Star Race?
Hamlin and Harvick sud-
denly have a more press-
ing question to answer than
whether they can win the
championship.
Can either star driver win a
race?
See Motor sports / B2