Whitnell sinks two holes-in-one

Dale Whitnell made two holes-in-one in the same round at the South African Open on Friday, having entered the day worrying about just making the cut at the European tour event. The 36-year-old Englishman aced the par-3 second and 12th holes at the Durban Country Club in a wild 9-under 63 second round that included an eagle, seven birdies, two bogeys and one double bogey. “I was struggling to make the cut so I knew I needed to go out and play well and got off to a hot start as they would say,” said Whitnell, ranked No. 545. “Birdied the first and then hit a flush 7-iron on the second and didn’t realize it went in until down the bottom they sort of cheered. That was lovely.” Whitnell then eagled the par-5 third and would have to wait a whopping nine holes for his second ace. “I’ve never had one in tournament play. To have two in one day is pretty special,” he said. Brian Harman also made two aces in the same round at the 2015 Barclays on the PGA Tour. Yusaku Miyazato, playing on a sponsor exemption at the 2006 Reno-Tahoe Open on the PGA Tour, made two holes-in-one in the second round.

Another memorable night for Curry

When Stephen Curry has it going from long range like he did Thursday night — like he has more often than any player in NBA history — his coach just knows the ball is going in. Curry scored 56 points in the Warriors’ 121-115 victory over the Magic and made 12 3-pointers, including one from beyond midcourt that ended the first half. “He’s had so many of those the last couple of years. As soon as he let it go, I said, ‘That’s in,’” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I just felt it, and I thought that set the tone for the second half.” Curry then came back out and outscored the Magic 22-21 in the third quarter of his 1,000th regular-season start. “A lot of guys contributed to the win,” Curry said, “but it’s nice to have a flurry like that and have fun with it.” It was Curry’s 14th game of 50 or more points and he moved past Patrick Ewing into 26th place on the NBA’s career scoring list with with 24,867 points. He hit 12 for 19 from 3-point range, making 10 or more for the NBA-record 26th time in his career. The 56 points fell six short of his career high. “It never gets old watching it, I can tell you that,” Kerr said.

Mourinho banned for four matches

Fenerbahce manager Jose Mourinho was given a four-match ban and fined by the Turkish Football Federation following his comments about Turkish referees after a match at Galatasaray. The Turkish federation on Thursday fined the 62-year-old Portuguese coach $44,000 after he criticized the match officials in a media conference following a 0-0 Super Lig draw on Monday. Mourinho served part of it Thursday for Fenerbahce’s 4-1 Turkish Cup win at Gaziantep. If Fenerbahce’s appeal is unsuccessful, Mourinho will miss the next three domestic games. In his post-match interview Monday, Mourinho welcomed the decision to bring in a foreign ref for the game and also praised Slavko Vincic of Slovenia for a “top performance.” Mourinho said he thanked him following the game. When he saw the fourth official — a Turkish referee — Mourinho said he told him: “If you are the referee ... would be a disaster.” Asked about a challenge early in the match, he said a Turkish referee would have reacted with a yellow card “after the big dive and their bench jumping around like monkeys.” —AP