J.T. Poston had three birdies and an eagle over the final six holes Saturday morning to complete a 6-under 65 and share the 36-hole lead with Matti Schmid in the wind-delayed Shriners Children’s Open.

Schmid, who came into the FedEx Cup Fall portion of the season trying to secure a full PGA Tour card for next year, had a bogey-free 65 in windy conditions at the TPC Summerlin, though not nearly as strong as the other half of the field faced.

Wind gusts that approached 50 mph early Friday led to a four-hour delay to start the second round and left the tournament in catch-up mode the rest of the week.

It was unlikely all 66 players who made the cut would finish on Saturday.

Poston is playing for the first time since the BMW Championship in August. He chose to take a few months off as a new father and didn’t appear to have much rust, particularly at the end of his round. He took advantage of enough scoring holes and helping wind.

He two-putted from about 35 feet on the reachable par-4 15th, holed a 25-foot eagle putt on the par-5 16th and then made a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th.

LPGA

Green keeps 2-shot lead in South Korea

Hannah Green of Australia shot a 2-under 70 to hold a two-stroke lead after three rounds of the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea.

Green shot 64 in each of the first two rounds. The second round was completed early Saturday after rain washed out much of the play on Friday.

Green has led outright or shared the lead at the end of each round. She is 18-under 198 overall.

Yu Jin Sung of South Korea soared up the leaderboard with her 9-under 63, the best score of the round at the Seowon Valley Country Club, and was two shots back.

Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa was three off the lead after a 71, and Haeran Ryu of South Korea and Ryann O’Toole of the United States were four off the pace after they both carded 68s.

The field is loaded with 17 of the tour’s 18 winners this season. The one major absence is Nelly Korda, the LPGA’s No. 1-ranked golfer. She withdrew before the event with a neck injury.

NFL

Titans put Burks on IR, promote Siemian

The Tennessee Titans placed wide receiver Treylon Burks on injured reserve Saturday and promoted quarterback Trevor Siemian from the practice squad, putting Will Levis’ status against Buffalo in question.

Coach Brian Callahan hinted Friday that injured reserve was Burks’ likely destination after the 18th overall pick in the 2022 draft hurt a knee this week in practice. Callahan said Burks would miss “some time no matter what.”

Burks, acquired with the pick as part of the trade that sent Pro Bowl receiver A.J. Brown to Philadelphia on draft night, has four catches for 34 yards this season. Burks has 53 receptions for 699 yards and one touchdown in 27 games for his career.

The Titans (1-4) also had listed Levis as questionable after the second-year quarterback was limited at practice Friday. Levis is dealing with an AC joint sprain in his right throwing shoulder, suffered Sept. 30. He threw for just 95 yards in last week’s loss to Indianapolis.

MLS

Messi, Miami finish with best league record

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami have put together the best regular season in Major League Soccer history.

Messi had three goals and an assist in the second half alone, Luis Suarez had a pair of first-half goals and Inter Miami beat the New England Revolution 6-2 on Saturday night, finishing the season with an MLS-record 74 points — one more than the Revolution had in 2021.

It was Messi’s first hat trick for Inter Miami, the team the Argentine superstar joined midway through the 2023 season in a huge victory for Major League Soccer.

At 22-4-8 in league play, Inter Miami finished the season with a .765 winning percentage for another MLS record. There were four teams — D.C. United (24-8) and the LA Galaxy (24-8) in 1998, LAFC (21-4-9) in 2019 and New England (22-5-7) in 2021 — that finished an MLS season with a .750 winning percentage, which was the top spot until Saturday night.

Now, the top spot is Inter Miami’s by any measure, both in terms of points and best won-lost-tied mark. Inter Miami also became the eighth team in MLS history to get through a regular season with only four losses, tying another record.

Messi — who played about 35 minutes and still scored three times Saturday — finished the regular season with 20 goals and 16 assists in 19 matches.

F1

Norris on pole for U.S. Grand Prix

McLaren’s Lando Norris edged Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for the pole at the United States Grand Prix on Saturday as Formula 1 returned from its autumn break with those two resuming their fight for the drivers’ season championship.

Verstappen won the sprint race earlier in the day to stretch his lead over Norris to 54 points with six grand prix and two more sprint races left in the season. Verstappen is chasing his fourth consecutive championship, Norris his first.

Norris took the top starting spot Sunday, fighting back to beat Verstappen by 0.31 seconds on his first lap of the final session at the Circuit of the Americas.

Verstappen was in the middle of a scorching final lap that looked destined to take the front spot, but had to abandon it when Mercedes’ George Russell crashed and the session ended under a yellow caution flag.

NASCAR

Bell wins pole in third playoffs qualifier

Christopher Bell won the pole in Saturday qualifying for the opening race of the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs.

Bell turned a lap at 185.344 mph in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing to take the top starting spot Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Bell is one of eight drivers attempting to earn a spot in the Cup Series championship finale.

A win by any of the playoff drivers at Las Vegas on Sunday, or the next two weeks at Homestead-Miami Speedway or in Martinsville, Virginia, will earn an automatic berth in the finale.

BRIEFLY

Sailing >> Emirates Team New Zealand has won the 37th America’s Cup by clinching match point for a 7-2 victory over INEOS Britannia.

— From news services