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Sports Shorts

GOLF: Bae edges Bradley for Nelson title

Sang-Moon Bae won the Bryon Nelson Championship in Irving, Tex., yesterday for his first PGA Tour title, beating Keegan Bradley by two strokes after blowing a four-stroke lead. The 26-year-old South Korean closed with a 1-under 69 to finish at 13-under 267.

Bradley was trying to become the Nelson’s first wire-to-wire winner since Tom Watson in 1980. He set the TPC Four Seasons course record with an opening 60, but finished with a 72 on a day with wind gusting to near 40 mph at times.

* Graeme McDowell made amends for last year’s defeat to capture the World Match-Play Championship in Bulgaria, defeating Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee 2 and 1 in the final on the Thracian Cliffs course. The 2010 U.S. Open champion fought back from 2 down after four holes and only edged in front of his 43-year old opponent on the 14th hole before securing the victory at the 17th.

* In Portugal, American Peter Uihlein won the Madeira Islands Open in his 16th European Tour start for his first professional title, closing with a 4-under 68 for a two-stroke victory.

* In South Carolina, Mark Anderson won the BMW Charity Pro-Am for his first Web.com Tour title

HOCKEY: Americans capture bronze medal

The United States won its first medal at the ice hockey world championships in nine years, taking the bronze by beating Finland 3-2 in a penalty shootout. Alex Galchenyuk scored back-to-back goals in the shootout for the Americans. Teammates Craig Smith and Paul Stastny found the net in the first period. Finland tied the score with two goals in the third period.

Also in Stockholm, Sweden became the first home team to win the world hockey championships in 27 years, beating Switzerland 5-1.

LACROSSE: Duke, Denver reach semifinals

David Lawson scored his career-best fifth goal with 2:16 remaining to lift Duke to a 12-11 win against Notre Dame (11-5) in the lacrosse quarterfinals in Indianapolis.

The Blue Devils (14-5) advance to play Cornell in Saturday’s semifinals in Philadelphia. It will be Duke’s seventh consecutive trip to the Final Four. The Blue Devils won the national championship in 2010.

Eric Law scored with 13 seconds left to cap Denver’s big comeback in a 12-11 win over North Carolina in another quarterfinal. Denver trailed by as many as six goals and was down five at halftime.

ETC.: Indy 500 will have full field

British driver Katherine Legge has become the 33rd driver to qualify for next week’s Indianapolis 500, assuring race organizers of a full field. Legge was the ninth driver to make an attempt yesterday, the second and final day of qualifications. The fastest second-day qualifiers were Americans Josef Newgarden at 225.731 and Graham Rahal at 225.007.

* After all these years, Rafael Nadal still knows how to dominate Roger Federer. In the 30th meeting between the tennis greats, Nadal controlled the final from the start and won 6-1, 6-3 in Rome for his seventh Italian Open title.

* Tejay van Garderen stayed out of trouble to seal his first professional stage race title,, winning the Tour of California in front of BMC Racing Team’s home fans. The American edged Australia Michael Rogers for the overall title by 1:47. Colombian Janier Acevedo was third.

SOCCER: Big finale for Ferguson

Alex Ferguson. Former Manchester United manager.

At the end of his 1,500th game in charge of Man United, the 71-year-old Scot bowed in front of thousands of applauding fans — and then bowed out of soccer for good.

And what a thrilling way to bow out at West Bromwich Albion in central England — the first 5-5 draw in the Premier League on the back of a 13th championship for Ferguson.

* Newly crowned Spanish champion Barcelona celebrated the league title in front of its home fans by easing to a 2-1 win over Valladolid.