More golf:: Fifteen players who otherwise wouldn't have made next year's Masters field will by virtue of finishing in the top 50 in the world ranking. The players are Richard Sterne, Rory McIlroy, Lin Wen-Tang, Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer, Ross Fisher, Luke Donald, Shingo Kayatama, Graeme McDowell, Rory Sabbatini, Jeev Milkha Singh, Aaron Baddeley, Oliver Wilson, Soren Hansen and Soren Kjeldsen.
NHL:: With almost two weeks remaining, Penguins star Sidney Crosby surpassed Jaromir Jagr's record for the most votes received by a player in NHL All-Star Game fan balloting. At noon yesterday, Crosby passed the 1,020,736-vote mark that Jagr set in 2000 while with Pittsburgh. Crosby's Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin was also poised to top the record - as of the moment Crosby passed Jagr, Malkin was within 19,000 votes of doing the same. Through Jan. 2, fans can vote online to select the starting lineups for the All-Star Game, set for Jan. 25 in Montreal.
More NHL:: Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron, who missed most of last season with a concussion, was released from Massachusetts General Hospital after being diagnosed with another concussion. "There is no timetable for his return to the ice," Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli said in a statement. Bergeron was injured in the Bruins' 4-2 win over the Hurricanes on Saturday.
Speedskating:: Apolo Anton Ohno won two more individual events at the U.S. Short Track Speedskating Championships in Chesterfield, Mo., to capture his eighth straight national title. Ohno won the 1,000 and 3,000 meters (in 1 minute, 28.586 seconds and 4:52.034, respectively) to win the overall title with 4,140 points - nearly 300 more than second-place J.R. Celski. Katherine Reutter also swept the final two individual events (in 1:32.885 and 5:08.676) to jump ahead of Kimberly Derrick and win her second consecutive national title. Reutter finished with 3,860 points, and Derrick had 3,640.
Swimming:: Aschwin Wildeboer broke the men's 100-meter backstroke world record at the Spanish short-course championships in Madrid. The Spaniard's time of 49.20 seconds was 0.13 of a second faster than the mark set by Stanislav Donets of Russia last week in Rijeka, Croatia.
Soccer:: Wayne Rooney scored late in the second half to lead Manchester United to a 1-0 win over Ecuador's Liga de Quito in Yokohama, Japan, in the final of the Club World Cup. Manchester United became the first English club to win the cup in its current format.
