Ernie Els shot his second straight 6-under 65 Friday to take a three-stroke lead over Jerry Kelly in the Verizon Heritage at Hilton Head Island, S.C. Els hasn’t won on the PGA Tour in nearly three years and flamed out at the Masters last week, missing the cut at a major for the first time since the 1999 PGA Championship. Kelly shot a 70. Fred Funk (67) and Stephen Leaney (68) were four strokes back at 8 under. . . . Lorena Ochoa birdied seven of the final 12 holes to shoot a 6-under 66 in the second round and tie Laura Davies for the lead at the Ginn Open in Reunion, Fla., at 12-under 132.
– Venus Williams defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-4, 7-5 to reach the Family Circle Cup semifinals in Charleston, S.C. Williams will face second-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, who routed Slovenia’s Katrina Srebotnik 6-2, 6-0.
– Cory Larose and Brett Sterling scored in the shootout and Michael Garnett denied all four Milwaukee attempts to lift the Wolves to a 4-3 victory at the Bradley Center. The Wolves matched an AHL record for road wins in a season with the victory, their league-best 27th. . . . Left wing Ray Whitney, the Hurricanes’ leading scorer, signed a three-year, $10.5 million contract. . . . Todd Bertuzzi skated in practice with the Red Wings despite a concussion and neck injury and hopes to play in Game 2 of their series against Calgary.
– Nextel Cup qualifying was canceled Friday because of severe storms in Ft. Worth. Points leader Jeff Gordon is on the front row with Jeff Burton for Sunday’s Samsung 500.
