By LENOX RAWLINGS, Winston-Salem Journal

The clock ticks on relentlessly.

The University of North Carolina, charged with nine major football violations, has 11 weeks left to file documents and counterclaims. If the information flow suits the NCAA, the infractions committee will hear the case Oct. 28 and rule later.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - The Masters was Rory McIlroy's to lose, and he lost it.

He lost it in ways that Greg Norman couldn't imagine. Or Bill Murray, for that matter, on the back nine at Augusta National Sunday afternoon.

DURHAM, N.C. - They're called postseason awards for a reason, and the reason has nothing to do with midseason voting.

Talkers must talk about something, especially on gasbag radio or gasbag radio posing as cable TV, and that's why Virginia's Tony Bennett seized the premature lead for Atlantic Coast Conference coach of the year.

Jeff Teague's exit hurts the Wake Forest basketball team, but it doesn't condemn the Deacons to bottom feeding.
The doomsday scenario, evident in media reports and alumni chatter, hardly squares with proven theories of ACC relativity. For Wake Forest to sink from the league's third rung to the bottom third, a whole lot of teams must rise.

In the end, he had the name.
The name was Richard Petty, and the name was golden.
His father, Lee Petty, started racing before NASCAR began and won three championships. Richard joined the family business at 11, a smiling prince with short hair and long teeth. He became "The King."

CHARLOTTE -- In his granddaddy's day, hard-charging, hard-smoking drivers might walk a mile for a Camel.At the dawn of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s new racing day, he rides in on a camel.Her name is Lulu. "Her breath stunk something awful," Earnhardt said.

Jim Grobe is a triple threat.He can coach, he can model rumpled sweatshirts and he can cause irregular heartbeats faster than lightning.