Sports briefs

Pioneer League honors Owlz GM Wells

The Pioneer Baseball League has announced that Orem Owlz general manager Aaron Wells is the 2009 Executive of the Year. This is an annual honor that is voted upon by all the members of the Pioneer League and awarded to one executive for his exemplary performance.

Wells has served as the general manager of the Owlz since 2007 and had previously worked as a Los Angeles Angels employee for five years. Since Wells has been at the helm of the Orem franchise, the Owlz have increased community involvement, won two league championships and had more than 100,000 fans at home games each season.

Pernice's 62 paces Las Vegas tournament

LAS VEGAS — Champions Tour winner Tom Pernice Jr. shot a bogey-free, 9-under 62 on Thursday for a share of the first-round lead with Troy Matteson and Spencer Levin in the PGA Tour's Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

The 50-year-old Pernice, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour who won the SAS Championship on Sept. 27 in his Champions Tour debut, birdied his final two holes — Nos. 8 and 9 — at TPC Summerlin. Levin had an eagle and seven birdies in his bogey-free round, and Matteson, the 2006 winner, had nine birdies and an eagle.

Bob Heintz and Martin Laird were a stroke back, and three-time Las Vegas winner Jim Furyk matched Scott Piercy at 64. Furyk bogeyed his first two holes.

Tim Petrovic, Kirk Triplett, Briny Baird, Robert Garrigus and Jeff Klauk shot 65s.

EUROPEAN TOUR: At Vilamoura, Portugal, Francesco Molinari had an eagle and eight birdies Thursday to take a 2-shot lead with a 9-under 63 after the first round of the Portugal Masters. Despite one bogey, the Italian matched his lowest-ever score on the European Tour.

PGA Tour's future in Milwaukee in doubt

MILWAUKEE — The organization that handles the annual PGA Tour stop in Milwaukee is dissolving after failing to find a sponsor, leaving the future of professional golf in the area on shaky ground.

The move virtually guarantees the Tour won't return to Milwaukee next year. Tournament director Dan Croak said Thursday the organization has run out of money after paying its bills and other financial obligations, including a donation of more than $520,000 to charities.

"We have run out of funds and, thus, cannot continue to operate," Croak said in a statement. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported the organizers' decision to dissolve.

Tulsa group seeks to buy WNBA franchise