<table> </table> <strong><span class="subhead">Ginobili needs surgery</span></strong></p><p>San Antonio Spurs guard <strong>Manu Ginobili</strong>, who helped Argentina to a bronze medal in the Beijing Olympics, will need surgery to repair a ligament injury in his left ankle. Ginobili was hobbled during the NBA playoffs, and the Spurs had urged him not to play in the Olympics. He was injured in Argentina&#8217;s semifinal game against the U.S.</p><p>&#8226;<strong>Patrick Ewing Jr.</strong> is following in the footsteps of his famous father again. The New York Knicks, for whom his father played, acquired the younger Ewing from the Houston Rockets for the draft rights to center <strong>Frederic Weis</strong>.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Johnson wins pole at Fontana</span></strong></p><p><strong>Jimmie Johnson </strong>won the pole at Fontana, Calif., for the Pepsi 500. His lap of 180.397 was just better than <strong>A.J. Allmendinger </strong>at 179.659 and teammate <strong>Jeff Gordon </strong>at 179.565.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">China wasn&#8217;t the only fake</span></strong></p><p>China isn&#8217;t the only country to fake a musical performance during an Olympic opening ceremony. Turns out the Aussies know something about miming music two.</p><p>At the 2000 Summer Olympics, part of the performance of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the opening ceremony was entirely prerecorded. And some of the music wasn&#8217;t even played by the Sydney symphony. It was the Melbourne symphony.</p><p>The director of the Sydney symphony was unapologetic, saying: &#8220;If you&#8217;ve got an event the size of the Olympics, and you&#8217;ve got billions and billions of people watching it, you definitely have a backing track and mime to it, because anything could go wrong. You cannot take the risk.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Weir shoots career low</span></strong></p><p>Canadian <strong>Mike Weir </strong>birdied his first four holes and 1-putted his final nine greens in the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Mass., finishing with a 61 in the first round. He had a 3-stroke lead over a group of four players that included <strong>Vijay Singh</strong>. Area players <strong>Tom Pernice Jr</strong>. (69), <strong>Woody Austin </strong>(72) and <strong>Michael Letzig </strong>(74) also are entered.</p><p>&#8226;<strong>CHAMPIONS</strong>: <strong>Hale Irwin </strong>shot a 6-under 66 at the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach and was tied with four others.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Elsewhere</span></strong></p><p>&#8226;Pro golfer <strong>Tripp Isenhour</strong>, who was charged with animal cruelty and killing a migratory bird when he hit a golf ball and killed a protected hawk last year, pleaded no contest to the charges.