The player who won four majors in three years was an ice-cool closer but he has not yet fully recovered from kneecap accidentIt was just gone four o’clock when Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka made it to Juniper, Augusta’s precipitous little par-three 6th. The sun had come out, the clouds had scattered and the mercury was finally rising. Koepka had only just given up the lead he had been holding since he made a birdie to pull one shot clear on Friday morning. He and Rahm were tied in first place now, 10 under par, four shots clear of the field, and the gallery all around was waiting for Koepka to come back at him. Rahm had the honour. His...
The five-times champion had some good moments in his first round, but too many mistakes led to a two-over-par finishIt’s an odd truth that if you’ve got to ask someone who it is you’re watching at Augusta National then you already know the answer. At a quarter-to-ten, half an hour before Tiger Woods was even due on the 1st tee, the crowd was packed four or five deep down the length of the fairway, and three times as thick again up by the clubhouse. So anyone who arrived hoping to see him afterwards needed to be awfully comfortable up on their tip-toes, or else try to find a vacant pine tree root to perch on so they could peer over...
Players on both sides of golf’s divide appear to be attempting to bury the hatchet for the duration of competition at AugustaNothing around Augusta National is exactly what it seems. You’ve maybe read, here and elsewhere, all the old stories about the place. Those bird noises you hear on the TV coverage? They say they’re dubbed in by the broadcaster. That azure water in the ponds? The groundskeepers are supposed to dye it just the right hue of blue. And all that immaculate grass? The whisper is they spray paint the bare patches. The club have always refused to confirm or deny any of it. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, just enjoy the azaleas and have...
The 15-times major champions’ dreams of continuing to compete at the summit of golf are now appearing unattainableIt would be quite the story if Tiger Woods turned up at a golf tournament and announced he was there only to make up numbers. Eyebrows were raised when Woods used pre-tournament media duties at the Genesis Invitational to assert he was in California to win, seven months after his last competitive round, yet this was Woods in natural form. When the 47-year-old senses he cannot trade blows with the best in the world he will quietly exit stage left.Woods must realise that time is fast approaching. He surely comprehends the competitive dilemma he finds himself stuck within. Making the cut at the...
Rebel tour has lost momentum heading into 2023 leaving those tempted by the riches promised facing an uncertain futureIt is telling that discussion around Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to the Saudi Arabian league focuses on the player’s inexorable slide towards footballing oblivion. Ronaldo was unveiled at the end of a year in which at least 147 people had been executed in Saudi Arabia, according to the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights. Ronaldo’s 526 million Instagram and 106 million Twitter followers will now be afforded updates from Al Nassr as football obsessives debate his on-field decline. The Saudis have bought one of the game’s iconic figures, meaning goals and assists barely matter. Neither does the source of Ronaldo’s weekly wage. Sportswashing...