From Chris Froome’s breakaway in the Giro d’Italia to an epic Wimbledon showdown, my year featured a number of breathtaking highlightsWhen the New York columnist Jimmy Cannon was starting out in journalism, the playwright Damon Runyon gave him some impeccable advice: “The best way to be a bum and make a living is to write about sport.” The game has changed in the intervening 80 years, but Runyon’s words still hold true. So as 2018 comes to an end, here is this bum’s favourite memories of the sporting events he witnessed at first hand … Continue reading...
The messaging app proves the ultimate team-bonding tool with efficient sharing of logistics, ‘bantz’ and devastating newsGood news for sportsmen this week: they can now forget the pre‑tournament boot camps, and the on-tour karaoke. Travel agents, too, can cancel those large group tours to Gallipoli. Because the Ryder Cup gave us conclusive proof that the ultimate team-bonding tool is already here, and its name is WhatsApp.The European team’s app-inspired love-in has removed all doubt. Even we on the outside could practically see the heart-eyed emojis fluttering between Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood. If Theresa May really wants to rally her cabinet behind her at the Tory conference, she should surely be changing her profile pic to Justin Thomas in a...
Spaniard justifies Ryder Cup call-up by proving he is a true leader with a day of input on and off the courseOf the hundreds of decisions Thomas Bjørn has had to make since he took on the captaincy two years ago, picking Sergio García was one of the riskiest. Not that Bjørn ever saw it that way. He has been on the same team as García in six Ryder Cups, as a teammate and a vice-captain. Now he was in charge, he knew he wanted him in his team, even if he had to use one of his wildcard picks to do it. The problem was, hardly anyone else seemed to agree with him.García had been playing some poor stuff...
The American’s Ryder Cup losing streak extended to seven, while Tommy Fleetwood became the first ever European to win his first four Ryder Cup matchesNot since the Marshall Plan have the Americans been so generous to Europe. And Tiger Woods has been among the most munificent in this 42nd Ryder Cup.On Friday, he and Patrick Reed gifted a point to Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood in the opening fourball, 3&1, before he skipped the afternoon foursomes to rest his back. On Saturday, he and Reed gift-wrapped the quiet Italian and his long-haired Southport mate the morning fourball, 4&3. And, as the American team sought to apply a tourniquet to the haemorrhage, the same European combination – Moliwood, as they have...
The Ryder Cup’s customary 1st-tee tension was ramped up further by a packed grandstand and the pressure took its tollAs Thorbjørn Olesen prepared for the opening shot of his Ryder Cup career he began to give off the sort of distress signals that any Sunday morning hacker would recognise. First came the massive gulps of air, as he tried to arrest the adrenaline raging through his body. Then, after a nervous lick of the lips – the tongue acting like a windscreen wiper on the vermilion border – and several rushed practice swings he placed his ball as calmly as he could on the tee – only to clank it into the water.But Olesen, a player good enough to amass...