Tommy Fleetwood was the talk of the Open on Saturday but a fairytale major victory seems an increasingly unlikely resultYou could see the black cloud coming over the horizon. It wasn’t rain (though there was enough of that), nor a collection of anything menacing like hornets; it was just a phalanx of monochrome waterproofs rolling irresistibly up the side of the fairway.This was Tommy Fleetwood’s army, the thousands of people who flocked to Hoylake on Saturday to support the local lad, second on the leaderboard overnight, as he staged his attempt to get within touching distance of the Claret Jug. He’d called for them, and they were there, now he had to play his part. Continue reading...
Northern Irishman, in Beatles shoes, had plenty of chances during round three but failed to make the most of themIt feels like Rory McIlroy has been doing this to us for practically his whole career. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and victory from defeat – like someone who gives you butterflies on a first date and then doesn’t text back, leaving us tossing and turning in our sleep; sweating, ponderous, infuriated.But that is part of the charm, the contract we all unwittingly sign when following somebody like McIlroy. At last year’s Open Championship at St Andrews, he held a joint four-shot lead over the rest of the field after the third round, before falling away as Cameron Smith...
Opening matches at World Cups are often a practice in figuring out what works. The USWNT’s 3-0 win over Vietnam to launch their three-peat bid suggests they’re not yet an entirely finished productSophia Smith admitted that she was nervous – and she is never nervous. Savannah DeMelo? She had some nerves, too, after finding out less than 24 hours earlier that her first international start would take place in the United States’ opening match of the 2023 World Cup.“I mean, it’s a World Cup,” Smith said of the nerves. “I feel like that just shows how much it means.” Continue reading...
Last year’s US PGA Championship winner shot 11 over par on Thursday having managed just three top-10 finishes this year“It just doesn’t make sense,” said Justin Thomas with a look of genuine mystification on his face. “I’ll hit shots like the No 1 player in the world and then I’ll make a nine on the last hole of the tournament. I made two doubles and a quad. It’s eight-year-old, nine-year-old stuff, not someone who’s trying to win the British Open. I mean, you just can’t do stuff like that!”Thomas, the two-times major winner and indeed a former world No 1, was speaking on Friday afternoon shortly before his failure to make the cut at this year’s Open was confirmed. Just...
The US Center for SafeSport was formed to protect athletes from abuse. But the mounting number of critics who say it’s failed in its mission is reaching a critical massSince March 2017, the US Center for SafeSport has been charged by federal law to fight the scourge of sexual misconduct and other abuses in Olympic sports.The Center has established well-regarded training courses and a national database of nearly 2,000 suspended coaches, athletes and other personnel. But it has also faced barrages of criticism from all corners – accusers who find it ineffective, accused parties who say it’s been weaponized, lawyers who prefer to let the US judicial system handle things, and lawmakers who occasionally fret but haven’t done much to...