With Covid-19 cases surging in Georgia, 16 weeks does not feel long enough for things to change sufficientlyAugusta National is one venue where silence can never be mistaken for inaction. As the United States remains in the grip of Covid-19 – and its sporting calendar impacted accordingly – it would be an error to suppose those who preside over the Masters blithely believe their event is unaffected.In his last bulletin, in early April, Augusta National’s chairman, Fred Ridley, sought to “emphasise that our future plans are incumbent upon favourable counsel and direction from health officials”. This will be the most intense of watching briefs. Related: PGA Tour happy playing a high-risk game to reboot sport in the US | Ewan...
The Masters champion had dodged the start of the PGA Tour’s resumption, adding to the clamour to see the state of his gameA Friday evening check by the United States golf media has long since become both routine and mundane. As entries close for the following week’s PGA Tour event, a scan of the talent list is necessary to find out if a certain T Woods will single-handedly raise the status of any given tournament. Through the stages of Woods’s incredible career – greatness, epic decline, greatness again – his ability to draw eyes has never wilted. Arguably, the Woods aura is now stronger than ever.Quite why Woods enjoys his scheduling plans being so shrouded in mystery has always been...
Plus: Arnold Palmer’s US Open charge at Cherry Hills, triple jump joy, Moeen magic and more speed thrills1) Claude Lelouch’s 1976 single-take short C’etait un rendez-vous is a speed-freak favourite, chronicling a pigeon-scattering, traffic-light ignoring dawn drive through Paris. Lelouch has returned behind the camera for a new version, with less mystique, F1 driver Charles Leclerc at the wheel, Ferrari, face coverings, elbow bumps and even Albert II, Prince of Monaco, on board. Stick with the classic, we reckon. Here’s Alex Roy’s detailed tour of the original route.2) An eye-popping 25 [TWENTY-FIVE – Classic YouTube vidiprinter] years ago this day, the world witnessed Jonah Lomu v Mike Catt (W/O), live from Cape Town. To his immense credit, Catt himself speaks...
The American, one of four men to win three sprint gold medals at an Olympic Games, is remembered as much for the infamy his business dealings provoked as his glorious running styleFour men have won the sprint triple at the Olympics and, chances are, you know three of them: Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt. Then there is Bobby Joe Morrow, who died last Sunday at the age of 84. When Morrow won the 100m, 200m, and the 4x100m at the Melbourne Games in 1956 he was, briefly, as famous as any of the other three. He was a guest on the Ed Sullivan show, same episode as Marcel Marceau, and Arthur Godfrey and His Friends, he made the...
Statements barely addressing an unarmed black man’s death are closer to obligation than any commitment to social justiceOn Saturday, five days after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota, the NFL spoke out. It released a short statement by its commissioner, Roger Goodell, offering his condolences to the Floyd family, stating the “urgent need for action” without identifying what that action might be, addressing “systemic issues” without specifying what those issues were. The words “police”, “black” and “racism” were not mentioned. It was a word salad, reading like the cryptic statement of a surly 61-year-old teenager, fed through the yoghurt pot of a corporate communications department, and spat out on to the internet in a shareable meme format.The...