James Borrego has started work on building his staff in Charlotte after agreeing to be the new coach of the Hornets. The two sides reached agreement on a four-year deal, league sources told ESPN.
Matt Woodley knows life as an assistant coach means often uprooting his family. After one season at Pitt, he took a job at Drake to seek stability for his daughter Molly, who suffers from life-threatening seizures.
Phil Mickelson has never been one to go with the grain. When Lefty showed up at Augusta in a long-sleeve dress shirt and played a practice round with Tiger Woods, we all thought it was humorous and “so Phil.” Now, he’s wearing the shirt to play the 2018 Players Championship. I should also mention that it is nearly 90 degrees at The Players Championship on Thursday. “It’s a stretchy fabric, it performs well,” Mickelson said at Augusta. “I think it looks good.” I think it looks hot as hell. The dress shirt is made by a company called Mizzen+Main, which has signed Mickelson to an endorsement deal to wear its apparel on the course and has given him equity in the company. “Phil is one of the most
Citing a lack of consistent fan support, Giants infielder and former Tampa Bay star Evan Longoria says his gut tells him the best decision for the Rays might be to move the team.
Tommy Maddox, supplanted by rookie Ben Roethlisberger as the Steelers’ starter in 2004, believes Big Ben won’t shun rookie quarterback Mason Rudolph.
Rodney Hood got an unusual reaction when he apologized to his Cleveland teammates for refusing to check into Game 4 against Toronto. The chaotic Cavaliers have dealt with bigger nonsense this season. ”They was like, ‘Hood, that’s not really a distraction’ because of everything that they’ve been through this year,” he said.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Dustin Johnson is using a new technique for his putting and he likes the results. Frustrated over not seeing enough putts go in over the last three months, Johnson tried the “AimPoint” method that some players use to help them read the greens. He opened with six birdies on the back nine, only once had a putt over 3 feet for par and wound up with a 6-under 66 to share the early lead at THE PLAYERS Championship. Alex Noren and Webb Simpson also were at 66 among the early starters Thursday. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, playing together for the first time in nearly four years, were out in the afternoon when the light wind was a little stronger. Johnson and the early birds couldn’t ask for better scoring conditions at TPC Sawgrass. Johnson, whose No. 1 ranking is in jeopardy this week, made the putts he had been missing in Mexico and Riviera, at Augusta National and Hilton Head. So he had one of his coaches, Allen Terrell, teach the method to Austin Johnson, his brother and caddie. And then the world’s No. 1 player picked it up quickly, and they were on their way. “I was just not making enough putts,” Johnson said. “It’s definitely helped. Because I’m a feel putter, anyway, and so the way you’re doing it really is you’re just feeling. So it definitely works. I was pretty good the first time I switched. I had done it a little bit, like messing around with it. I’m very pleased with the way I putted today.” It involves a player holding up one or two fingers, depending on the length of the putt, to help determine. “The only thing I don’t like is holding up fingers,” Johnson said. “I make AJ do that.” The scoring was so easy that 43 of the 72 players who teed off in the morning broke par. Defending champion Si Woo Kim had the lead until two late bogeys. He had to settle for a 67, still a strong start considering that no one has ever won back to back in the PGA TOUR’s premier event. Also at 67 was Keith Mitchell, who only got into the tournament Wednesday when Paul Casey had to withdraw with an injury. Mitchell played nine holes of practice on Tuesday and Wednesday, and made his debut with four straight birdies at the start. All that ruined his day was a double bogey at the par-3 third hole, his 12th of the day. “I don’t want to say it was a surprise. I’ve been playing well lately,” Mitchell said. “I was surprised to be able to play, first of all, so that was more of the surprise, just to be able to tee it up. When we did, we just tried to take advantage of our opportunity.” Among those who didn’t take advantage was the feature group of the morning — Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. They were a combined 3 over, and McIlroy had the best score of the group with a 71. “It could have been better. I could have been probably a little worse, as well. It was probably a fair reflection of how I played,” McIlroy said. “It looked like it played easy out there, but our group didn’t feel like that with what we shot.” Spieth hit into the water three times in his opening seven holes, leading to a pair of bogeys and double bogey. He also drove the 12th green to 10 feet for eagle. But he shot a 75, and he’ll have to work hard Friday to avoid missing the cut for the fourth straight year at THE PLAYERS. Johnson doesn’t have a great track record on the Stadium Course. The 66 was his best round by two shots, and only the fourth time he broke 70. The timing couldn’t have been better, especially with his No. 1 ranking on the line. He opened with simple birdies at the 11th and 12th (eagle chances at both), and made a 10-footer at No. 14 and a 20-footer on the par-5 16th. The bonus was on the 18th, when his 35-foot birdie putt had plenty of speed as it swirled into the cup. He also made a 10-foot birdie at the par-5 second, and then didn’t have many reasonable chances the rest of the way. But it was free of stress, too. His only brush with bogey was a 6-foot par putt on the island-green 17th. “I don’t think I putted very well around here as a whole,” Johnson said of his record at Sawgrass. “That’s one thing I’ve struggled around here with, and today I rolled it nicely.” Â
Chris Mack has his work cut out at Louisville. Can he fight through the cloud of scandal left behind by Rick Pitino to lure top recruits to the Cardinals?
Running back Paul Perkins was released by the New York Giants on Thursday with a non-football injury.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – History does not favor Si Woo Kim this week. No champion of THE PLAYERS Championship has successfully defended in the 44 years of the tournament. The best result by a defending champ are the T-5s posted by Jack Nicklaus (1977), Tom Kite (1990) and Hal Sutton (2001). More to the point, the defending champ rarely finds himself in contention, and is more apt to miss the cut. Since Sutton’s result, the last 16 results by the defending PLAYERS champ includes four missed cuts, a WD, a DNP and just one top-10 finish – by Adam Scott, who tied for eighth in 2005. A year ago, Jason Day tied for 60th after shooting a final-round 80. Meanwhile, Kim became the youngest champ in PLAYERS history, winning by three strokes. It was an unexpected victory – and Kim continued to produce the unexpected Thursday. His 5-under 67 is the lowest opening score by a defending champ since the tournament moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982. Had he not stumbled down the stretch with bogeys in two of his last three holes, he would’ve been the first-round leader. “I played great,� said the 22-year-old Korean, who began his round off the 10th tee and was a bogey-free 7 under for his first 14 holes. “… I liked the score in the first round, but I can hit it better.� Day arrived at TPC Sawgrass in 2017 still dealing with issues involving his mother’s battle with cancer. It did not leave him in the proper frame of mind to defend, but he also acknowledged that it’s difficult to defend in a tournament that produces the best field of the season. “This tournament is heightened,� he said. “The level of it just goes up every single year. I think it gets closer and closer to a major championship feel every single year that we play, and I feel like a lot of the guys think that it’s a major championship.� And just like a major, there are few successful defenses. The last one came at the Open Championship in 2008 when Padraig Harrington won at Royal Birkdale. Since the end of World War II, a total of 289 majors have been played – and the defending champ has won just 14 times, a success rate of less than 5 percent. Of course, that’s still better than the zero percent for defending PLAYERS champ. Asked after his round Thursday about what it would mean to be the first player to achieve that feat, Kim replied, “I feel like it would be dreaming, but that’s too hard. This is just the first round. I’m going to keep working hard.� Probably a wise move. Not only is he battling the best field in golf, he’s battling history. Notables Bubba Watson has made 10 starts at TPC Sawgrass. His best result was a T-37 in 2013. But his opening 68 – which ties for his lowest score in his last 21 rounds here – has him on personal-best pace. “Every time I come here, I’m just trying to beat 37,� Watson said. “I’m no good around this place. It’s very difficult for me because of the sights off the tee, some of the trees. It makes me fear hitting shots that I want to hit.� On Thursday he hit a respectable 10 fairways and 13 greens. Rule, Britannia? The English group of Justin Rose (68), Tommy Fleetwood (69) and Ian Poulter (70) combined for 9 under. Neither Poulter nor Rose, the two veterans, could ever remember playing in an all-English threesome at a PGA TOUR event. “I was alerted by the TOUR maybe last week some time that they were thinking about that group,� Rose said. “It was exciting to hear it.� It’ll be even more exciting if at least one of them can remain in contention Sunday, especially since no Englishman has ever won THE PLAYERS. Webb Simpson was among the attendees for a dinner local resident Jim Furyk hosted at his house Wednesday night for Ryder Cup hopefuls. Simpson is 23rd in the U.S. standings, but his 6-under 66 no doubt caught the captain’s attention. “I’ve still got a lot of work to do to get on the team, but it was nice to be there,� Simpson said. Jordan Spieth opened bogey-bogey-eagle-double en route to a 3-over 75. It wasn’t as bad it looked, though. During one three-hole stretch, he said he “lost three strokes with a total of 6 feet in the landing zone� and added that other than two bad swings, he “played good golf and just didn’t get rewarded for it.� Brooks Koepka, who recently returned to action after missing most of this year with an injured left wrist, re-aggravated the problem when he stopped in mid-swing during a practice session Wednesday in order to avoid a cart driver who had accidentally driven in front of him 15 yards away. “It’s the first time my strength actually backfired, to be strong enough to actually stop it,� said Koepka, who was hitting 3-iron stingers to practice for shots needed at the 18th hole. “He would’ve been dead. It was perfect timing.� Koepka iced the wrist overnight, then shot a bogey-free 2-under 70. Quotables My cut-to-top-6 ratio is pretty good.It’s hard not to have a smile on your face when you shoot 5 under at this place.I really don’t think I have anything to work on this afternoon. I think it’s time to go to the beach with the kids.
