The greatest drivers are often the ones who adapt the quickest to changing rules and conditions. And new specs for various tracks this year will require just that.
Just because Zion Williamson is already the presumptive No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft doesn’t mean he has nothing left to gain by continuing his college season.
Paul George said Thursday that he reached out to Nike to find out “what went wrong” with his PG 2.5 signature shoe that Zion Williamson was wearing when he injured his knee on Wednesday.
In strictly business terms, Zion Williamson’s injury might actually turn into a money maker for him. The market for Zion’s first shoe deal just got even more competitive.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Rory McIlroy flirted with a hole-in-one on the same par 4 where Tiger Woods hit out-of-bounds with his first shot in Mexico. That’s about how their days went Thursday in the WGC-Mexico Championship. McIlroy, already off to a solid start on the back nine, hit a 2-iron on the 305-yard opening hole at Chapultepec Golf Club that landed on the front of the green and was rolling just left of the pin when it settled 6 feet away, leading to an eagle that carried him to an 8-under 63 and a one-shot lead over Dustin Johnson. Woods got the raucous Mexican introduction for his opening tee shot, a 5-wood that also landed on the green — the wrong green. The ball bounced hard off a temporary green to the left and beyond the out-of-bounds stake into the bushes. And then he nearly did it again, and ultimately had to get up-and-down from 60 feet away in a bunker to escape with double bogey. After a burst of birdies, he struggled to make much the rest of the way and opened with a 71. “I pulled across it to try and cut it and hit it dead off the toe,” Woods said. “Hit both of them dead off the toe.” McIlroy’s 2-iron was the signature shot in an exquisite start to this World Golf Championship. He was 6 under through an eight-hole stretch in the middle of the round, and a 20-foot birdie on No. 8 toward the end of his round is what gave him the lead over Johnson, who played in the group behind. It was his second straight week with a 63. “I wouldn’t say it was easy,” McIlroy said. “I hit a lot of good golf shots, but I left myself a lot of tap-ins for birdies. As 63s go, I shot 63 at Riviera last week, but this felt probably a little more stress-free.” He described his 2-iron as close to perfect, just how he envisioned it, a little cut to take off some distance in the thin air of Mexico City. The only blemish on his round came at the par-5 sixth, when he pulled his tee shot into the trees and looked as though he would have to punch out back to the fairway. Standing over the ball, McIlroy was looking up. He saw a gap between two trees with a tiny limbs, so even if he clipped one, his 8-iron should have been enough to give him a reasonable shot at the green. There was one limb that concerned him, which McIlroy described as “something a dog would pick up.” “The one branch it could not hit, it hit,” he said. “It all levels out at the end of the day. I’m just in a good frame of mind, managing my game well, putting went good. And if you putt well, it takes pressure off the rest of your game. And that’s where it’s at.” Johnson won the WGC-Mexico Championship two years ago, part of three straight victories during the best stretch of golf he ever played. Johnson said he struggled with his swing at Pebble Beach and Riviera, and worked all week on the range in Mexico. “It’s starting to feel the way it did two years ago,” he said. Much like McIlroy, there wasn’t a lot of stress in his game. Johnson only missed three of the tree-lined fairways and was rarely out of position except on No. 12, where he lost his drive well to the right. He had no shot to the green, so he tried to put it in the bunker. It went in and out of the bunker, onto the fringe and he holed the putt from 20 feet for his third straight birdie to start the round. He also had back-to-back eagle putts, driving the first green to 20 feet and hitting driver on the 383-yard second hole over the trees and onto the green — as Bubba Watson was putting — to 18 feet. He made birdie on both. “I feel like I’ve got this altitude thing figured out,” he said. Justin Thomas, who lost in a playoff last year to Phil Mickelson, chipped in from 50 feet behind the green on No. 15 for eagle and was at 66. He was tied with Matt Kuchar, who already won in Mexico once this season at the Mayakoba Classic. Jordan Spieth, with his father filling in because caddie Michael Greller’s father died, opened with a 75. Woods was fortunate he only started with a double bogey. He didn’t realize immediately that his first tee shot was out-of-bounds, and he had reason to think his second tee shot would turn out the same. “It was on the exact same line,” Woods said, who added he thought for a second, “This could be a pretty big number.” He had to play from the bushes to punch it into the bunker, and blasted out to a foot for his double bogey. After his stretch of three straight birdies got him under par, he twice missed par putts from about 4 feet, though he holed a 15-foot par putt on the 17th. He summed up his round aptly: “Got off to a bad start. Got it going after a little bit there, made three in a row. Couldn’t make any birdies after that for some reason. It is what it is.” Mickelson, two weeks removed from his victory at Pebble Beach, could relate. He bogeyed three of his first four holes on the back, shot 40 on the front and opened with a 79.
Milwaukee has won 14 of its past 16 games and looks to extend a two-game win streak in a showdown against Boston.
Houston has its opening-night starting lineup back together for the first time in two months in a matchup against LeBron James’ Lakers in L.A.
NBA star DeMarcus Cousins ripped the NCAA after Zion Williamson’s injury, saying college “does nothing” for the Duke star at this point.
RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – On a day with unpredictable, swirling winds it was the steady play of Andres Romero that leads the way after the first round of the Puerto Rico Open. Romero, a one-time PGA TOUR winner, fired a 6-under-par 66 at the Coco Beach Golf Club Thursday. The Puerto Rico Open is Romero’s third PGA TOUR start of the 2018-19 season. He finished T-26 at the Sanderson Farms Championship and missed the cut at The RSM Classic. Through a translator, he said he has been playing well for a while and was happy to see everything click Thursday. “Mainly it was my putting that was letting me down lately and today was very good,â€� he said. â€�It gives me a lot of confidence for the whole game.â€� With winds gusting up to 30 mph and intermittent rain falling through Thursday, Romero said he embraced the difficult conditions. “It was very tough for everyone, not only for (me),â€� said Romero. “Had to think a lot more than a regular round. For example (I) hit a 6-iron from 150 yards on No. 15. But was playing well and feeling confident, so that helped a lot.â€� Romero leads by one over Sepp Straka, a rookie on the PGA TOUR this season. Straka earned his TOUR card via Web.com Tour Finals in 2018 and his best result so far came at last month’s Farmers Insurance Open, where he finished T-13. Straka is the first-ever golfer from Austria to hold PGA TOUR status and he said he’s been feeling a lot more comfortable as the weeks have gone on. He was steady Thursday in Puerto Rico, making six birdies and one bogey. He said Thursday’s 67 was a continuation of some good play of late. “I feel like my game has been pretty good for a couple weeks,â€� he said. I had a terrible week of scoring at Pebble, but I felt like my game was pretty good, ever since Torrey, really. I played well out there. And ever since then, I have hit the ball pretty nice.â€� Behind Romero and Straka is a group of nine golfers at 4-under that includes Ben Crane, Ollie Schniederjans, Roberto Castro, Martin Piller, Roberto Diaz, Joey Garber, Nate Lashley, Alex Kang, and David Hearn. Hearn has never finished outside the top-25 in the four times he’s played this event and said given his position in last year’s FedExCup standings he’s hopeful for a good week to give him some confidence. “Good starts are always a good way to go about it,â€� said Hearn. “I feel like my game’s been really close. I’m really close to putting together some consistent golf, so hopefully next three days, just more of what I just saw today.â€�
The Nationals have had plenty of time to get used to the idea of playing without Bryce Harper — and it shows at their camp in Florida.
