Last year, Mike Smith and Bob Baffert teamed up to win everything. This year, Smith made an “extremely tough decision” to saddle a horse from outside Baffert’s stable.
Charles Robinson, Terez Paylor, Liz Loza & Matt Harmon recap the 2019 NFL draft from an AFC perspective.
A man tore down his childhood home in Kansas City Monday to make way for a golf course in the heart of the urban core.
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – Wells Fargo, the PGA TOUR and tournament host organization Champions for Education announced today that Wells Fargo has extended its sponsorship of the Wells Fargo Championship through 2024 after signing a five-year extension. The announcement was made today by leaders from Wells Fargo, the PGA TOUR and Champions for Education. Quail Hollow Club, home to the Wells Fargo Championship since its PGA TOUR debut in 2003, will continue to host the event. “Since 2003, the Wells Fargo Championship has established itself as a premier event in the sports-rich city of Charlotte, with a supportive fan base, outstanding host venue and highly engaged title sponsor,� said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “It also continues to impact the community through the charitable efforts of Champions for Education, for which Wells Fargo has played a major role. The Wells Fargo Championship is a favorite stop among our players, and we are excited to announce that this relationship will continue for an additional five years.� The 2018 Wells Fargo Championship generated more than $1.5 million for Charlotte-area charitable organizations, raising the tournament’s all-time total to $22 million. “The Wells Fargo Championship is one of the most engaging expressions of our brand, and we’re thrilled to continue to delight golf fans, Wells Fargo team members, PGA TOUR players and the greater Charlotte community with our sponsorship of this event,� said Jamie Moldafsky, Chief Marketing Officer of Wells Fargo. “We’re especially proud of the positive impact we are able to generate in the greater Charlotte community in support of organizations including the Championship’s three primary beneficiaries: The First Tee of Greater Charlotte, Levine Children’s Hospital and Teach for America.� Jason Day returns as defending champion, winning last year by two strokes over Aaron Wise and Nick Watney. It was his 12th career PGA TOUR victory. “The Wells Fargo Championship is an important part of the fabric of the community and today’s announcement allows us to continue to support our charitable efforts,� said Wells Fargo Championship Tournament Director Gary Sobba. “It is also an exciting time for our 2,300 volunteers—many of whom are Wells Fargo team members. We are fortunate that our tournament has become a popular spring tradition for PGA TOUR players, our partners and fans throughout the Carolinas.� Quail Hollow Club President Johnny Harris said, “Today’s announcement is special for Quail Hollow Club members and staff. From the beginning, our goal was to create an exciting environment for the players, patrons, and partners as we gather to celebrate the game of golf and incorporate the tremendous support of the community. We are so honored by the success of this annual event and are grateful for all who have helped us along the way. We have been fortunate to host the best players in the world and are looking forward to welcoming them back for years to come.� Because of the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club in 2021, the event will move for one year to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Washington, D.C. Known for its natural rolling terrain and Scottish-style bunkering, this well-regarded venue has played host to past PGA TOUR events.
Boston’s top line needs to kick it in gear because when you don’t have everyone going at the same time, the second round is as far as you’ll usually go.
After a volatile Game 1 that featured 45 fouls, Houston and Golden State go at it again as the Warriors look to take a 2-0 series lead.
One of the Rockets’ least favorite officials, Scott Foster, will be working their game against the Warriors Tuesday night.
Isaiah White, who ranked second on the University of Maine men’s basketball team in scoring each of the last two years, will spend his final season of athletic eligibility next winter on the West Coast as a graduate transfer at the University of Portland in Oregon. The 6-foot-5-inch guard from Ellicott
In an interview with Sirius XM, former Duke Basketball star Jayson Tatum admitted that he was close to a return to Duke for his sophomore season. Jayson Tatum, almost, made the decision to return to Duke for his sophomore year, he said in an interview on Monday afternoon on Sirius XM. In a spot on College
Tiger Woods made a quadruple-bogey 8 and four-putted on the way to losing the 1996 Quad City Classic (now the John Deere Classic) to rumpled journeyman Ed “The Gripâ€� Fiori. This, after Woods had held the solo 54-hole lead. Three weeks later, Woods got his first PGA TOUR win. “It should have come at Quad City,â€� he said after winning the Las Vegas Invitational, where in his fifth pro start he dispatched Davis Love III in a playoff. “I learned a lot from that.â€� Well, yeah. You could say he’s had an OK career. Woods, of course, reeled off his 81st win and 15th major championship at the Masters three weeks ago. And holding leads? Not until 13 years after Quad City, at the 2009 PGA Championship (Y.E. Yang), would Woods give up another solo 54-hole lead. Like Albert Einstein said, “Failure is success in progress.â€� Most every TOUR pro can tell you about the proverbial one that got away, a tournament they had in their grasp only to fumble it away at the end, oftentimes in gruesome and agonizingly public fashion. What’s apparent in hindsight, though, is that such days are not just a rite of passage but also building blocks, foundational necessities even. Those hard losses? They often lead to spectacular victories. Examples abound: Rickie Fowler was just 65 starts into his PGA TOUR career but already beginning to hear some chirping about his inability to close, having lost 54-hole leads at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide in 2010 and the AT&T National in 2011. But at the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship, he rallied on Sunday to make the playoff, then outdueled Rory McIlroy and D.A. Points for his breakthrough victory. “Obviously there’s a lot of people that have doubted or said you’ll never win,â€� Fowler said afterwards. “So it’s nice to kind of shut them up a little bit.â€� Bubba Watson rolled Kevin Kisner 7 and 6 in the championship match of the 2018 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, but a year later a smarter, stronger Kisner powered through his bracket and won it all, beating Matt Kuchar 3 and 2 in the final a month ago. Anirban Lahiri lipped out from five feet in his 2015 Presidents Cup match against Chris Kirk, one of a handful of missed opportunities, any one of which would have won it for the International Team in Seoul, South Korea. But at the 2017 Presidents Cup at Liberty National, with the Americans poised to celebrate a day early, a tougher Lahiri came through in the clutch. Kyle Stanley went from the lowest low to the highest high in a span of seven days in 2012. Then there’s two-time Wells Fargo champion McIlroy (2010, 2015), whose entire career has followed this bust-boom cycle. In fact, he said at the Masters, he’d even been reading books on the subject, including “The Obstacle is the Way,â€� by Ryan Holiday. What is going on here? And what’s so great about losing that it leads to so much winning? What doesn’t kill you … You could be excused if you watched the 2012 Farmers Insurance Open through your fingers as Kyle Stanley, an epic talent from Gig Harbor, Washington, suffered an epic meltdown. “God, how did I feel?â€� he says. “Pretty embarrassed.â€� With one hand on the trophy as he played the par-5 18th hole at Torrey Pines South, Stanley spun a wedge back into Devlin’s Billabong, took a drop, pitched on with his fifth shot, and three-putted for an 8. He lost to Brandt Snedeker in a playoff, making bogey on the second extra hole. “It’s no fun to blow a lead like that, especially with a par 5,â€� Stanley says now. “I think I said after that that I could probably play that hole 1,000 times and always make less than 8.â€� Although they’d never met, Mark Few, head coach of Gonzaga, Stanley’s favorite basketball team, texted and told him to keep his head high. “It just kind of brightened my spirits,â€� Stanley says. Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker checked in, too. “So many people reached out; I felt a lot of support,â€� Stanley adds. “A number of players. I wasn’t in as bad a shape as one would think.â€� Once the shock wore off, he told himself he was going to have some bad holes, and he’d just had one at a really bad time. He had to forget it; he was still playing some of the best golf of his life. Seven days later, checking fewer leaderboards, he shot 65 to overtake a faltering Spencer Levin to win the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Fans called him “The Comeback Kid,â€� and Stanley teared up as he thanked his parents. His roughly 6,000 new Facebook friends reached out, and one of the first congratulatory texts he received was from Few. “I think winning was maybe the only way I would have put it behind me that quickly,â€� he says. “I was just playing so well. After something like that it turns into more of a mental thing.â€� Experience is the best teacher Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.â€� Before beating Stanley at Torrey, Snedeker was leading the 2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open but, with his mind a whir of activity, shot 78 in the last group and finished T43. “I hadn’t had the lead on Sunday and been successful,â€� Snedeker says. “That stuck with me on the West Coast. I said, Listen, I’m not going to play that way again, scared and afraid.â€� Something obviously clicked; he now has nine TOUR wins, and won the 2012 FedExCup. One of the game’s elite players, Snedeker looks back to that abysmal final-round 78 in Phoenix. “That was the one where I realized, you’re not doing this right,â€� he says. “I said, Next time I’m in that position I’m going to focus on the small things, stop looking at leaderboards, and stop focusing on things I can’t control. And it really made a difference.â€� Keegan Bradley, who cites the 2012 Northern Trust Open (now Genesis Open) as the one that got away, says such losses can still provide a helpful shot of confidence. To be fighting it out with Phil Mickelson and Bill Haas, who ultimately won, told Bradley he was on the right track. “I still think about it,â€� he says. “I had 10 feet that I thought was going to be to win the tournament. And (Haas) makes this 60-footer and I miss.â€� Did the loss fuel an ensuing win? “Well, it did help,â€� Bradley says, sounding surprised by his answer. “I won Akron the following year. It just helps you realize you’re supposed to be there, that you can be there, going up against Phil, you know. That was one of my favorite memories, actually.â€� Every week is a clean slate Before he won THE PLAYERS Championship in March, McIlroy had strung together five top-six finishes in a row without a victory. He patiently answered questions about his ability to close after each one—the golfing equivalent of being nibbled to death by ducks. Then he notched his electrifying and historic win at TPC Sawgrass. “Maybe if I hadn’t have had those experiences,â€� McIlroy said afterward, “I wouldn’t be sitting up here with this trophy, so I’m thankful and grateful for those experiences I’ve had this year.â€� One such experience came at the 2011 Masters, when he took a four-shot lead into the final round but triple-bogeyed the 10th hole on the way to an 80. McIlroy is normally an easy-going and even chatty competitor, but upon reflection he realized he’d been trying to be someone he wasn’t: a ruthless, tunnel-vision type. Part golfer, part cyborg. That was one of the lessons he took to heart as he crushed the field at the U.S. Open at Congressional two months later, winning by a gaudy eight shots over Jason Day. “I was very honest with myself and I knew what I needed to do differently,â€� McIlroy said. Kisner, too, spoke of lessons learned after winning the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in March. Namely, getting waxed in the 2018 championship match had taught him what not to do. “Last year I felt like I rushed around to get ready to play in the second match,â€� Kisner said. “I ran around and ate really fast, ran back out. Tried to go through my whole normal routine in an hour to get ready, and that’s just not feasible (considering) how much golf you played.â€� And this time? “I hung out,â€� said the low-key South Carolinian, “took a shower, chilled out, got some treatment on my body and really went to the range at 2:05, and teed off at 2:25. I just went and hit 20 balls and went to the tee. I think that greatly helped my mental side of the game as much as anything. “I wasn’t overhyped for it and just tried to go play a casual round of golf.â€� Lahiri: A changed man two years later Lahiri’s 2015 miss in his match against Kirk was more than just a cruel lip-out; it swung the entire Presidents Cup. Unbowed, Lahiri would play a prominent role for the International Team at Liberty National in 2017, with the outcome all but decided. On Saturday, he and partner Si Woo Kim took on Americans Kevin Chappell and Charley Hoffman in a Four-Ball match. No team had ever clinched on a Saturday; a Chappell/Hoffman win would make history. “We obviously wanted to end it,â€� Hoffman said. “We knew what was on our shoulders.â€� Hoffman pitched in for birdie at the 17th hole, prompting a delirious American celebration, but Lahiri had spied champagne on ice in the U.S. Team’s carts and vowed that the corks wouldn’t pop early. He converted from 20 feet, his final birdie of the back nine — he also had birdied 12, 15 and 16 — to halve the hole and thwart the Americans as the Internationals won, 1 up. The champagne went back on ice. “Got to give it up to Lahiri,â€� Hoffman said. Did he work harder on his putting after the 2015 Presidents Cup? “Much harder,â€� Lahiri says. “It’s hard; you’ve got to learn from it. You can’t persecute yourself. There wasn’t anything I could’ve done differently (in 2015) except maybe hit the putt a fraction softer. I was just waiting to get that opportunity again where I needed to make a clutch putt, and I made a few. That’s the one area of my game that has improved in the last few years.â€� Would he have come through in Jersey without his agonizing finish in Seoul? “Hard to say,â€� Lahiri says. “I don’t think anyone can look back at their life and say, ‘I would be exactly where I am had that not happened to me.’ Life doesn’t work that way.” “You just accept what comes, you learn from it and you evolve,â€� he adds. “I’m grateful for whatever I’ve experienced – the good and the bad.â€�
