Rookie McKinstry 5th Dodgers’ player to go on ILRookie McKinstry 5th Dodgers’ player to go on IL
Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Zach McKinstry went on the 10-day injured list with a strained right oblique muscle, adding a fifth player to the team’s IL.
Day: April 24, 2021
Calipari pens emotional letter on Clarke’s deathCalipari pens emotional letter on Clarke’s death
Kentucky coach John Calipari wrote a heartfelt tribute to former Wildcats guard Terrence Clarke, who died in a car accident Thursday.
Bold move: Why would Ravens trade Orlando Brown to Chiefs?Bold move: Why would Ravens trade Orlando Brown to Chiefs?
Trading a Pro Bowl blocker to an archrival is about as bold as it gets. Will the Ravens’ bounty for Brown help them unseat the Chiefs in the AFC?
Brown completes Kansas City Chiefs’ transformation of offensive line since Super BowlBrown completes Kansas City Chiefs’ transformation of offensive line since Super Bowl
Kansas City will have five new offensive line starters after the Bucs’ harassed Patrick Mahomes in the title game.
Graeme McDowell gives team ‘shot in the arm’ with brilliant aceGraeme McDowell gives team ‘shot in the arm’ with brilliant ace
Graeme McDowell celebrated in different stages at the par-3 17th hole at TPC Louisiana on Friday. It’s a fairly brutal hole, all 216 yards of it, and water guards its entire left side. A par was the score he was chasing in the second round of the Zurich Classic. So when McDowell saw that the beautiful 4-iron he struck safely on land, pitching at the front of the green, that was cause for joy in itself. He didn’t bother to even watch the rest once it bounced. RELATED: Leaderboard | Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson combine to make move in ‘tricky format’ And then his ball released, and rolled, and rolled some more … 40 feet or so … right into the jar for McDowell’s very first ace in a PGA TOUR event. McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion, figures he has “around 14” or so holes-in-one around the world, as many as five as a pro on other tours, but he had never had one on the PGA TOUR. When the ball disappeared, McDowell’s partner, Matt Wallace, was more thrilled than McDowell, giving him a double-armed jolt to the shoulders as everybody else on the tee swarmed him. “It’s a sweet one, obviously,” said McDowell, 41, a four-time winner on the PGA TOUR. “It means I can share the bar bill with Matty, as well, which is great. I think we sent a few beers over to the caddie tent, and we sent a few beers over to the media center, as well, just in case you guys are thirsty.” McDowell’s ace, which came on the eighth hole of the round, provided a nice spark for the McDowell-Wallace tandem, which moved from the cutline into the fringes of contention. A second-round 70 left them at 8-under 136, just five shots out of the lead. Because the hole-in-one arrived at the PGA TOUR’s two-man team event it was not deemed as being “official” by the PGA TOUR. As far as McDowell and his partner were concerned, you can keep the asterisk. “Nah, that counts,” Wallace said. Added McDowell, “Official? I don’t care if it’s official, unofficial … I’m pretty sure it says ‘1’ on the scorecard.” With a big weekend ahead, his own celebration would have to wait. Maybe a little red wine with dinner, McDowell said. “It was a nice little shot in the arm for us, and we birdied the next, and we put ourselves in a nice little slot going into the weekend,” McDowell said. “… We may have a glass of wine, but we’ll save the celebrations, hopefully, for Sunday night.” Rest easy. If McDowell and Wallace were to win, it would be counted as official. And they’ll both know the shot that got them going.
Finau-Champ, Hovland-Ventura tied atop ZurichFinau-Champ, Hovland-Ventura tied atop Zurich
The teams of Tony Finau and Cameron Champ and Viktor Hovland and Kris Ventura share the lead entering the weekend at the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic.
Two teams share second-round lead at Zurich Classic of New OrleansTwo teams share second-round lead at Zurich Classic of New Orleans
AVONDALE, La. — Tony Finau and Cameron Champ shot a 4-under 68 in alternate-shot play Friday for a share of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans lead with the Norwegian duo of Viktor Hovland and Kris Ventura. RELATED: Leaderboard | Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson combine to make move in ‘tricky format’ “I know we’re having a good time with this format up to this point,” Finau said about the lone team event on the PGA TOUR. “We’ve both played some really solid golf, and we find ourselves at the top of the leaderboard. “We’ll do what we’ve been doing the last couple days, which is enjoy each other’s company and not add any bonus pressure when it comes to teammate golf.” Hovland and Ventura had a 69 to match Finau and Champ at 13-under 131. The teams will play best ball Saturday, and close with an alternate-shot round Sunday. “Just having fun, and obviously we don’t get to do this very often,” Ventura said. “We’re playing some good golf, and the course we both like, so it’s just one of those things where we’re comfortable playing out here.” It was an eventful day in windy conditions at the TPC Louisiana, highlighted by two aces. Nick Watney, the Zurich winner in 2007 when it was a traditional individual event, made a hole-in-one on the 14th hole from 224 yards. Later, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell aced the 217-yard 17th, eliciting a roar from what is normally one of the rowdiest spectator areas on the course. McDowell and Matt Wallace bogeyed four holes and shot 70, good enough to make the cut at 8 under. Watney and Charley Hoffman shot 74 to make the cut at 6 under. Hovland and Ventura, also tied for the lead after the first round, birdied five holes. But they were left to rue a double bogey on 16, when Hovland hit their approach shot from a fairway bunker into the water short and left of the green. “It was my fault,” Ventura said with a laugh. “We tried to hit the fairway with an iron (off of the tee) and I hit it in that bunker. I wasn’t the best teammate.” Finau and Champ briefly surged to a two-shot lead after birdies on the par-4 10th and the par-5 11th. But they bogeyed the par-4 12th when Finau’s approach fell short of the right side of the green. But Finau made up for it with a birdie putt of nearly 6 feet on 18. “We knew today with the wind and just the format in general it was going to be a grind, and that’s what we did, especially coming down the last nine holes,” Finau said. “We just kind of grinded it out.” Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose birdied seven holes, including the par-3 17th with a 12-foot putt by Rose. But they also bogeyed three holes to shoot a four-under 68 that put them at 11 under and tied for third with Bubba Watson and Scottie Scheffler. None of Rose’s and Stenson’s bogeys derailed them. They responded twice with birdies on the next hole. “A problem shared is a problem halved in this format for sure,” Rose said. “But Henrik was a rock today. I was kind of looking at it in terms of I don’t think he made one mistake that led to us dropping a shot really. It was pretty fun just to have someone that was so solid today. He pulled his weight.” Watson and Scheffler were at 12 under after three straight birdies on Nos. 10, 11 and 12, but dropped strokes with bogeys on 15 and 17 before finishing with a birdie on Scheffler’s 8 1/2-foot putt. Billy Horschel and Sam Burns were a shot off the lead through 14 holes, but bogeyed 15 and then double-bogeyed the par-5 18th after Burns’ tee shot went in the water right of the fairway and Horschel’s next shot landed in a fairway bunker. They head to the third round tied for ninth at 8 under. Australians Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith shot a 72 to remain at 9 under. Their first bogey came after Leishman hit his drive on 13 into one of the most photogenic trees on the course, a massive, towering cypress with roots as high as 4 feet protruding from the grass around it. Smith couldn’t get a swing on the ball in there and had to take a drop. They also double-bogeyed the 17th after Leishman’s tee shot landed in the water left of the green.
Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson combine to make move in ‘tricky format’Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson combine to make move in ‘tricky format’
Team golf. Those two words conjure images of sheer joy, of birdies and eagles, broad smiles and high-fives. The field in this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the PGA TOUR’s lone official two-man team event, went out in Thursday’s best-ball format and blistered TPC Louisiana to an average of 66.7 strokes. It was puppies and rainbows. Winning scratch tickets for all. On Friday, the format shifted to alternate-shot. Dreaded foursomes. Two players, one golf ball. On what already was a challenging day for scoring, those Thursday smiles turned into Friday grimaces and hard-bitten lower lips. Every ball deposited into watery penalty areas – and designer Pete Dye incorporated a few – represents not only individual pain, but team pain, too. It’s a multiplier. Playing for somebody else adds a tense ingredient to the team dynamic. Some players figured it out better than others. Playing in the afternoon, long bashers Tony Finau and Cameron Champ shot 4-under 68, tying the day’s low round and seizing the tournament lead 13-under 131 through 36 holes. Kris Ventura and Viktor Hovland would step up late and match them. Teammates from Norway who were on a national championship college team at Oklahoma State three years ago, Ventura and Hovland overcame a double bogey on their sixth hole (No. 16) and played their final eight holes in 4 under to shoot 69 and tie the lead heading to the weekend. A beautiful approach to 11 feet at the difficult 206-yard ninth (the team’s final hole) by Hovland would set up a rare birdie and push them to 13 under. European Ryder Cup partners Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson shot 68 despite encountering three bogeys, including one on the par-5 18th hole (their ninth of the day). They’ve played enough times in the format to exercise extra patience at times and not try to do too much, though their seven team birdies accounted for a better-than-average day’s work. The foursomes format, seldomly played outside of a handful of every-other-year cup matches (Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup, etc.), brings in more decision-making (who tees off on the odd holes?), delivers a different element of competitive pressure (hitting shots for two) and even factors in technology (golfers playing different brands of golf balls than they normally play). Stenson used a pair of “T” words to describe his Friday: Tricky, describing the format, and trust, describing his effective partnership with Rose. “Foursomes is always a tricky format,” said Stenson, the 2016 Open champion. “We know that. But it’s never going to be as tricky when you’ve got a good partner like I do. We talked about that earlier in the week, to trust, and having done this so many times before, we kind of go about things like we normally do. Yeah, we played a very solid round of foursomes out there.” Stenson and Rose each made a clutch 5-footer to open the round (Rose making his for birdie at the par-5 11th) and the pair would sandwich bogeys at 15 and 18 with two birdies. They birdied both par 5s on the front, and added another birdie at the par-4 fifth (Stenson making a 10-footer) against a lone second-nine bogey at No. 6. Rose added that as much as he wants to (and does) trust his partner, a golfer looking for success in foursomes must also keep plenty of trust in oneself, and not worry about the occasional poor shot that might leave a partner in a tough predicament. A good foursomes partnership can be like a good marriage; it’s often about never having to say you’re sorry. “I think it’s all about committing to your shots,” Rose said. “Henrik doesn’t want to hit it in the water on No. 9 and (if) he blocks it right of the green, (it) probably doesn’t do us any good anyway. But the only way he’s going to step up and hit a great shot is by not worrying about what he might leave me. I think that’s kind of the way to approach this format.” Rose and Stenson, big-time players who won Olympic gold and silver, respectively, as golf returned to the Olympic Summer Games in Brazil in 2016, form one of two major-championship winner tandems in the 80-team field. South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel form the other, and also have considerable experience playing alongside one another. (They’ve competed together at the Presidents Cup, and their friendship dates to junior golf.) Friday they made only three birdies against two bogeys, but 71 was good enough to stay in contention. They knew that going in. They are at 10-under 134. “You know, with better-ball, you play with a lot more freedom,” Oosthuizen said. “You sort of always know you have another score that can count and sort of if you fall on that score. With this format, if you make a mistake, it’s the team that’s going to make a bogey or something, and it’s stressful, especially around this golf course with a lot of water, and the wind is really picking up.” Schwartzel added that foursomes with Oosthuizen causes him other issues: “I’m not used to hitting out of so many fairways,” he said, smiling. Aussies Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith teamed up for seven birdies and an eagle in opening-day best-ball. On Friday, amid swirling winds and a TPC Louisiana layout that was becoming downright ornery, they were relieved to return to the clubhouse with a level-par score of 72. “I think foursomes is hard,” Leishman said. “You’re hitting half the shots; there’s no rhythm. You’ve got to make sure you’re loose between shots. Yeah, it’s just hard. … I was actually quite happy with even par on what was a really tough day.” Ah, but Friday evening in New Orleans, there was a sliver of light at the end of the rainbow. Saturday’s format returns to free-wheeling four-ball, a bit of a breather until those feared foursomes rear their head again on Sunday.
Tiger smiling, on crutches in first pic since crashTiger smiling, on crutches in first pic since crash
Tiger Woods posted the first photo of himself since his Feb. 23 one-car accident and quipped that work being done on his three-hole practice rounds was coming along faster than his recovery.