Toto Wolff says Red Bull is seeing “ghosts” after rival team principal Christian Horner claimed scuff marks on the rear wing of the Mercedes were linked to flexing bodywork.
Reed Sheppard, the No. 37 prospect in the class of 2023 and son of two-time national champion Jeff Sheppard, announced his commitment to Kentucky on Saturday.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Taking a three-shot lead into the final round of the year, knowing that your first PGA TOUR win, the lead in the FedExCup and a Masters invitation are at stake? RELATED: Leaderboard Talor Gooch doesn’t consider that pressure. Sunday at Sea Island could be a life-altering day for the 30-year-old, but he doesn’t expect it to be more stressful than what he faced five years ago. Gooch will start Sunday with a three-shot advantage over Seamus Power and Sebastian Munoz. His spot on the PGA TOUR is secure no matter what happens in The RSM Classic’s final round, though. He’s already on the cusp of the top 50 in the world ranking – which is why he doesn’t even need a win Sunday to qualify for his first Masters – and in the top 20 of the FedExCup standings. It was in 2016, after two consecutive years on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada, that Gooch found his career at a crossroads. He was considering worst-case scenarios during the final round of Q-School’s second stage, after a rough start put his chances of advancing in jeopardy. “I’m going to have to go work at Best Buy,” he recalls thinking. “I’m going to have to go do something to make a few bucks unless (I) get it together.” He rallied, advanced to the final stage and earned Korn Ferry Tour status for the first time. He won that following year, graduated to the PGA TOUR and has been on TOUR since. “If I could do it then, I could do it at any time,” he said. Sunday would be the perfect time for Gooch to call upon that experience. It will be the first time he enters the final round of a PGA TOUR event with the lead. This nascent season already is shaping up to be the best of his career. He arrived at Sea Island after finishing no worse than T11 in his first four starts. The highlight was a final-round 62 in THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT that threw him into the mix on a leaderboard that also included Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and his fellow Oklahoma State alum, Rickie Fowler. Gooch’s presence among such company may have been a surprise to everyone but himself. He has the self-confidence that some may consider delusion but is requisite for a professional athlete. Take his freshman year for the Cowboys, where the Midwest City, Oklahoma, native was competing against some of the best players in the country for a spot in the starting lineup. Some questioned Gooch’s decision to join the premiere collegiate golf program, fearing for a lack of playing time. Not Gooch. “It’s hard not to have that chip on your shoulder and want to overcome that, you know?” Gooch said Saturday. “Like I remember in recruiting, everyone was like, man, Oklahoma State’s pretty good, you don’t know if you’re going to crack the lineup your first year. I started every time my first year and that’s all I wanted to do was to go there and start every time and prove people wrong. “As a sportsman, if you don’t have that little bit of grit to go prove people wrong, you’re not going to make it long.” His Oklahoma ties came in handy on another windy day along the Atlantic coast. Tournament host Davis Love III, who also played Saturday after making the cut at age 57, called it a “heavy wind” that was exacerbated by the fact that Sea Island’s Seaside Course is exposed to the ocean. “People said to me, ‘What’s the big deal? it’s only 25 mph,’ but it’s different because it’s wide open,” Love said. “We don’t think the weather is that bad here in November because when it’s like this, we don’t play.” Only three players bested Gooch’s 67 on Saturday. He shared the lead with Power on 14, but Gooch’s two birdies on the final four holes, combined with Power’s bogey on 16, allowed Gooch to seize control of the top spot on the leaderboard. He birdied 17 after hitting a 7-iron to 13 feet, then hit a drive on 18 that flew so low that the one of the caddies in his group turned his head and asked, “Where’d you grow up, dude?” It was the sort of tee shot he used often growing up in the winds of Oklahoma. “For me, my creativity is just hitting it this high and hitting it low, not let the wind get it,” Gooch said. His short game has come in handy this week, as well. He’s missed just 10 greens and gotten up-and-down eight of those times, leading the field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. He’s seventh in Strokes Gained: Putting, as well, highlighted by a 66-foot eagle putt he made on the seventh hole Friday. Seven players are within five shots of Gooch’s lead. Tom Hoge is alone in fourth place, four strokes back, while Luke List, past RSM winner Mackenzie Hughes and Scott Stallings are another stroke back. Webb Simpson, a perennial contender who’s lost two playoffs at Sea Island, is among the players who are six back. Simpson holed out a 95-yard wedge shot in his Saturday 66. He leads the field in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green but has lost strokes on the greens. They’re all playing their final official round of the year. Sunday’s result will determine where Gooch plays next, however. His childhood friends have a January golf trip planned for Scottsdale, Arizona. “I’m hopeful that we’re going to have to adjust that,” he said. A trip to Hawaii, where the Sentry Tournament of Champions will be played, would take precedent.
Max Verstappen’s front-row starting position at the Qatar Grand Prix is under threat after he was summoned the stewards for allegedly failing to slow for double-waved yellows at the end of qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton says the rules around wheel-to-wheel racing in Formula One are no longer clear after the FIA opted against reviewing the incident in which Max Verstappen forced him off the track at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Chaminade returned to the Maui Invitational in 2021. Here is the complete history of the Silverswords’ tournament runs as well as a look at some of the top college basketball teams that DII Chaminade faced on an annual basis at the Maui Invitational.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Rory McIlroy was on the rocks late in his third round at the DP World Tour Championship. Some cliff-edge improvisation, followed by a final-hole birdie, put him back in control. Seeking a second straight victory to end his season, McIlroy delivered another wild finish at Jumeirah Golf Estates in shooting a 5-under 67 that left the four-time major champion with a one-stroke lead on Saturday. Sam Horsfield bogeyed the 18th hole to shoot 69 and drop out of a share of the lead with McIlroy, who was 14 under overall in the season-closing event on the European Tour. Collin Morikawa, still on course to become the first American to finish a season as the tour’s No. 1 player, was three shots back in a four-way share of fifth place after his round of 69. Standing on the tee at the par-3 17th hole holding a one-stroke lead, McIlroy missed the green left and saw the ball bounce through the rough and dance along the edge of the cliffs. It eventually settled on a narrow ledge, to gasps among spectators. McIlroy opted against taking a drop, which was the preferred choice of his caddie, Harry Diamond, and managed to clip a shot off the stone and through the green. He missed the return chip by inches, but a par was a good result given what could have happened. “Harry was pleading with me not to hit it,” McIroy said. “He was like, `We can just go back and make 4 at the last.'” McIlroy then pitched to 9 feet with his third shot — from just on the green — at the par-5 18th and holed the birdie putt which would regain the lead after Horsfield’s bogey a few minutes later. McIlroy, who won THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT in Las Vegas last month, closed his second round on Friday with a double-bogey 7 after hitting into water at the 18th. He made a dreadful start to his third round, too, snap-hooking a 3-wood off the first tee and making a bogey. McIlroy responded with birdies at Nos. 2 and 3 — two of the seven he had in total. Morikawa, playing alongside McIlroy, birdied three of his first six holes to move into a tie for the lead with his playing partner and four others. The American made par on each of his final 12 holes to slip off the pace. “It was all over the place,” Morikawa said. “Front nine played pretty good but overall just didn’t take advantage of the par 5s. “All three days have kind of been a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and got one more day to kind of put everything together and hopefully put a low one out there.” Morikawa is the highest-placed of the six players who can still win the Race to Dubai and is unlikely now to need a victory to clinch the title. Billy Horschel is second behind Morikawa in the points race but is 37th in the 52-man field, eight shots adrift of his compatriot.
Round 3 of The RSM Classic takes place Saturday from Sea Island, Georgia. Talor Gooch continues his strong run of form to lead by one heading into the weekend with Sebastian Munoz, Zach Johnson and Mackenzie Hughes among those in pursuit. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action. Leaderboard Tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-3 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-4 p.m. (Golf Channel). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. (Featured Groups) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio). TOURCast: Get shot-by-shot info in real time with shot tracks and video with TOURCast. TOUR Pulse: Get the PGA TOUR app to utilize TOUR Pulse, which provides users the ability to experience a mix of content, such as video highlights, written hole summaries and stat graphics on every player after every hole they complete. MUST READS Gooch takes one shot lead Spieth and wife welcome first child Sigg looks to become next Georgia Bulldog to make it big
Bucks’ coach Mike Budenholzer and others around the league spoke to the need to push for change after Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two men and wounded another during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer, was acquitted of all charges Friday.
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer and others around the league spoke to the need to push for change after Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two men and wounded another during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer, was acquitted of all charges Friday.
