Raiders’ Hobbs arrested on a DUI hours after winRaiders’ Hobbs arrested on a DUI hours after win
Raiders CB Nate Hobbs was arrested in Las Vegas on Monday morning, hours after his team returned from Sunday’s win over the Colts.
Day: January 3, 2022
Fans say WFT didn’t offer aid after railing collapseFans say WFT didn’t offer aid after railing collapse
Four individuals who fell as a result of a railing collapse at FedEx Field Sunday — all of whom say they suffered injuries from the incident — refuted a statement by the Washington Football Team suggesting they were offered on-site medical evaluation.
Arians: ‘No regrets’ adding AB, cares about WRArians: ‘No regrets’ adding AB, cares about WR
The Buccaneers’ Bruce Arians said Monday he has “no regrets” adding Antonio Brown and cares for the wide receiver, a day after the coach said Brown is no longer on the team following his in-game exit.
Louisville to retire star Russ Smith’s No. 2 jerseyLouisville to retire star Russ Smith’s No. 2 jersey
Louisville plans to retire the No. 2 jersey number of former All-American guard Russ Smith at halftime of the Cardinals’ game against Notre Dame on Jan. 22.
After disappointing 2021, are Baker Mayfield and the Browns headed toward a split?After disappointing 2021, are Baker Mayfield and the Browns headed toward a split?
The last time they visited Pittsburgh, Mayfield and the Browns were celebrating the biggest victory in recent franchise history. One year later, as they return to Heinz Field, it’s fair to wonder what future he has with the team.
Ben Roethlisberger’s Steelers legacy includes draft slight, broken nose and competitive driveBen Roethlisberger’s Steelers legacy includes draft slight, broken nose and competitive drive
As Roethlisberger prepares for what will likely be his final home game, many recall someone who hated to lose.
UNLV moves Harper from interim to full-time ADUNLV moves Harper from interim to full-time AD
UNLV has promoted interim athletic director Erick Harper to serve in the job full time after he was in a temporary role since Desiree Reed-Francois left the Rebels for Missouri in August.
More than ‘qualified’More than ‘qualified’
This week, 39 players convene at the site that unmistakably signals the beginning of a new year. Keep your Times Square ball drop – Maui and the Sentry Tournament of Champions bring a warmer welcome to 2022, albeit with fewer party hats. Let’s look back at how some of the players in the field got into this winners-only tournament, and the statistical superlatives reached along the way. Sentry Tournament of Champions: Harris English Harris English kicked off 2021 with a win that defied Maui convention in a couple of ways. The victory was the first in seven years for English, marking the first time a player snapped an extended win drought at the Tournament of Champions. Players who finished in the top 30 of the previous season’s FedExCup standings were permitted entry into the field, as well as everyone who won a tournament. Secondly, English won with his putter in a ball-striker’s paradise. He ranked 13th in the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, the lowest of any Maui winner since Daniel Chopra in 2008, but led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. Farmers Insurance Open: Patrick Reed Reed’s five-shot margin of victory at Torrey Pines was the largest by anyone since Tiger Woods won by eight in 2008. Reed’s scrambling lived up to its lofty reputation that week, as he won despite missing 28 greens in regulation across four rounds. It was the most missed G.I.R. by a Farmers Insurance Open champion since John Daly missed 29 in 2004. WGC-Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession: Collin Morikawa Morikawa gained a whopping 9.57 strokes on approach shots in his win at The Concession, the most by any winner all season on TOUR for 72 holes. With his victory, Morikawa joined Tiger Woods as the only players to win a major championship and World Golf Championship before age 25. Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard: Bryson DeChambeau While the visual of Bryson smashing 370-plus yard-drives at the 6th hole is indelibly seared into our collective memory, the substance of his play at Bay Hill should not be overlooked. DeChambeau made just one bogey in the final round on a day when the field averaged nearly 75.5. Since the beginning of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season, there have been four wins by players who led the field that week in driving distance. DeChambeau has two of those (2020 Rocket Mortgage Classic, 2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational). The Honda Classic: Matt Jones Jones delivered one of the most unexpected dominant performances in years at The Honda Classic. His opening 61 would prove to be the lowest first round score by a winner in the entire 2020-21 season. His five-shot margin of victory made him the first player age 40 or older to win a PGA TOUR event by five or more strokes since Ryan Armour at the 2017 Sanderson Farms Championship. Masters Tournament: Hideki Matsuyama In the celebratory aftermath of Matsuyama’s historic Masters victory last April, it’s easy to forget just how long it had been since he had won. Matsuyama snapped a streak of 1,344 days without a professional win worldwide, the longest streak broken by a Masters victory since Larry Mize in 1987 (1,386 days; 1983 Memphis Classic). RBC Heritage: Stewart Cink The renaissance 2020-21 season of Stewart Cink reached its crescendo with an impressive four-shot victory at the RBC Heritage in April. Cink held the outright lead after 36, 54 and 72 holes, becoming the oldest player (age 47) to do that on TOUR since Peter Jacobsen at the 2003 Travelers Championship. PGA Championship: Phil Mickelson You know Mickelson became the oldest-ever major champion by winning the PGA at Kiawah Island, but here’s another monument to his longevity: With the win, he became the first player in TOUR history to win tournaments 30 years apart. His first victory was the 1991 Northern Telecom Open, which is still the last TOUR title won by an amateur. Charles Schwab Challenge: Jason Kokrak Kokrak entered the final round at Colonial one behind Jordan Spieth, but won, kicking off one of the most remarkable streaks in all of sports in 2021. For 14 consecutive TOUR events, no 54-hole leader or co-leader went on to win. It marked the longest streak of final-round come-from-behind victories on TOUR in the last three decades. No 54-hole leader would win until Patrick Cantlay did it at the BMW Championship in August. U.S. Open: Jon Rahm Rahm delivered in the clutch to get his first major championship, becoming the first U.S. Open winner to birdie the last two holes of regulation since Tom Watson in 1982. Rahm was the first to birdie the last two holes to win any major championship since Mark O’Meara at the 1998 Masters. With Rahm’s win, it marked back-to-back major titles for former Arizona State Sun Devils (Mickelson, PGA), the first school to be able to make that claim since the University of Houston at the 1995 PGA (Steve Elkington) and 1996 Masters (Nick Faldo). Travelers Championship: Harris English English needed eight playoff holes to defeat Kramer Hickok, tying the second-longest sudden-death playoff in the history of the PGA TOUR. The only playoff to go longer than eight holes was the 1949 Motor City Open, in which Lloyd Mangrum and Cary Middlecoff played 11 extra holes before they were declared co-winners by mutual agreement once it became too dark to proceed any further. The Open Championship: Collin Morikawa With his win at The Open, Morikawa became the first player to win two majors in eight or fewer career major starts since Bobby Jones at the 1926 U.S. Open. Morikawa joined Jones and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to come from behind in the final round of two major wins before his 25th birthday. And he locked up his unique bit of season-long history: For the first time in the modern era, not a single major winner was in his 30s or 40s (three winners in their 20s, and Phil Mickelson, age 50). Wyndham Championship: Kevin Kisner Just weeks after the marathon playoff in Connecticut, another sudden-death record was tied in North Carolina. Kevin Kisner came out on top of a six-man playoff at the Wyndham Championship, tying the largest sudden-death playoff in TOUR history. Remarkably, it was the first playoff win for Kisner on the PGA TOUR – he had been riding an 0-for-5 streak before the Wyndham victory. THE NORTHERN TRUST: Tony Finau After 1,976 days and 142 TOUR starts, Finau finally broke through for his second TOUR title at the weather-delayed NORTHERN TRUST. Finau was incredibly clutch down the stretch with his putter, gaining nearly 2 full strokes on the field in the greens over his last eight holes of regulation. Finau was 6-for-6 on putts between 4 and 8 feet in the final round, and a perfect 16-for-16 from 10 feet and in. BMW Championship: Patrick Cantlay Cantlay assembled an incomprehensible putting performance to beat Bryson DeChambeau at the BMW Championship. Cantlay’s +14.58 Strokes Gained: Putting and 21 putts made of 10 feet or longer both set ShotLink-era records. Cantlay needed every one of those putts, too – DeChambeau’s regulation 72-hole score of 27 under is the best in TOUR history by a player who didn’t win. Sanderson Farms Championship: Sam Burns With a pair of wins in 2021, perhaps no player is more poised than Burns to launch himself into golf’s superstar stratosphere. The LSU product finished the 2020-21 season ranked 5th on TOUR in birdie average, and 14th in Strokes Gained: Total. And this week he’s in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his young career. A year ago at this time, he was outside the top 150. World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba: Viktor Hovland The 24-year-old Hovland made only two bogeys over his last 45 holes to cruise to a four-shot victory in Mexico. He was the first player to successfully defend on TOUR since Brooks Koepka at the 2019 PGA Championship. The RSM Classic: Talor Gooch In the final official event of 2021, Gooch fired a closing 64 to win The RSM Classic by three shots over Mackenzie Hughes. Gooch became the first player to shoot 64 or better in the final round of his first TOUR victory since Joaquin Niemann at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier in 2019. Gooch closed 2021 with five top-15 finishes in his last six starts and currently leads the FedExCup standings.
Trevor Hudgins tops the first DII men’s basketball all-stats team of the seasonTrevor Hudgins tops the first DII men’s basketball all-stats team of the season
Here is the first look at some of the players putting up the best stats at each position in the 2021-22 DII men’s basketball season… so far.
Talor Gooch goes from ‘hometown legend’ to PGA TOUR winnerTalor Gooch goes from ‘hometown legend’ to PGA TOUR winner
At 2, Talor Gooch rigged his Power Wheels Jeep so it could carry his plastic golf clubs. He accompanied his father to the course at 3, occasionally hitting a few shots from the fairway. As a 6-year-old, he made an albatross and broke 80. He was already driving it 150 yards. He was a world champion three years later, claiming the second U.S. Kids Golf World Championship. Gooch’s exploits quickly earned attention in Midwest City, an Oklahoma City suburb with a population of approximately 50,000. By the time he graduated from Carl Albert High School – where he won 19 of his 40 tournaments, including a state individual title – he was good enough to sign with Oklahoma State, one of the nation’s premiere golf programs. Even the Cowboys’ longtime football coach, Mike Gundy, who also grew up in Midwest City, knew about Gooch. “I’ve heard about you. You’re a hometown legend,” said Gundy, according to the Cowboys’ former golf coach, Mike McGraw. Now the ‘hometown legend’ is a PGA TOUR winner and the FedExCup leader entering the first event of the calendar year. Gooch’s victory came in November, a few days after he celebrated his 30th birthday. He played a sterling Sunday round after starting the final round of The RSM Classic with the first 54-hole lead of his career. He hit 16 greens and didn’t make a bogey, becoming just the seventh player in the last four seasons to hold a 54-hole lead and then shoot 64 or lower to win. The others? Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Webb Simpson, Joaquin Niemann and Si Woo Kim. That’s a group that features three former World No. 1s. All but one of those players has won either a major or THE PLAYERS. The PGA TOUR’s 2022 season resumes this week with the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Gooch had to cancel his annual buddies’ trip because of his debut at Kapalua. Not that he minds. This has the makings of a breakout season for the former phenom. He finished 11th or better in all but one of his six starts in the fall portion of the schedule. With 852 FedExCup points, he holds a 122-point lead over second-ranked Sam Burns. That success — along with winning RSM’s Birdies Fore Love, which awards $300,000 for charity to the player who makes the most birdies or better in the fall — has allowed Gooch to start the Talor Gooch Foundation, which will benefit children’s causes. It wasn’t always this easy. Then again, it’s often not. We can forget that the Morikawas and Hovlands are the exception. But Gooch was prepared for the trials inherent to so many pro-golf careers. He grew up around athletes, starting with his father, Ron, who played in the Texas Rangers’ organization, and knew self-belief was key to success, especially during the struggles. “Any athlete will tell you if you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will,” said Kelsey Cline, Gooch’s mentor and a former University of Oklahoma golfer. “Golf gets complicated, and we all make it tough. The two most important things are self-belief and ball control. Everything else will take care of itself.” Growing up in the winds of Oklahoma helped him develop the latter. He’s one of the best iron players on TOUR and his low “stinger” tee shots were key on blustery days at The RSM. The former has been steeled by experiences earlier in his career. He had to endure two seasons on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada and a scare at Q-School’s second stage – which left him wondering if he’d need to work at Best Buy to fund his career — before making it to the PGA TOUR. His rookie season in 2018 was interrupted by the removal of his appendix. Instead of seeking a medical extension, he tried to tough it out and keep playing. He secured conditional status for the following season, and in that second TOUR campaign he shared a leaderboard with some of the game’s biggest stars at Torrey Pines to prove he belonged. “A takeaway from my dad, all these great athletes that I’ve been fortunate to spend time with, is don’t get down, don’t let anyone see you’re down,” Gooch said. “You can get a little frustrated, but get right back up and dust yourself off and get going.” Ron Gooch played minor league baseball in the Texas Rangers’ organization, amassing a .271 batting average in more than 1,600 plate appearances. He hit .293 in more than 100 games at Triple A but never made it to the majors. Through his friendship with Cline, Talor played childhood rounds with Sam Bradford while the Heisman Trophy winner was starring at Oklahoma. J.T. Realmuto, the Philadelphia Phillies’ All-Star catcher, attended Carl Albert at the same time as Gooch, and the two remain close today. Gooch’s former Oklahoma State teammate, Wyndham Clark, calls him “a gamer” because of his toughness and ability to get the ball in the hole. In high school, Gooch won a tournament less than 48 hours after his clubs were stolen from his car; he used a backup set and a driver borrowed from his coach to shoot 68. Charles Howell III, another former Cowboy, says Gooch possesses a quiet confidence. His decision to attended Oklahoma State is testament to that. He knew some questioned if he’d crack the Cowboys’ starting lineup, which featured three first-team All-Americans (two reached No. 1 in the world amateur ranking, while another was the son of a major champion). Gooch started every event as a freshman. “If you don’t have that little bit of grit to go prove people wrong,” he said, “you’re not going to make it long.” In his second TOUR season, with just conditional status, Gooch finished third in the Farmers Insurance Open. Only Justin Rose – the No. 1 player in the world and reigning FedExCup champion — and Adam Scott beat Gooch. He tied Hideki Matsuyama, while Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, and Jason Day finished directly behind him on the leaderboard. Gooch was fifth at this year’s PLAYERS, the tournament with the game’s strongest field, behind only Justin Thomas, Lee Westwood, Bryson DeChambeau and Brian Harman. And in October, he shot a final-round 62 in THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT to get in the mix with McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and his fellow Oklahoma State alum, Rickie Fowler. “I want to be the best and I want to compete against the best,” Gooch said. He’ll have more opportunities this year. His RSM win moved him to a career-best 32nd in the world ranking. He’ll make his Masters debut in April and, thanks to his incredible haul in the fall, likely will qualify for his first TOUR Championship. A coaching change in March has helped Gooch’s game reach a new level. He started working with Boyd Summerhays, best known as Tony Finau’s instructor, at THE PLAYERS. Gooch has been fifth in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green since (behind only Daniel Berger, Collin Morikawa, Paul Casey and Justin Thomas). Summerhays’ schedule at TPC Sawgrass was full because of his commitments to his other TOUR students, but he was told by a caddie that he shouldn’t pass on the opportunity to work with Gooch. “Everything I had heard about him being a competitor, a dog, having that fight, I saw from the beginning,” said Summerhays, a fellow Oklahoma State alum. “I had a caddie, when he heard Gooch may come to see me, say trust me, Talor has the ‘it factor.’ I didn’t question it. I trust my friend’s judgement.” Summerhays couldn’t meet with Gooch until late on the eve of THE PLAYERS, however. He texted Gooch at 4:30 p.m., inquiring if it was too late for him, but Gooch didn’t hesitate to show up. They worked until 7 p.m. on the eve of one of the year’s biggest events. Late afternoons at the course are nothing new for Gooch. Golf became his father’s passion after his baseball career ended. Talor soon asked if he could come to the course, as well. “I wanted to play golf, but I didn’t want to leave him out of anything,” Ron said in a 1988 story in The Daily Oklahoman about his 6-year-old prodigy. “You can feel guilty, or you can take him and make your handicap go up.” Ron chose the latter, and Talor quickly started garnering attention, which is why he was featured in the local paper at such an early age. Talor would tee it up from 150 yards on the par-4s and 175 yards on the par-5s. He made 2 on the par-5 16th at John Conrad Regional Golf Course after hitting his drive about 30 yards from the green and holing out with an 8-iron. “Yes!” he shouted and sprinted after his ball, the newspaper reported. Conrad became like a second home. “I may go eat a sandwich at Conrad, and he’ll go hit two buckets of balls,” Ron told the Oklahoman. Talor calls Conrad “your typical muni,” with flat fairways and shaggy greens. The modest beginnings molded him. In junior golf, his family would often spend up to 15 hours in the car traveling to tournaments and scrambled to make ends meet. “So much of my makeup starts from where I started from, not having the best of everything … and having to make the most of what I’ve got,” Gooch told the Talk of the TOUR podcast. “I wanted for nothing, but I had to go work to get everything I wanted.” That includes a PGA TOUR win and a spot among the game’s elite this week at Kapalua. Talor Gooch’s perseverance allowed him to make good on his promise.