By Tuesday morning, general manager George Paton and the Broncos had requested to interview nine candidates across seven teams to replace Vic Fangio.
The Jaguars fired their coach and have the draft’s No. 1 pick and the Browns missed the playoffs, again.
Nearly a month and a half since the lockout began, it’s time for another update on where baseball’s immediate and long-term future stands.
Lubbock Christian and Northwest Missouri State hold tight atop the latest DII men’s basketball Power 10 rankings, but quite a few teams are coming for them.
Forty-five years after winning its first and only Division I men’s basketball national championship – and with a soon-to-be celebrity nun who became a household name overnight – Loyola Chicago made a Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2018, thanks to three consecutive late-game, game-winning jump shots that propelled the 11th-seeded Ramblers to the sport’s final weekend. Let’s take a deep dive into those events.
Gary Player will get some competition for long drive amongst the Masters Tournament’s honorary starters. Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters, announced today that two-time Masters champion Tom Watson will join Player and Jack Nicklaus as honorary starters beginning this year. The first round of the 86th Masters is set for Thursday, April 7. “I am honored that Tom has accepted our invitation,” Ridley said in a release. “I look forward to commemorating his love for the game and impact on the Masters with his millions of fans across the globe as he hits a tee shot alongside two of the Tournament’s other all-time greats, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.” Watson won the 1977 and 1981 Masters and finished runner-up three times in his 15 top-10 showings at Augusta National. He is one of 17 players to win multiple green jackets, and his 72.74 scoring average ranks fifth in tournament history. He won eight majors in total among his 39 PGA TOUR titles, and later racked up 14 more victories on PGA TOUR Champions. After competing in the Masters as an amateur in 1970, Watson made 42 consecutive starts from 1975-2016, the fifth-longest streak in tournament history. His 58 subpar rounds are second all-time behind Nicklaus (71), and he holds the record for most consecutive years with at least one subpar round (21, 1975-1995). “Augusta National in April is one of my favorite places to be,” Watson said of his upcoming tee time with Nicklaus and Player. He noted that Nicklaus pushed him down the stretch in his two Masters titles, and when Player won the Masters for the third time in 1978, it was Watson who was there to help him slip on the green jacket. “With the many fond memories of both watching the Masters as a youngster and then competing in the Tournament for so many years, I am greatly honored to join my friends and fellow competitors, Jack and Gary,” Watson added. The tradition of honorary starters began with Jock Hutchison (1963-1973) and Fred McLeod (1963-1976). Others to perform the duties included Byron Nelson (1981-2001, non-consecutive), Gene Sarazen (1981-1999), Ken Venturi (1983), Sam Snead (1984-2002), Arnold Palmer (2007-2016), Nicklaus (2010-present), Player (2012-present) and Lee Elder (2021).
Southern Cal is hardly a one-hit wonder. This program has had staying power, but the start here in 2021-22 was not in the plans.
The ball is round, weather is variable, equipment occasionally breaks. And then there’s COVID. Still, it’s time to predict what’s in store for the year ahead. So, let’s get right to it. Here are 10 things that absolutely, positively will go down in 2022, because they simply must, or we want them to, or something like that. Full disclosure: If even nine of these come to pass it would be amazing, eight would be impressive, seven pretty darn good, six not bad at all, five a very solid effort, four … 1. Rickie and Xander win again A victory for Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele would break a three-year drought for each. Fowler’s last win came at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, while Schauffele’s last win on TOUR – which doesn’t include his Olympic gold — came at the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions. That Schauffele didn’t win last season owed to lousy timing, with poor final rounds at the Waste Management Phoenix Open (71, T2) and the Masters (72, T3). You know it’s in him: He got up and down on the last hole to win the Olympic gold medal. His final-round scoring average was 69.22, 15th on TOUR, but his Round 3 average was 70.28, 85th. He’ll fix it. As for Fowler, whose 11-year streak of making the FedExCup Playoffs ended with a thud, the tee-to-green game is solid, but not so his work on the greens. No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Putting as recently as 2017, he was 126th last season as he wound up 134th in the FedExCup. Now that his tee-to-green swing changes have solidified, Fowler must find a way to make the putts fall again. When he does, he’ll turn the close calls – T3 at THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT in October (third-round 63) – into wins again. He’s still only 33. 2. Tiger returns at St. Andrews The Old Course at St. Andrews, where the Royal & Ancient folks and everyone else will toast the 150th playing of The Open in July, is flat as a pancake and thus relatively easy to walk. The tournament is not for another seven months, giving Woods plenty of time to get stronger. Oh, and he’s won two of his three claret jugs at St. Andrews. There’s always a chance Woods could surprise us and pop into Augusta for the Masters, but the guess here is the course is too hilly, and treacherous, for him to make that his first week back. Also, although it’s barely any sort of prediction, Woods and his son, Charlie, will tee it up again at the PNC Championship in December, only this time they’ll turn that runner-up into a W. 3. Scheffler and McNealy get first wins Look for the teammates from the United States’ historic 2017 Walker Cup team – the roster also included Collin Morikawa, Cameron Champ, Will Zalatoris, Doug Ghim and Doc Redman – to enter the winner’s circle in the same season. Stanford alum McNealy did a lot right at the Fortinet Championship at Silverado last fall, other than a stretch of four bogeys in seven holes in the third round. His 70-68 weekend just wasn’t enough as he got pipped by fellow Bay Area product Max Homa of Cal (65-65) by a shot. McNealy is only 26, he’s getting better every season, and he knows how to win. It’s coming. Don’t be surprised if that win comes in his native Northern California, as he’s also played well at Pebble Beach the past two years. Meanwhile, it hasn’t been that long since Scheffler beat Jon Rahm in singles at the Ryder Cup. If he can do that, he can win on TOUR; all it’s going to take is a hot putting week. He already has two top-5s this season, including a runner-up at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Open, and is on the precipice of the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking despite his lack of a TOUR victory. That’s testament to how steady he is. He closed 2021 by finishing second in the unofficial Hero World Challenge. 4. Homa will win a major or THE PLAYERS True, Homa can sometimes be the last guy to believe in his own greatness, but of his three wins, two have come on major-quality venues (2021 Genesis Invitational at Riviera, 2019 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow). What’s more, there was something bloodless and clinical about his 65-65 weekend for his third and most recent victory, at the Fortinet Championship last fall. Of course, a win in one of these big events would help him return to the site of his maiden win for the 2022 Presidents Cup. Keep an eye on him this year. 5. Ancer and Smith lead Presidents Cup upset The International Team banked invaluable self-belief in its narrow loss in 2019. The U.S. stars routed Europe in the Ryder Cup and almost NEVER lose the Presidents Cup. Yep, conditions are ripe for an upset. Ancer was the surprise of the 2019 Presidents Cup, going 3-1-1 to tie Sungjae Im as the top point-earner for the Internationals. Smith, who just edged Jon Rahm to capture the Sentry Tournament of Champions, beat Justin Thomas in Singles to go 1-1-1 last time around in Oz. Those two rising stars give Trevor Immelman’s International Team a toughness they’ve rarely if ever had, and when you add veterans Marc Leishman, Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott and Louis Oosthuizen; ultra-steady Im; resurgent Branden Grace; plus Joaquin Niemann, Mito Pereira, and perhaps Garrick Higgo, this team looks poised to shock the world at Quail Hollow. 6. Spieth wins the Masters – or The Open Spieth and the Masters are the perfect marriage of man and major. The good times, of course, included his maiden green jacket in 2015, when he basically won everything that wasn’t nailed down. He was cruising for a successful title defense in ’16 until a water ball on 12 sunk his chances (T2). He was T11 in ’17 (final-round 75), solo third in ’18, and T3 last season, after breaking his win drought a week earlier at the Valero Texas Open. With his game back in full force, Spieth is primed to collect his second green jacket. And don’t forget about The Open at St. Andrews, where he finished a shot out of a playoff in 2015 while pursuing the Grand Slam. 7. Mickelson wins the Schwab Cup In November, Lefty joined Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win four of their first six starts on PGA TOUR Champions at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. But Mickelson didn’t play in enough tournaments amongst the 50-and-over set to win the season-long Schwab Cup points race, which was won once again by Bernhard Langer. This time, Mickelson will win the marathon and the sprint. Of course, predicting anything Mickelson-related is risky, and after his moonshot victory at the PGA Championship last year he’s at liberty to keep teeing it up with the big boys at big events like the U.S. Open (his white whale). And he will. But now he also has a taste for Champions competition, too; he’s realized he enjoys playing with (and beating) guys his own age. The guess here is Mickelson will find time to hang with the young guys and beat the old guys, too, at least enough times to take home the trophy for the season-long competition. 8. Two others besides Rahm will touch No. 1 It’s tempting to say Rahm can’t be caught at world No. 1, what with his birdie-filled performance at the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, where he finished a shot behind winner Cameron Smith. And given what we’ve seen since Rahm regained the top spot with a T3 at The Open last summer, he deserves to be there. He’s the best player. And yet … Rahm is human, he can’t play every week, and the level of talent at the top in 2022 is staggering. Given the neck-snapping trajectories of Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay and Viktor Hovland, surely one or two will reach the top spot at least briefly. Morikawa already would have done so absent his freakish bad final round at the Hero World Challenge. And what about a comeback for former No. 1s Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, and/or Justin Thomas? Yes, Rahm is the best player, but it’s just too crowded at the top. 9. Burns and Mitchell make the U.S. Presidents Cup Team Burns is a no-brainer, what with his recent exploits. The only surprise, perhaps, is he wasn’t on the super-stacked U.S. Team that dusted Europe at the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. Mitchell has fought inconsistency but is trending in the right direction with a T3 (THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT) and T12 (The RSM Classic) last fall. Also encouraging: his three straight birdies to top-10 at THE NORTHERN TRUST and play his way into the BMW Championship. Oh, and Rory McIlroy praised his game last year after they duked it out at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, which as fate would have it hosts the Presidents Cup this year. 10. DeChambeau will get even longer With moonshots that topped out at around 400 yards, DeChambeau, the two-time reigning PGA TOUR driving distance champion, finished in the elite eight in his first crack at the Professional Long Drivers World Championship in Mesquite, Nevada, last fall. He loved the event’s smash-and-flex vibe and promised to return. He’ll do even better this time, his commitment to speed and innovation wowing fans as he powers his way to a final-four finish on the grid.
How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s Sony Open in Hawaii in this week’s edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create a team, click the “LEAGUES” tab. Then click on “FEATURED,” and then on the PGA TOUR Experts league that populates. SEASON SEGMENT
The PGA TOUR’s first full-field event of 2022 takes place this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Round 1 gets underway Thursday from Waialae Country Club. The deep field includes Cameron Smith, who won last week at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Webb Simpson, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Marc Leishman, Corey Conners and Kevin Kisner. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action, including Featured Groups for PGA TOUR LIVE and newly expanded and extended coverage on ESPN+. Click here for more details. Leaderboard Full tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m.-10:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Sunday, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. (Golf Channel). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Featured Groups), 7 p.m.-10:30 p.m. (Featured Holes). Saturday, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. (Featured Groups), 7 p.m.-10:30 p.m. (Featured Holes). Sunday, 4 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Groups), 6 p.m.-10 p.m. (Featured Holes). PGA TOUR LIVE is available exclusively on ESPN+ Radio: Thursday-Saturday, 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m. ET. Sunday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) FEATURED GROUPS Kevin Na, Cam Smith, Talor Gooch (Tee times) Marc Leishman, Sungjae Im, Matt Jones (Tee times) Hideki Matsuyama, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson (Tee times) Abraham Ancer, Billy Horschel, Harris English (Tee times) MUST READS The First Look Power Rankings Expert Picks Five things to know about Waialae Country Club
