Jazz assistant coach Keyon Dooling was arrested Wednesday and charged with illegally pocketing millions of dollars by defrauding the league’s health and welfare benefit plan while he was vice president of the National Basketball Players Association.
The Mets’ hit-by-pitch frustrations boiled over Wednesday when reliever Yoan Lopez threw a pitch near Nolan Arenado’s head, sparking a benches-clearing brawl that led to Arenado’s ejection in the Cardinals’ victory.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who missed six games after testing positive for COVID-19, is back with the team on Wednesday. Boston went 1-5 in his absence.
VIDANTA VALLARTA, Mexico – Competition lies at the heart of the Ortiz family dynamic. Whether it’s sports, board games, video games or anything else, Carlos and Alvaro Ortiz – or their brother Alejandro and parents Chela and Carlos Sr. – want the edge. The Carlos-Alvaro rivalry entails a particular zest. “I’ve had many Nintendo controllers thrown at my head by him,” Carlos remarked of Alvaro. “Nintendo, FIFA, even the Tiger Woods game, the Formula 1 game right now … he used to break a controller per week, like, explode.” “What can I say,” Alvaro admitted. “I’m fiery.” The determination of Carlos and Alvaro has also propelled their golf careers. This week, they’re set to compete in the same PGA TOUR field at the Mexico Open at Vidanta, the event’s first playing as an official PGA TOUR event in its history dating back to 1944. No number of broken controllers, though, could fracture the brothers’ bond. Alvaro, five years Carlos’ junior, holds Korn Ferry Tour status for the first time this season by virtue of a fourth-place finish on the 2021 PGA TOUR Latinoamerica Order of Merit, which included a victory at the Mexico Open, contested at Estella del Mar. He’s following the example of Carlos, now an accomplished TOUR pro and winner of the 2020 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open. Carlos earned Korn Ferry Tour membership for the first time in 2014 and thrived, winning three times to earn his first PGA TOUR card. The now-father of three returned to the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017, but he earned back his TOUR card in 2018 and has maintained a steady progression since. The brothers learned the game at an early age – “I don’t have any memories without golf,” Carlos said – and were quickly enthralled. “They’re similar in that they are both very competitive,” reflected mom Chela. “They knew from a very young age what they wanted to do. I remember, in elementary school, Carlos was like, ‘I’m going to be a professional golfer.’ “The problem with Carlos was that we didn’t know the path to college golf.” During Carlos’ adolescence in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the progression of Mexican junior golfers to United States Division I golf was uncommon. The Ortiz family wasn’t as connected in the traditional circles of high-level junior golf; tips and tricks have been acquired and now shared with families of aspiring pro golfers across the country. At the time, they weren’t clued in regarding the best tournaments to draw exposure to a promising young player. Early on, Division I options were limited, but Carlos drew the attention of University of North Texas coach Brad Stracke – then in his first few months on the job – late in the recruiting process. Stracke had caught wind of scores in the low- to mid 60s at a junior event in Mexico and correctly deemed that Carlos had the potential to play as a freshman. “He didn’t have a lot of options, when it came his time to go to the States,” Chela remembered. “He had not played a lot in the United States, so there were not a lot of offers for him. So we went with the offer that we had, North Texas. It turned out pretty good. “He was not the first Mexican to go to college golf, but he was the first of this era that started breaking the paradigm of becoming a professional golfer and going to Division I college golf.” Once it became apparent that Alvaro was determined to follow in Carlos’ footsteps, the family had a roadmap. Alvaro played a robust schedule of high-level junior events across the United States – the family would take two-week trips at a time, integrating golf and sightseeing. He competed alongside the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland at junior events, and he received a variety of Division I offers, eventually selecting the University of Arkansas. As Alvaro completed his high school career and headed to Arkansas as a freshman, Carlos was thriving as a Korn Ferry Tour rookie. With the family unsure of the expenses needed to travel and compete on the Korn Ferry Tour, Carlos Sr. and Chela sold an investment condo, gaining a financial safety net in case the road was rocky. Carlos quickly rewarded his family’s belief. He finished third in his first Korn Ferry Tour start as a member, the 2014 Astara Golf Championship, and he won three events later at The Panama Championship. He added victories at the El Bosque Mexico Championship and Regular Season-ending WinCo Foods Portland Open, and he was off to the PGA TOUR. “It was a crazy season,” Alvaro remembers. “I was just signed for Arkansas and was getting ready for college … it was crazy how he played that season. I felt like every week, he had a chance to win. That really pushed me, going to college and trying to get better, trying to go out there as quick as I could. “And I remember he won the third one, the first week I got to Arkansas. It was pretty special, getting there and him getting his promotion to the PGA TOUR.” The brothers’ journeys have taken different timelines, but the bond endures, and they relish the occasions where paths cross. After Alvaro gained 2019 Masters entry via his victory at the Latin America Amateur Championship, Carlos caddied in the Par 3 Contest. (Alvaro proceeded to make the cut and finish T36.) Their playful dynamic is readily apparent. They traded barbs at a Tuesday press conference ahead of this week’s Mexico Open, and when asked to pose for photos on the first tee box Wednesday, they quickly leapt onto an adjacent bleacher and put their arms around each other. “We compete in anything, and I think that’s pushed us to be great,” Carlos said. “It’s always great when you have somebody to practice and share everything with. You work hard, and then when it’s your brother, it’s even better. “Yesterday, we finished playing and we went to a gym together and took a 10-minute ice, and we were both shaking and giving each other (crap) in the ice. Those kinds of experiences, it’s great to share them with your brother. I think that’s one of the reasons we have success and always kept improving, because we push each other.” They’ve helped push forward a country of aspiring young pros who aim to follow their path, as well.
A day after an MRI on his left hamstring was negative, Jazz star guard Donovan Mitchell declared that he would be available for Thursday’s Game 6 against the Mavericks.
Wednesday morning there was one timed work for the Kentucky Derby and Oaks horses along with the normal morning gallops and no changes to the points list. Japanese contender Crown Pride had a bullet work going a half mile in :46.40.
Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers said Wednesday that he wishes the media would “tell the whole story” when mentioning him as the only coach to blow more than one 3-1 series lead.
The Mexico Open has a storied if somewhat disjointed history since it was first played at Club de Golf Chapultepec in 1944. Ben Crenshaw, Billy Casper and Lee Trevino helped put it on the map with victories, and Al Espinosa, a California native of Mexican descent, won it from 1944-47 before the tournament took its first hiatus, in 1948. It was a harbinger of things to come. World events, politics, disinterest, and/or the pandemic shuttered the event 19 times between 1944 and today. The longest drought was from 1985-89, and that’s when Jim Cook, the father of PGA TOUR Champions veteran and 10-time PGA TOUR winner John Cook, got involved. Jim had established Championship Management and was running three TOUR events – the San Diego Open, Las Vegas Invitational and NEC World Series of Golf, which later became the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone. The iconic Akron, Ohio course was a particular favorite of many top TOUR players, and it’s where many got to know Jim Cook. He built the NEC World Series of Golf into a monster because it offered one of golf’s biggest purses. When the field expanded in 1976 from just the four major winners, the winner’s check was $100,000. The highest payout for a major in 1976 was the PGA Championship, at $45,000. Cook, who is 88 now and makes his home in Ashville, Ohio, just south of Columbus, says it was 1988 when he first was approached about reviving the Mexico Open. “I was at the Masters that year watching my son play,” he recalled. “Seve Ballesteros had been enlisted to introduce me to Francisco Lavat, who then was the president of the Mexican Golf Federation. Now of course I knew Seve pretty well from the World Series of Golf. Just a great guy. And he introduced me to Francisco, and we hit it off.” Lavat got Cook to believe the event could be a success if they put the event in the PGA TOUR offseason and lured some of the better U.S. players to come. Cook, who had proven himself a powerhouse in securing sponsors for the other events he ran, immediately went to work on some big companies in Mexico to get the ball rolling. “I got Corona, which was a very big deal,” he said. “AeroMexico and Porsche/Audi, which had a big plant in Mexico City.” With those companies aboard it was time to appeal to top players. The reimagined event would be played in November 1990, and Cook used his son, who by then had racked up three TOUR wins, to help him attract a solid field. The winner’s share of the purse, $100,000 – the rival of any event in golf at the time – helped with buy-in. “The first time I went, I won,” said Jay Haas, the 1991 Mexico Open champion. “That was at Chapultepec. It was a great course – kikuyu fairways and bent greens. The ball went a long way because of the elevation. It was a pretty good challenge distance-wise. “I remember you had to make a lot of up-and-downs at Chapultepec,” he continued. “I made a nice par on 18 to tie Ed Fiori and won on the third playoff hole with a birdie.” How exactly Haas ended up playing in the first place can be traced directly back to Jim Cook. “I knew it would be run right,” Haas said. “Jim was doing all of the fundraising. Purses weren’t that high even on the PGA TOUR. I had a great week. It was a very fun time.” Asked about his winner’s check, Haas didn’t remember it being that large. Nor did the 1993 winner Fred Funk and 1995 winner – one John Cook – recall exactly what they’d won. Funk said he thought it was $30,000. Haas and John Cook believed it was $50,000. When informed Jim Cook said it was $100,000, Haas said he would research it. He later confirmed via text that he indeed made $100,000, which he said was another good reason to have played. “That and the cerveza!” Haas said. Jim Cook said the purse was his biggest selling point in year two. He also was paying the players a small appearance fee – $5,000 to $10,000 – and covering their expenses. “I was astonished at how great the golf courses were,” said Funk, who beat Donnie Hammond at La Hacienda. “I wasn’t really an established player on TOUR (Funk had won for the first time at the Shell Houston Open in 1992). The field didn’t have all of the studs in it. I was just trying to make some money.” Another selling point for Cook, as if he needed it, was that the event didn’t have a cut. The field also had fewer than 100 players, about half of whom were U.S. players. The pitch: Come to Mexico for free and play in a no-cut event for a shot at a hundred grand. John Cook’s job recruiting players was a lot easier than his dad’s job had been. “The guys went down for money and a good time,” John Cook said. “It was the off-season, and it was a nice getaway. And we played a number of good golf courses. The courses were unreal. It was like Riviera light. Every course looked like Riviera.” Jim Cook split with the tournament after 2000. Lavat had been succeeded as president of the Mexican Golf Federation, and new leaders had new ideas. They wanted the tournament to be played throughout the country instead of just around Mexico City. The tournament wasn’t played in 2001, but it trudged on and in 2013 it was moved to March and became an official event for PGA Tour Latinoamérica. Now it’s making its PGA TOUR debut. “I’m glad it’s still around,” Jim Cook said. “I have a lot of fond memories of Mexico. I hope it has a long, successful life.”
The Jaguars and left tackle Cam Robinson have reached an agreement on a three-year contract extension worth $54 million, a league source confirmed.
The Bulls have ruled out Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso for Wednesday’s Game 5 against the Bucks.
