Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes said he deactivated his Twitter account after screenshots surfaced Sunday of tweets from a decade ago that included racial slurs.
Kentucky Derby runner-up Epicenter was set Monday as the 6-5 morning line favorite for the Preakness Stakes, which will be run without Rich Strike.
A field of 9 was entered for the 146th Preakness on Monday with Kentucky Derby runner-up and 6-5 favorite Epicenter drawing post 8 and Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath in post 4 at odds of 9-2.
From the education of Igor Shesterkin, to newfound resiliency in Florida, to McDavid vs. Markstrom in Alberta, here’s what we’re watching heading into Round 2.
The Kansas City Royals fired hitting coach Terry Bradshaw on Monday and announced that Alec Zumwalt, the team’s senior director for player development and hitting performance, will join the major league staff “to oversee all hitting efforts.”
Sixteen months ago, when it was announced that Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, would be the replacement host of the 2022 PGA Championship, no doubt golfers who remembered the 2007 PGA on the course quickly were relieved remembering that the major would be contested in May, not August like it was oppressively 15 years ago. Still, in a pandemic, there hasn’t been a total exhale, but all systems now are go for the 104th edition of what recently has transitioned into the second major of the year. RELATED: Play Pick ‘Em Live | The First Look | Inside the Field Of course, it’s not like just any stage can be ready in such a short period of time to host a premier event, much less occupy a footprint capable of supporting its infrastructure, but Southern Hills isn’t just any stage. Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and their team restored the Perry Maxwell design in 2019 and it hosted the 2021 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. It doesn’t look like the same track on which Tiger Woods prevailed by two strokes in 2007, but that didn’t test how Maxwell intended. How Southern Hills presents this week, what it will take to win and, naturally, an early peek at the weather are below the extended ranking of professionals poised to contend for the Wanamaker Trophy. POWER RANKINGS: PGA CHAMPIONSHIP Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Talor Gooch, Tyrrell Hatton and Louis Oosthuizen will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Draws and Fades. To put some perspective on how long it’s been since Southern Hills last hosted, when the PGA of America descended here in 2007, it’d be another two months before Dustin Johnson would make his PGA TOUR debut and the only Kim in the field was Anthony, then a PGA TOUR rookie and not far removed in time and space from his collegiate stomping grounds of the University of Oklahoma. DJ has gone on to record 24 TOUR titles, including two majors, and there are four Kims in this week’s field, including Joohyung. Also known as Tom, he’s this year’s youngest qualifier at just 19 years of age. He was five during the 2007 PGA. (Insert “shocked” emoji here.) Of the 156 in the field at the PGA Championship – all entrants are professionals; it’s the only major sans amateurs – 17 were at Southern Hills for the 2007 PGA. Woods departed with the best memory of all – his 13th victory in a major – but recall on how the course tested is irrelevant this week. Southern Hills still is a stock par 70, but the restoration in 2019 reintroduced wider fairways, unique structure to every bunker and greens without thick rough around their perimeters. At 7,365 yards, it’s 234 yards longer than its previous turn, but technology advances in equipment and how golfers are using measured data serve as equalizers. Approaches from bermuda fairways aim at bentgrass greens that average just over 5,000 square feet. In the context of size of the targets and basic agronomy, it comps to Colonial Country Club, site of next week’s Charles Schwab Challenge, so it’s not an unfamiliar combination. Creeks that snake through the property also were recovered, and only three holes are spared water in play to some degree. As should be the case in every tournament worthy of this billing, the routing will demand patience, course management and a dash of heroics where the course permits. Emerging atop the leaderboard will require tee-to-green precision and touch around the greens. The mystery of the putting surfaces will elevate the long game into the weekend. While 90-degree heat and prevailing winds from the south will greet the players on Thursday, there is zero chance of a repeat from the conditions of 2007. That week, daytime highs reached 100 degrees with higher heat indices, so an excessive heat warning was in effect throughout. This week, a system will pass through later on Friday, and it could yield rain and possibly severe weather. Also with it, much cooler air will drop Saturday’s daytime high into the 60s thanks to a rotation of a strong breeze pushing in from a northerly direction. Sunday’s conditions are expected to be so nice that the Chamber of Commerce might blush. Winds also are forecasted to calm by then, but in these parts, don’t hold your breath. The champion will be exempt for life into the tournament. He’ll also be reserved spots in the next five editions of the other three majors, and his PGA TOUR membership will be extended through the 2026-27 if it already isn’t. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Pick ’Em Preview, Sleepers, Draws and Fades SATURDAY: Medical Extensions SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Rookie Ranking * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.
Questions about whether some of the game’s biggest names would compete in the PGA Championship have been answered in recent days. But one remains. Bryson DeChambeau may make his return to competitive golf at this week’s PGA Championship. It would be his first tournament since undergoing hand surgery after missing the cut at the Masters. “On my way to Southern Hills CC,” DeChambeau tweeted Monday afternoon. “Going to test how I am feeling over these next couple days and decide on whether to compete. Looking forward to being in Tulsa.” DeChambeau underwent surgery April 14 to repair a broken hook of hamate bone in his left hand. He said in a social media post after the procedure that he would take “the appropriate time needed to rest and recover” and would return “within the next two months.” The PGA Championship’s first round comes 35 days after the procedure. DeChambeau also has been dealing with a torn labrum in his left hip. The injuries forced him to miss both the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, where he was the defending champion, and THE PLAYERS. Against his doctors’ orders, he played the two events preceding the Masters before teeing it up in the year’s first major. DeChambeau said he first felt a “pop” in his hand last November and that he aggravated the injury when he slipped and fell while playing table tennis earlier this year. He has played just six times in 2022, either missing the cut or withdrawing in four of those events. He also finished T58 in the 64-man World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and T25 in the 38-man Sentry Tournament of Champions. He’s fallen from fifth to 22nd in the Official World Golf Ranking and his position in both the TOUR Championship and Presidents Cup are both in peril. DeChambeau, who’s qualified for East Lake in each of the last four seasons, currently ranks 219th in the FedExCup standings. He is 24th in the U.S. Presidents Cup standings after playing on the last three U.S. international teams, including the United States’ record-setting roster last year. DeChambeau started chipping April 30 while stitches were still in his left hand and posted a video Saturday that showed him hitting balls into a net with a launch monitor showing 192 mph ball speed.
The year’s second major is here. And there are plenty of ways to catch all the action. Here is how to watch the PGA Championship on ESPN and ESPN+.
Heat vs. Celtics. Warriors vs. Mavericks. Here’s what you need to know about the NBA’s star-studded conference finals.
This week, the PGA TOUR makes its way to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the 104th PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. The course will play as a par 70, measuring 7,556 yards and the greens will be Pure Distinction bentgrass. The top 70 and ties will make the cut, five more spots than the usual top 65 and ties that make it in a regular TOUR event. The 2007 PGA Championship also took place at this course, with Tiger Woods ($8,200) winning the 13th major of his career. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: $3M Fantasy Golf Millionaire [$1M to 1st + ToC Semifinal Entry] Unlike the Masters, the PGA Championship is transient. One year we could be on a modern links course, another on a coastal Carolina or Northern California track. This year, the venue is no stranger to hosting major golf tournaments. Southern Hills CC has hosted seven major championships, which include three U.S. Opens (1958, 1977, 2001) and four PGA Championships (1970, 1982, 1994, 2007). The second major of the season can provide us with exciting finishes where anything can happen. Since 2019, the PGA Championship has taken place in May, instead of its former spot as the fourth and final major played in August. One unique characteristic of the PGA Championship is the inclusion of 20 club professionals getting a chance to play in a major on the PGA TOUR. STRATEGY In 2019, the famous architect Gil Hanse redesigned this course by looking at old drawings, pictures and anything he could get his hands on to restore it to the original design. He removed trees, renovated the bunkers and shaved runoff areas around the green. Hanse also moved fairway bunkers to landing areas that fit today’s game and players’ distance off the tee. The fairways are more forgiving than in 2007, but it’ll be challenging to get a flat lie. The natural contours of the land can make lies in the fairways uneven, which will prove to be a difficult test trying to hit into these smaller greens. Three water hazards come into play on 15 of the 18 holes, with some coming into play on the drive and approach shots. These green complexes may be the most challenging feat to conquer this week. Smaller than the TOUR average (~5,000 sq. ft), these raised putting surfaces feature shaved-off edges that will cause shots to roll off into collection areas and bunkers that’ll be difficult to get up and down from this week. The scorecard features both par 5s over 600 yards, and seven par 4s are between 450 and 500 yards. There’s also a par 3 measuring 250 yards, so golfers will need to have distance in spades this week. Other than Oak Hill (2013), every winner since 2010 has averaged 295-plus yards off the tee, with nine of the previous 10 averaging over 300 yards. While this should be manageable by most TOUR professionals, golfers like Kevin Kisner ($6,800) may have an uphill battle. Last season, none of the top six in DraftKings scoring were above $10,000 and only one golfer was double-digits in roster percentage at Kiawah Island, Louis Oosthuizen ($8,000) at 10.4%. Last month, the top six in DraftKings scoring at the Masters were all priced above $8,800, and five of the top six at The Open Championship were priced above $9,200 last season. Picking the right set of golfers in a major can prove difficult, so don’t be married to one type of roster construction. Roster percentage should play a factor this week, with a major attracting more casual players; be sure to check on their “sentiment curve” throughout the week. GOLFERS TO CONSIDER Cameron Smith ($9,700) His accuracy issues off-the-tee shouldn’t be as much of a liability this week, and his magic around the greens will definitely help here, ranking 29th in scrambling over the previous 12 rounds. A win at THE PLAYERS and a third-place finish in the Masters this season is evidence enough the 28-year-old is set up for success at Southern Hills CC. Smith’s only lost strokes with his irons once all season and averages just south of 297 yards off the tee. His long-iron proximity will make up for what he potentially loses in distance, ranking top 10 in both proximities from 150 to 175 yards and 175-200 yards. He’s already conquered weather-dominated tournaments this season, and he should be composed if or when the weather gets hot and windy. With two wins already this season, Smith knows what it’ll take to win, especially when the course gets difficult. Patrick Cantlay ($9,100) also has to be considered in this range. Even though his only win was in the team event with Xander Schauffele ($9,300), he has two runner-up finishes after losing in playoffs at the WM Phoenix Open and RBC Heritage. A third-place finish (2019) when the PGA Championship was at Bethpage Black, another par 70 over 7,400 yards, is a good sign he can tackle the setup at Southern Hills. No one was better at Harbour Town with their irons than Cantlay, gaining 8.7 just a few weeks ago. Cameron Young ($7,600) Winning a major as your first win on the PGA TOUR may be a stretch, but there’s an outside chance he can get it done with how well he’s hitting it, ranking first in tee-to-green over his last dozen rounds. Young is top 25 in greens in regulation gained over the previous 12 rounds, and no one is better than him in gaining strokes around the greens, ranking first over the same timeframe. His runner-up finish at Wells Fargo came from elite ball-striking, ranking in the top five in approach and first in tee to green. He should fare well if he can make half of the putts inside six feet that he missed at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. Other golfers who could be in contention from this range are Shane Lowry ($8,700) and Matthew Fitzpatrick ($7,900). Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: $3M Fantasy Golf Millionaire [$1M to 1st + ToC Semifinal Entry] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. Place your golf bets at DraftKings Sportsbook or by downloading the DraftKings Sportsbook app. All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests. The contents contained in this article do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. 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