Marc Leishman goes wire-to-wire at BMW Championship

TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympics will open next year in the same time slot scheduled for this year’s games. Tokyo organizers said Monday the opening ceremony will take place on July 23, 2021 — almost exactly one year after the games were due to start this year. “The schedule for the games is key to preparing for the games,” Tokyo organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori said. “This will only accelerate our progress.” Last week, the IOC and Japanese organizers postponed the Olympics until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s games were scheduled to open on July 24 and close on Aug. 9. But the near exact one-year delay will see the rescheduled closing ceremony on Aug. 8. There had been talk of switching the Olympics to spring, a move that would coincide with the blooming of Japan’s famous cherry blossoms. But it would also clash with European soccer and North American sports leagues. Mori said a spring Olympics was considered but holding the games later gives more space to complete the many qualifying events that have been postponed by the virus outbreak. “We wanted to have more room for the athletes to qualify,” Mori said. After holding out for weeks, local organizers and the IOC last week postponed the Tokyo Games under pressure from athletes, national Olympic bodies and sports federations. It’s the first postponement in Olympic history, though there were several cancellations during wartime. The Paralympics were rescheduled to Aug. 24-Sept. 5. The new Olympic dates would conflict with the scheduled world championships in track and swimming, but those events are now expected to also be pushed back. “The IOC has had close discussions with the relevant international federations,” organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto said. “I believe the IFs have accepted the games being held in the summer.” Muto said the decision was made Monday and the IOC said it was supported by all the international sports federations and was based on three main considerations: to protect the health of athletes, to safeguard the interests of the athletes and Olympic sport, and the international sports calendar. “These new dates give the health authorities and all involved in the organisation of the Games the maximum time to deal with the constantly changing landscape and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the IOC said. “The new dates … also have the added benefit that any disruption that the postponement will cause to the international sports calendar can be kept to a minimum, in the interests of the athletes and the IFs.” Both Mori and Muto have said the cost of rescheduling the Olympics will be “massive” — local reports estimate billions of dollars — with most of the expenses borne by Japanese taxpayers. Muto promised transparency in calculating the costs, and testing times deciding how they are divided up. “Since it (the Olympics) were scheduled for this summer, all the venues had given up hosting any other events during this time, so how do we approach that?” Muto asked. “In addition, there will need to be guarantees when we book the new dates, and there is a possibility this will incur rent payments. So there will be costs incurred and we will need to consider them one by one. I think that will be the tougher process.” Katsuhiro Miyamoto, an emeritus professor of sports economics at Kansai University, puts the costs as high as $4 billion. That would cover the price of maintaining stadiums, refitting them, paying rentals, penalties and other expenses. Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. However, an audit bureau of the Japanese government says the costs are twice that much. All of the spending is public money except $5.6 billion from a privately funded operating budget. The Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee is contributing $1.3 billion, according to organizing committee documents. The IOC’s contribution goes into the operating budget. IOC President Thomas Bach has repeatedly called the Tokyo Olympics the best prepared in history. However, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso also termed them “cursed.” Aso competed in shooting in the 1976 Olympics, and was born in 1940. The Olympics planned for 1940 in Tokyo were canceled because of World War II.

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WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W. Va. – While Bryson DeChambeau has been known to switch Bridgestone golf ball models depending on course conditions, he’s mostly used the Tour B X version since 2018. When he teed it up at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier on Thursday, however, it was with a brand new version of the Bridgestone Tour B X ball. The golf ball, which just became conforming this week, according to Bridgestone, is still in the prototype phase, but based on the company’s history of golf ball releases, this could possibly be the new retail model Tour B X for 2020. According to a Bridgestone representative, DeChambeau was seeing 750 rpm more spin around the greens with the new prototype golf ball during a testing session in Dallas, and he was seeing a more consistent launch. “Testing went very well last week with Bryson in Dallas and he was chomping at the bit to put it in play,� Bridgestone told PGATOUR.COM on Thursday. “This is the first week the ball is available for play on the conforming list. He put it in play instantly.� While DeChambeau allowed PGATOUR.COM to capture photos of the previous Tour B X golf ball (photo left) and the new prototype Tour B X golf ball (right), the company is remaining tight-lipped about the new design. From the photos, however, we can gather that the font of “Tour B X� has changed, and the dimple design looks noticeably different, as well. For now, we’ll have to wait on more information about the golf ball design and retail information. In his first competitive round with the new golf ball, DeChambeau shot a 2-under 68 at The Old White TPC.

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Satoshi Kodaira and Kramer Hickok each shot a PGA Tour career-best 7-under 63 to share the Travelers Championship lead.

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