Ex-NBAer turned college golfer JR Smith named North Carolina A&T’s Academic Athlete of the Year

Rickie Fowler was hoping to wipe away the past. Justin Thomas was hoping to relive it. Neither got what they were looking for Sunday at the U.S. Open. The buddies who shared a house near Erin Hills also shared the misery after a wind-swept final round in which they never got themselves into the mix. Fowler, as was the case in previous majors where he’s contended, did nothing to put real pressure on the leaders. Thomas, looking for more from where his record-setting 63 came from the day before, was out of contention by the middle of the front nine. “Well, it wasn’t going to be like yesterday, regardless,” Thomas said, acknowledging that record-setting days don’t come around all that often. Fowler

When the fight for gender equality in golf is chronicled Augusta National will not be the key battle but it will be remembered as a provocative flashpoint and the site of another small victory this week when the club hosts a women’s tournament. When the golfers tee it up for the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur on Saturday they will take a shot at one of sport’s symbols of gender segregation, playing on a course that seven years ago did not even allow female members. Once the sanctuary of some of the world’s most powerful men and home to the revered Masters tournament, Augusta National Golf Club for decades remained unmoved by outside influences.