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Cantlay, Kokrak shining examples of how volatile new FedExCup format is
Published in
Golf
Sunday, 25 August 2019 11:46
ATLANTA – Justin Rose talked Wednesday about the volatility of the new format of the Tour Championship and noted the points leaders have much less protection than in previous years of the playoff finale.
"If you were leading the FedExCup in the past and you had a poor week, you'd finish maybe second, possibly third in the FedExCup," Rose said. "You have a poor week now, you can finish 12th, 15th, 18th, 20th. So there's a lot more volatility, I think, with this format, which is what playoff golf is all about, I guess."
Rose wasn't spot on with his play on the course this week, but his comments off the course certainly were.
Look no further than Patrick Cantlay. Following a runner-up finish at last week's BMW Championship, Cantlay began the week second in the FedExCup standings, just behind Justin Thomas. As a result, he started the week 8 under, two back of Thomas but still in excellent position to take home the $15 million prize money that came with the FedExCup.
But 8 under was as good as it got for Cantlay, who posted rounds of 70-71-75-73 to plummet all the way down to T-21. He wasn't alone. After beginning the week 14th in the FedExCup standings, Dustin Johnson had an equally disappointing week and fell to T-29 with Lucas Glover.
On the flip side, Jason Kokrak narrowly made it to East Lake as the last man in the field, clinging to the 30th spot in the standings. He took advantage of the week and earned a lot more money than he otherwise would have in previous years.
Kokrak began the week at even par, along with four others rounding out the bottom of top 30, but used rounds of 71-67-72-67 to leap up to finish 14th. In addition, Chez Reavie started T-22 at 1 under but finished eighth at 6 under.
Most players had their own opinion this week when it came to the new staggered-scoring format, and whether they were positive or negative, at least now there's a clearer picture for just how much of a difference a bad – or good – week can make.
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Thomas coughs up lead at East Lake: 'Really weird' starting in front
Published in
Golf
Sunday, 25 August 2019 12:00
ATLANTA – Justin Thomas learned the hard way that starting the week with a lead isn’t as easy as one might think.
As the FedExCup points leader, he began the Tour Championship at 10 under par and two strokes ahead of Patrick Cantlay, who was second on the list, and 10 shots clear of Jason Kokrak, No. 30 in points.
Following an even-par 70 to start the week, that lead had vanished and by the time he closed with a 2-under 68 he found himself five shots behind champion Rory McIlroy, who started the week at 5 under and finished at 18 under.
“It was really weird and hard teeing off on Thursday ahead of everybody,” Thomas said. “I don't know how everybody else feels, but I had a pretty hard time playing the normal way that I play. It's hard to just imagine everybody starts at zero when you don't. So that was tough.”
Thomas finished tied with Brooks Koepka in third place and collected $3.5 million in FedExCup bonus earnings. McIlroy won $15 million.
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Koepka (72) struggles in final round: 'I can't bring it every day'
Published in
Golf
Sunday, 25 August 2019 12:30
ATLANTA – Brooks Koepka had just rebounded from Saturday's shaky start to the third round, hitting the reset button Sunday morning and finishing the remaining 13 holes of his suspended round without a bogey. His four Sunday-morning birdies had also helped give him the 54-hole lead.
But things quickly began to escape the Player of the Year frontrunner as the pressure increased in the final round, and Koepka's closing 2-over 72 left him five back of winner Rory McIlroy, who outplayed his playing competitor by six shots Sunday afternoon.
Koepka opened with five straight pars before finally getting a circle on the card at the par-5 sixth, the easiest hole of the week. But a costly double bogey followed at the seventh after Koepka's tee shot sailed out of bounds. He needed two putts to clean up the messy mistake.
One more birdie followed at the eighth, but the real trouble began at the par-4 12th, where Koepka made the first of three straight bogeys.
"Just didn't make any putts," said Koepka, who had 30 on Sunday, his biggest total of the week. "You know, those three-putts I missed kind of right there in a row, 12, 13, 14, kind of took the air out of everything."
With the problems on the green, Koepka also faced issues off the tee, hitting just five fairways Sunday. For as much success and subsequent praise Koepka sees with the big stick, it wasn't working in the final round, and he knew it early.
"It was one of those days where even on the range, I didn't feel very comfortable with the driver," Koepka said. "I felt iron play was good. Just the driver, I just couldn't – it wasn't fading enough. Everything was kind of left, and it happens once in a while.
"I mean, I can't bring it every day."
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$15 million and change: McIlroy's attitude adjustment leads to FedExCup win
Published in
Golf
Sunday, 25 August 2019 13:20
“In an open marketplace for attention, darker emotions attract more eyeballs than positive and constructive thoughts. For heavy internet users, repeated interaction with this darkness can become a source of draining negativity . . .
-Cal Newport, author of “Digital Minimalism”
ATLANTA – Between marathon rounds Sunday at the Tour Championship Rory McIlroy said he planned to retreat to his makeshift home for the week and read.
His tome of choice for the finale was “Digital Minimalism.” But before you think the Northern Irishman has jumped the anti-technology shark, consider the circumstances.
“[The book] was lying on the bed the other night, and I was on my phone, and Erica [his wife] said, that's ironic,” McIlroy laughed. “It's just using [technology] the right way, I guess.”
McIlroy’s much-talked-about march to living a mindful and uncluttered life and arguably the most consistent year of his already Hall of Fame career is not mutually exclusive. From the outset of the 2019 season he imagined a better existence not defined by what he does for living but how he lives. The result has been an impressively uncluttered life and the type of clarity you don’t often expect from an elite athlete in his prime.
“Some of the work that I've put in on the mental side of the game and some of the things I've been doing, I definitely think you're starting to see the fruition of that,” McIlroy said at East Lake where he became just the second player, after Tiger Woods, to win the FedExCup twice. “Just a different approach, a little bit of a different attitude. That attitude and that consistency day in, day out, I think that's what you've seen over the course of this year.”
It’s a path McIlroy has been on since the first week of January when he arrived in Maui for the Sentry Tournament of Champions. In ’19 his focus had shifted almost exclusively to the United States along with an attitude that, at least in Tour circles, bordered on Zen-like.
He shrugged off top-five finishes in Maui, the Farmers Insurance Open and the Genesis Open. And when he finished runner-up to Dustin Johnson the following week at the WGC-Mexico Championship, instead of frustration, he went with perspective.
“It was good. Some weeks you play well and someone just plays better,” he reasoned at the time.
Similarly, when he won The Players the following month there was no real outlet moment. There was no reason to make this tournament any less or more important than the next.
It’s the Chuck D lyric: Don’t let a win get to your head or a loss to your heart.
In the darkest moment of ’19, he turned inward to process something he’d never felt. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was anxiety, maybe it was simply too much weight for one man to handle. Whatever it was, McIlroy’s missed cut at The Open – the first played in his homeland in a half century – certainly qualified as a learning moment even for the 30-year-old.
“I learned a lot. Going into that first round at Portrush and trying to treat it like any other day. It’s like going into Sundays and trying to treat it like any other day,” McIlroy said. “You have to be a realist and realize it’s not and you have to prepare for it.”
The more immediate darkness for McIlroy came on Sunday in the form of back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 14 and 15 during the final round at the Tour Championship, which turned what was shaping up to be a nice stroll into something much more tense. That is, until he closed with birdies at the 17th and 18th holes for a commanding victory.
The season finale was panned in some circles for the new strokes-based format that seeded the top 30 players based on the playoff points list from 10 under (Justin Thomas) to even par (No. 30 on the list). McIlroy started the week at 5 under par and won by four strokes – or for those tracking at home, three shots without the built-in bonus.
It was an inspired finish for McIlroy, who won the bookends of the "season of championships" – the Tour’s reimagined slate that began in March with The Players and ended on Sunday at the Tour Championship. Brooks Koepka effectively won everything in between.
It all creates a compelling study in how the players view the new season and the FedExCup’s place among the game’s biggest events.
In the next few days, players will vote for the PGA Tour's Player of the Year award, a contest that, until this week, seemed like a foregone conclusion with Koepka having won three times, including the PGA Championship and the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. But McIlroy added a layer to the conversation with his FedExCup victory, his third this season.
“Rory has outplayed Brooks by a mile in how he's done the entire year. It's unbelievable how he's played,” said Thomas, who tied for third and five strokes back. “But the most important thing is wins and playing great in the big events, and nobody has done that better than Brooks. I don't know how you don't give Brooks the Player of the Year with three wins and a major and a WGC and top four in every major. That's pretty strong.”
McIlroy probably won’t be paying much attention to the voting or anything else that might crop up in his digital universe. He’s aware of the workings of the social media world, as evidenced by his reaction to Phil Mickelson’s most recent shirtless post on Saturday.
“When I got in [the locker room], the first thing I saw was another topless photo of Phil Mickelson, so that made my day,” he joked on Friday following a weather delay.
He’s just not consumed by the flood of digital information, much like he’s not consumed by the predictable ebb and flow of a season, even a season as impressive as 2019.
Early in “Digital Minimalism,” Newport explains the process of stripping away all of one’s electronic distractions: “The declutter acts as a jarring reset: you come into the process a frazzled maximalist and leave an intentional minimalist.”
There’s no way of knowing exactly where McIlroy might be on that spectrum, but on the path to living a mindful life, it’s impossible to separate the player from the person. It’s clear that both made huge strides in 2019.
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ATLANTA – Among the various motivations Rory McIlroy had Sunday at the Tour Championship – the most compelling being the $15 million bonus for winning the FedExCup – was the race for the season’s lowest scoring average.
McIlroy led the Tour in adjusted scoring average through The Northern Trust but was overtaken by Patrick Cantlay at last week’s BMW Championship.
“I wanted to win. I 100-percent knew that coming in this week, and I wanted to end the season with the No. 1 stroke average,” said McIlroy, who won the FedExCup for the second time Sunday at East Lake. “There's just little motivating factors that don't have to be about the tournament, but keep you where you need to be.”
McIlroy finished with rounds of 66-67-68-66 and unseated Cantlay in the scoring average race with a 69.05 average, clinching the Vardon Trophy for the first time since 2014 and the third time in his career.
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Muscular injuries for both Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe took some of the gloss of Paris Saint-Germain's 4-0 win over Toulouse in their Ligue 1 match on Sunday.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting scored a second-half brace, including a sublime solo goal, as titleholders PSG bounced back from their 2-1 defeat against Rennes the week before.
Cameroon international Choupo-Moting, who came in for Cavani, danced through the Toulouse defence to break the deadlock in the 50th minute and an unlucky own goal by Matthieu Goncalves gifted PSG their second five minutes later.
Angel Di Maria saw a penalty saved by Baptiste Reynet before Choupo-Moting added the third in the 75th minute and Marquinhos completed the scoring.
Mbappe exited Parc des Princes on crutches and will undergo further tests, with PSG manager Thomas Tuchel telling Canal+ after the match that the injuries were "muscular."
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With Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez watching from the stands, Antoine Griezmann came through for Barcelona by scoring twice to lead the Catalan club to its first Spanish league win of the season with a 5-2 rout of Real Betis on Sunday.
Griezmann celebrated his second goal by going near the Barcelona fans and throwing glitter into the air like NBA star LeBron James.
"I like LeBron's ritual and I tried to imitate him," Griezmann said. "I wanted to copy that. I bought the confetti on the Internet with my family."
Barca player ratings: Griezmann brilliant in rout over Betis
The newly signed France forward had already scored the first goal for Barcelona after Betis opened the scoring at Camp Nou.
"I see Leo Messi score goals like that in training and I tried to copy him, " Griezmann said after the match.
Carles Perez, Jordi Alba and Arturo Vidal also scored for Barcelona. Nabil Fekir and Loren Moron scored for Betis.
Barcelona had lost 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao last weekend for its first opening league defeat in a decade.
Messi had already missed the opener because of a calf injury, while Suarez got hurt before halftime in Bilbao. Forward Ousmane Dembele also was out injured.
Griezmann, who joined from Atletico Madrid for €120 million in the offseason, had started at Barcelona with a lacklustre performance in the opener. But he took charge on Sunday, scoring his first goal after sliding to a cross from Sergi Roberto in the 41st minute.
Griezmann's second came in the 50th with a well-placed left-footed shot that curled into the far corner, just out of reach of Betis goalkeeper Dani Martín. Griezmann was handed glitter from someone who appeared to be a Barcelona staff member behind the goal, then threw it up in the air.
Forward Ansu Fati, 16, made his senior-team debut with Barcelona as a second-half substitute, becoming the second youngest to play with the club in the Spanish league.
"A lot was said after the loss in Bilbao. When you lose there has to be a big reaction," Griezmann said. "We had to work hard. We really wanted to play another game.
"When so many players are missing the team has to step up. And that was the case. I can't do these things on my own. We're a team and it's thanks to my teammates. The good thing is that if there are injuries, those that come into the team respond. You've seen that today."
Barcelona's Sergio Busquets was substituted in the 72nd with an apparent injury.
ESPN FC's Sam Marsden and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Ansu Fati became the second-youngest player to feature for Barcelona in La Liga after being handed his debut in Sunday's 5-2 win over Real Betis.
With Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele all missing through injury, Ansu -- aged 16 years and 298 days-- was called up to the 18-man squad along with B team winger Carles Perez.
Ernesto Valverde named him as a substitute, with Perez starting in attack alongside Antoine Griezmann and Rafinha, before bringing him on in the second half when Barca were 5-1 up.
Barca player ratings: Griezmann brilliant in rout over Betis
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The Spanish champions went on to win the game with Griezmann scoring twice. Perez, Jordi Alba and Arturo Vidal were also on target.
"Ansu has a lot of qualities, he's quick and he uses the space well," Valverde said in a news conference after the game.
"I know he's really young. He's the youngest player I have ever given a debut to. But if we don't look at how old the other players in the squad are, we're not going to look at his age either. We look at what he can add and he's surprised us all."
After the game, Ansu, who flashed a shot narrowly wide during his cameo, remained on the pitch longer than his teammates as he took everything in.
"I was looking at my parents and my family [in the stands], all those people that have accompanied me to this point in my career," he explained to reporters.
"I stayed there on the pitch because I couldn't believe it. I wanted to enjoy that moment. The truth is that I was really nervous before, but I only have words of gratitude for everyone: the club, the manager, the supporters, who gave me a great reception."
Ansu -- who played for the U19s last season -- is younger than players like Messi and Bojan Krkic were when they made their top-flight debuts for the club, but is not the youngest player to ever turn out in the league for the Catalans.
Vicenc Martinez was 16 years and 278 days old when he made his first La Liga appearance for Barca in the 1941-42 season -- just 20 days younger than Ansu.
Following lengthy negotiations, Barcelona finally tied Ansu down to a new deal earlier this summer. The forward signed fresh terms to keep him at the club until 2022 with an option to extend the contract by an additional two years. A €100 million buyout clause was included in the contract.
Talks took longer than the club had initially expected, though, after an email made its way into the wrong hands when they were negotiating a new deal for another of the club's young stars, Ilaix Moriba.
The email, which detailed Ilaix's new deal, was sent to an employee at Espanyol instead of his agent. A source at Espanyol told ESPN FC the club were "gobsmacked" at the money on offer.
That, in turn, saw Ansu's representatives push for a better deal with Barca, especially given the interest in the youngster from some of Europe's biggest clubs.
Barcelona had always planned to give Ansu a new deal and a bumper pay rise. Along with Ilaix, he's one of the most highly-rated players currently in the academy.
The club have recently acknowledged a need to improve the terms being offered to their best young players having seen a number opt to leave for clubs like Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Monaco.
Ansu was born in Guinea-Bissau but moved to Catalonia at a young age and has been at the club since he was 10. He's progressed through the academy and is expected to spend this season with the B team in the Spanish third division.
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Carlos Vela scored a goal in the 53rd minute and Los Angeles FC was able to salvage a 3-3 tie against the visiting Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday night -- although the club remains winless in two seasons against its crosstown rival.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored two first-half goals for the Galaxy (13-11-3, 42 points), who moved into a fourth-place tie in the Western Conference with Minnesota United FC.
Western Conference-leader LAFC (19-3-5, 62 points), which also has the best record in MLS, is now 0-2-3 in El Trafico (the nickname given to the LAFC-Galaxy series).
LAFC's hopes of rallying from two goals down for the victory took a blow when Vela, a favorite for MLS MVP, had to exit in the 61st minute with a right hamstring injury.
Ibrahimovic continued to be nothing but trouble for LAFC, netting a first-half brace to give him eight of the Galaxy's 13 goals in the five meetings. He scored barely 100 seconds into the game when he took a pass from Cristian Pavon and delivered into the bottom left of the LAFC goal with his left foot.
LAFC's Latif Blessing also scored a pair of first-half goals, including his second one minute into first-half stoppage time when he cleaned up a loose ball in front of the Galaxy goal to make it 3-2. His first came in the 12th minute to tie the score 1-1.
Ibrahimovic came right back three minutes later to give the Galaxy a 2-1 advantage when he took a long pass from Favio Alvarez, moved past charging goalkeeper Tyler Miller and fired another left-footed shot for his 22nd of the season.
Pavon scored his first goal with the Galaxy in his fourth game with the club, dribbling through LAFC defender Walker Zimmerman and scoring into the bottom left corner of the goal past a diving Miller. Pavon's goal, to give the Galaxy a 3-1 lead, came 1:09 after Ibrahimovic scored.
Vela's league-leading 27th of the season came off a pass from Mark-Anthony Kaye to the right side of goal, scoring past sliding goalkeeper David Bingham.
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Has something gone stale at Spurs? Where to begin with Man Utd?
Published in
Soccer
Sunday, 25 August 2019 18:28
Concern of the weekend
At the time, it was easy to ascribe the collapse in Tottenham's league form at the end of last season to the stresses of the Champions League: They took just 11 points from their last available 36 as Europe became their priority and monopolised their emotional and physical energy.
Now though, it's equally easy to think that run was the start of a more serious problem, and rather than being the cause of their listlesness, the run to the Champions League final simply masked their deficiencies. The 1-0 defeat to Newcastle on Sunday was Tottenham's third unconvincing performance of the season: In the first they eventually salvaged a win against Aston Villa, in the second they somehow escaped with a draw against Manchester City, but in the third they couldn't break down a team who had been battered by newly-promoted Norwich last week.
Was their sluggish football and sideways passing just a part of a slow start to the season? Or is there a greater malaise here? The fear is that despite the new arrivals over the summer, something has gone stale at Tottenham.
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Good start (but no more) of the weekend
Hats off to Newcastle for their victory and Steve Bruce should be given due credit for a plan well executed. A couple of things to consider though: Steve Kean's Blackburn won a game at Old Trafford in 2011, so let's not think a win at a big ground makes a manager.
Also, Newcastle under Steve McClaren won at White Hart Lane in December 2015, but a week later dropped points against Aston Villa (who would finish stone bottom of the table) and would lose 11 of their last 14 games and get relegated anyway.
Critics of Bruce and his appointment might have to tone it down for a short spell, but they won't be persuaded until this sort of form is sustained.
Multi-faceted calamity of the weekend
Where to start with Manchester United's 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday?
No, seriously, where should we start?
In the worst way possible, it had absolutely everything: Defensive errors from the new £80 million signing; a missed penalty in a week when all have been talking about their confused penalty-taker policy; muscle injuries to Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial after a summer when the emphasis in preseason training was placed on hard fitness work; a bench where the best attacking option was 17-year-old Mason Greenwood; equalising only to concede another minutes later; one of those increasingly frequent rare mistakes by David De Gea.
We've probably missed a few, possibly including the sense that Daniel James, a 21-year-old with one season in the Championship to his name, is now one of their key attackers, or that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer waited until the 85th minute to bring on Juan Mata.
And among all of that, there's the fact it's become incredibly easy to plan how to beat United: Their midfield and attack isn't creative enough to consistently break down a solid defence, and their defence isn't strong enough to hold off a decent counter-attack. Two of those did for United against Palace, as against Cardiff last season. It's all so simple.
1:55
Have Manchester United lost their fear factor?
Craig Burley and Steve Nicol explain why teams like Crystal Palace will continue to show no fear against Manchester United this season.
Perfectionism seekers of the weekend
While Jurgen Klopp was rightfully delighted with Liverpool's performance against Arsenal, it was notable that he seemed furious when they conceded the late goal, and also that in his post-match comments he highlighted the 10-15 minutes when they were not in complete control of the game.
Such is the perfection that Klopp knows Liverpool need this season if they're to beat Manchester City to the Premier League title, or even just challenge them to any real degree.
But they weren't far away on Saturday. It was also notable that Klopp said he was surprised by the formation Unai Emery chose, but Liverpool swept the Gunners aside anyway. Which is the central problem with facing Liverpool: try to combat one problem and another appears. It's tactical whack-a-mole, and tricky to work out how to keep them all smacked down.
It felt pretty weak when Emery said Arsenal were making progress because they had done better at Anfield than last season, but it's a great compliment to Liverpool that one the six best sides in the country regards only losing 3-1 rather than 5-1 as a victory of sorts.
Liability of the weekend
David Luiz is not a bad defender: He's probably better than anything Arsenal had before and might be a decent enough stop-gap until William Saliba is ready. It's just there's a decent reason Chelsea happily waved him off in August.
Luiz was culpable for at least two of Liverpool's goals on Saturday, recklessly diving into a challenge on Mo Salah then needlessly pulling the same man's shirt for the penalty. The Brazilian has and will improve Arsenal's distribution from the back, but they will just have to live with the fact that these games will happen every now and then.
Silver lining of the weekend
On a more positive note for Arsenal, Joe Willock is turning out to be one of the unexpected success stories of their nascent season. Unai Emery's midfield diamond didn't really work, but then again not many things do against Liverpool, so given the tactical disadvantage and the opposition, Willock was terrific, smart and energetic, and an indication that not all of Arsenal's problems can or should be solved in the transfer market.
Goal, assist and celebration of the weekend
Busy old day at Bramall Lane on Saturday. "There are not too many players who can play that pass," said Brendan Rodgers after James Maddison produced a beautiful, outside of the foot through-ball for Jamie Vardy's opener in Leicester's 2-1 win over Sheffield United, a goal the Sheffield Wednesday fan celebrated with glee in front of some very irked Blades fans.
Leicester weren't done there. There's an England squad due in a few weeks, and it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see Harvey Barnes join Maddison in Gareth Southgate's thinking, particularly after the perfectly-struck rocket the young winger sent into the roof of the net to confirm the points. They might not be living up to the preseason hype yet, but this win on top of two solid draws suggests they're on the way.
Striker of the weekend
You can't help feeling delighted for Tammy Abraham, a striker who has been given his chance by Chelsea's circumstances, but also one who may well have been promoted above his current ability by them. His two goals against Norwich were nicely taken, and will earn him a little time as he tries to establish himself as Chelsea's No. 9.
Speculation explanation of the weekend
That's three defeats in three for Watford this season, against teams they only lost once in six games to last season, scoring only one goal in the process, having shipped six goals at home. They also ended last season with three losses.
Reports that Javi Gracia's job is under threat seem harsh, and probably are harsh, but this is why they're around. Suddenly next weekend's trip to Newcastle is massive.
Luckiest moment of the weekend
The capacity of footballers to look absolutely astonished whenever any decision goes against them knows no bounds, so in that respect it wasn't that surprising when Brighton's Florin Andone claimed innocence after jumping and sticking his studs just below Yan Valery's knee, bringing most of his bodyweight down on the Southampton man. He wasn't unlucky to be sent off, he was lucky not to snap Valery's leg in half.
VAR complaint of the weekend
Who knew that the biggest flaw in VAR -- or at least the way VAR is being implemented in England -- would be when it didn't get involved, as opposed to when it did? To pick just a couple of examples from the weekend (and there were more -- oh there were more), Manchester City and Tottenham were not awarded clear penalties even after they were checked, apparently because there wasn't enough evidence that they were clear and obvious mistakes, and thus the subjective decisions couldn't be corrected.
If these weren't clear and obvious, it's becoming evident that VAR is just someone drawing lines on a screen to decide infinitesimally marginal offside calls.
VAR is a mistake, a system that shouldn't have been brought in, but as it's here it should at least ensure as many on-field mistakes as possible are rectified. But if won't overturn these decisions, clear to virtually everyone, then it's pointless.
Unless things change, we've essentially got the worst of both worlds: the game has been fundamentally altered and changed as a live spectacle without actually making decisions more accurate. Well done everyone. Well done.
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