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TT Postscript: More sloppy play for Woods (75) at Northern Trust
Published in
Golf
Thursday, 08 August 2019 05:28

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – It was another uninspiring performance from Tiger Woods Thursday at The Northern Trust. Here are my observations after a 4-over 75 that leaves Woods in danger of missing his second consecutive cut:
• Tiger definitely looked like a guy who was playing just his 13th competitive round since the Masters. He posted negative strokes gained numbers in every major statistical category. One word to sum that up: Rust.
• On the plus side, he didn’t seem to show any ill effects of the back stiffness that led him to just chip and putt for half of his pro-am round Wednesday. He said he was a “little stiff" Thursday, but mostly this was just bad, sloppy golf, plain and simple. “I was just off,” he conceded.
• Most troubling was his iron play. That’s been one of the highlights this season – he’d rank fifth on Tour in that category if he’d had enough rounds to qualify. But on Thursday he seemed to master the 220-yard long irons, but not the 130-yard wedges. He found just 10 greens.
• To that point: He made bogey on No. 12 after having just 138 yards to the flag. He made double on the 140-yard 14th. From 138 yards on No. 15, he could only hit it to 30 feet. And on No. 17, from 118 yards? Bunker. Not good!
• What’s causing the issues with the wedges? Could be a technical issue. Could be rust and a lack of scoring touch. Could be a sore back. But here’s what we do know: It’s been an issue all summer. He’d rank 185th on Tour from 75-125 yards. Yikes.
• When he finished his round, only one player in the morning wave was worse than Tiger. It was that kind of day.
• And so Woods now needs something in the mid-60s – at least – just to stick around for the weekend. It could be an important day. Right now he’s projected to drop from 28th to 33rd in the FedExCup. That means he’s no longer assured of defending his title at the Tour Championship. That means he'll need to post a decent result next week at the no-cut BMW.
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Tiger's playoff bid for Tour Championship defense off to bad start
Published in
Golf
Thursday, 08 August 2019 07:08

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – It’s becoming a familiar routine for Tiger Woods in recent events, struggle on Day 1 and force yourself to perform some sort of magic during the second round just to make the cut.
On Thursday at The Northern Trust it was a 4-over 75 that left Woods tied for 102nd out of 104 players who were on the course at that moment. It was a similar performance to last month’s Open Championship, where he started his week with a 78, and the PGA Championship, when he opened with a 72. He missed the cut at both events.
“I'm going to have to figure out a way to get this thing under par and hopefully move on and have a chance on the weekend to keep progressing and keep going lower,” Woods reasoned after his round. “I've got to get into the red at the end of the day tomorrow, for sure.”
But for Woods, this is much more than another poor first round. Given his precarious position on the FedExCup point list (28th), he will need to have decent starts in the first two playoff events to assure a return trip to the Tour Championship, where he would be the defending champion.
Following his round on Thursday at Liberty National, Woods was projected to drop to 32nd on the point list.
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Hoping to catch fire for playoffs, Merritt (62) lights it up early at Liberty National
Published in
Golf
Thursday, 08 August 2019 07:08

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Toward the end of every PGA Tour season there’s almost always a player who gets hot at the perfect moment and rides that momentum deep into the playoffs. In 2014, it was Billy Horschel, who ended up winning the FedExCup. Two years later, it was Ryan Moore, who grabbed the final Ryder Cup pick for Hazeltine, the same year that Rory McIlroy started the playoffs outside the top 30 before winning twice, including the Tour Championship. And last year it was Bryson DeChambeau winning each of the first two postseason events en route to a third-place FedExCup finish.
This year, that player could be Troy Merritt.
Merritt wouldn't have been a prime candidate for such designation just three weeks ago after tumbling to 112th on the season-long points list, but that began to change two weeks ago when he finished runner-up at the Barracuda Championship. He began this week’s Northern Trust perched on the postseason bubble at 72nd (the top 70 after this week’s event advance to the second playoff stop, the BMW Championship).
And he took a giant step in the right direction with a flawless 62 on Thursday at Liberty National to grab the early lead at 9 under thanks to four consecutive birdies at Nos. 11-14 and three more at Nos. 4-6.
Although Merritt knows how important a good week in New Jersey could be for him, he’s also learned it's best not to focus on the result in these situations.
“I didn't think about it a whole lot. I know good golf will take care of itself. You just try to play the best you can,” he said. “Obviously, I’ll be watching throughout the weekend, but just getting off to a good start, put that to the back of the mind and try to win a golf tournament and do that, I'll get inside the top 70.”
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Napoli owner: Koulibaly worth triple Utd's Maguire
Published in
Soccer
Thursday, 08 August 2019 12:18

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has told ESPN FC that defender Kalidou Koulibaly should be valued at £250 million given that Manchester United signed Harry Maguire for £80m.
United spent a world record fee to secure Maguire's signature from Leicester despite manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also being interested in Koulibaly this summer.
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De Laurentiis said he would have offered significantly less money to sign Maguire and said Koulibaly was worth three times more than the England international.
"He has a clause of £150m," he said in an exclusive interview with ESPN. "But, for example, in England, they paid £85m for a player. In Napoli, I would pay £30-£35m.
"With that in mind, I think Koulibaly's value is £250m if they paid that much for that guy."
Maguire became United's third signing of the summer following the arrivals of Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James.
De Laurentiis also blamed Premier League clubs for inflated prices in the transfer window and said the league has an unfair advantage over other countries.
"The problem of the super cost of the players is due to England," he added. "In England, they gross more money than in France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
"If a club grosses £800m, they have no problem to offer around £80m, £90m, £100m for one player. There is not a real good and fair competition between England and the other countries."
United start their league campaign against Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday while Napoli start Serie A away at Fiorentina on Aug. 24.
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Neville: Utd better without unprofessional Lukaku
Published in
Soccer
Thursday, 08 August 2019 11:08

Manchester United have let an unprofessional Romelu Lukaku leave because Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is trying to instil a "new culture" at Old Trafford, Gary Neville has told ESPN FC.
Lukaku has joined Inter Milan in a £72 million deal at the end of a week that saw the striker reprimanded for publishing confidential training data on Twitter and earn a fine from United for missing training on Wednesday.
"My view on Romelu Lukaku is that if Manchester United are trying to set a new tone and culture through the club, which Ole is trying to do, any lack of professionalism has got to be stamped upon," said Neville.
"He didn't want to be here anyway."
Lukaku scored 42 goals in 96 games for United following a £75m move from Everton in 2017.
He scored 27 goals in his first season but his form dipped last year and he admitted in December he had been forced to "lose muscle" after bulking up for the World Cup.
"I think he is a really good player -- he'll score a lot of goals and do well at Inter Milan," said Neville, who was speaking at an event to mark TalkTalk's new five-year partnership with Salford City FC.
"But the idea of a player being overweight for me is unforgivable. You can play badly, miss shots on goal, hit a bad cross or give goals away as they're mistakes in football but you can't be overweight.
"We were never overweight, not fit or not prepared. How can you be overweight!?
"There's no excuse. Romelu Lukaku has admitted himself that he was overweight so he has removed all doubt."
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Inter Milan have signed Romelu Lukaku from Manchester United for €80 million, bringing an end to their pursuit of the forward, which has lasted the majority of the summer.
Antonio Conte had targeted the Belgium international almost immediately after being appointed as Inter manager and, after a difficult negotiation, the two clubs were able to agree on a deal. Lukaku inked a contract that will keep him at the club until the summer of 2024.
"Inter were the only club I wanted, because Inter is Not For Everyone. I'm here to bring the Nerazzurri back to the top," Lukaku said in a release by the club.
Lukaku, 26, had appeared close to joining Juventus with the Bianconeri agreeing a swap deal which would have seen Paulo Dybala join United.
However, the deal failed to materialise as United pulled out of talks with Dybala due to concerns over the Argentina international's desire to move to Old Trafford.
Following the breakdown in negotiations, Lukaku trained with Anderlecht in Belgium, which led to a fine from United.
Lukaku was a target for Conte's Chelsea in 2017, but he joined United from Everton for an initial £75m rising to £90m instead.
He was the first-choice forward under Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford, but he lost his starting place to Marcus Rashford once the Portuguese manager was replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
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Dane van Niekerk, Lizelle Lee upstage Harmanpreet Kaur in big Stars win
Published in
Cricket
Thursday, 08 August 2019 09:52

Surrey Stars 124 for 2 (Lee 66) beat Lancashire Thunder 120 for 7 (Hamranpreet 58*, van Niekerk 3-20) by eight wickets
Surrey Stars continued their Kia Super League title defence with a second consecutive win, and a comprehensive one at that, restricting Lancashire Thunder to 120 for 7 before chasing down the runs with eight wickets and 34 balls to spare, yielding maximum bonus points.
Stars had lost Bryony Smith early in their chase, caught at long-off attempting to send Emma Lamb over the top, but Lizelle Lee and Sarah Taylor then dominated proceedings with a century partnership. Lee, whose 45-ball 66 was founded on some wonderfully clean hitting and included three sixes, was finally dismissed by Alex Hartley in the 13th over sweeping into the hands of Harmanpreet Kaur at deep square leg, but skipper Nat Sciver and Taylor then finished the job with ease.
Stars' win came in spite of a brilliant 44-ball half-century from Harmanpreet at the back end of the Thunder innings, the India captain finishing unbeaten on 58.
Thunder had been placed on the back foot from the outset, having been put in to bat by the Stars. Marizanne Kapp led the way with a deadly accurate four-over spell at the start of the innings, which went for just 14 and yielded the wicket of her South African team-mate Sune Luus with a beautiful ball that swung late to take out her off stump, leaving Thunder 7 for 1.
Georgie Boyce attempted to take up where she had left off in Thunder's first match, racking up a run-a-ball 12 which included successive boundaries off Sciver's first outing with the ball. However, when the opener fell in the fifth over to the offspin of Mady Villiers, caught at mid-off trying to drive over the top, the runs quickly dried up for Thunder - no boundaries coming off the bat between the third and the 14th overs.
By that stage Thunder were already four wickets down, having lost both Sophia Dunkley and Tahlia McGrath in quick succession - Dunkley trapped leg-before to Dane van Niekerk's legspin. Van Niekerk later struck again twice in the 17th to remove both Sophie Ecclestone and Ellie Threlkeld, finishing with 3 for 20 off her four overs as the Thunder sank to 75 for 7.
Harmanpreet - who had initially joined the fray in the seventh over - played an innings of two distinct halves: having taken 36 balls to reach 25, she finally freed her arms to take 33 off the last 11 balls she faced; but the effort came too late in the day to set Thunder back on course.
Stars will be hoping for another win when they face Southern Vipers in their next match at the Kia Oval on Monday while Thunder will be desperate to get points on the board in their encounter against Western Storm at Taunton on Saturday.
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Lower-order resistance leaves Australia pondering pace options
Published in
Cricket
Thursday, 08 August 2019 10:35

Australians 266 for 5 dec and 92 for 1 (Harris 62*) lead Worcestershire 201 for 9 dec (Milton 74, Morris 53*, Hazlewood 3-34) by 157 runs
During a pesky lower order stand between Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad that looked to have given England a significant advantage at the midpoint of the Edgbaston Ashes Test, a common refrain throughout was how the pace of Mitchell Starc and perhaps the bounce of Josh Hazlewood might have been handy to clean up the tail.
Certainly both have been known to do the trick at times in the past, but their chances of selection for the Lord's Test next week were not exactly aided by a day on which Worcestershire, having limped to 75 for 8 after a flurry of morning wickets, wriggled their way to 201 for 9 and gave their captain Joe Leach the pleasure of declaring the innings closed.
Starc and Hazlewood's chief frustraters were Worcestershire's second-string wicketkeeper Alex Milton and the right-arm seamer Charlie Morris, who played their shots with steadily increasing ferocity across a stand of 88 that was only ended by the part-time legbreaks of Marnus Labuschagne.
The union may have been ended somewhat earlier, only for Starc to have bowled a no-ball when he sent Morris' off stump cartwheeling out of the ground on 12, before he and Hazlewood were spelled for much of the latter part of the partnership. Starc was back on, however, for the subsequent partnership of 38 between Morris and the last man Adam Finch, concluding an analysis that read 11.5-2-29-1 for the day.
Hazlewood, with 3 for 34 from 15 overs for the innings and 1 for 32 from 11 for the day, took the best innings figures, though he too would have been somewhat nonplussed to have a diminishing impact as the innings went on. Michael Neser (2 for 32 from 12 overs) fulfilled the role he is on tour to perform as a back-up merchant for the frontline.
Whether that is enough to convince the selectors that Australia could do with Starc's speed or Hazlewood's trajectory at Lord's will be more or less up to the selection chairman Trevor Hohns and the captain Tim Paine, with the coach Justin Langer not venturing to Worcester and taking a brief sojourn in London between Tests - likewise Steven Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon.
The closure from Leach - who took some time to get the attention of Morris and Finch to actually do so - provided the Australians with the full final session in which to bat. Cameron Bancroft spent 40 halting balls over 7 before edging behind, but Marcus Harris was rather more fluent in gliding to 62 from 78 balls by stumps.
Mitchell Marsh was promoted to No. 3 to be given the chance for some time at the crease. In being beaten numerous times outside the off stump he showed himself still to be more of a lower-middle order player on a pitch that had, by the evidence of Worcestershire's tail, eased considerably on the seam it offered on day one.
What happens next in this match will be largely determined by the forecast for Worcester over the next 24 hours, with heavy overnight rain predicted, almost to the level of the storms that forced Australia A's earlier fixture here to be shifted to Kidderminster.
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Danger of revenue cut from ICC pushes BCCI to contact British law firm
Published in
Cricket
Thursday, 08 August 2019 10:57

The ICC is considering cutting into the annual revenue it will give to the BCCI as it continues to find ways to recoup the money it lost as a result of the tax paid during the 2016 World T20 held in India. The 10% tax paid by the ICC to Indian tax authorities has resulted in a revenue loss of $20-30 million. The minutes of a Committee of Administrators (CoA) meeting held on July 6 state that while these events were previously tax exempt, the Indian government's stance changed in 2016, which forced the BCCI to withhold 10% of the amount payable by the broadcaster, Star Sports, to the ICC.
Early last year it had emerged that India could be in danger of losing out on hosting the 2021 Champions Trophy (since replaced by the T20 World Cup) as well as the 2023 World Cup. The ICC management had been directed to seek alternative venues if the issue wasn't resolved.
"The Board agreed that ICC management, supported by the BCCI will continue the dialogue with the Indian Government but in the meantime directed ICC management to explore alternative host countries in a similar time zone for the ICC Champions Trophy 2021," the ICC had said in a release in February 2018.
The minutes of the CoA meeting held last month state that the BCCI "made all efforts" with the government to try and ensure a tax exemption but three years on, the tax authorities have not budged. In the last decade alone, the Indian government allowed tax exemptions for the 2006 Champions Trophy as well as the 2011 World Cup.
For the 2006 event, Ehsan Mani and the late Jagmohan Dalmiya, had directly negotiated an exemption with the Indian government. On the basis of that negotiation, the government had passed a legislation in the tax act which allowed international sporting events to be exempted. This applied as recently as 2017, when the FIFA Under-17 World Cup got a tax break for broadcast equipment imported by FIFA host broadcasters.
The BCCI will now seek the opinion of an English law firm about their legal options, since the 2016 event agreement between the board and the ICC was governed by English law.
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Southern Vipers hold nerve for two-wicket win after Danni Wyatt 40
Published in
Cricket
Thursday, 08 August 2019 12:41

Southern Vipers 136 for 8 (Wyatt 40) beat Loughborough Lightning 135 for 5 (Elwiss 37) by two wickets
Southern Vipers made it two wins from two in the Kia Super League after narrowly prevailing over Loughborough Lightning at the Haslegrave Ground.
Needing just 24 more with six wickets in hand in the 17th over, Vipers contrived to lose four wickets in the space of 16 deliveries as Lightning mounted a determined to deny them. But wicketkeeper Carla Rudd got them over the line by hitting offspiner Hayley Matthews for two on the leg side to complete a two-wicket win with just three balls to spare, chasing 136.
England's Dani Wyatt had earlier hit 40 off 33 balls with seven fours and West Indies star Stafanie Taylor 38 from 29.
Lightning, for whom skipper Georgia Elwiss top scored with 37, gave themselves a chance when England left-arm spinner Kirstie Gordon removed Suzie Bates and Tammy Beaumont in her first three deliveries after coming on in the eighth over with Vipers 48 without loss. But seven boundaries in the next three overs put Vipers back on track with 57 runs needed off the final nine overs.
Openers Hayley Matthews and Amy Jones had given the Lightning innings a solid platform after Elwiss had won the toss and opted to bat first.
With Jones in confident form after launching her KSL campaign with a half-century against Western Storm on Tuesday, and Matthews showing off her powerful hitting on the off side, the two put on 42 in the Powerplay overs before they were parted in the seventh over when Matthews was bowled behind her legs by Australian legspinner Amanda-Jade Wellington for 21.
Thereafter Lightning lost some momentum, Jones was bowled off a bottom edge by Paige Scholfield for 24 and five overs passed without a boundary.
Sri Lankan batsman Chamari Atapattu struggled to find gaps in the field and was leg before to Taylor's offspin for 9 and the innings did not pick up again until the final six overs, as Mignon du Preez - dropped twice - helped Elwiss put on 29 in four overs and some lusty hitting from Jenny Gunn saw the total swelled by 27 off the final 13 deliveries, Gunn pulling Taylor for six over wide long-on.
With a required run rate of 6.8, Vipers knew they had no need to force the pace and at 48 without loss after seven overs they were firmly on track.
Two wickets in her first three balls by Gordon after drawing a blank in the opening match then dealt the Vipers a setback. She broke the Wyatt-Suzie Bates opening partnership via a catch at deep midwicket to remove the New Zealander and then combined brilliantly with wicketkeeper Jones to have England's always-dangerous Beaumont out stumped without scoring.
But Wyatt and West Indies allrounder Taylor then added 31 in four overs to keep the scoreboard moving.
Atapattu had Wyatt well caught by Sarah Glenn and deep backward square and Glenn herself trapped Taylor leg before with her legspin.
Excellent ground fielding by Lucy Higham and Elwiss saw Thea Brookes and Scholfield run out as Vipers made things difficult for themselves towards the end before two more wickets fell in the penultimate over. But a six by Scholfield over long-on at the start of that over had swung the balance back in Vipers' favour and Wellington began the final over, with seven needed, by sweeping Matthews for four.
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