WHEATLAND, Mo. – Kris Jackson knows he will have that proverbial target on his back as the man to beat at this weekend’s B-Mod Clash of Champions II at Lucas Oil Speedway.

There might even be a good amount of boos from the grandstand when the announcers call his name. That’s simply part of the territory when you win as often as Jackson has the last couple of years.

“I know that they’re probably tired of the same old, same old,” Jackson said of his dominance, which includes 26 wins in 42 starts in 2019. Included are seven feature victories at Lucas Oil Speedway, where he won his fourth Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod track championship.

Lucas Oil Speedway’s biggest race for the B-Mods, a $3,000-to-win main event on Sunday, begins with two rounds of qualifying heat races on Saturday. The Clash of Champions II is a co-headliner with the Lucas Oil MLRA Fall Nationals, which has full shows Saturday and Sunday.

A big field of B-Mods is expected, but many eyes will be on Jackson, the Lebanon driver who’s also chasing a second straight USRA B-Mod national championship. Asked is he’s comfortable with having everyone else taking aim, Jackson said he has little choice.

“I don’t know if I enjoy it, but I’ve come to accept it,” Jackson said of the attention. “You have to understand people a lot of times will race you a little bit different or maybe even talk to you different sometimes. That’s part of it.

“I don’t know what else to do, so I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.”

Jackson called the B-Mod Clash of Champions II “one of the biggest ones we’ve wanted to win this year” because of the anticipated large car count, prize money and prestige. That’s especially true after last year, when he was set to start outside of row one in the inaugural B-Mod Clash of Champions before rain intervened.

Pole-starting Andy Bryant was awarded first-place money with Jackson settling for second prize. This time, while conditions are predicted to be cool, it’s supposed to be dry all weekend.

As for how the cool weather might affect the track, Jackson said it could go a couple of ways.

“We’ll have to play it by ear. Wheatland is always one of two ways: Really, really tacky or it’s really, really slick,” he said. “We’ve got stuff for either one. We just need to find out which one we’re on. We’re really not too worried about that.”

This weekend and other remaining USRA races are big for Jackson, who despite his glittering win total is only 41 points ahead of Springfield’s Ryan Gillmore in the USRA B-Mod national points race. Dan Hovden of Decorah, Iowa trails by 67.

“We’re just going to all the races we can and we’re trying to do the same thing we do every time,” Jackson said.

LINCOLN, Calif. – Rachel Jacobs was not a race fan. Despite living within earshot of Placerville Speedway, she did not have any interest in racing.

Yet it was through the races that Jacobs met Brad Sweet and they were eventually married.

Jacobs’ mom would try to get her to go to the races but to Jacobs, they were “too dirty and dust gets in our eyes and it’s loud,” so her mom and grandfather would go.

“In 2003 he (her grandfather) passed away and Jimmy Trulli did a memorial lap for him at Placerville,” she recalled. “My entire family was there and Brad’s family was sitting behind us.”

Jacobs and Sweet’s sister, Katelyn, became friends and three years later she and Brad started dating.

“At first I did not understand why people would like this stuff, you are getting dirty, mud in your hair, but when I met Brad I got to see a different side to it. Now I get it,” she said. “These people are so passionate no matter where you go. There is no being a casual fan, you either like it or you don’t.”

Brad Sweet had moved to Indiana for a season and upon his return, he started racing for Gary Perkins and Jacobs and Sweet soon began dating. But Sweet was not around very long as a Keith Kunz call saw him return to the Midwest to race a midget.

“All my friends at that time had boyfriends and they were all going to movies and other teenage things,” she remembered. “I told them I had a boyfriend but for a while my friends were like, yeah right, because he was never around. Brad would be gone much of the summer and then when winter arrived he was off to Australia.”

That was how their relationship was until the call from Kasey and Willie Kahne.  That led to Sweet moving to North Carolina, getting him even further away from home.

“The entire group was so welcoming. I knew from Brad’s reaction that this was his big break,” she said.

For a period of time Sweet was racing in NASCAR and driving sprint cars, but eventually he went the open wheel route.  Sweet and Jacobs bought a motorhome and traveled the circuit.

During this time Jacobs learned how, “Mentally and physically exhausting it is.  The drivers, crew, wives, and everyone involved don’t get the credit for what they do.  The Pittmans kind of took us under their wings and they were a huge blessing our three years on the road.”

Before the years on the road, Jacobs had graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in health information management.  She went from college to full time travel, which ended after buying a house in Placerville. They signed the papers for their eventual home while at the Knoxville Nationals in 2016.

Jacobs and Sweet got married in March of 2016 during the Outlaw swing through California so their friends could attend. The following year she stayed home to monitor the house being rebuilt and their daughter, Savannah, was born.

She has stayed home coming up on three years, but her husband flies home between weekends when there is not a midweek race.  Savannah’s first race was at Knoxville when Sweet won on a preliminary Knoxville Nationals feature. The 8 month old at that time also got to see Sweet’s championship win on Saturday.

“Brad is someone who works so hard and he is so focused so to see him win that it was like all his hard work paid off,” she said.

She has noticed that Sweet is recognized when among the public more than before, something that may be due to DIRTVision and other streaming services.  Sweet has younger fans than she has seen in the past, important because the lack of youth at races is a growing concern.

As Savannah gets older, mother and daughter may travel with Sweet more to lessen the time apart. This year has been better since there are fewer midweek races to keep Sweet from being able to fly home for a few days.

“I try not to get too nervous,” she said when asked how she handles Sweet’s racing endeavors. “I know Brad is in control and he is doing what he wants to do. Now Eldora, that’s a different animal. I learned this at Manzanita, do not sit on the front stretch. It shows you how fast they are going.

“I remember sitting next to Patty Haudenschild one night at Eldora and Jac and Sheldon were both racing. I asked her how she does it and she said that she trusts Sheldon’s ability and just watches Jac. I know that Tony Stewart has done all he can to make that place as safe as he can.”

She admits that being a wife of a World of Outlaws driver isn’t easy, but she respects the lifestyle her husband has chosen.

“You have to understand and appreciate the lifestyle,” she said. “If you can’t do that, it’s not made for you. They are doing their career and their passion. I tell Brad that he is so lucky he found something he is good at that he is passionate about that can be his career.”

It seems that Sweet is also lucky for having an understanding and supportive wife.

Carolina Hurricanes winger Jordan Martinook will undergo a core muscle surgery for the second time this year, general manager Don Waddell announced Thursday.

The latest procedure is set for Friday. Martinook is expected to miss six to eight weeks to recover.

He also underwent a procedure on a core muscle during the offseason.

Martinook, 26, has one assist this season during the Hurricanes' 4-0-0 start. He had a career-best 15 goals with five game winners last season but was in and out of the lineup during the playoffs due to injuries.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Tiger Woods is taking his course design work to the greens.

Woods and his business entity, TGR Ventures, have entered into a "strategic partnership" with PopStroke Entertainment Group that will see the 15-time major champion begin designing putting courses for the golf and entertainment company.

PopStroke currently has one location open in Port St. Lucie, Fla., with two other locations currently under development. The concept utilizes the food and drink options currently seen at full-range franchises like TopGolf and DriveShack and instead marries it with professionally-designed putting courses.

"Some of my happiest memories are spending time with my pops on the golf course having putting contests," Woods said in a release. "I'm looking forward to others enjoying time with their kids at PopStroke. This is a new way for individuals to experience the game of golf. It's about bringing people together."

According to the release, Woods and TGR Ventures will be responsible for designing the putting courses at all future locations. PopStroke also plans to release a technology enhancement that will allow scores to be electronically transmitted from the ball to a player's phone app and will facilitate competition "in a dynamic, social and tournament environment."

Suzann Pettersen is letting us all in on the deeper story of the putt she made to win the Solheim Cup for Europe almost a month ago.

She explains in a letter to her infant son, Herman, how that putt tied a bow on golf’s place in her life and how he changed her understanding of who she really is.

The letter was published Thursday on LPGA.com.

It all leads to this moment.

That’s the marketing slogan this last Solheim Cup was built around, and Pettersen explained how it so perfectly framed her finish, the 7-foot putt she made to seal the victory and her decision to immediately announce her retirement.

Pettersen, 38, scooped up Herman and embraced him during the European victory celebration on the 18^th green in Scotland.

“When I saw the ball disappear and the tens of thousands of fans surrounding the green roared, I realized, immediately, that the [Solheim Cup promotional] line I’d seen all week was a perfect summation of my career,” Pettersen wrote. “It all led to that moment. My family was all there. You won’t remember it, but I’m sure you will see it in replay for years to come.

“What you can’t see on video is the relief I felt. I knew in that instant that I would never have to ask myself ‘what if…?’ I would never have to wonder if I could make it back. I had answered all those questions. It was a fairytale ending, one I couldn’t have imagined.”

Pettersen details how complications early in her pregnancy prevented her from flying and forced her to remain in Norway until Herman was born. It ended her plans to play the LPGA while pregnant early in 2018, but it also marked the beginning of her transformation as a person, as Herman’s mother. She took all of 2018 off to prepare for Herman’s birth in August of that year and didn’t return to the tour until more than halfway into this season.

“For half-a-dozen years I was consistently ranked as one of the top-10 women golfers in the world, reaching as high as No. 2 on several occasions,” she wrote. “But that performance came at a cost. I didn’t realize it at the time, but tour life became so intertwined with my personal life that I sometimes could not tell them apart. My identity was linked to my job.”

Pettersen said she knew she might be done as a player the moment Herman was born.

“I’ve always heard people say that becoming a parent changes you, but I had assumed that change took weeks, or maybe even months or years,” Pettersen wrote to Herman. “That is wrong. It’s instantaneous. The moment you drew your first breath, I was a different person. Your father was there and as we held you, I asked myself, ‘Is there really any reason to go back to that other life? Is there anything left for me to accomplish in golf that would make it worth leaving you? Would winning another major make that much of a difference to my life or to yours? Would being part of another Solheim Cup make a difference?’ I had played competitively for so long and had been living in this ego bubble – a small, compact world where everything was centered around me and my game. Once that bubble burst, I wasn’t sure I wanted to inflate it again. I had no desire to test my heart, my patience, my love for you and your father to try it.”

Pettersen detailed how the faith European captain Catriona Matthew and fellow Euros showed in her led to another Solheim Cup.

“I don’t think most people realize the sacrifices moms make,” Pettersen wrote. “I don’t know how they do it. There are millions of working moms with kids at home. I don’t think they get enough credit for how they manage their lives.

“The [t]our moms certainly don’t get enough credit. I can’t imagine how the players on tour travel with their kids. Beanie [Matthew] did it with two children. So did Juli Inkster. Given what I’d experienced traveling with just one, I couldn’t imagine what their lives had been like. Sure, the Smucker’s LPGA Child Development Center that goes with the tour is fantastic, but that’s a very small part of being on the road with a child. I think we should sing the praises of working moms everywhere as loud and as often as possible.”

Pettersen concludes her letter this way:

“I hope this story helps you understand our family. I hope it helps you appreciate the discipline and determination it takes to reach goals. Work over time will always pay off. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions. I hope you find the passion in whatever you do that I found in golf – a love that dwelled deep in my heart. And I hope you see in this story, in my one incredible week at the Solheim Cup, that there is a time for everything in life.

“That Sunday was the time for me to step away from golf and be a wife and mother. I hope you can find the peace in your decisions that I have found in mine.”

ROME – Tapio Pulkkanen of Finland matched his career-best score on the European Tour with a 7-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead Thursday after the first round of the Italian Open.

Pulkkanen, who graduated from the European Challenge Tour last season, made seven birdies and didn't have any bogeys at the Olgiata Golf club.

''It's a very tough, demanding, long golf course, narrow,'' Pulkkanen said. ''You've got to hit some shots out there. I had a nice start, 3 under after five, and that gets me going. It was nice to make a couple more on the back nine.''

Rory Sabbatini, the South African-born player who began representing Slovakia this year, had an eagle on the par-5 17th and was in second place.

Five players – Kurt Kitayama, Joost Luiten, Shubhankar Sharma, Bernd Wiesberger and Justin Rose – were at 5 under.

With a $7 million purse as part of the Rolex Series, the tournament is making its return to Rome after a 17-year absence from the Italian capital.

The Rome return is part of the buildup to the 2022 Ryder Cup at the nearby Marco Simone club.

With a state title on the line, the heat was turned up during the Montana Class AA State Golf Championships on Tuesday.

In a figurative sense, certainly not literally. Quite the opposite, actually.

According to 406 MT Sports, on the back nine of the tournament, as players were fighting to take home a coveted state championship, things were made a little more difficult as snow began to fall. But that didn't phase those vying to ink their names into the record books.

Sophomore Justus Verge carded a second-round 73 to take medalist honors for the Bozeman Hawks, who also won its second straight team title. On the girls' side, Billings West senior Carrie Carpenter took the individual title while the girls' at Bozeman completed the team sweep for the Class AA championship, their fourth in a row.

Whether back-to-back or back-to-back-to-back-to-back, this one has to go down as the most memorable.

Good on them for playing through it. Carl Spackler certainly would be proud.

HUMBLE, Texas – A day after Cole Hammer declared that he had what it took to win the Houston Open as an amateur, the 20-year-old University of Texas standout proved Thursday those weren’t just empty words.

Hammer shrugged off an early double bogey to card eight birdies and shoot 5-under 67 in the first round at the Golf Club of Houston.

“That’s not a bad start in my book,” said Hammer, currently the world’s second-ranked amateur.

Even in a day and age where PGA Tour winners are getting younger and younger, few could argue.

Hammer, making just his second pro start and first since the 2015 U.S. Open, began on the back side of a course in which the Houston native has played many times. He parred his opening hole before rinsing his tee ball right at the par-4 11^th. He doubled the hole but bounced right back with a 5-foot birdie make at the par-4 12^th.

That’s when the putter got hot. He holed a 10-foot birdie at No. 16, followed by a 16-foot birdie make at No. 17. He then capped his back nine by draining a 25-foot birdie bomb, and two holes later he converted another long birdie, from 16 feet.

On a day when Hammer hit just six fairways, he needed just 25 putts. He totaled almost 119 feet on the greens and ranked second in strokes gained: putting when he finished play.

“I was a little bit nervous at the beginning of the round and then kind of settled down and was able to roll in some putts,” Hammer said. “It was a great start. Just what I wanted.”

After some time in the Golf Channel booth after his first round, Hammer was excited to head to Minute Maid Park to watch his Astros play in an American League Division Series elimination game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

“I’m praying for tonight,” Hammer said.

If the Astros win Thursday night, they’ll host the Yankees for Games 1 and 2 of the ALCS, to be played Saturday and Sunday. Hammer, though, isn’t just hoping he’ll provide a nice opening act for Houston sports fans over the weekend.

As he said before, he wants to win this thing.

Iran inflicted a record-breaking 14-0 thrashing on Cambodia on Thursday, making it a night to remember for female fans allowed into Azadi Stadium for a World Cup qualifying match for the first time since the Islamic Revolution.

Striker Karim Ansarifard scored four goals and Sardar Azmoun hit a hat trick as the Iranians handed Cambodia their heaviest-ever defeat.

The win came as 3,500 female fans were permitted to buy tickets for the match, the first time women have been allowed into the stadium in Tehran for a World Cup qualifier in more than four decades.

It took just five minutes for Ahmad Nourollahi to put Marc Wilmots' side in front when his shot from distance clipped the underside of Keo Soksela's crossbar before crossing the line.

Azmoun, who some media in Britain have dubbed "The Iranian Messi," slotted his first into the bottom corner six minutes later before Hossein Kanaani headed home Ramin Rezaeian's curling cross from the right with barely 18 minutes on the clock.

Mehdi Taremi made it 4-0 when his shot was deflected over Soksela and, with 10 minutes left in the half, Azmoun grabbed his second when he slotted in from close range after a handling error by the Cambodian goalkeeper.

Ansarifard scored his side's sixth five minutes before the interval after Cambodia had conceded an indirect free kick 7 yards from goal, and the home team took a seven-goal lead into the break when Azmoun struck from close range.

Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand kept out Keo Sokpheng's penalty soon after the interval for the hapless visitors, and two further goals from Ansarifard either side of Mehdi Taremi's effort gave Iran a 10-0 lead on the hour mark.

Mohammed Mohebi added two more before substitute Mehrdad Mohammadi put his strike into the corner. Ansarifard completed the rout two minutes from time.