ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. -- The Houston Astros want us to know that it was just one game.

"We lost one game. Not the end of the world," Houston outfielder George Springer said. "We have to come out tomorrow and play hard. Play a little better, see what happens."

He's right. It was just one MLB playoff game. The Astros lost 10-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday but still own a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five ALDS matchup. They play again on Tuesday, which wasn't exactly what the Astros wanted, but if they win, it's all good. They will head into the next round -- against the New York Yankees, it appears -- positioned to line up their Cy Young candidates for multiple outings.

Still, even for the most dominant of teams (and the Astros surely are one), if you're going to end up as the last team standing, you're going to have to pass a few tests. The Astros are facing their first. To pass it, they are going to ask Justin Verlander to do something he has never done before.

We know the setup for Game 3. After the Rays' offense was throttled by Houston co-aces Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole in the first two games, future Hall of Famer Zack Greinke was lined up to close it out. Pity, pity the poor, small-market Rays and their poor, small-market, domed ballpark that no one wants to go to.

Funny thing, though. Lots of people did want to go, and lots of them did. Tarps that had covered upper-deck seats all season were lifted, and human beings filled the folding chairs beneath. They were clad in whatever shades of marine blue the Rays wear and were waving yellow towels and doing the wave and just generally being very loud.

Greinke, the future Hall of Famer, the third of three Houston stud starters, only fueled the Florida furor.

"I thought that the crowd was outstanding," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "We saw what the Houston fans did for that club. Feel like ours just did it for ours."

At the outset, it looked like Games 1 and 2 redux. Jose Altuve took former teammate Charlie Morton deep, and the Rays' savior, whom everybody said they wanted on the mound, wriggled and twisted his way through his first two frames, needing 53 pitches to do it. He held his Astro buddies to Altuve's solo blast, but it looked like it might be a short afternoon.

Meanwhile, Greinke looked sharp while cruising through a three-up, three-down first, needing just nine pitches and striking out two. Up in the press box, you could sense national writers eyeing their travel apps: What flights are available from Houston to New York next week?

We should have known better. This is the postseason, and everything can bend on a dime, like a Bert Blyleven curveball.

With two outs in the second, Greinke hit Travis d'Arnaud with the pitch. There were two runners on base. Kevin Kiermaier stepped to the plate. On a Rays team for which attrition is a way of life, Kiermaier is something of a franchise stalwart -- the north star to guide the current generation of Rays fandom. He got the loudest cheers during pregame introductions.

Kiermaier waited out a Greinke changeup that floated middle-middle and launched it to right-center for a three-run homer. That snapped a stretch of 16⅓ scoreless innings for the Rays against the Houston starters to begin the series. It flipped a 1-0 deficit to a 3-1 lead. It raised the Trop volume level to 11. In short, it changed everything. Two more bombs off Greinke followed in the innings to come, then a fourth homer came off reliever Wade Miley. The dam had broken open.

"Even after my homer, you saw [Ji-Man Choi], Willy [Adames], Brandon Lowe, that's kind of how it's been the whole season," Kiermaier said. "We're a team where we can come back too. But when we get ahead early, that's when we're our most dangerous."

The Astros were never really part of the game after Kiermaier's blast. That was mostly because Greinke couldn't overcome his struggles, and Morton did. Morton went only five innings and 93 pitches, but the Rays were up 8-1, so there wasn't a great reason to push for a sixth frame. Now, if the series goes five games, you could easily see Morton return for a couple of innings in a possible Game 5.

As for Greinke, he was chased after giving up six runs and three homers and throwing just 3⅔ innings. It made his spotty postseason record even spottier: His career playoff ERA bloated to 4.58 in 12 outings.

"He didn't execute particular pitches," Astros manager AJ Hinch said. "Then when he didn't, they did incredible damage. So it wasn't like, other than [Avisail] Garcia and d'Arnaud, they didn't really get singles. They hit homers, and they did a good job of doing a ton of damage when they got a hit."

In what seemed like a minor subplot in this series, Hinch had been tight-lipped about his plans for a Game 4 starter. The two leading candidates seemed to be the veteran Miley, who started fast this season and then faded badly down the stretch, and hard-throwing rookie Jose Urquidy, who has been inconsistent but has shown the potential for dominance. Still, as the specter of a possible Game 4 became a concern, the chatter turned to Verlander.

Verlander has done it all before. Except this. He will be pitching on three days' rest, and you might think that has happened somewhere along the line, but it hasn't. Verlander threw on short rest during a 2011 ALDS series, but that was after his initial outing was snipped after one inning because of rain. In the 2017 ALDS against Boston, he started Game 1, had three days' rest, then threw 2⅔ innings of relief in Game 4. But he has never started a game on three days' rest after a full-blown start in his previous outing.

"I haven't [done it]," Verlander said. "Closest we came was out of the bullpen a couple years ago in Boston. The thought process is five-game series are pretty crazy, and we've got to win. Never know what can happen. You can't put all your eggs in one basket and say, 'If we lose tomorrow, we've got Justin and Gerrit in Game 5.' It's a crazy game.

"The last couple days, I've felt pretty good. AJ and I have been discussing it. He made the call."

The Astros have been understandably lauded as a near-perfect team after a season in which they won 107 games, outscored opponents by 280 runs and added Greinke, a former Cy Young winner still producing at an elite level, to be a midrotation starter. Sure, the back of the rotation looked thin after a season-ending injury to Aaron Sanchez and Miley's struggles, but that was a minor concern if Houston's trio of aces aced their way through October. Verlander and Cole did, at least in their initial appearances. Greinke did not.

When asked what he might have done differently during his outing, Greinke told reporters, "Yeah, not throw changeups down the middle."

Greinke's say-nothing act has its charms, but it would be nice to for him to let us all see that he cares. Because we know he does -- his teammates of the years have always communicated that much about him. But in any event, it was a day when Houston fans had to be asking, what if? What if the team had been a little more aggressive in trying to re-up with Morton last winter? What if trading for the more expensive Greinke had never been necessary?

It is not that simple, obviously. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow flat-out stated that he wanted to keep Morton. Everyone in Houston loves him ... still. But Morton has a home in Bradenton, Florida, and he wanted to be closer to home in a good baseball situation. Maybe if the Astros had topped the Rays' offer it could have been different, but we'll never know. It was the happy kind of baseball scenario in which multiple parties were acting from a respective unfettered position of free will. Morton, for his part, has already become a franchise face for the Rays, a team for which he has played only one season, and he believes in his new squad.

"The numbers speak for themselves," Morton said. "You'd be hard-pressed to not argue that we're the top-three staff in all of baseball, top to bottom. It's just, we're a great pitching staff, and we're pretty flexible too. These series we have -- five-game series, seven-game series -- I think we're well built to adjust, given any scenario."

Greinke is a great pitcher and will continue to be a great pitcher. His 2019 season, compared to that of Morton, was largely about the same. But the Astros have Greinke's postseason problems to stew over now. And we know that Morton does not carry that stigma. He closed out the Astros' 2017 World Series. He won his fourth career elimination game on Monday, tying the record that Verlander shares and can break in Game 4. Morton is a big-game pitcher, a proven one, and the comfort the Rays felt having him on the mound in Game 3 could have been the Astros' sense of security instead.

This is the worst kind of hindsight. Greinke's dud might have landed Verlander in an unfamiliar place, but he's Justin Verlander. He must conquer a new frontier, but who can doubt that he will conquer it? And if the Rays steal another game, there's still the matter of beating a rested Gerrit Cole in Game 5.

The Astros are facing their first test of what they hope will be a championship run on Tuesday. But it's a two-parter. The first part is dispatching a young, talented Rays team that just got a huge adrenaline shot to its confidence. The second can't be answered until the next round. That's when Greinke will start again, likely against the Yankees, and he will be graded on whether or not the Astros win his outing.

"Charlie showed all of the Astros what he can do, and I think there's no surprise," Verlander said of his former rotation mate. "He's been tremendous in some games when it's all on the line, and so I don't think anybody was surprised that he came out with great stuff today and picked those guys up."

On Tuesday, it'll be Verlander's turn to do the same -- for the Astros. If he does, then we move to the ALCS, and the baton passes to Cole, then back to Verlander. After that, then and only then, when Greinke takes the mound, will we learn if the Astros can pass a test for which there are only two outcomes: pass and fail.

A hop, a burst of pace, a hint of a dummy, a step inside, another jag, a 40-metre canter under the posts - the ball clutched in one hand and four would-be tacklers choking on fumes having got nowhere near it.

Joe Cokanasiga has scored tries in front of capacity Twickenham crowds. He scored another two in England's 45-7 World Cup win over the United States in Kobe.

He has 12 back home in the Premiership.

But the score that still defines him most came as a teenager on a chilly October afternoon in front of a single stand and a just couple of thousand people.

Topsy Ojo had a front-row seat. The wing had been left out of the London Irish XV to give Cokanasiga his Championship debut against London Scottish in 2016.

"The reaction on the bench was shock and awe," he tells BBC Sport, remembering Cokanasiga's stunning solo effort.

"The position that he got the ball in initially - inside his 22m - you would conventionally think he should clear it, but that is not really in his mentality.

"His skillset is to run and beat people. He just took off and 10 seconds later he was under the sticks

"I remember we all looked at each other, jaws open, like 'wow, that was special'."

Video of the try spread quickly online. Only the most attentive viewers would spot the little finger-point salute that Cokanasiga makes to the crowd as he goes over though.

"I'm claiming that!" says Phil Cokanasiga, Joe's younger brother, London Irish prospect and England Under-18 international. "I was stood next to the camera, but I know he was pointing at me."

For much of his life Phil had seen Joe, three years his senior, tearing up pitches and opposition defences.

"I remember roughly 2008 or 2009, when I was seven or eight, we were playing for our school in Germany in a tag rugby tournament," Phil remembers.

"We were both playing a year up and I went over to watch him after I had finished my game. He was all speed, he couldn't run over people obviously, and he was pretty good even then."

Germany was just one stop in the pair's globe-trotting childhood. Their next was Brunei, the tiny oil-rich state perched on the island of Borneo in the South China Sea, as they followed their father Ilaitia's deployments as part of the British Army's Royal Logistic Corps.

It was there Joe started to turn his concentration from football - where he was a commanding centre-back - to rugby.

Stronger, bigger and faster than his teenage peers, he was fast-tracked from Brunei's schoolboy rugby to the adult game, playing alongside his father for club side Bandar Blacks.

Brunei's teenagers may have been spared the sight of Joe thundering at them with ball in hand, but Phil was not.

The pair would play rugby together in the garden, recreating the Super Rugby moments that they would see on satellite television.

Phil would mimic the Waratahs' Israel Folau. Joe preferred the Hurricanes' Julian Savea. The only glimpses the pair would get of English rugby in Brunei were viral clips of big hits and fisticuffs. The pair were grimly fascinated by Manu Tuilagi and Chris Ashton's memorable punch-up in May 2011.

Four years later and it was a 17-year-old Joe Cokanasiga, back in England and signed up to the London Irish academy, rather than Tuilagi or Ashton, making an appearance at the 2015 World Cup, albeit in a low-profile cameo.

Cokanasiga was part of a Fijian dance troupe who performed on the pitch before Stuart Lancaster's side's opener against the Islanders, posing for photographs with fans who were unaware that a future England star was in their midst.

Joe may have left Fiji as a three-year-old, but Ilaitia makes sure both his sons remember that heritage.

"Dad always reminds Joe that when he represents England, he is also a Fijian and not to forget his roots," says Phil.

"He told us to back ourselves because we are very different to most players.

"A big thing was confidence and to always think that - I know that it sounds big-headed - we are the best on the field, because it brings out the best in us."

Touchline fathers always tend to think their sons are the best.

It is something when the players who had to compete against that same offspring for a starting spot agree.

Ojo has played almost 200 top-flight games as well as lining up opposite All Black hot-stepper Sitiveni Sivivatu in one of his two England appearances.

Can he remember playing with or against anyone like Cokanasiga?

"I played against Alessana Tuilagi a lot. He was a big physical carrier, but he would likely run straight at you," Ojo said.

"Then there are guys like Sinoti Sinoti who have a vicious step, but not that offload threat - whereas Joe offloads like Leone Nakarawa.

"That was the thing that stood out of me when I first saw him. He could carry the ball so easily in one hand - that was not something that you would teach to kids and it gave him an extra threat.

"You can't go low because he will just offload. if you go high, it is really difficult to get near the ball. It is a very different threat from that which you usually face.

"Growing up outside the system helped him, gave him the ability to do something different. I can't think of anyone who has all those threats in one package."

With Jonny May and Anthony Watson established as first-choice options and Jack Nowell available once more to head coach Eddie Jones, Cokanasiga's opportunities may be limited at this World Cup.

But if England are up against it and need a game-breaker, he could dance on the World Cup stage once more.

England's final World Cup group match against France and Formula 1 qualifying could both be affected by the powerful typhoon that is due to hit Japan on Saturday after it changed course.

BBC weather presenter Simon King says Typhoon Hagibis is now expected to hit further north, on the island of Honshu.

Ireland's game with Samoa on Saturday in Fukuoka on the southern island of Kyushu is expected to be spared.

But Scotland v Japan in Yokohoma and the F1 race on Sunday could be hit.

Honshu, Japan's main island, is home to both Yokohoma and the Suzuka F1 circuit.

On Monday the forecast had predicted the typhoon would hit Kyushu.

World Rugby insists it has a "robust contingency plan in place" should the adverse weather impact tournament fixtures.

However, any games cancelled at the World Cup because of the weather are registered as scoreless draws.

Scotland need to beat Japan to stand any chance of reaching the last eight, while a victory sends Ireland into the last eight.

England are already through to the quarter-finals and will top the group with victory over France.

Analysis

BBC Weather Simon King

With October being in the typhoon season in Japan, the forecast for a typhoon to hit the island this weekend won't come as a great surprise. However, with the eyes of the world currently on Japan with thousands of tourists travelling around the country for the rugby World Cup and the Japanese Grand Prix, the thought of an incoming typhoon maybe rather worrying.

On Monday, typhoon Hagibis underwent rapid intensification - one of the quickest in the record book - to become a violent Typhoon, equivalent of a category 5 hurricane. It is one of the most powerful tropical cyclones this year joining the likes of hurricane Dorian and Lorenzo.

It's a huge storm covering hundreds of kilometres away from its centre with sustained wind speeds on Tuesday morning of 120mph and gusts up to 170mph. Over the coming days Hagibis will start to weaken but according to the Joint Typhoon Warning centre its predicted track is north towards the south coast of Japan. While the forecast track can still change, the Japanese Meteorological Service expect Hagibis to be categorized as a 'very strong' typhoon at landfall in Honshu on Saturday.

The impacts of Hagibis will be felt over a large area of Japan with strong winds and flooding rain expected. There's an increasing likelihood of some damage and certainly travel disruption as authorities prepare for the arrival of the typhoon.

LAS VEGAS – A celebration honoring off-road racing legend Rod Hall will serve as the kickoff to the annual SEMA Show on Nov. 4 inside the Westgate Hotel at the Westgate Paradise Event Center.

Hall began competing in off-road racing in the early 1950’s when organized off-road competition was just beginning. In 1967 he won the inaugural NORRA Mexican 1,000 Rally (the race now known as the SCORE International Baja 1,000) and competed in every Baja 1,000 throughout the race’s first 50 years – all in a four-wheeled vehicle.

Known as the “Everyman’s Hero,” Hall remains the only driver to win Baja overall in a four-wheel-drive vehicle. He accumulated more than 160 major event wins and more than a dozen SCORE/HDRA & Best in the Desert championships.

The event, which will be open to the public, will allow race fans to meet the Hall family, who have continue Hall’s legacy of off-road racing through three generations.

The celebration will include some of the most iconic vehicles Hall raced, including the legendary Bronco that won the 1967 Baja 1,000 overall, as well as an unparalleled collection of off-road racing paraphernalia.

Guests scheduled to appear include Sal Fish, Mint 400 CEO Matt Martelli, Parnelli Jones and more.

The event will run from 7 to 10 p.m. inside the Westgate Hotel at the Westgate Paradise Event Center. Hors d’oeuvres and drinks will be served. Click here for more information.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The latest chapter in the history of Ford Racing – a gripping true story of triumph more than a century in the making – will be completed at Motul Petit Le Mans on Oct. 12.

That’s when the iconic and inspiring Ford GT will make its final appearance as a factory-backed entrant in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The current iteration of the Ford GT has left its imprint in this four-year run, competing in both the WeatherTech Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship with two-car operations in each series operated by Chip Ganassi Racing.

With the IMSA season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta ahead, the Ford GT program has been deemed a success. Combining the efforts in IMSA and WEC, the car has compiled 19 race wins, 22 pole positions and driven nearly 280,000 miles (equivalent to nearly 11 trips around the world).

Fourteen of those victories have come in WeatherTech Championship GT Le Mans events, but it was the highly coveted 2016 class triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by IMSA drivers Joey Hand, Dirk Mueller and Sebastien Bourdais – coming 50 years after the historic win by a Ford GT in the world-famous endurance race – that remains a beacon of the present-day program.

Mark Rushbrook, the global director at Ford Performance Motorsports, said it was clear from when the program was announced in late 2013, that capturing Le Mans on the golden anniversary of the first win was the top priority. Mission accomplished … and then some.

“As one single event, it is because that was the goal, to win Le Mans in 2016,” Rushbrook said. “The fact that we did is a very significant piece of the program. But it wasn’t just that one race and that one win, as significant as that was. The fact that the car and the teams were so competitive throughout the four years … I think that shows that it was a very effective and significant program in total, not just in one race.”

Hand, Mueller and Bourdais followed the epic 2016 Le Mans win by taking home GTLM honors the following year at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. It was the first of five WeatherTech Championship victories for the No. 66 Ford GT, including the most recent race on Sept. 15 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

“It’s been a great four years and I’m sad that it’s ending,” Mueller said. “Joey and I are super close and are mates, which is probably not really unique in this level of racing, but I remember my very first test in 2015. As soon as I touched ground and got out of the rental car, I felt like I’d been with the team forever. That’s a unique feeling, what you normally probably don’t get.

“There are no big egos. Everyone is as important as the next person. Everyone is working hand in hand for that one goal, winning races.”

The sister No. 67 Ford GT – with full-time co-drivers Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook along with IndyCar champion Scott Dixon for the endurance events – has had the most success with eight class wins, including the first victory anywhere in the world for a Ford GT at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 2016 and the Rolex 24 in 2018. Briscoe is well aware of the program’s significance.

“A good part of the program has just been being part of the program from day one until the end,” Briscoe said. “It’s such a historic program with such heavy involvement with everyone at Ford. It’s just been so much fun rewriting history and comparing what we were doing to the 1960s. It’s been a really special time of our racing careers. I’ve been proud of all of us having a leading role of what we did the last four years.”

The legacy of Ford’s racing exploits dates to company founder Henry Ford, who was determined to prove the capabilities of his cars by beating other fledgling manufacturers at the beginning of the 20th century. It was his son, Henry Ford II, who pushed Ford Motor Co. to enter and win at Le Mans in 1966. Edsel Ford, the son of Henry Ford II, was behind the decision to launch the present Ford GT in competition.

According to Mike Hull, managing director at Chip Ganassi Racing, that continuing desire to race and win within the Ford family inspires everyone involved in the program to push harder to achieve those results.

“The Ford family themselves are still very directly involved in Ford Motor Co.,” Hull said. “They have their lineage on their sleeve in terms of what’s important to them and the performance of their product. That goes back to Henry Ford having his springboard of winning that race years ago. That really started the company and I think they still hold that very, very close to their hearts.

“That makes for a terrific bond that goes well past the definition of partnership.”

Rushbrook emphasized the strength of the partnership as well that, in addition to Chip Ganassi Racing, includes chassis designer Multimatic, Roush Yates engines and Michelin tires. He’d love nothing more than to end this latest chapter of Ford Racing history with one last win in the Motul Petit Le Mans – an event that has eluded the Ford GT the past three years.

“That would be fantastic,” Rushbrook said of a season- and program-ending win. “All of these races now as close as the cars are, it takes flawless execution, great car, great drivers, great team sitting on the pit box. The team hasn’t let up; it’s not like they think the program is over. They know that the mission is to go win this race.”

LONG BEACH, Calif. – DENSO Products and Services Americas Inc., an affiliate of DENSO Corp., and NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Matt Smith are wrapping Smith’s bike in pink this month to raise awareness about breast cancer.

The partners will debut the new wrap Oct. 11-13 at the NTK NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.

“I’m really looking forward to this wrap on our DENSO Auto Parts EBR for Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” Smith said. “This cause hits close to home for our team because my longtime racing partner Mark Stockseth’s wife Marshallhas battled breast cancer twice. She’s a fighter, and this new design represents and honors her strength.”

Smith’s motorcycle will continue to sport the sleek pink and black wrap throughout the month of October. Other weekend races coinciding with Breast Cancer Awareness Month are the Oct. 17-20 AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals and the Oct. 31-Nov. 3 Dodge NHRA Nationals Presented by Pennzoil in Las Vegas.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an annual international campaign to educate people about the disease and raise money for research, prevention and treatment leading to a cure. In the U.S. alone, one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.

DENSO is the primary sponsor of Matt Smith and his wife and teammate, Angie Smith, for the 2019 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

The continued youth takeover of the NHL shows no signs of slowing. Each season brings a new crop of high-end rookies who take the league up a notch, and several of these young talents could be considered among the best players in the game, regardless of age.

Every single year, this list of the top 25 players under the age of 25 becomes more difficult to compile, as I attempt to combine the subjective and the objective. This year, I made a short list that included 43 of the top players 24 and younger in the NHL before narrowing it to 25 names, using points per game, relative Corsi percentage, average time on ice and a host of other measures when I thought the margins were especially thin between players. Current body of work is the biggest factor in the decision process, but I also looked a bit at expectations and projections.

Notes: All players must be 24 years old or younger as of Jan. 1, 2020. Players with Calder Trophy eligibility, such as Cale Makar or Jack Hughes, are not eligible to be included on the list. There isn't enough of a body of work. Statistics referenced in this article are from Hockey Reference unless otherwise noted.

1. Connor McDavid, C, Edmonton Oilers

Age: 22 | Last year: 1

It isn't exactly a hard sell on this front. McDavid has grown into the game's best and most productive player. He is a singular talent with a mix of speed and skill, and his 1.30 career points-per-game average already puts him among the all-time greats of the game.

2. Nathan MacKinnon, C, Colorado Avalanche

Age: 24 | Last year: 4

It's amazing to compare where MacKinnon was just three years ago to where he is now. He was essentially a midrange guy. Over the past two seasons, however, he has become a legitimate threat to win the Hart Trophy. It isn't a coincidence that MacKinnon's surge coincides with his being paired with Mikko Rantanen, but based on MacKinnon's explosiveness, his hands and his tenacity in all areas of the ice, he's taking his rightful place among the league's elites.

3. Auston Matthews, C, Toronto Maple Leafs

Age: 22 | Last year: 2

Each week on GolfChannel.com, we’ll examine which players’ stocks and trends are rising and falling in the world of golf.

RISING

Kevin Na (+8%): A week after Cam Champ bombed his way to victory, Na won in entirely different fashion – rolling in a Tour-record amount of putts to deny the sixth-ranked player in the world and capture his third title in his past 30 starts. Playing the best golf of his life, who in the sport is grittier than Na?

Jon Rahm (+6%): Rahm has proven that he can beat up on the lesser-weights, as he did again in his home open in Spain, but he’ll have to wait until 2020 to show that he’s ready to take the final leap toward greatness.

Cheyenne Knight (+5%): It’s too early to call Knight the next American star – she didn’t have a top-25 prior to last week – but her breakthrough victory sure was timely. Instead of heading back to Q-School with her confidence shaken, she now has job security and the unassailable belief that she can hang with the world’s best.

The Players (+2%): The Tour’s showcase event might not yet be a major, but at least in 2020 it’ll be treated like one – the tournament will offer live streaming of all 144 players in the field, just like the Masters.

Stephanie Meadow (+1%): Knight wasn’t the only former Alabama All-American to shine on Sunday. Meadow drained a 25-footer on the 72^nd hole to finish in a tie for sixth – and, more importantly, slide inside the top 100 on the money list to keep her card for next year. Clutch.

FALLING

Defending champs (-1%): The Houston Open took a year off, and moved from the spring to the fall, but 2018 winner Ian Poulter won’t be in Texas to defend his title. He’ll tee it up this week in Italy, in a lucrative Rolex Series event, against stronger competition and with European Ryder Cup points at stake.

Knees (-2%): Fortunately they’ve all avoided major injury, but Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose and now Brooks Koepka all have been plagued by a bad wheel this year, perhaps an indictment of their grueling workouts that maximize their speed and power. Do these guys play golf or running back?

Bryson (-3%): Heading into a fall break, DeChambeau revealed his plans to get “bigger” and “way stronger” – which is curious, seeing how he’s already a very large, well-sculpted human. Players have wrecked their careers chasing distance, so hopefully the Mad Scientist isn’t another casualty.

Captaincy choices (-4%): Na’s ascendance (he’s the only eligible U.S. player with multiple wins in 2019) complicates matters for Captain Woods, who now faces the prospect of leaving off the American roster a U.S. Open champ, a consistent contender, a popular figure in the team room and maybe even himself. It’s unavoidable: Someone’s feelings are going to get hurt.

DQ rules (-5%): Poor Mind Muangkhumsakul, whose career was nearly derailed because she thought the pro-am for the Symetra Tour Championship was at 9 a.m., not 8 a.m. She was disqualified from the event, per tour regulations, and barely held on to her LPGA card for next year. That this rule has not been amended – how about a significant fine, or a mandatory sponsor outing instead? – defies all logic.