VIRGINIA WATER, England – Most agree that Padraig Harrington will be an unpredictable Ryder Cup captain next year for Europe, but on Wednesday he adhered to the status quo.

Harrington named Robert Karlsson his first vice captain following the Swede’s stint as an assistant for Thomas Bjorn last year in Paris.

“Anybody who was involved in 2018 in the backroom staff would see this as a no-brainer pick,” Harrington said. “He's very logical, very straight. Doesn't let the emotions, he's playing to the stereotype to be honest. He doesn't let the emotions get involved. A brilliant vice captain.”

Karlsson played in the Ryder Cup twice in 2006 and ’08 and was partnered with Harrington at Valhalla in foursomes.

Harrington said he plans to name five vice captains, which is the maximum allowed under the captain’s agreement, and said he has a pretty good idea who he will pick.

“It wouldn't take a genius to start picking out who would be the vice captains,” he said.

VIRGINIA WATER, England – Rory McIlroy had been on the fence regarding his European Tour membership this year and it was a conversation with his wife, Erica, that changed his mind.

“I think she sort of said to me, what are you trying to do, or what sort of point are you trying to make?” McIlroy said on Wednesday at the BMW PGA Championship, the European Tour’s flagship event.

But if Erica McIlroy set the Northern Irishman back down a path to tour membership it was the circuit’s chief executive Keith Pelley that secured his status.

“The rule was that you have to play an extra two events if you don't play your home open,” said McIlroy, who skipped this year’s Irish Open because of scheduling issues. “Pelley and I sat down and I said, ‘Keith, I can't possibly do that.’”

McIlroy said Pelley countered with a proposal that would allow the 30-year-old to play three of the circuit’s Rolex Series events instead. “I said, ‘Done, 100 percent done.’ Once we had that conversation, it was totally fine,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy played the Scottish Open and this week’s BMW PGA Championship, which are both Rolex Series events, and plans to play the season finale in Dubai in November. He also has stops scheduled this season at next week’s Dunhill Links Championship and the new Zozo Championship along with the WGC-HSBC Champions before taking an extended break in December and January to prepare for 2020.

Relative to where he stood a year ago, as a fresh-faced PGA Tour rookie looking to break through on the biggest stage, Cameron Champ doesn't have any regret about his newfound standing on Tour.

"I mean, I think as a rookie season, if you would have told me I would have won and made it to the BMW (Championship), I think I would have took it and signed the paper then," Champ told reporters this week at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Champ is back to defend the title he won in impressive fashion last year at the Country Club of Jackson (Miss.), where a four-shot win signaled the long-hitting prospect as the next game-changer on Tour. He followed with a T-10 finish at Mayakoba and a sixth-place showing at the RSM Classic later in the fall, heading into the holiday break near the top of the season-long points race.

But things didn't exactly progress as expected for Champ once the calendar flipped to 2019, with a T-11 finish at the 35-man Sentry Tournament of Champions serving as his lone top-20 result. There was a back injury that led him to withdraw from The Players in March, which was sandwiched in between a run of four straight missed cuts. A T-54 finish at the PGA Championship in May was the first time he played a weekend in more than three months, and after sitting one shot off the lead through 36 holes of the Rocket Mortgage Classic he faded to a T-46 result over the weekend.

In hindsight, the whirlwind of promotion and success took a toll on the 24-year-old who was still finding his footing.

"Obviously being in featured pairings, it all led to other things," Champ said. "At first I didn't feel like it affected me, but on the inside I think it did. I had expectations, kind of putting extra pressure, kind of worrying about things I wasn't worrying about at all last year and in the beginning of the fall."

Champ is making his first start of the new season this week, but after experiencing unexpected highs along with unexpected lows during his debut campaign, he's eager to turn last season into a learning experience that brought with it lessons in maturity.

"For me, I'm kind of happy it happened now," Champ said. "It's something I've really sat back and looked at, what I did for those two months (around the injury), whether that's practicing, how I showed up to the course, if I showed up on time, what I was eating, if it affected my mood. There's a lot of things that go into it."

Wake Forest freshman Rachel Kuehn failed to qualify for the Demon Deacons’ season opener last week at the Cougar Classic. But she earned her way into the lineup for the team’s second event, the Annika Intercollegiate – and she won.

The Asheville, N.C., native shot 3-under 69 Wednesday to put the finishing touches on a wire-to-wire, five-shot victory at Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo, Minn. Kuehn finished the 54-hole event, which featured six of last year’s NCAA quarterfinalists, at a program-freshman-record 13 under to lead Wake, last year’s national runner-up, to the team title.

Kuehn is the first player in school history to win in her first start, and she also joined her mother, former Wake All-American Corrie Kuehn, as the Demon Deacons’ first mother-daughter winning duo.

“This victory was an unbelievable finish with such a strong field,” Wake coach Kim Lewellen said. “The conditions were tough, and these young ladies played outstanding. It's an incredible feeling as a coach to know that every one of your players is capable of winning an individual title, and they can come together as a unit to win as a team. This is a special group.”

The Demon Deacons, who lost All-American Jennifer Kupcho to graduation, shot 5 under in the final round to finish at 17 under, 14 shots better than runner-up Arkansas, which also had its best player from a season ago, two-time Annika Award winner Maria Fassi, graduate.

Wake placed two other players in the top 10 behind Kuehn, No. 575 in the WAGR. Siyun Liu finished solo fifth at 4 under while another freshman, Lauren Walsh, tied for fifth at 3 under. The Demon Deacons’ only returning first-team All-America, Emilia Migliaccio, shared 19^th to follow her third-place showing at the Cougar, where Wake placed second as a team. Walsh tied for seventh in that event and now has two top 10s this season.

The Razorbacks, who returned just one player from last year’s team that made NCAA match play, were led by freshman Kajal Mistry from South Africa. Mistry was solo fourth at 5 under, two shots back of third-place Kaitlyn Papp of Texas and three behind runner-up Vivian Hou of Arizona.

Texas (2 under) placed third as the only other team under par while Arizona State (1 over) and USC (2 over) rounded out the top 5. The Trojans, who dropped three spots on the leaderboard Wednesday, were led by Aiko Leong (T-6), a senior who transferred from BYU before her junior year and posted a 77.07 scoring average in just 14 rounds last season.

Reigning NCAA champion Duke finished ninth out of 12 teams. Three players, including first-team All-American Jaravee Boonchant, finished outside the top 40 for the Blue Devils.

Hector Herrera headed home a late equaliser as Atletico Madrid drew 2-2 with Juventus in Champions League Group D at the Wanda Metropolitano on Wednesday night.

The match pitted Juve's Cristiano Ronaldo against his countryman and heir apparent for Portugal in Atleti's Joao Felix, with the latter forcing two saves from Wojciech Szczesny in the opening minutes.

Ronaldo tested Jan Oblak late in the first half, but otherwise chances were hard to come by and the teams went into half-time locked in a goalless draw.

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However, the visitors would be in front minutes after the restart when Juan Cuadrado finished off a high-speed counter-attack with an unstoppable left-footed shot to the upper corner to make it 1-0.

Blaise Matuidi doubled Juventus' lead on 65 minutes, rising up to power home a header from Alex Sandro's cross, but Atleti hit right back when Stefan Savic beat his defender to the back post and nodded into an empty net to make it 2-1.

Juventus looked set to pick up all three points, but Herrera's acrobatic header from a Kieran Trippier corner drew Atleti level just before second-half stoppage time to steal a late point at home and spark jubilant scenes in the stands and around the home dugout.

"It's clear we understood that this was his moment and he's taken advantage of it in the best way," Atletico manager Diego Simeone said of Herrera. "Aside from the goal, he showed personality, showed he's a man. When Hector controlled the ball there was tranquility, peace in his game ... Hopefully he manages to show continuity in his work because we obviously need everyone and internal competition is very good for us."

Herrera, who joined Atleti from Porto in the offseason, told ESPN: "I think you have to be patient and work to the maximum to be prepared when the opportunity arrives. That's what I've done in these weeks: work, support, even though I'm not playing and contributing to the group. The base of everything is work. I think that we should be professional and work in silence and be ready when the opportunity arrives."

"A draw isn't bad at all given the team we were up against and we were better than them in many moments of the game. I'm so happy to have made my debut and to help the team."

On the other side of the pitch, Juve defender Leonardo Bonucci did not hide his displeasure in conceding twice with a two-goal lead to let the three points slip.

"It's a real shame to concede two goals from set plays. We had a great performance, but we've got to be more focused, because this has happened too many times now," Bonucci told reporters.

"Everyone has to be more concentrated. A side like ours cannot keep conceding this many goals from set plays."

Juventus will next play Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League in Turin on Oct. 1, while Atleti are away to Lokomotiv Moscow.

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has said he is "excited" about Red Bull Salzburg striker Erling Braut Haaland following his Champions League heroics.

Haaland, 19, has enjoyed an incredible start to the season and his hat trick in Salzburg's 6-2 win over Genk in the Champions League on Tuesday made it 17 goals in nine appearances so far.

The youngster became the first teenager to score a hat trick on their Champions League debut since Wayne Rooney's for United against Fenerbahce in 2004.

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Solskjaer, who managed Haaland during his second spell as Molde manager, said: "It's great watching him. Everyone in Norway is excited about his development."

United have a teenage star-in-the-making of their own, with 17-year-old Mason Greenwood set to start against Astana in the Europa League on Thursday.

"Mason is one of the best finishers I've seen, and I've played with quite few decent ones. Just work hard. There are so many years ahead of you. The next game is always the most important one. He needs game time," Solskjaer said.

"I remember a kid who just wanted to play with his mates in under-18s. Now he is knocking on my door. His appetite for football must be growing.

"He is better than me now. I don't have the accuracy any more. He is one of the best finishers I have seen."

Solskjaer, who will be missing Daniel James on Thursday after a knock picked up in last Saturday's 1-0 win over Leicester, is already without Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw.

"It's a chance for some other players to get some minutes. We have a game every three or four days now so we'll see the use of the squad tomorrow," he said.

"It's not just about enjoying yourself, it's about getting results. But if you don't throw them in, you don't know what you've got.

"In the Europa League you meet different types of teams and cultures. It's important we win our home games, especially with two of our away games on astroturf.

"I think all the boys watched the Premier League games, the top games, watch other teams win trophies. I think they will want to get there [Champions League], and we want to get there. The Europa League is a pathway to get there."

The future of Zlatan Ibrahimovic at LA Galaxy will be decided at the end of the season, with no talks scheduled before then, the club's GM Dennis te Kloese told ESPN Deportes.

Ibrahimovic has a club-record 26 goals in 25 games this season for the Galaxy, who are looking to clinch a playoff spot as the regular season comes to an end, and any talk of extending the Sweden legend's time in MLS will have to wait until the season is concluded.

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"We've agreed that after the season we will evaluate and look calmly at his personal situation and that of the team," said Te Kloese in Spanish.

Ibrahimovic netted a hat trick last weekend as the Galaxy thrashed Sporting Kansas City 7-2 and said afterwards that he is the best player in MLS history.

"Zlatan is a very special case," Te Kloese stated. "If you watched on Sunday how he helped the team, he is committed to the club, to the fans and it is very special, it's a luxury to have him."

Te Kloese believes Ibrahimovic is an important guide to younger players at the club, with a video going viral recently of the 37-year-old giving tips to youngsters at the Galaxy academy.

"They need guiding, opportunities to play, minutes and between all us we're looking after their development, not just on the field, but also off it," said Te Kloese. "Someone like Zlatan, with what he's done in his career, can give a lot to those [younger] players. He's been very preoccupied with how the youngsters are getting on."

The Galaxy are currently in fourth position in the Western Conference with four regular season games left and face Montreal Impact at home on Saturday.

Virgil van Dijk insists there will be no hangover from Liverpool's Champions League defeat to Napoli as there is no reason for panic following their first loss of the season.

The champions of Europe were on the wrong end of a 2-0 scoreline at Stadio San Paolo in Group E on Tuesday night, courtesy of a controversial penalty converted by Dries Mertens and a Fernando Llorente strike in added time.

The spot-kick, awarded on 82 minutes when referee Felix Brych felt Andy Robertson had impeded Jose Callejon despite the forward initiating contact, was highlighted as the game-changing moment by Van Dijk.

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"It felt like it was going to be a draw, and then the penalty changed everything in the game," the centre-back said.

"It shouldn't be a wake-up call -- we have been performing outstanding since the start of the season so there is no reason to panic.

"We played well, we put them under pressure, we created opportunities on the break. It is not easy to do that here you know, because they have the fans behind them, they are a very good footballing side, but we did it.

"Of course it is all about the result and we know it was the wrong result."

Liverpool were markedly improved from their away display against Carlo Ancelotti's men last October, where they did not produce a shot on target in what Jurgen Klopp described as their worst performance of 2018-19.

However, they were still uncharacteristically sloppy in the final third.

"You wish in the end there was something different, you pick another pass instead -- the right pass -- but it is like that sometimes," Van Dijk said.

"There are always moments in games that could go better. But like I say if the penalty wasn't given then it was going to be a draw.

"The reality is that we conceded the penalty and it was unlucky that Adrian got something on it, but it didn't stay out."

A rare loose Van Dijk pass was punished by Llorente in the dying minutes and while it was an exacting test for Liverpool's rearguard, they were rarely troubled on Tuesday night.

"Napoli have a lot of movement, a lot of runs in behind and between the lines -- it is not easy to defend against," the 28-year-old said.

"But we did that pretty well I think, that's my feeling after the game. They couldn't put too much pressure on us, especially in the build up, which they do a lot in their home games.

"So there are many positive things we can take away from the performance. That is the key now looking towards the next game."

Liverpool travel to Chelsea on Sunday aiming to make it six consecutive league wins as they set the pace at the top of the Premier League table.

Angel Di Maria produced a vintage performance with two goals to help Paris Saint-Germain claim a 3-0 home win over Real Madrid in their Champions League Group A opening game on Wednesday.

In the absence of the formidable attacking trio of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Edinson Cavani, Di Maria provided two first-half goals as PSG suffocated Real throughout and Thomas Meunier added a third in stoppage time.

Real, European champions three years in a row from 2016-18 who eliminated PSG in the last 16 in 2017-18, failed to muster a shot on target and suffered their first defeat of the season.

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PSG lead the standings on three points, ahead of Club Brugge and Galatasaray, who played out a goalless draw earlier on Wednesday.

"We lacked intensity, we never got into the game, we created very few chances," Real coach Zinedine Zidane told a news conference.

Although PSG's win could be seen as a statement, the French champions still have a long way to go before putting three consecutive last-16 eliminations behind them for good including last season's embarrassing defeat by Manchester United.

"We played at a very very high level tonight, but it's not easy to show this in every game," said PSG coach Thomas Tuchel.

With Neymar suspended and Mbappe and Cavani injured, Argentine Mauro Icardi started up front after playing his first half hour for PSG in a Ligue 1 game against Strasbourg last weekend.

He had little impact, though, as Di Maria made sure his compatriot's lack of match time went unnoticed in PSG's first European game since a shock 3-1 home defeat by United sent them out of last season's Champions League.

Eden Hazard started for Real, who also had to cope with the absence of the injured Marcelo, Isco, Luka Modric, Marco Asensio and Fede Valverde as well as the suspended Sergio Ramos and Nacho Fernandez.

PSG started fast and were rewarded for their early domination in the 14th minute when Di Maria stabbed the ball past Thibaut Courtois at the near post from Juan Bernat's cross.

It was former Real player Di Maria's 25th goal in his 100th appearance in a European competition.

He made it 26 in the 33rd minute, curling a superb shot past Courtois from 20 metres after Idrissa Gueye had cut through the Real midfield.

Real forward Gareth Bale found the back of the net shortly afterwards but the goal was ruled out by the VAR for handball.

PSG left little space to Real and Di Maria came close to making it 3-0, only for his chip to land on the roof of the net after the Argentine had been sent through by the impressive Gueye.

Real forward Karim Benzema beat Keylor Navas from close range in the 77th minute, but the goal was ruled out for a Lucas Vazquez offside.

Full-back Meunier wrapped up an emphatic win when he scored from close range one minute into stoppage time following a PSG counter-attack.

India 151 for 3 (Kohli 72*, Dhawan 40) beat South Africa 149 for 5 (de Kock 52, Bavuma 49, Chahar 2-22) by seven wickets

After a washout in Dharamsala, India got their home season underway with a comfortable win in Mohali, against a new-look South Africa side that didn't quite show the depth of resources to genuinely challenge them. Having restricted the visitors to a below-par 149, India romped home with an over to spare, courtesy breezy knocks from Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli.

By the end, Kohli put on an exhibition of crisp timing for the crowd; he stepped out to drive Andile Phehlukwayo between extra-cover and a desperately diving long-off to bring up his fifty, whipped Kagiso Rabada off his legs for an effortless six, and then jumped out to the left-arm spin of Bjorn Fortuin to chip him over long-on and bring the equation down to four runs off eight balls. Shreyas Iyer sealed the deal two balls later, drilling Fortuin for a straight four to give India a seven-wicket win.

India were never in any trouble with the required rate, with Rohit Sharma giving them early impetus with a brace of pulled sixes off Anrich Nortje in the second over of the chase. Dhawan was in excellent touch too, as he demonstrated with back-to-back boundaries off Kagiso Rabada in the next over, a drive through the covers followed by a late chop backward of point.

Andile Phehlukwayo gave South Africa some respite by trapping Rohit lbw in the fourth over, but that respite was brief, as Kohli walked in and gave immediate notice of his timing, with two fours - a clip off his toes and an on-the-up cover drive - in his first six balls. At that point, India's required rate was only a tick above seven an over, and Kohli and Dhawan could stay in touch with it by simply taking the ones and twos on offer and waiting for the bad ball.

The pitch had been a little two-paced through the first innings, and India's seamers had profited from bowling cutters and slower balls into the surface. Now, there didn't seem to be as much grip, perhaps because of dew - Kohli had decided to bowl first for this very reason.

India's relentless march to their target only suffered two further blips; a brilliant, one-handed grab from David Miller, running to his right at long-on, sent Dhawan back for 40, and then Rishabh Pant - sent in at No. 4, above Iyer - fell early, failing to get the desired elevation while he looked to scoop Fortuin over short fine leg. It was another moment in the life of a young, gifted shotmaker who often gets dismissed in the grey zone between playing the game that makes him who he is and playing recklessly.

Sent in to bat, South Africa never really gained the sort of momentum they needed to post a total in the region of 180. Quinton de Kock peppered the off-side boundary to begin, but during the time he scored 52 off 37 at his end, his two batting partners made 35 off 31 balls at the other end.

Reeza Hendricks struggled against the swing of Deepak Chahar, and eventually fell to a miscued lofted shot off him. Temba Bavuma didn't look in any trouble against anyone in particular, but he definitely looked like a T20I debutant with 36 Tests and two ODIs behind him.

He took full toll when the bad ball came - as when Hardik Pandya sent down two successive short, wide slower ones - but he didn't quite seem to have the muscle or inventive strokeplay to manufacture boundaries. And just when South Africa were looking to accelerate, Bavuma suffered a slowdown, with Navdeep Saini denying him the width he craved and conceding just two runs off the bat in five balls. At the start of the next over - the 18th - he went after a slower one from Chahar and holed out, for 49 off 43 balls.

South Africa were 126 for 3 at that point. They only managed three runs off the rest of the 18th over, and only four off the 19th, bowled by Hardik Pandya, losing an out-of-sorts David Miller along the way. Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius swatted Saini for a six each in the final over to give South Africa a reasonable finish, but it couldn't make up for all the ground they had already lost.