PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland -- The Open is returning to Irish soil for the first time in 68 years this week, with golf's best players gathering at Royal Portrush Golf Club for the year's final major championship.

The 148th edition of The Open is being called the greatest sporting event in Northern Ireland's history. Tickets for all four days of the tournament sold out for the first time in history and more than 190,000 fans are expected to attend.

Here's everything you need to know about The Open:

About the course

Royal Portrush Golf Club, founded in 1888 on the northern coast of Northern Ireland, is the only club outside of England and Scotland to host The Open. It was the site of the 80th Open Championship in 1951, when Max Faulkner won the Claret Jug.

In 2014, the R&A announced that Royal Portrush was returning to The Open rota. Starting in November 2015, golf architects Mackenzie & Ebert spent 18 months redesigning and lengthening the Dunluce links course to accommodate modern players.

They designed five new greens, eight new tee boxes, 10 new bunkers and two new holes -- Nos. 7 and 8, on land that was originally part of the adjoining Valley Course. What was originally the seventh hole on Dunluce is now the ninth, followed by the same Nos. 10-16 holes that were part of Harry Colt's design in 1929.

The original 17th and 18th holes on Dunluce, which were regarded as rather ordinary for finishing holes in a major championship, were removed to accommodate space for tents and other buildings needed for The Open.

Holes to know

Two of the most dramatic holes on the Dunluce Course are located near the Atlantic Ocean shore.

The par-4, 374-yard fifth, called "White Rocks," is widely regarded as the course's signature hole. It is a dogleg hole, from left to right, with an elevated tee shot toward the Atlantic Ocean. It requires a daring tee shot over a wide expanse of thick rough, which is even more treacherous when the wind is howling. The green sits perched on the very edge of the course, with White Rocks Beach (and out of bounds) about 50 feet below.

The 236-yard, par-3 16th (formerly the 14th) is known as "Calamity Corner" and requires an uphill tee shot over a yawning void. Making matters worse, there is a deep chasm, covered in nasty rough, to the right of the small green.

The two new holes are considered among the track's best. The par-5, 592-yard seventh, known as "Curran Point," might challenge even the longest hitters. The elevated tee box is exposed to the wind, which will make it more difficult hitting to a narrow fairway protected by a maze of dunes. Players also will have to avoid a massive bunker on the right side, a replica of "Big Nellie," the celebrated bunker on the original 17th hole.

The new eighth hole, "Dunluce," is a dogleg-left, 434-yard par 4 that requires players to drive over dunes to a narrow fairway. Its green has a massive false front, which will certainly claim its share of victims this week.

The favorites

Brooks Koepka
At this point, it almost seems like a bigger story if Koepka doesn't win a major. He has won four of the past 10 majors and finished runner-up twice. And how's this for an advantage: His caddie, Ricky Elliott, is a native of Portrush and played the old Dunluce course as a junior. That can only help Koepka.

Rory McIlroy
Yeah, he hasn't won a major in nearly five years and wasn't in contention at Augusta or Bethpage Black and didn't finish well at Pebble Beach. But he still has two wins and 11 top-10s in 14 PGA Tour starts this season. When you combine McIlory's talent and local knowledge, the native son might be tough to beat with the home crowd behind him.

Francesco Molinari
Molinari stared down Tiger Woods in the final round of The Open in 2018 at Carnoustie and won by two shots to become the first Italian to win a major. But he hasn't played very well since his collapse on Sunday at Augusta this year, finishing tied for 48th at the PGA Championship and tied for 16th at the U.S. Open.

Dustin Johnson
The No. 2 player in the world has been at his best this season in the majors, finishing tied for second at the Masters and solo second at the PGA Championship. One cause for concern: Johnson was tied for 35th at Pebble Beach, where wind was also a factor. DJ missed the cut at Carnoustie last year and hasn't played well in this event during his career, other than a tie for second in 2011.

Justin Rose
The former World No. 1 missed the cut at the Masters and tied for 29th at the PGA Championship. But he was in contention at the U.S. Open until shooting 74 on Sunday and finishing tied for third. Rose is the most improved putter on Tour, and that might give him a chance to become the first Englishman to win the Open since Nick Faldo in 1992.

Jon Rahm
The Spaniard just won the Irish Open for the second time in three years and has played well in two of the three previous majors this season, finishing tied for ninth at the Masters and tied for third at the U.S. Open. He hasn't finished higher than a tie for 44th in three appearances at The Open.

Tiger Watch

Tiger Woods was one of the first players out on Royal Portrush for a Sunday morning practice. Still, he has not played tournament golf in a month, since finishing tied for 21st at the U.S. Open.

Woods has made only three starts since winning the Masters in April at Augusta National for his 15th major championship. After winning a green jacket for a fifth time, he didn't play before missing the cut at Bethpage Black and hasn't played since a disappointing finish at Pebble Beach.

Still, Woods was in contention at The Open at Carnoustie last year until a forgettable start to his back nine on Sunday, when he had a double-bogey on the 11th and bogey on the 12th.

Woods spent much of the past month traveling with his family in Thailand. He has won The Open three times, most recently at Royal Liverpool in 2006.

Why isn't Matthew Wolff here?

It's a shame the rookie sensation with the funky swing won't be teeing it up at Royal Portrush this week. Wolff, the reigning NCAA Player of the Year from Oklahoma State, won the 3M Open in only his third start as a pro with a back-nine 31 and walk-off eagle on No. 18 in the final round.

? @Matthew_Wolff5 - The Wolff Wiggle [Official Music Video] pic.twitter.com/VVqYCpA4Cs

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 8, 2019

While the victory secured Wolff a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour, a spot in next year's Masters and PGA Championship and a $1.152 million payday, it didn't earn him a spot in The Open Championship. This past week's John Deere Classic is among the qualifying events for The Open -- but not the 3M Open. To qualify, Wolff needs to finish in the top five and above any other players who had not yet qualified. He entered Sunday's final round in a tie for 33rd.

Salvaging the majors

Here are some players who are looking to rebound after disappointing performances in the first three majors this season:

Tommy Fleetwood
The 28-year-old hasn't won on the PGA Tour, but he was runner-up at the 2018 U.S. Open and tied for 12th at Carnoustie. He hasn't been nearly as good in majors this season, however, with a tie for 36th at Augusta, tie for 48th at the PGA Championship and tie for 65th at the U.S. Open.

Rickie Fowler
The best player to never win a major is now 0-for-39 in golf's biggest events. He grabbed a share of the early lead at Pebble Beach before imploding with a 77 on Friday. He tied for ninth at Augusta and tied for 36th at Bethpage Black. His best finish in The Open was a tie for second at Royal Liverpool in 2014.

Jordan Spieth
The three-time major winner's game remains a mess, after a tie for 65th at the U.S. Open and a missed cut at the Travelers. He was in contention at Carnoustie last year until a final-round 76, and his last victory came at The Open in 2017 at Royal Birkdale.

Justin Thomas
A wrist injury derailed JT's season after a hot start. He tied for 12th at Augusta, missed the PGA Championship because of the injury and then missed the cut at the U.S. Open. He ranks 10th in shots gained total but only 166th in shots gained putting.

Homeland heroes

Quite a few players from Northern Ireland and Ireland will be competing in The Open:

Rory McIlroy
The four-time major winner will be returning to a course where he's very comfortable and had great success. McIlroy grew up in Holywood, Northern Ireland, and he set the Dunluce course record at Royal Portrush when he was 16 with an 11-under 61 in the 2005 North of Ireland Amateur Championship.

Darren Clarke
Clarke, the 2011 Open winner at Royal St. George's, lives in Portrush and is an honorary member of the club. Clarke, 50, has missed the cut in three of the previous four Opens.

Graeme McDowell
McDowell was born in Portrush and splits his time between Orlando, Florida, and there. The 2010 U.S. Open champion qualified for The Open at his home course by finishing tied for eighth at the RBC Canadian Open in June.

Padraig Harrington
Harrington, 47, grew up in Dublin and is an honorary member at Portrush. He has won six times on the PGA Tour and 15 times on the European Tour, including The Open at Carnoustie in 2007 and Royal Birkdale in 2008.

Shane Lowry
Lowry, 32, won the Irish Open as an amateur in 2009 and has one victory on the PGA Tour -- the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He has three top-10s in 11 PGA Tour starts this season, including a tie for second at the Canadian Open.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- To see the monstrous walls that separate Belfast's people by political and religious beliefs is to understand that more than 20 years after the official end of the conflict known as the Troubles, Rory McIlroy's country remains a divided land.

The locals call these peace walls, but it is hard for a visitor not to think of war when standing next to them.

On a rare sunshiny morning in the capital of Northern Ireland, 60 miles south of Royal Portrush and the scene of the first version of The Open to be held in this nation in 68 years, children in a Protestant neighborhood played in a yard directly across from the Cupar Way barrier, 30 feet high, that prevents Catholic children from joining them. The dozens and dozens of peace walls, or peace lines, in and around a Belfast once battered and bloodied by three decades of sectarian fighting are a grotesque tangle of concrete, steel, metal, brick and barbed-wire fencing, and summon the images of Cold War Berlin.

"End Sectarianism," reads one painted plea from the Workers Party on Northumberland Street. "Bring down the walls."

Until they come down -- and there is no plan for their removal -- the youth of Northern Ireland need role models who refuse to be defined by the beliefs or causes that segregate them.

This is why Rory McIlroy had already won his hometown Open before he even showed up this week to try to claim his fifth major title and first in five years.

As much as McIlroy was always driven to succeed his idol, Tiger Woods, as the world's greatest golfer, he was committed to life as a global citizen and representative of all. Over the years McIlroy has been pressed to pick sides publicly, to declare his allegiances, and despite his youth and distaste for the subject, he has largely been dignified and thoughtful in his responses.

McIlroy, 30, has never allowed the game's governing bodies -- or the news media, or fans from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and England -- to put him in a box. McIlroy did not want to be identified primarily as Catholic, or as Irish, or as British, or as someone who supported or opposed the Protestant majority in favor of keeping Northern Ireland part of the United Kingdom, and against unification with the rest of the island.

He wanted to be identified as a champion who could, at least temporarily, help unite all of the above.

"Rory's been a very good ambassador for the province," said countryman David Feherty, the 60-year-old former pro and current Golf Channel host and NBC analyst who has long been close to McIlroy and his family.

Feherty said he has never needed to advise McIlroy on the persistent questions he fields about his identity because, "Rory really has had a great sense of how to handle that by himself.

"He's such an approachable, affable and intelligent young man, and I think he gets both sides of the game from a media and athletic perspective. He's living mostly in the United States now, but he's still cognizant and very proud of where he's from."

McIlroy grew up in Holywood, a coastal village 5 miles outside of Belfast. Feherty, a self-described atheist raised in a Protestant family in Bangor, County Down, said he visited Northern Ireland's capital about a month ago and felt the obvious tension that still exists between the unionist and loyalist Protestant majority, and the republican and nationalist Catholic minority in support of a unified Ireland.

Feherty knows the feeling better than most. As a young man in Northern Ireland, he said, "It was like the TSA going into every store. Soldiers on the street and roadblocks and barriers. But there was very little actual violence in the town I grew up in. A couple of bombs and the occasional murder."

Feherty would work at Balmoral Golf Club, where, he said, the clubhouse was blown up twice by terrorists. All these years later, Feherty said this of the peace walls: "It's a necessary thing. You don't want it there, but there's still an undercurrent, and that hatred is passed down from father to son, mother to child. Hatred, you're not born with. It's a learned behavior. It's ingrained to the extent that it's really only education that can get us past it."

In a different time and place in Belfast, that hatred impacted the McIlroy family in the most tragic way.

RORY McILROY, BORN NINE YEARS BEFORE the 1998 peace agreement in Northern Ireland, has said his Holywood youth was mostly untouched by the Troubles. But in 1972, Rory's uncle on his father's side, a computer technician named Joe McIlroy, was killed while his four young daughters slept upstairs in their Sandhill Drive home in the Orangefield area of East Belfast. McIlroy was fixing his washing machine when gunned down by two paramilitary members who hid in his garden and shot him multiple times through the backdoor.

"I put my arms around him and then I noticed my hands were covered in blood," his wife, Mary, reportedly told investigators. "I ran screaming into the street."

Detectives believe McIlroy was killed for having the nerve to move his Catholic family into a Protestant neighborhood. Though reports in June 2011 said that the Police Service of Northern Ireland had reopened the investigation into McIlroy's unsolved murder, an ESPN.com request last week for an update on that investigation was met by this statement from Detective Chief Superintendent Bobby Singleton:

"The murder of Joseph McIlroy on 21 November 1972 was last reviewed by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) who provided his family with their findings in March 2010. There are no current plans to re-open the investigation unless new information comes to light."

Asked by ESPN.com to specify those findings, Gary Strain of the PSNI said, "Out of respect for the privacy of the families involved, we do not publicly discuss or comment on the specifics of individual cases or reports provided to families."

Though he has known Rory McIlroy's father, Gerry, for most of his life, Feherty said the murder of Gerry's brother "is not something that ever came up." As a family, the McIlroys were not about to be defined by an unforgivable act of violence.

Gerry and Rosie sent their only child to Sullivan Upper, an interdenominational grammar school. Rosie worked the night shift in a factory to help pay the bills as Rory chased his wildest golf dreams. Gerry worked in the Holywood bar and took on a second job in a rugby club, cleaning toilets and showers to make sure his son could afford to travel to the most important junior tournaments in the United States.

The sacrifices were all worth it. In 2010, two days before his 21st birthday, Rory claimed his first PGA Tour victory, at Quail Hollow. He was asked afterward if he considered himself more Irish or British.

"Pass," he answered. "I'm Northern Irish, I hold a British passport, so there you go."

The questions about his core identity -- set against a centuries-old conflict over British rule in Ireland -- were only beginning to pick up steam.

A year later, after McIlroy won the U.S. Open at Congressional, a fan was seen throwing the tricolor flag of the Republic onto his shoulders; when a TV camera found McIlroy moments later, the flag was gone, inspiring social media praise from Protestant fans who figured Rory had removed the flag, and anger from Catholic fans who figured the same. The next day, in an unrelated clash between Protestant and Catholic residents, three people were shot in Belfast.

"I know that 99.9 percent of the population doesn't want to see that," McIlroy said at the time. "Everyone just wants to live in peaceful times. I am aware that I'm going to be portrayed as a role model. I have to be very careful in what I say and do."

In 2012, after McIlroy told the Daily Mail he always felt more British than Irish, he posted an open letter on Twitter denying that he had made a decision to play for Great Britain in the 2016 Olympics.

"I am in an extremely sensitive and difficult position," McIlroy explained.

He wrote that he is a proud product of the Irish golf system, and of winning Golfing Union of Ireland teams.

"I am also a proud Ulsterman who grew up in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom," McIlroy said. "That is my background and always will be."

McIlroy wrote of the support he had received from Irish, British and American fans.

"As an international sportsman," he said, "I am very lucky to be supported by people all over the world, many of whom treat me as one of their own, no matter what their nationality, or indeed mine. This is the way sport should be."

He was right, of course. McIlroy decided to compete for Ireland at the Rio Games in 2016, then ultimately cited concerns over the Zika virus in withdrawing. He later explained to The Independent, "I resent the Olympic Games because of the position it put me in. All of a sudden I had to question who I am. 'Who am I? Where am I from? Where do my loyalties lie? Who am I going to play for? Who do I not want to piss off the most?'"

McIlroy said he had texted the English gold-medal winner, Justin Rose, that he didn't feel a connection to the Irish or British anthems and flags.

"I don't want it to be about flags," McIlroy said. "I've tried to stay away from that. ... Not everyone is [driven by] nationalism and patriotism, and that's never been me, because I felt like I grew up in a place where I wasn't allowed to be."

Two months ago, at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, McIlroy said he would honor his development-system history and play for Ireland at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

"It's seen as a whole island sport, just like hockey is, just like most of the sports are," McIlroy said. "So then obviously when you put the Olympics into the equation and there's a choice to be made, you really have to start thinking, 'What are your beliefs and your values?' And it makes you have to delve a little bit deeper. It's not just a superficial decision. It's something that you have to really believe in."

More than anything, McIlroy seemed to believe in his power as a unifier through sport.

"Rory will never drive a wedge between us," read one Belfast Telegraph headline in 2012. Too many people had driven too many wedges before him.

SECTARIAN VIOLENCE IS STILL A PART of life in Northern Ireland. During rioting in Derry in April, a journalist named Lyra McKee was shot dead by a paramilitary group, the New IRA, that was firing on police. Last month, police said terrorists tried to kill an officer by planting a bomb under his car.

"Violent Dissident Republicans have already demonstrated that they do not care who they hurt or who they kill nor do they listen to the overwhelming wishes of our communities -- they are simply anti-peace and anti-democracy," said Detective Superintendent Sean Wright.

One foreign statesman has the most direct intel on why these clashes continue. Long before he investigated performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, George Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader from Maine, confronted a far more significant human crisis: He was asked by President Clinton to broker peace in Northern Ireland.

After Mitchell arrived as a special envoy in 1995, security officials told him his wife had to leave the country because the violence was too intense too guarantee her safety; Mitchell temporarily relocated her to London. The cease-fires declared by the Irish Republican Army and loyalist paramilitaries were imperfectly observed at best. Mitchell, who was initially supposed to remain in Northern Ireland for about six months, ended up chairing three separate sets of peace discussions over five years. He was an agent for staggering change who persuaded the governments of Great Britain, Ireland and almost all Northern Ireland political parties to reach a peace agreement on Good Friday, 1998. Four months later, dissident republicans opposed to the agreement set off a car bomb in Omagh that killed 29.

"It was a very deeply segregated society, and still is in many respects, with a heavy overlay of violence," Mitchell, 85, recently told ESPN.com. "At the root of all these conflicts is mistrust, a tribal attitude that doesn't trust in the other, whatever the tribe is, in this case between Protestants and Catholics. There was for many years harsh discrimination against the Catholic or nationalist minority, and that led inevitably to the violence. ...It's not just the number of deaths, 3,500 people killed during the Troubles. Not much attention is given to the tens of thousands who were permanently maimed through violence. You had kneecapping, where people were shot through the knees and ankles, and savage beatings that left people maimed for life. So indiscriminate was the violence, it created widespread fear.

"On the day [of the agreement], April 10, 1998, I said this was an historic agreement, which it was, because it brought an end to violence. But by itself the agreement did not guarantee peace, or reconciliations and stability. That would take change in people's hearts and minds, and that is most difficult to achieve.

"People who most want those walls to remain are those who live there. You'll be shocked when you see it. It is very close and dense, with these wire fences and houses on both sides, literally just feet apart."

Today Mitchell isn't eager to lecture another country on divisive domestic issues, not with political and racial turbulence dividing his own nation. But he is concerned that Brexit might restore a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which, he said, "could take attitudes back to the way people lived a hundred years ago."

In the end Mitchell is an optimist, a believer in the basic goodness of the island's people. He returns to Northern Ireland several times a year, and sees a day when those peace walls in Belfast come down. As a golf fan who follows McIlroy and who has met Rory's countryman and fellow major winner Graeme McDowell, Mitchell is happy The Open is back in their homeland for the first time since 1951. The American negotiator who helped pave the way for Northern Ireland to host this event said its most successful golfer, McIlroy, should not be pressured into declaring his loyalty to one country or cause.

"It's difficult enough being a professional athlete in the public eye, particularly one of the best in the world, where everything you say or do is scrutinized," Mitchell said. "So I understand and am sympathetic to the situation Rory finds himself in. I think people ought to let him handle it the way he wants, the way he has, without comment or criticism. ... He looks to me like a terrific young man and a great athlete. He's got his own life, and he ought not to be burdened by these things."

IN THE LEAD-UP TO THIS HISTORIC EVENT at Royal Portrush, Darren Clarke, another major winner from Northern Ireland, spoke of a car bombing in 1986 that blew up the nightclub he worked in.

"That was life in Northern Ireland," Clarke said. The Troubles kept the Royal & Ancient from seriously considering this country as the site of The Open for the longest time.

In today's Belfast, murals of masked gunmen are still found on the walls among the messages of peace and hope drawn by artists and written by tourists. But the Good Friday Agreement, followed years later by the Clarke, McDowell and McIlroy victories, made this week possible.

"I think it's the biggest sporting event the island has ever seen," Feherty said.

Rory's worldwide stardom added to the magnitude of the event. McIlroy has a combined 4.9 million followers on Twitter and Instagram; Northern Ireland has 1.87 million residents.

This is a good thing, too, given the way McIlroy has carried himself and managed an unmanageable issue. By example, he has shown young people in Northern Ireland that they can rise above the tribalism that built those Belfast walls in the first place.

Come Sunday, Rory McIlroy doesn't need to kiss the Claret Jug and lift it toward the sky. He's already won.

NEW YORK -- In hoops, Giannis Antetokounmpo is court royalty. But in baseball, he's a complete rookie.

In fact, the 24-year-old from Greece said he'd never even touched a baseball before he did so Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

The reigning NBA MVP was shocked.

"It was really heavy," Antetokounmpo told The Associated Press. "I thought it would be lighter."

Alley-Oops. @Giannis_An34 pic.twitter.com/0YTCSTvXQm

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 15, 2019

The Milwaukee Bucks star went on to take a few swings in the batting cage beneath the stands before the Yankees faced the Tampa Bay Rays. The 6-foot-11 Antetokounmpo got some coaching, with limited results: He swung and missed once with the ball on a tee, and made light contact on two other tries.

"I would be a terrible baseball player," he said.

The "Greek Freak" was in the Bronx with his three brothers to promote his new signature sneaker and signed a pair for a fan -- Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia.

Antetokounmpo watched the Yankees take batting practice, which reinforced his notion that he wasn't destined for the diamond.

"I saw Aaron Judge hitting the ball into the stands. That's amazing. You've got to be really strong to do that," he said.

Müller Anniversary Games start lists are released, with Britain’s James Ellington making a comeback after career-threatening injuries

Sifan Hassan and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are included in the list of global greats getting ready to compete at the Müller Anniversary Games, while James Ellington will be among the British stars in action in front of a home crowd at the London Stadium on July 20-21.

The start lists for the event, which incorporates the IAAF Diamond League, have been released, with Hassan heading up the 5000m following her mile world record in Monaco and Fraser-Pryce looking to continue the fine form which has seen her clock times of 10.73 and 10.74 for 100m recently.

Hassan (pictured) will be joined by Laura Weightman, who came close to the British mile record when finishing behind Hassan in Monaco, plus Kenya’s world champion Hellen Obiri, European 10,000m champion Lonah Chemtai Salpeter and Weightman’s fellow Britons Eilish McColgan, Melissa Courtney, Charlotte Arter, Rosie Clarke, Jess Judd and Amy-Eloise Neale.

In the women’s 100m, the fields split across two heats feature double Olympic champion Fraser-Pryce along with British record-holder Dina Asher-Smith, world indoor champion Murielle Ahouré, world 200m champion Dafne Schippers and Brits Asha Philip, Daryll Neita, Rachel Miller, Imani-Lara Lansiquot and Kristal Awuah.

The men’s line-up includes Ellington as he races for the first time since August 2016 following a motorbike crash in Tenerife in January 2017 which left him with career-threatening injuries.

As reported in the July 18 edition of AW magazine, which includes an exclusive three-page interview with Ellington as well as an event-by-event preview to the Anniversary Games, the 33-year-old will make his comeback as he races in a line-up also featuring Jamaica’s 2011 world champion Yohan Blake, South Africa’s Commonwealth champion Akani Simbine and Britain’s Adam Gemili, Zharnel Hughes, CJ Ujah and European under-23 silver medallist Oliver Bromby.

Also competing in London will be Norway’s double European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen as he races the men’s 5000m against Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet, who is third quickest in the world this year, plus six Britons including Scottish record-holder Andrew Butchart.

The women’s long jump will see Germany’s world leader Malaika Mihambo go head-to-head with four-time world champion Brittney Reese of USA, plus Brits Shara Proctor, Lorraine Ugen and heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

Athletes will be looking to make a statement, with the Anniversary Games taking place just 10 weeks before the IAAF World Championships in Doha.

The start lists can be found here.

Tickets for the Müller Anniversary Games are on sale at theticketfactory.com/british-athletics

Opportunity to become the Amateur French Open Squash Champion
By JAMES ROBERTS – Squash Mad Correspondent

Squash fans heading to France this September to watch the Nantes Open, recently renamed the French Open, now have the opportunity to become the inaugural “French Open Amateur Champion”.

L’Association Nantes Squash Sautron, the main French Open organisers, announced last week that the French Amateur Open will be taking place on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th September at La Maison du Squash in Nantes, alongside the now well established professional Open tournament, taking place this year at the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne.

Aimed at non-professionals, 80 places in total will be available to players of all levels and from all nations. Half of the places are currently earmarked for players from France, with the other half to be allocated to payers from other nations.

Applications to enter are now open and it is shaping up to be a very international and cosmopolitan event, with players from Australia, England, New Caledonia, Italy and Central America having already signed up, alongside a good contingent of French players.

Entries cost 80 Euros, which includes:

• Participation in the Amateur French Open
• A weekend pass for the Open de France at the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne (for all the semis and finals)
• A Tournament t-shirt

As the weekend passes have already sold out via the tournament’s regular ticket sales, this effectively represents the last chance to be present at the Open de France for the semi-finals and finals. For those who already have tickets for the Open de France, please contact the organisers as the option of an entry to the tournament without a weekend pass is also available.

In terms of the tournament format, the 80 entrants will be ranked according to their level and then placed into 5 groups of 16 players. The top 16 players will form the first group, the next 16 the second group and so on. Each entrant will then have 4 matches to play against opponents of a similar level.

There will be 2 matches for each player on each day – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Then it will be off to the Chateau around 6pm to watch the Open de France!

If you are interested in entering the Amateur Open de France, please contact Etienne Laurent by email at the following address: [email protected]

In other exciting French Open news, a 20,000 Euros crowdfunding target set by the organisers early last month has been smashed with 4 days to spare. Billed as “the democratisation of squash”, the organisers had the idea to appeal to squash fans in order to top up the men’s and women’s prize funds, allowing the tournament to achieve PSA Silver status and thereby helping to attract the world’s best players to participate.

Making the event a Silver, alongside the innovative nature of the event and excellent feedback from the players who have so far participated in the event, has already attracted a stellar line-up. In the Men’s draw, this includes players from the World’s Top 20 such as Simon Roesner, Paul Coll and Joel Makin. Amongst the women players, the line-up is similarly impressive, including French No. 1 Camille Serme, English Number 1 Sarah-Jane Perry and American No. 1 Amanda Sobhy.

Full details of the draws can be obtained here: https://psaworldtour.com/news/view/6508/french-no-1-serme-to-headline-open-de-france-draw

The fundraising will remain open for the next 4 days as any additional funds raised will be used to stage a curtain raiser exhibition event before the finals.

Anyone interested in contributing to the Crowdfunding, please visit the fundraising website here:
https://www.kisskissbankbank.com/fr/projects/open-de-france-de-squash-au-chateau-des-ducs-de-bretagne-de-nantes-2

Pictures courtesy of : Organisers of the Open de France

ANDERSON, Ind. – Thrice was nice for Michigan driver Johnny VanDoorn during Monday’s Redbud 400.

VanDoorn won the classic super late model event sanctioned by the ARCA/CRA Super Series at Anderson Speedway on Monday, leading 247 of the 400 laps to record his third Redbud 400 victory.

He joins legendary short track drivers Bob Senneker and Scott Hansen with three Redbud victories and trails Mark Martin by one.

After taking the lead from polesitter Daniel Hemric on lap 18, the only time VanDoorn was not out front were the times when he pitted for tires.

“There was no way I was going to give this one away,” said VanDoorn, who dedicated the victory to his ailing father. “They pitted later for tires, but we were able to hold them off.”

Jack Dossey III took the lead from VanDoorn on a restart with 26 remaining, but on lap 383 VanDoorn retook the point with an inside move in turn three.

The final caution flag waved on lap 387 when rookie Jett Noland, running fourth at the time spun in turn one, setting up a seven-lap shoot out.

VanDoorn held on to win by over Dossey by six-tenths of a second, followed by Hemric, Cody Coughlin and Josh Brock.

“I knew on the last restart we would battle hard and rub a little,” Dossey said. “I spun the tires, which allowed VanDoorn to pull away.”

Hemric said he lost the clutch in his Wimmer Racing car on lap 100 and had to move to the outside until the clutch would engage.

“We had the right tire strategy if we didn’t have to deal with the clutch problem,” Hemric said.

The Redbud 400 was slowed six times for caution periods, twice after the competitors raced 75 consecutive laps without a caution period.

When the final caution flag waved on lap 325, VanDoorn, Dalton Armstrong and Greg VanAlst stayed on the track and when the other drivers stopped for tires, it left Armstrong and VanAlst on old rubber.

Dossey III, rookie Noland, Hemric and Coughlin all gained positions when the caution flag waved on lap 365 for debris.

By lap 250, two of the expected contenders for the victory Travis Braden and Stephen Nasse were done for the night with mechanical problems.

VanDoorn dominated the first half of the race, leading 159 of the 200 laps.

Polesitter Hemric led the first 17 laps when VanDoorn used the inside line to take the lead on a restart following the first caution flag.

Hemric continued to run second with Nasse running third until lap 132 when Dossey made an inside pass entering turn three.

The third caution flag waved on lap 161 when J.P. Crabtree spun in turn four. Both VanDoorn and Hemric pitted for tires which gave Dossey the lead.

On the fresh rubber VanDoorn climbed from the fifth spot to retake the lead on lap 189 with an inside power move entering turn three.

During qualifications Hemric broke the track record set by Jeff Lane in 2008.
Hemric turned a lap at 11.911 seconds (74 mph), which topped Lane’s mark of 11.992 seconds.

The finish:

Johnny VanDoorn, Jack Dossey III, Daniel Hemric, Cody Coughlin, Josh Brock, Greg VanAlst, Dalton Armstrong, Jett Noland, Brandon Oakley, J.P. Crabtree, Austin Kunert, Hunter Jack, Stephen Nasse, Travis Braden, Eddie VanMeter, Austin Nason, Logan Runyon, Zachary Tinkle, Brett Robinson, Kyle Jones, Jeff Marcum.

The NBA office fined Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $50,000 after he admitted to leaking information from last week's Board of Governors meeting to a reporter, sources told ESPN.

The fine was not publicly announced, but the league office issued a memo to inform teams.

"I appreciate the irony of your reporting on a fine that someone should -- but won't -- get fined for leaking to you," Cuban told ESPN.

Sources said Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive expressed concern that information about the vote to allow coaches' challenges was being reported while the meeting was still in session. Cuban immediately admitted that he leaked the information, sources said.

Cuban was fined because it is a violation of league rules to talk to outsiders about Board of Governors business.

The Chicago Cubs acquired catcher Martin Maldonado for left-hander Mike Montgomery, the reliever who secured the last out of the Cubs' 2016 World Series championship season, in a deal with the Kansas City Royals, the teams announced Monday.

Maldonado, a defensive-minded, 32-year-old catcher, should be an immediate replacement for All-Star catcher Willson Contreras, who hit the injured list Monday with a strain in the arch of his right foot. Although Contreras isn't expected to miss a significant amount of time, Maldonado serves as a solid insurance policy.

"It was something we wanted to quickly finalize once it became clear Willson was going to miss some time," Cubs president Theo Epstein said after Chicago's 6-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. "He's an established catcher in this league who does a lot of great things behind the plate. He can really receive. He can really throw. He's handled some of the best pitchers in the game."

Maldonado has been one of the best defensive catchers in baseball this season and was traded last July too, going from the Los Angeles Angels to the Houston Astros. He signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal with Kansas City and started in place of Salvador Perez, who is out for the year while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Montgomery, 30, was on the mound when Kris Bryant threw the ball to Anthony Rizzo to secure the final out of the 2016 season. It was his first career save and the highlight of his Cubs tenure, which started that season. Montgomery confirmed to ESPN that he asked to be traded early this season, as he was interested in the next stage of his career.

"From a career perspective, looking at how it was taking shape, I thought I was best suited to be a starter," Montgomery said.

He started 19 games for the Cubs in 2018, but a healthy Yu Darvish, combined with the presences of Cole Hamels and Tyler Chatwood, gave him little opportunity this year.

"I understood, from who they had here, that might not happen for me," Montgomery said.

The Cubs attempted to appease him, but a deal took months to happen and came about strictly on a need basis after Contreras went down.

Chosen by the Royals in the first round of the 2008 draft, Montgomery was a top prospect before he was dealt in a trade that netted Kansas City James Shields and Wade Davis. He was traded soon thereafter to Seattle and arrived in Chicago a year later in 2016. Montgomery vacillated between the starting rotation and a relief role until this season.

He has struggled this season, posting a 5.67 ERA in 20 relief appearances and seeing his peripheral numbers suffer as well, possibly due to his desire to move on. He began the season on the injured list with a sore shoulder.

Montgomery comes with two additional seasons of club control, which made him attractive to Kansas City. Maldonado will be a free agent after this season.

Epstein indicated that he doesn't think Contreras will be out longer than the minimum 10 days required for being on the injured list.

ESPN's Jesse Rogers contributed to this report.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Most of the Los Angeles Angels struggled to sleep on Friday night. They were still processing the events that unfolded, still too emotional coming off a game that, for some, evoked sentiments of a higher power. Andrelton Simmons, the team's shortstop, was an exception. He slept more soundly than he had in the 11 nights since the tragic death of his friend and teammate, Tyler Skaggs, because of a comforting presence he couldn't quite place.

Simmons relived those events the following afternoon and stammered often, struggling to contextualize the Angels' ability to no-hit the Mariners while wearing Skaggs' jersey -- in their first home game since his passing, mere hours before what would have been his 28th birthday. Simmons ultimately described it as "a very warm, nice feeling that there's something else, after this. We kind of know now, for sure, that he's here with us."

He thought about Debbie Skaggs, the longtime softball coach who inspired her son's love for pitching, and that perfect strike she threw for the ceremonial first pitch. He thought about all the numbers that eerily pointed back to Skaggs -- Mike Trout's first-inning home run traveled 454 feet, depicting Skaggs' No. 45 forward and backward; seven first-inning runs and 13 total, symbolizing Skaggs' birthday on the seventh month and the 13th day; the first combined no-hitter in California since July 13, 1991, the day Skaggs was born.

He thought about that sixth-inning, diving play by rookie third baseman Matt Thaiss, who is still new to the position. He thought about how every other ball hit off Taylor Cole and Felix Pena seemed to travel directly at a defensive player. He thought about the final snapshot, of three dozen No. 45 jerseys lying on the Angel Stadium pitcher's mound.

"It was just designed perfectly," Simmons said. "It felt like a guidance."

Dee Gordon's viral postgame quote -- "If you don't believe in God, you might want to start" -- made its way through the Angels' clubhouse and drew laughs. Albert Pujols, a devout Christian, felt validated in his faith. Andrew Heaney, who doesn't consider himself religious, pondered the possibility of larger forces at play.

"You can't help but think that something bigger is going on, or someone out there is watching out for us," Angels reliever Cam Bedrosian said. "You could just feel it. You could feel something different."

Skaggs' widow, Carli, visited the clubhouse before players were scheduled to be on the field and offered comforting hugs to several of her late husband's former teammates. Debbie Skaggs made the rounds in the dugout shortly thereafter, displaying uplifting strength while chatting with Kole Calhoun and Justin Upton, among others. What followed was a video tribute, then a 45-second moment of silence, then an unspeakably emotional ballgame.

Gordon, the opposing second baseman, was in a similar position less than three years ago when he mustered the strength to belt a home run to lead off the first game since Jose Fernandez's sudden death on Sept. 26, 2016.

When Friday's pregame ceremony concluded, Gordon felt his own intuition.

"I'll be honest with you," he said, "I knew we were gonna get our ass whupped."

Tim Mead touched down in Albany, New York, on July 1, turned on his smartphone and quickly became engulfed by an avalanche of text messages informing him of Skaggs' passing. (The cause of death is still unknown.) Mead had just returned from London, where he took in a series between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox as part of his new job as president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a position he recently accepted after four decades with the Angels. He spent the entire 90-minute drive to Cooperstown calling old friends and longtime co-workers.

"It was a surreal moment," Mead said. "Again."

Mead, who spent the past 22 years leading the Angels' communications department, was with the organization when 22-year-old pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed by a drunk driver on April 9, 2009, hours after an exceptional outing. Mead's mind immediately retreated there.

Kevin Jepsen, a retired former Angels reliever who teamed with Skaggs in 2014, felt the same way. Jepsen rehabbed alongside Adenhart early on and established a close bond with him as they made their way through the Angels' system. In the wake of his death, Jepsen was the one tasked with hanging Adenhart's jersey in his late teammate's locker before every game.

Throughout that 2009 season, Jepsen couldn't help but think Adenhart was recovering from an injury in Arizona, like so many others, and that eventually he would return.

"You just kept waiting for him to come back -- to get healthy and come back and join the team -- and you have to remind yourself that he wasn't coming back," Jepsen said. "It was just that constant reminder. The hope, and then the crush all over again, almost every day."

Jepsen remembers a 2009 Angels team that couldn't wait to get to the field for a necessary distraction. They thrived that season, winning 97 regular-season games and falling only two victories shy of the World Series. Adenhart's death put everything else in perspective. Suddenly, Jepsen said, baseball didn't mean all that much. It allowed them all to play freely.

His advice for the current Angels is to "lean on each other."

"It's OK to break down," Jepsen said, "it's OK to tell your guy next to you in the locker that you're struggling one day, because odds are he's feeling the same way."

Mark Gubicza, in his 13th season as an Angels broadcaster, immediately felt a kinship with Skaggs. Gubicza spent the early years of his playing career fighting the label of a talented pitcher who couldn't figure it out. He eventually did, making a couple of All-Star teams in a career that spanned 14 seasons, and he was confident that Skaggs -- a first-round pick out of high school who was seemingly beginning to turn the corner -- would do the same.

The two established a ritual on July 26, 2016, in Kansas City, on the morning of Skaggs' first start since undergoing Tommy John surgery. Skaggs walked into a nearby Starbucks, saw Gubicza and asked to talk. They sat together for hours, nearly losing track of time. Gubicza told old stories from his playing days, broke down Skaggs' mechanics and implored him to maintain a competitive edge.

Skaggs pitched eight scoreless innings that night. And so before each of Skaggs' next starts, they either met at a Starbucks on the road or texted each other pictures of their orders at home. For his last outing, on June 29, Gubicza sent a picture of his sweaty Starbucks cup resting on a scorebook. After that game, in which Skaggs pitched four scoreless innings before facing trouble in the fifth, Gubicza sent another message: "Your stuff is great right now. This is your chance to go to the next level."

Skaggs' response: "I'm getting there."

To those who knew him within his profession, Skaggs was an extremely talented pitcher who was noticeably eager to become great. But he was also affable, magnetic, charming, inclusive, generous. Nobody on the Angels dressed better or had a more refined taste for music or was more beloved by the clubhouse attendants. Few, anywhere, did a better job of combining arrogance with endearment.

Angels catcher Dustin Garneau, who became friends with Adenhart days before he died, once guided Skaggs through a recruiting tour of Cal State Fullerton and said he "had a cockiness to him that I absolutely appreciated." Huston Street, the Angels' former closer, described Skaggs as "uniquely confident and real and cool and damn good but still hungry."

Tim Salmon, the longtime Angels right fielder who still spends a lot of time around the team, recalled a cruise they embarked on together with season-ticket holders.

"We had some great conversations about what it takes to be a successful major leaguer," Salmon said. "He was so eager to learn anything he could from my experiences."

Mead will never forget the joy he felt introducing Skaggs to Chuck Finley, whom Skaggs identified as his favorite Angels pitcher. He'll miss walking up to Skaggs the day after his starts and asking, "What did your mom say?"

"I know he was a fantastic husband," Mead said, "and I think he would've been a tremendous father."

Mike Butcher was the Angels' pitching coach from 2007 to 2015. He was the first person Adenhart's father called on the night of the accident, a moment that shook him to his core. Weeks later, Butcher stayed for a pre-draft workout at Angel Stadium and saw a wiry, fresh-faced, Santa Monica High School left-hander throwing fastballs, sliders, changeups and curveballs.

He pulled Skaggs aside, asked his age and learned the pitcher had just turned 17.

"I couldn't believe it," Butcher, currently on the Arizona Diamondbacks' coaching staff, said. "It blew me away."

The Angels, at the behest of Butcher, drafted Skaggs 40th overall that June. They traded him to the Diamondbacks in August 2010, then got him back in December 2013. Skaggs made the Opening Day rotation the following spring, and Butcher still remembers the smile that swept across Skaggs' face when he was given the news.

"I could still see it," Butcher said. "He was just special, in every single way. And he could make everybody around him feel good."

Bedrosian keeps thinking about the first time Skaggs and former teammate Blake Parker summoned their deepest voices and yelled, "We're nasty" on a bus trip to the stadium. It became a thing, and it made Bedrosian cackle every time. Skaggs kept using the phrase after victories, yelling it while bounding up the dugout steps. It has since become the team's rallying cry, emblazoned on red T-shirts and plastered across a wall in their clubhouse.

After completing an on-field interview following Friday's no-hitter, Pena, who pitched the final seven innings, returned to the microphone, made sure the camera was still rolling and yelled, "We're nasty," igniting a roar from the 43,140 fans in attendance.

By late Sunday afternoon, the shrine in front of the main gate of Angel Stadium had grown to somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 caps and 100 posters, some of which read statements like "best curveball ever" and "the brightest stars burn the fastest" and "we're all going to miss you."

"Our fans," Angels general manager Billy Eppler said, "are extremely loyal and protective."

The team preserved Skaggs' locker and placed the game ball from the no-hitter on its top shelf. All of the players signed two Skaggs jerseys, which will be given to Debbie and Carli. A "45" patch will appear on their uniforms for what remains of this season, as will an image of Skaggs that looks on from the center-field wall.

Several members of the Angels learned that Skaggs had been found dead in his Southlake, Texas, hotel room while boarding the bus to prepare for their game against the Texas Rangers. Foul play wasn't initially suspected and suicide was quickly ruled out, but the cause of death won't be revealed until an autopsy is completed in early October.

Major League Baseball canceled that day's game, and Globe Life Park featured Skaggs' "45" on the pitcher's mound the following afternoon. Elsewhere, the likes of Patrick Corbin, Trevor Bauer and Chase Anderson staged their own tributes while they pitched. Heaney began a start with a loopy curveball to honor Skaggs, and Trout played in the All-Star Game wearing the No. 45.

Skaggs' likeness was displayed on a wall in Venice Beach, California, and on the cleats of former teammate Hector Santiago, who now plays for the Chicago White Sox. Several moments of silence were held in honor of Skaggs; countless players immortalized him through messages on their social media accounts.

Said Eppler: "I've really come to appreciate the reach of Tyler."

The first pitch of Friday's ninth inning was a chest-high, 89 mph fastball that Mariners outfielder Mac Williamson hit well to center field. Pena slumped his shoulders. He was almost certain the ball would travel for a home run, as did most of his teammates. But Garneau, stationed behind home plate, had a better view than anybody.

"We're good," Garneau yelled, prompting Pena to turn around and watch Trout settle in for a routine catch.

Two pitches later, Gordon hit a tapper to the left side that elicited anxiety. Twenty days earlier, in St. Louis, Pena fielded a bunt in almost the exact same spot and threw wildly to third base, prompting two runners to score. This time, he calmly retrieved the ball, spun and fired accurately to first base, retiring one of baseball's fastest runners.

The last out came on the Mariners' hardest-hit ball of the night. It was off the bat of Mallex Smith, a 101.7 mph one-hopper near second base. Luis Rengifo, who had just been inserted into the game, quickly ranged to his right, took the baseball off his chest, recovered and secured the out.

Rengifo instantly thought back to the fourth-inning throwing error he made on June 29. Skaggs turned to Rengifo after the play and said, "I got you." Two batters later, he induced an inning-ending, 6-4-3 double play to escape damage.

"I'll never forget that," Rengifo said, pausing for a moment to gather himself. "It's hard."

Simmons felt uncommonly sore throughout Friday's game. Given the sizeable lead, he thought about asking out to rest his body. The continuing no-hitter triggered an obligation to stay. Angels manager Brad Ausmus didn't want to remove Thaiss for defense because he didn't want to sap a young player's confidence, but he made the move for Rengifo in the final inning. The magnitude of the moment swayed him.

Ausmus has since been overwhelmed by all the messages he has received from that game.

He called it "a silver lining for a dark cloud."

"But I don't know how it plays out from here. It's a silver lining, but it's also emotionally draining."

Heaney, Skaggs' best friend on the team, has lost loved ones before but has never experienced something that felt this senseless.

"There was no reason for his time to go," Heaney said. "That's the hardest part, really. Especially in a group like this, where you're literally with these guys, your baseball family, for 10, 12 hours a day, every single day. You get halfway through the off-day and you're enjoying it and you're like, 'F---, man, I just wanna go back to the guys. I wanna go back to the clubhouse.' When that family dynamic gets disrupted, it just really throws everybody off."

Heaney spent the first four days after Skaggs' death unsuccessfully trying to keep himself from crying. By Saturday afternoon, however, he had brightened up. What unfolded the prior night had infused him with happiness in the wake of tragedy. It provided him with a cheerful memory to replace some of the bad thoughts that lingered following Skaggs' death, a turn of events Heaney considered "emotionally therapeutic."

"I think it was really just such a great thing for everybody to celebrate him, to honor him, to be able to have a moment in time that when you think back, it's all positive, all happy," Heaney said. "I think that's going to be great for all of us."

ROCKFORD, Ill. – Ron Leek, best known as the owner of Wisconsin’s Byron Dragway, died July 10. He was 80 years old.

Leek got his start in motorsports when he was 29 years old. He became the general manager and publicity director for the track, which he eventually purchased in the late 1960s. He ran the track for more than 40 years before selling the facility in 2011 to B.J. Vangsness.

He sanctioned many major events at Byron Dragway, including hosting major bracket racing events and the World Power Wheelstanding Championship.

In addition to his role as track owner and promoter, was a popular announcer at many facilities and events across the United States.