GERMANTOWN, Tenn. – Sammy Swindell has a 48-year winning streak on the line.

Swindell has captured at least one victory during every year he’s competed. However, between misfortune, wet weather and a lack of consistent races, this year has been a roller coaster ride and he’s still looking for a trip to victory lane to extend the streak.

A trio of big-time races stand out as possibilities to do just that, starting with the 46th annual Fall Nationals at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas, Oct. 18-19 with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour.

Two weeks later the ASCS National Tour invades Texas Motor Speedway in for the Tony Stewart presents the Vankor Texas Sprint Car Nationals doubleheader, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

The Can-Am World Finals hosted by The Dirt Track at Charlotte, set for Nov. 7-9 and featuring the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, is the final stout event circled on the calendar.

“We’ve done well at all three tracks throughout my career,” he said. “We’ve earned a lot of wins at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, nearly won at Texas Motor Speedway last year and have been to victory lane at Charlotte. I think with the right circumstances we can win at any of those events this year.”

Swindell has been strong at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, where he’s won in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. He has captured a trio of ASCS National Tour wins at the half-mile oval, including two in 1995 and most recently in 2010.

Swindell has also earned a dozen World of Outlaws triumphs at Devil’s Bowl as well.

Heading across the state, Swindell hustled from 10th to third before he capped the Vankor Texas Sprint Car Nationals at Texas Motor Speedway with a runner-up result last year.

Swindell won the inaugural World of Outlaws race at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in May 2000 and he also visited victory lane there in 2012.

The only race currently solidified on Swindell’s schedule is a pavement winged midget race with Bertrand Motorsports on Oct. 5 at Lee USA Speedway in Lee, N.H., with the NorthEastern Midget Ass’n.

Swindell earned a fifth-place finish during his debut at the track on Aug. 16, which was also his most recent race.

“We’re looking forward to getting back there (to Lee),” Swindell said. “We had a good run to move forward in the heat and the feature last month. Since we’re returning to a track we’ve been to the handicap system shouldn’t bury us as deep in the field so that will give us a better shot at starting near the front than we’ve ever had.”

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Sabres have returned top prospect Dylan Cozens to his Canadian junior team.

The rookie first-round draft pick was assigned to Lethbridge of the Western Hockey League on Thursday after the 18-year-old center had zero points in three preseason games with Buffalo.

Cozens was selected with the seventh overall pick in the draft in June, becoming the first player from Canada's Yukon Territory to be chosen in the first round. He scored 34 goals and had a Lethbridge-leading 84 points in 68 games last year.

The Sabres close the preseason at Pittsburgh on Saturday before returning to open the regular season there next Thursday.

Montreal Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur underwent successful quadruple bypass heart surgery Thursday, the team announced.

"This procedure was necessary after a routine examination detected a cardiac issue," the statement said. "The operation was successful, and doctors predict a full recovery after several months of convalescence. The family wishes to thank the entire medical team, as well as the personnel at the CHUM (Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal), and will not issue any further comment."

The 68-year-old Lafleur built his Hall of Fame career from 1971 to 1991. He was a six-time All-Star who won the Hart Memorial Trophy twice. The winger helped the Canadiens win five Stanley Cups.

Lafleur is the only player to record 50 goals and more than 100 points in six consecutive seasons. He is the Canadiens' all-time leading scorer.

However, his 14-year run with the Canadiens ended in acrimony when the team wouldn't honor his trade request, and he retired after 19 games in the 1984-85 season.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1988 but then decided to return to the game. At age 37, he played a season for the Rangers -- putting up 18 goals and 45 points. He played parts of two more season with the Nordiques before calling it quits.

In 2017, he was named one of the 100 greatest NHL players. His statue stands in front of the Bell Centre, the home of the Canadiens.

The tricky thing about being a sports pundit, or at least playing one on TV, is the constantly raging internal war between what the facts tell you should happen and what you really want to see happen. Left brain vs. right brain. Analyst vs. fan. Scully vs. Mulder. All of it.

Well, logic has no home in this particular column. In this edition of The Wysh List, I'm ignoring the trends, X-ing out the analytics sites on my browser and letting my freak flag fly. This is not about forecasting; this is about faith.

Here are 10 things I'm hoping, with all my hockey heart, will happen in the 2019-20 season. Just don't hold me to them.

Also in this week's Wysh List: Jersey Foul | Puck headlines
Winners and losers of the week

Either the Kings or the Blackhawks make the playoffs

One look at my T-shirt drawer will confirm that I have trouble letting go of familiar things, no matter how old, tattered and in need of a refresh they might be.

That might explain my affinity for the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings, two of the most successful teams of the past decade that have aged like a fine wine left next to a furnace.

The Kings are probably about three years away from serious contention again, and the Blackhawks ... well, they might have a defensive pairing of Olli Maatta and Brent Seabrook this season, so there's that. It probably wouldn't amount to a championship, but I'd like to see some life out of them. Maybe I just want to see Jonathan Toews and Drew Doughty play another meaningful game without having to wear a Team Canada jersey.

John Tortorella leans into 'Us Against The World'

When your team has suffered a massive talent defection and has been effectively written off by most of the hockey world, there is no one you want coaching your team more than John Tortorella. Who better to tap into the deep well of resentment among the Columbus Blue Jackets? Who better to dig a rhetorical foxhole for his players to climb into for the season-long fight? He should start coaching games in full military fatigues like he's Stanley McChrystal.

The Bruins become the NHL's version of "Succession"

Jeremy Jacobs, 79, passed ownership of the Boston Bruins to his children this offseason, with the Boston Globe writing that it was "all part of a long-planned succession."

I don't know anything about the Jacobs kin, but I'm summarily obsessed with the idea that the Bruins will become embroiled in a sibling rivalry for control like a binge-able HBO drama. Kendall Jacobs becomes an empty husk after the failure of an attempted coup. Roman Jacobs attempts to run an ECHL team to prove that he's more than a bundle of nihilistic asides. Shiv Jacobs risks her ascendance to the throne with a joke about "the NHL's dinosaur owners." In the end, cousin Greg -- sorry, "Gregory" -- ends up running the Bruins.

The NHL All-Star Game skills competition gets goofy again

NHL players are constantly complaining about the way they're marketed and then balking at anything that might take them out of their comfort zones. That is why the NHL All-Star Game fantasy draft and that shootout with the hats and the Superman capes and using Johnny Gaudreau as prop comedy are distant memories.

Here's my hope: It's a generational thing, and the new wave of NHL stars live that "Storm Surge lack of humility" life. Here's my wish: The skills competition incorporates at least one goofy event that you'd find between periods of a regular-season game -- racing in sumo suits, giant hamster balls, tiny tricycles, or the event that has become a fanatical cause for me: human bowling.

Thanks for your votes...in honor of the winner Human Bowling let's send @dylanjunker down the ice in 3...2..1. pic.twitter.com/YuAEMpXeKf

— CleanIce23 (@CleanIce23) February 1, 2017

I just want to see Victor Hedman go human bowling. Is that so wrong?

Mark Stone wins the Selke Trophy

We're getting closer, folks! The Patrice Bergeron of wingers finished ahead of the actual Patrice Bergeron as a Selke Trophy finalist last season, but he lost the prize to Ryan O'Reilly in one of those "well, we can't give him the Hart, buuuuuutttttt..." voting results.

Opposing players have called Stone's defensive game "a nightmare." He has the respect. He has the stats. The only two things he doesn't have are a spot at center, which unfortunately has been the mandate for winners for the past 16 years, and the Selke Trophy, which Stone is owed.

Erik Karlsson plays a full, healthy season

It's incredible to think back to 2013-16, when Karlsson didn't miss a single regular-season game. Then it was 77 games played in 2016-17. Then 71 games the next season. Last season, with the Sharks, it was 53 games, and he was so injured in the playoffs that he became a liability. We never got to see the awesome power of that fully armed and operational San Jose Sharks defense, with Karlsson and Brent Burns eating up 50 combined minutes per game. I want to see it.

Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko have a Sid vs. Ovi-style classic

The top two picks in the draft are starting their careers in the same season, in the same division, on two geographically and spiritually rival teams in the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers. It's awesome. Or at least, it has the potential to be awesome.

What I want is something on the level -- but without the stakes, at least for now -- of the Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin double-hat-trick game in 2009, which remains one of my favorite sporting events I've ever had the honor to cover. And then hopefully either Kakko or Hughes will complain about how long it took for the ice crew to clean up the hats, like Sid did that night, thus securing supernova heat from fans.

The Stars make their 'Mooterus' jersey their Winter Classic jersey

Which Stars jersey is your favorite? pic.twitter.com/UbuDeieRdK

— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) September 21, 2019

That's it right there. Letter C. From 2003 to '06, the Stars bravely wore this astrological logo that fans immediately found anatomical. As you can see, the Stars have some other classic looks they could resurrect for the highly anticipated Winter Classic at the Cotton Bowl against the Nashville Predators. But there is only one option that is udderly, er, utterly perfect for the biggest outdoor stage of the season. Wear the Mooterus!

Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin find their smiles

Hearing about the falling out between Malkin and Kessel with the Penguins last season was like watching your favorite band implode because the lead guitarist hates the drummer. (Sid, in this case, being your lead singer. A bit more Eddie Vedder than Thom Yorke, if we're being honest.)

According to Rob Rossi of The Athletic, a catalyst for both of their struggles last season was a comfort level that set in after their years of championship accomplishment, as well as a general misunderstanding of who they really are.

Now Phil is in Arizona, with perhaps the only coach with whom he has connected, Rick Tocchet. Meanwhile, Malkin is declaring, "I [have] not shown my game at 100 percent." I want to see both of these guys at the height of their powers and with a renewed affinity for what they're doing. It's a shame we'll never get a reunion tour.

Finally, a team that hasn't won the Stanley Cup in the past 40 years wins it (or the Lightning)

Watching the St. Louis Blues and the Washington Capitals graduate from what my friend Jason Brough calls "The Sad Club" (i.e. those teams that have never won the Stanley Cup) has made the past two seasons feel positively storybook, and I want another fan base to enjoy those feelings.

The Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, Ottawa Senators, Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets probably aren't graduating from the Club this season, but the Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks, Florida Panthers, Arizona Coyotes, Winnipeg Jets and those long-suffering fans from Vegas all have at least a chance at the celebration of celebrations.

But let's expand our scope to include the Toronto Maple Leafs, whose title celebration would make the Raptors' look quaint by comparison, and the Tampa Bay Lightning, who last won in 2004, but after what happened last year ... yeah, it'd be nice to see them flip the script on postseason humiliation.

At least that's my hope.

Jersey Fouls

It's never too early for Jersey Fouls.

Never too early for a preseason #jerseyfoul @wyshynski pic.twitter.com/L3HcmsAZVV

— Greg Colombo (@gmcolombo73) September 21, 2019

This is the Buffalo Sabres' 50^th anniversary jersey. I checked the Sabres' store and they do not sell this sweater with "SABRES 50" on the back. If it was a gift from the team, then that's not a Foul, by the letter of the law. If it was something this fan asked for at the pro shop ... boy, that's close, but it does fall under the Special Events Provision that allows for nameplates and numbers on limited-release jerseys like the ones for the Winter Classic. We're going to say that, overall, this is not a Foul.

A case of the exes

Dave Tippett is the sixth coach the Edmonton Oilers have had in the last eight seasons. That's remarkable in itself. What's also remarkable is that three of their previous coaches were all hired to new gigs last summer: Todd McLellan with the Los Angeles Kings, Dallas Eakins with the Anaheim Ducks and Ralph Krueger with the Buffalo Sabres.

Krueger coached the Oilers for 48 games in their lockout-shortened season of 2012-13. His tenure ended infamously, with GM Craig MacTavish -- last seen getting fired after eight games as head coach of the KHL's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl -- dismissing Krueger over Skype.

He was always an interesting blip in the history of the Oilers. His team wasn't successful, and despite the shortened season didn't show improvement from the previous season. But that shouldn't have been enough to get him fired after just one truncated campaign, and the Oilers' young collection of standout players all lamented him not getting another year to figure things out.

"I have no hard feelings towards Edmonton because I was grateful for the opportunity and moved on quickly from that," he said after getting hired by Buffalo.

One of the reasons he was dumped is because Dallas Eakins was available. He was in his mid-40s and was a hot-shot coaching candidate with the AHL Toronto Marlies. At the time, landing him was a coup for the Oilers. He lasted 113 games, and was fired 31 games into his second season.

Krueger didn't glean all that much from his time in Edmonton. For Eakins, it was like a template of what not to do as a new NHL coach.

"When I went into Edmonton, there was really no doubt that it was really messed up. I was brought in there to change the culture," Eakins told me last week. "I took a road that was not too familiar to me, and I went in there hard. The line was drawn in the sand. And it was on. And that was not a good way to build a culture."

It was too much, too soon, and he knew it.

"I thought I made the appropriate steps in the second year. I mended some relationships, and I thought the dressing room felt a lot differently in that second year. Instead of it being me and them, it was now us," he said.

But he was fired, and interim coach Todd Nelson took over.

Eakins spent four years with the AHL San Diego Gulls before getting the bump from Ducks GM Bob Murray to take over in Anaheim this season.

"I'm sure I made mistakes here already, and might not know it yet," he said.

But now he'll be more cognizant of them. Even when things go well for Eakins, he likes to "go back and do an autopsy" on his team. "Not only did I go through a thorough one there, but the guys that were still standing when I got let go, after two or three weeks, I reached out to them and told them that I wanted them to be deadly honest. What did we do well? What did we mess up?"

What did he learn? "It doesn't take six weeks. It takes lots of time. So I should have gone slower on a lot of things," he said.

McLellan left Edmonton feeling hurt.

"I'm past it, but it hurts to get fired. Somebody's telling you that you're not good enough and you don't belong here anymore," he said of the Oilers, a team McLellan said he would have gladly coached "forever" if given the chance.

"There's an old adage that 'guys get hired to get fired,' and I don't buy that one. The outside world sometimes thinks that coaches get paid so much that they shouldn't care if they get fired. Well, it doesn't resonate that way for us. It hurts."

More than Krueger and Eakins, McLellan speaks about his time in Edmonton in the context of what the organization as a whole, rather than one coach, could have done differently.

"You can't just win with one player," he told me, during a conversation about Connor McDavid. "The people that are around him have to be doing their thing as well."

Three ex-Oilers coaches. Three new gigs. Better luck to them all.

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This Week's Winners and Losers

Winner: Julien BriesBois

The Tampa Bay Lightning general manager showed that Steve Yzerman wasn't the only salary-cap ninja, getting Brayden Point in at three years and $6.75 million annually, retaining his restricted free agent rights for another season after that. State taxes, the chance to win the Stanley Cup and living in Tampa are a heck of an enticement, apparently.

Loser: Toronto Maple Leafs

Auston Matthews is facing a disorderly conduct charge after being involved in an incident in May in his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona. The details of that charge are ugly. It became the lead story in Toronto when the news broke. I don't really care what this means for the Leafs' captaincy; I care that the Leafs, through media reports and coach Mike Babcock, didn't seem to know this news was coming. That's a bad look for them, and a worse look for their young star and his reps.

Winner: Justin Faulk

Faulk went from a diminishing role on a crowded Hurricanes blue line to the defending Stanley Cup champions, where the anticipation is that he'll quarterback their power play. Oh, and that seven-year extension for $45.5 million doesn't hurt either, whether he remains in St. Louis or in the unlikely event his old GM Ron Francis tries to pluck him away in the Seattle expansion draft.

Loser: Winnipeg Jets

Faulk was one of the better available defensemen on the trade market. Unfortunately, he also had trade protection, and ultimately chose St. Louis. But watching another defenseman move (to a division rival, no less) while watching an injury scare for defenseman Josh Morrissey once again underscored the predicament they're in after losing Jacob Trouba and Tyler Myers this offseason, and with Dustin Byfuglien's future in question.

Winner: Cammi Granato

The two-time Olympian and U.S. hockey legend is officially the NHL's first female pro scout after getting hired by Seattle. We've said for years that changing the gender makeup of NHL hockey operations is only going to come when women are in significant positions in those departments. This could be the first significant step for Granato to that end.

Loser: Everyone who didn't hire Cammi Granato

Seriously, it took Seattle getting an NHL team before someone hired a Hall of Famer to scout for them? Congrats to the newbies for thinking outside the box, for once.

Puck headlines

Katie Strang has more details on the Auston Matthews incident from police body cam footage. ($)

TMZ has the actual video of Matthews's accuser.

Remember Lalia Anderson, the young fan who inspired the St. Louis Blues? Well, now the Hockey Hall of Fame will.

May we forever see Jaromir Jagr scoring goals.

Targeting opiod use in youth hockey players. "When they looked at the different sports, ice hockey came out to about three-fold increased odds compared to the other sports."

A good look at the fight for ice time for the hockey community in Iowa.

Interesting note on faceoffs in the NHL, and how a rule change might alter them.

Hockey tl;dr (too long; didn't read)

Craig Custance is back with his goalie tiers. ($)

In case you missed this from your friends at ESPN

Sach Chandan with a look at celebrities who played (or still play) hockey, from Steve Carell to Paris Hilton.

As we enter the final days before the 2019-20 NHL season begins, we're on the lookout for underrated prospects. We dug through EliteProspects.com to see if we could find some under-the-radar players who could help fill some holes around the league. Instead, what we found was a veritable pipeline from the ice to Hollywood:

Note: Click on each name to see the person's career stats.

Keanu Reeves

Years before you knew him as Neo or John Wick, Keanu Reeves went by "The Wall." When his family moved to Toronto, the young Reeves picked up street hockey and ice hockey and primarily spent his time as a goalie. However, it was when he attended De La Salle College that he earned his nickname, and team MVP honors, for his athleticism in net.

According to The Hockey News, he was good enough to earn a tryout with the OHL's Windsor Spitfires. This was all a natural segue to his first movie role: a goalie in the Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze-led "Youngblood." Through the years, he has remarked on how cool it would have been to play in the NHL or on the Canadian Olympic team, but he has no regrets about taking the road that led him to be one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Steve Carell

Before he loved lamp, Steve Carell prevented other teams from lighting them.

Carell grew up in hockey-mad Boston and played goalie well enough to win a squirt-level national championship and later play for Division III Denison University in Ohio. Carell briefly entertained the thought of competing for a Division I starting job, but as a wise man once said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take," and he chose the tougher path of trying to make it in show business.

Recently seen cheering on the Boston Bruins in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, Carell credits the championship Bruins teams of the '70s for inspiring him to start playing hockey as a child. At age 51, Carell had surgery on his hip to fix a hockey injury suffered 12 years earlier, and he told David Letterman in 2013 that he was ready to start playing again soon. He still plays rec league hockey in California and told CNN in 2014 that he was "the LeBron James of rec-league hockey."

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber? What do you mean? The Canadian heartthrob might never have had a formal high school or college hockey career -- blame the fame -- but he is quite visible on the ice. Bieber played in the 2017 NHL All-Star Celebrity Shootout, in which he was famously driven into the boards by Chris Pronger. The Biebs plays pickup hockey to stay in shape while on the road and has posted Instagram videos of his goals.

He also has an impressive jersey collection, including a Maple Leafs jersey (obviously), a Devils jersey, a Coyotes jersey and even a Syracuse college hockey jersey that he wore on a date with wife Hailey Baldwin.

Evel Knievel

The daredevil, known for more than 75 stunt jumps, once had a minor league hockey career. As a teenage prospect, Robert "Evel" Knievel played for the Charlotte Checkers, but the legendary motorcycle driver's Checkers career ended when he refused to ride the team bus, according to 1959 newspaper reports.

What happened next was even more impressive. No, not the Caesars Palace jump; Knievel returned to his hometown of Butte, Montana, to be the player-owner of the Butte Bombers in 1959. He persuaded the Czechoslovakian national team to play a pre-Olympics exhibition in 1960 in Butte. The Bombers and starting center Knievel lost 22-3 and did not have enough money to pay the Czech delegation for the game.

Paris Hilton

In a 2007 interview, hotel heiress Paris Hilton was asked about her special talents, and she responded: "shopping, ice hockey and cooking." Huh? Well, before dominating tabloid headlines in the mid-2000s, Hilton was part of the 1998 Canterbury School hockey team. The school counts 1994 Olympian Mike Dunham among its alumni.

Hilton's reviews from the Connecticut prep school were ... not that hot. For starters, she didn't know what position she played, as she "would always move around." A former teammate told media that Hilton wasn't a particularly good skater and spent more of her concentration on trying to stand up. Perhaps the biggest sign that Hilton wasn't destined for success on the ice was that her helmet wouldn't fit properly, and when teammates removed it, they found her banana hair clip underneath to keep her hair in place.

Dave Coulier

Years before playing Uncle Joey on "Full House," the Detroit native was an avid hockey player.

He played hockey at Harper Woods High School in Michigan and continued to play recreationally as an adult after moving to California, even incorporating it into the plot of a "Full House" episode.

Coulier's hockey connections run deep, as he has worn Red Wings jerseys on "Full House" and "Fuller House," has served as an assistant coach at the NHL Centennial Alumni Game, and introduced co-star Candace Cameron to her husband, Valeri Bure.

Taylor Kitsch

The British Columbia native has played hockey since the age of 3 and was good enough to make it to junior league. The "Friday Night Lights" star played for the then-Langley Hornets in the BCHL before a knee injury ended his hockey career. As one door closed, another opened, and Kitsch transitioned into modeling and acting, moving to the United States soon afterward.

Michael Buble

Buble didn't spend any time in junior hockey or college hockey, but he is an owner of the WHL's Vancouver Giants. Like many Vancouver natives, Buble played hockey as a child, although he did so while dedicating himself to a career in music. The crooner once postponed a concert to fly home to Vancouver to witness Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. It didn't end well, as the Stanley Cup is one thing Vancouver hasn't met yet. Meanwhile, Buble has a full-size hockey rink at his mansion near Vancouver.

Richard Dean Anderson

He is known for his portrayal of the ever-resourceful secret agent Angus MacGyver, but acting wasn't the first career goal for the Minnesota native.

As a teenager, he wanted to be a professional hockey player, but his career ended because of repeated arm injuries.

Years later, Anderson launched the Celebrity All-Stars hockey team, a group of actors and other personalities who played hockey to raise money for charity. Teammates included Alex Trebek, Michael J. Fox and Alan Thicke. Through his fundraising efforts, Anderson has been able to share the ice with legends including Bobby Orr, Mike Eruzione and Gordie Howe.

Tom Glavine

The 1984 NHL draft is notable for a few reasons. In addition to producing three Calder Trophy winners, it featured five Hall of Famers -- but only four in hockey. Baseball Hall of Famer Glavine was a good enough center to be drafted in the fourth round, ahead of Hockey Hall of Famers Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille.

Unfortunately for the Los Angeles Kings, who drafted him, Glavine was also selected by the Atlanta Braves in the second round of the MLB draft just five days earlier, and he chose baseball. One scouting report on the Massachusetts native mentioned his good skating and scoring ability, as well as a quick release on his wrist shot. A former Kings assistant told USA Today that he saw Glavine as a third-line center who could match up with the other team's top line. We think he made an OK choice to go with the Braves.

SHANGHAI – Blake Windred had a bogey-free 9-under 63 to take a two-stroke lead after the first round of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.

Windred had four birdies on the front nine and five on the back, including birdies on his final four holes, at the Sheshan International Golf Club on Thursday.

"I need more of the same over the next few rounds," Windred said. "Hitting fairways is so crucial around here. Once I got the speed of the greens, I did OK."

Junhong Park was in second place after a 65, with seven players three behind with 68s.

The winner receives an invitation to compete in the Masters at Augusta and the British Open, while the runner-up gets a place in final qualifying for British Open.

Earlier Thursday, tournament officials said the event would return to Royal Melbourne in 2020 for the second time.

The tournament will be held from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1, 2020. When it was held at Royal Melbourne in 2014, it was won by Antonio Murdaca.

The Asia Pacific Golf Confederation, the Masters Tournament and the R&A, who run the tournament, made the announcement from Shanghai.

Lee Westwood didn't turn any heads for most of Thursday during the opening round of the Dunhill Links Championship, but that all changed in the blink of an eye.

After starting the day on Carnoustie's 10th hole, Westwood turned in even par. One birdie, one bogey in an otherwise ho-hum outward nine. Much of his inward nine was the same, with a lone birdie at the par-5 sixth. However, sparks began to fly shortly after that with one swing.

Better late than never, right? The ace moved Westwood to 3 under, where he would finish the day with an opening 69. Still, Westwood remains T-53 and six back of the lead held by Justin Walters.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Justin Walters shot a 9-under 63 for his lowest score on the European Tour in six years, giving him a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Thursday.

Walters, ranked No. 444, has not recorded a top-20 finish in 23 events on the tour this season but found some form on the Old Course at St. Andrews, one of three Scottish venues for the pro-am event.

Every player in the field plays 18 holes at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, before returning to the Old Course for the fourth and final round Sunday.

Three players - Victor Perez, Jordan Smith, and Ryan Fox - shot 64 at St. Andrews, with Adrian Otaegui shooting the same score at Kingsbarns.

The best score at Carnoustie, traditionally the toughest of the three courses, was a 65 by Matthew Southgate, who was in a six-way tie for sixth place overall.

Justin Rose, who was playing alongside singer Justin Timberlake, was in a large group on 4 under after a 68 at Kingsbarns. Second-ranked Rory McIlroy also played there and shot 70.

NAPA, Calif. – Don’t blame Francesco Molinari if he’s looking a little ragged this week while strolling the fairways at the Safeway Open.

Molinari arrived in wine country fresh off a title defense at the BMW PGA Championship in England, an intercontinental trek across eight time zones that didn’t land the former Open champ in California until Tuesday evening.

“I’m based in London, so it’s not the first time. I did it for the U.S. Open this year, but at least then I traveled on the Monday,” Molinari said. “I’m not sleeping great. I’m waking up early, but I had two early tee times yesterday and today, so that kind of helped.”

Molinari showed no signs of jet lag while making his first competitive start at Silverado Resort & Spa, shooting a 6-under 66 that left him one shot behind early leader Adam Scott. Molinari’s success came in spite of a wayward driver, as the Italian missed 11 of his first 12 fairways and found just three of 14 on the round.

But he made up for it in other ways, curling in more than 83 feet of putts including seven birdies to rank among the early putting leaders Thursday.

“I think the golf course, it’s really hard to hit the fairways, especially when you’ve got a breeze,” Molinari said. “I didn’t hit the ball great off the tee, so I had to do it from the rough. Short game was very good and I made a lot of putts, so obviously that helps a lot.”

While many players are easing their way into a new PGA Tour season, Molinari’s globetrotting campaign won’t let up anytime soon. Last week was his first European Tour start of the year, meaning he’ll play upcoming events in Italy, Turkey and Dubai to maintain his membership. Next month’s Italian Open made logistics for playing in the PGA Tour’s Asian Swing difficult, meaning he’ll skip that trifecta of lucrative events.

But the hectic schedule also opened up a window for him to make his first-ever trek to Napa, where he’s quickly found his footing despite a lack of sleep.

“I’ve only spent two days here, but so far I’m loving it,” he said. “I love California in general, and I’ve never been to this part so I wanted to see it as well.”

Nice forward Lamine Diaby-Fadiga has admitted to stealing teammate Kasper Dolberg's watch from a team dressing room last week, sources have confirmed to ESPN FC

The story was first reported by French outlet L'Equipe.

Diaby-Fadiga, 18, is one of the most promising prospects at the club, where he's been since joining the academy at age 13. Alongside his lawyers, he confessed his crime to the club, apologised to Dolberg and manager Patrick Vieira, and promised to reimburse his teammate for the full value of the watch.

The timepiece is worth €70,000.

Dolberg pressed charges against an unknown perpetrator he denoted as "X" last week after discovering the watch had been stolen during a training session. An official investigation was later opened by the police.

Nice are also investigating the matter on their side and Diaby-Fadiga risks having his contract terminated for gross misconduct as well as risking a criminal conviction.

The former France U16, U17 and U19 international made his debut for Nice as a 16-year-old and made six appearances for the first team last season.