GLENEAGLES, Scotland – Gleneagles’ PGA Centenary Course is a beautiful layout that cuts its way through the Perthshire countryside, the Grampian Mountains offering picturesque views in the distance.

But one thing it isn’t: links.

“It's kind of American-style golf course,” said Europe’s Charley Hull, “but then you look around you're in Scotland.”

The Centenary was designed by Jack Nicklaus in 1993 and hosted the 2014 Ryder Cup. While the course provides plenty of challenges, especially with its undulation (variety of lies, sloping greens, etc.), those problems aren’t what players are faced with on some of the classic seaside links venues in the U.K.

And with soft conditions this week, the ground game will be negated even more at Gleneagles, as players won’t have to worry about where their shots will bounce and roll like they do in firm and fast conditions.

“The golf course is definitely not links-style,” said American Danielle Kang, “and personally I'm happy about it.”

The Centenary will play long and should favor the longer hitters, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see lots of birdies (especially on gettable holes around the turn) with receptive and slower greens.

“I think you'll be very impressed with both sides of golf,” said U.S. captain Juli Inkster.

The wind will be an issue, though it has been consistent all week and on some holes trees and dunes block the gusts early in shots, which is a big transition for many American players. Friday’s forecast calls for 23-mph winds while Saturday and Sunday will see 27- and 25-mph winds, respectively.

The high temperatures will be in the mid-50s each day, so coupled with the wind and light rain that’s expected (40 percent on Friday and Sunday, 30 on Saturday), the Europeans should have a slight advantage with the conditions.

Europe assistant Laura Davies, however, would rather concede that advantage for another.

“The weather is good for the week, the galleries will be really noisy, and that's what we need,” Davies said. “Everyone says we want a bit of rain for the Americans. No, we want beautiful weather so the galleries can get out there and enjoy themselves and just cheer us on and be the 13th man out there, because that's what the home-soil advantage gives you.”

Napoli boss Carlo Ancelotti said he is "shocked" his club's dressing room at San Paolo remains an unfinished construction site days before their first home matches of the season against Sampdoria and Liverpool.

Napoli posted a video of the changing room on their Twitter feed on Thursday, which showed unfinished walls and floors plus missing sinks and electrical outlets.

- Champions League group stage: All you need to know

Sources close to the club assured ESPN FC the home dressing room will be ready for Saturday's match against Sampdoria and the issues do not affect the visiting changing room.

Queste le condizioni degli spogliatoi del Napoli dello stadio San Paolo, a 70 ore da #NapoliSampdoria, che hanno scatenato la reazione di @MrAncelotti contro Regione, Comune e Commissari. pic.twitter.com/YAROtscwIh

— Official SSC Napoli (@sscnapoli) September 12, 2019

The city-run stadium underwent renovation recently to host the Summer Universiade, with seats replaced, a scoreboard implemented, and new lighting.

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has been at odds with the city's mayor Mayor Luigi de Magistris over the state of the stadium.

"I accepted the club's request to play the first two games away from home to allow the work to be finished, as was promised," Ancelotti said in a club statement. "You can build a house in two months, but they weren't capable of renovating the dressing rooms!

"Where are we supposed to get changed for the games against Sampdoria and Liverpool? I am shocked at the incompetence of the people in charge of the work."

Napoli host Sampdoria on Saturday in Serie A -- having played their first two matches away from home -- then open their Champions League campaign against holders Liverpool on Tuesday.

Information from ESPN FC's Andrew Cesare Richardson was used in this report

Shubman Gill has won his first Test call up on Thursday as India announced their squad for the home series against South Africa. The former Under-19 World Cup winner replaced KL Rahul from the team that went to the Caribbean recently, which means India will be trialing a new opening combination when the series starts on October 2.

Mayank Agarwal kept his spot at the top of the order but there has been a lot of speculation on who will partner him. Rohit Sharma's name had done the rounds in the lead-up to the squad being named - with pundits such as former captain Sourav Ganguly and one-time IPL team-mate Adam Gilchrist supporting his promotion up the Indian batting order. Then the man himself expressed his desire to do the job and chief selector MSK Prasad was happy to give Rohit all three Tests against South Africa to make his case.

"Yes, we are definitely looking at him [as an opener], and we want to give him an opportunity," Prasad said. "He [himself] is keen, and all of us in the selection committee are keen [as well]. We want to push him, and give him some opportunities up the order, and see where does he stand, and then we will take a call.

"He has opening in white-ball cricket for more than a decade [since 2013]. We feel he has the capability to bat up the order, and we have seen that in white-ball cricket, and if he can do that in red-ball cricket, then nothing like it. We have a lot of practice matches coming up, which will be a boost to this side."

This continues a lengthy second-coming for Rohit, who last year said he had made peace with the start-stop nature of his Test career. It was 2010 when he was supposed to don the India whites for the first time, but an ankle injury threw a spanner into those plans. He finally made that long-awaited debut three years later against West Indies and smashed back-to-back centuries, suggesting that he was more than ready for the step up to the longest format. However, issues against the moving ball has restricted him to a mere 27 Test appearances, prompting him to go rather philosophical last May.

"There's limited time you have as a player and I have finished almost half of it. There's no point in spending the remaining half thinking whether I'll be picked or not. I am going forward with the theory of 'whatever time I have, make it count'," Rohit told PTI, referring to his record in international red-ball cricket."

Gill, meanwhile, has been banging the door down to India's Test team for a while. In July, the 20 year-old had expressed his disappointment at not being selected for India's tour of the West Indies, saying he expected to be there in at least one of the squads. He responded by scoring an unbeaten 204 off just 248 balls after coming in at 14 for 3 against West Indies A in the third four-day game. Earlier this week, captaining India A against South Africa A in Thiruvananthapuram, Gill scored 90 in the first innings.

In 14 first-class matches so far, Gill has amassed 1443 runs at an average of 72.15 with a highest score of 268. In Ranji Trophy 2018-19, he was the top-scorer for Punjab with 728 runs at an average of 104 despite playing only five games.

The rest of the team lines up as it did in the Caribbean where Virat Kohli became India's most successful Test captain after winning the series 2-0. Jasprit Bumrah leads the fast bowling attack alongside Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami. Both Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin, and Kuldeep Yadav too, may expect more game time with the three Tests being played in spin-friendly venues such as Visakhapatnam, Pune and Ranchi. Rishabh Pant lines up as first-choice wicketkeeper while fast bowler Umesh Yadav has been pushed out.

Big Picture

Zimbabwe are a cricket team in desperate need of context; Bangladesh, one that is aching for a return to normalcy and stability. Bangladesh's first T20I match of the year, against an opponent they have dominated at home in recent years, should give them just the sort of soft landing they need in this tri-series ahead of what will likely be sterner challenges against Afghanistan, who are probably the favourites at this stage.

Hot on the heels of the Test defeat to Afghanistan, further ructions are at play in Bangladesh's cricket system, with the Bangladesh Cricket Board set to take charge of the next edition of the BPL after a fallout with the team owners. Shakib Al Hasan has grown increasingly frustrated in his captaincy tenure, and the T20 World Cup is just a year away. A win over Zimbabwe will go some way towards calming everything down a little bit for Bangladesh.

Zimbabwe, of course, do not have any global tournament on the horizon to look forward to. They are still under suspension, and both the men's and women's sides lost their places at the T20 World Cup Qualifiers as a result. The suspension opened up divisions in their squad that are yet to fully heal.

Zimbabwe enter the series without one of their most accomplished players as Sikandar Raza has been left out for 'disciplinary reasons' - a curious catch-all phrase that is yet to be fully explained. Their head coach, Lalchand Rajput, admitted that Raza will undoubtedly be missed, but he also underscored that Zimbabwe are a team in transition, with their eyes on the future. What that means for Raza's future remains to be seen. And with only three members of the squad aged 25 or under, and nine aged 30 or above, Zimbabwe do not appear to be in a huge rush to usher in a new era.

And first, they will say goodbye to the past. This series will be Hamilton Masakadza's last in national colours. A long-time servant of the game, Masakadza has struggled a little of late, amid tumultuous times, and will be desperate for his last games as captain to be happy ones. So, surely, will Shakib.

Form guide

(Last five completed matches, most recent first)

Bangladesh: LWLWW

Zimbabwe: WLTLL

In the spotlight

Since his teenage Test hundred on debut 18 years ago, Hamilton Masakadza has summited several statistical peaks for his team, and he will go out playing a format in which he blazed a trail for his country, holding several Zimbabwean records. But the last year has been a lean one in all formats: he has passed fifty only once in internationals - during the Sylhet Test the last time Zimbabwe visited Bangladesh. Runs at the top of the order will provide a fitting finale, as well as vastly improving his team's chances of success.

Shakib Al Hasan is Bangladesh's leading wicket-taker in this format over the last year, and is only narrowly behind Liton Das as their leading T20I run-scorer over the same time period. Indeed, he is central to Bangladesh's fortunes no matter the format, and in a sense the spotlight is always on him. Perhaps that is why he has become an increasingly reluctant captain. But there will be no let-up for him just yet, and Bangladesh will continue to look to Shakib as a leader with bat and ball, even if he doesn't have the captain's hat on.

Team news

Tamim Iqbal is still on R & R leave, so Bangladesh will have to cobble together a new opening pair for this series. But plenty of experience remains in the core of the middle order. There could be some new faces lower down, however, and Afif Hossain's three quick wickets for the BCB XI on Wednesday could see him picked ahead of Mosaddek Hossain, while pace bowler Yeasin Arafat may be in line for a T20I debut.

Bangladesh (probable): 1 Liton Das, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Sabbir Rahman, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 5 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Mohammad Saifuddin, 8 Afif Hossain, 9 Taijul Islam, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Yeasin Arafat

Brendan Taylor kept wicket in Zimbabwe's warm-up match, and will likely take the gloves again, despite Zimbabwe having, somewhat bizarrely, two specialist wicketkeepers in the squad in Regis Chakabva and Richmond Mutumbami. The absence of Raza leaves a hole in the middle order but Timycen Maruma's outing against the BCB XI in the tour opener means he should fill the vacant slot ahead of either of the wicketkeepers. Chris Mpofu, Zimbabwe's leading wicket-taker in T20Is over the last year, didn't get a bowl in the warm-up, so he may well be left out of the series opener.

Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Hamilton Masakadza (capt), 2 Brendan Taylor (wk), 3 Craig Ervine, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Timycen Maruma, 6 Ryan Burl, 7 Tino Mutombodzi, 8 Neville Madziva, 9 Kyle Jarvis, 10 Ainsley Ndlovu, 11 Tendai Chatara

Pitch and conditions

The T20 strip at the Shere Bangla Stadium has built a reputation for big scores in recent times: Bangladesh breached 200 here for the first time during West Indies' visit in December last year. This should be a good track to bat on, while probably offering a little more to the spinners than it will the quicks.

While the track might be conducive to exciting cricket, the weather may not. Rain is forecast in Dhaka in the morning and the evening. This being an evening game, wet weather is likely to be around.

Stats that matter

• Hamilton Masakadza's 1529 runs in this format are the most by a Zimbabwean, and almost twice as many as the man below him on the list, Elton Chigumbura. He also holds the record for most fifties (10), and most runs in a series - the 222 he scored over four games in Bangladesh in 2015/16.

• Craig Ervine is Zimbabwe's leading run-scorer in this format over the last year, with 211 runs at an average of 70.33

• The last time these two teams met in a T20 here, allrounder Neville Madziva inspired Zimbabwe to a win when Bangladesh seemingly had the match in the bag, spanking two sixes and a four in the final over to pull off a memorable heist

• Bangladesh have won five of the nine T20Is between these two sides

• Shakib Al Hasan is Bangladesh's leading run-scorer and wicket-taker against Zimbabwe in this format, with 185 runs at 37.00 and 12 wickets at 17.50 against them

Tennessee Titans defensive back Logan Ryan expressed his appreciation Wednesday to the Cleveland Browns for acting swiftly in banning the fan who doused him with beer at FirstEnergy Stadium last Sunday.

Problem is, the Browns appear to have banned the wrong fan.

A man named Eric Smith claiming he was banned by the Browns told WKYC in Cleveland that he wasn't even at the stadium, and that he was DJing at a wedding on Sunday instead.

I legit just got a got from the @Browns telling me I've been banned from the stadium for throwing the beer in Logan Ryan's face Sunday. I'm fairly certain I haven't been to a game since 2010.

— Eric Smith (@TheBeardedDJ) September 11, 2019

.@Browns pic.twitter.com/bTDWZd4Lxa

— Eric Smith (@TheBeardedDJ) September 11, 2019

Cleveland Music Group vs the Browns

I love Cleveland so much! ??? pic.twitter.com/GjtFjdeH65

— Eric (@EricGebhardt06) September 11, 2019

The Browns released a statement Wednesday night:

"Our investigation of the fan incident on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium remains ongoing. While we are continuing to gather information and have been in contact with multiple people as part of that process, we have not explicitly identified the individual involved or taken any formal action of punishment at this time. We will have no further comment until the investigation is complete."

British athletes win six gold medals on day seven of the European Masters Championships

After Tuesday’s rest day, it was a quiet return on Wednesday at the European Masters Championships in Italy. There were no track finals but Britain still won six gold medals.

Two of these were for former Olympians Ian Richards and John Watts, while there were additional golds for Evaun Williams and Joanne Willoughby.

Olympic 50km walker Richards had already won a 5000m title on the track and here he added the 10km road walk. His time of 49:32 gave him a two-minute win over Italy’s Ettorino Formentin.

In third place Peter Boszko won his second medal of the Games with a time of 53:06.

Richards won his third gold with the M70 team defeating Italy by over six minutes to win the team contest.

World Masters bronze medallist Noel Blatchford won Britain’s other walking gold in the W70 category.

It was close though as Blatchford’s 61:37 gave her just a seven second margin over Ukraine’s Antonina Tyshko.

Cath Duhig won her second medal in Italy with a bronze in the W60s in 57:08 and she also won a team silver with assistance from Ann Wheeler in sixth and Judy Howard in 12th.

Britain’s W50 team also won a bronze.

The fastest walkers overall were Netherlands’ M40 Rick Liesting and German M35 Andreas Janker (both 41:26) and German W40 Blanca Schenker (48:00).

Richards was not the only British Olympian to win gold and another, Penny Forse, had won gold in the earlier cross-country.

Watts, who threw in the Munich Olympics 47 years ago and has a PB of 59.70m in finishing second in that year’s Olympic trials, won his third medal of the championships but first gold.

The discus is his speciality though and after a no throw, he then threw the five longest throws of the competition, peaking with a 39.25m fifth round throw to go very close to his British record and within two metres of the world record. Germany’s Roland Heiler won silver with 32.59m.

Williams won her fourth gold in the W80 category.

Already in possession of the shot, discus and hammer titles, she added the javelin with a 26.64m throw to go within a metre of her world record.

Her worst throw was 23.83m and the best the opposition mustered was a 11.64m.

Another multi champion is Willoughby as she added the W55 long jump title to her triple jump won earlier in the week.

She only won by nine centimetres but produced a superbly consistent series of 4.56m, 4.66m, 4.57m, 4.50m. 4.69m and 4.63m to defeat Birgit Burzlaff of Germany’s 4.60m.

Melanie Garland jumped 4.50m for third.

Dougie Graham went one place better than the World Masters to win a M40 bronze in the pole vault with a 4.20m leap.

Other top overseas performances included Sweden’s M45 pole vaulter Jonas Asplund (4.70m).

In the 200m heats M80 Anthony Treacher (33.14), M65 Steve Peters (25.83) and W65 Caroline Powell (30.77) qualified fastest.

Powell’s nearest opposition for the final is seemingly fellow Brits Joylyn Saunders-Mullin (32.62) and Caroline Marler (33.46).

M35 100m champion Jonathan Browne (22.13) was a whole second faster than the other seven who made the final.

Qualifying fastest for the semi-finals were M60 John Wright (25.68) and M55 Don Brown (24.51).

In the 800m, Britain had the three fastest M50 finalists led by David Matthew (2:07:26), Dominic Bokor-Ingram (2:07.79) and 1500m champion Mark Symes (2:08.47).

European Masters 1500m champion Mark Symes wins his 800m heat to qualify for Friday’s final @emacvenice2019 pic.twitter.com/o27jYPdYDv

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) September 11, 2019

M60 1500m and 10,000m champion Paul Fletcher was third fastest in his heat (2:18.70) though top ranked former 1:45 international Paul Forbes pulled up injured.

In the W55s 1500m, cross-country and 10,000m champion Clare Elms (2:43.10) and 400m champion Virginia Mitchell (2:47.28) were fastest.

W40 1500m champion Zoe Doyle qualified third fastest in 2:18.67 behind Ireland’s Denise Toner (2:17.89) and Annette Quaid (2:18.34).

Thanks largely to the team golds, Italy are back in front of the medal table with 64 gold, 51 silver and 49 bronze to Germany’s 60, 64 and 59, Britain’s 46, 34 and 46 and Finland’s 27, 15 and 11.

Britain’s gold medallists Days 1-7

Clare Elms: W55 1500m, 10,000m, XC, XC team
Evaun Williams: W80 shot, discus, hammer, javelin
Ian Richards: M70 5000m walk, 10km walk, 10km team walk
Paul Fletcher: M60 1500m, 10,000m
Steve Peters: M65 100m, 400m
John Wright: M60 100m, 400m
Caroline Powell: W65 100m, 400m
Joanne Willoughby: W55 long jump, triple jump
Matt Barnes: M40 1500m
Ed Betts: M45 400mH
Norel Blatchford: W70 10km walk
Guy Bracken: M55 1500m
Ian Broadhurst: M65 300mH
Don Brown: M55 100m
Jonathan Browne: M35 100m
Gintas Degutis: M45 shot
Nisha Desai: W35 400mH
Zoe Doyle: W40 1500m
Lucy Elliott: W50 XC, XC team
Jean Fail: W70 200mH
Iris Holder: W75 triple jump
Jane Horder: W60 300mH
Andrew Leach: M55 10,000m
Virginia Mitchell: W55 400m
Julie Rogers: W55 300mH
Victor Shirley: M75 1500m
Mark Symes: M50 1500m
Ros Tabor: W70 1500m
Anthony Treacher: M80 Triple jump
John Watts: M80 discus
Team gold medallists not included above
Karen Rushton/Sue Ridley: W50 XC
Christine Anthony/Jane Pidgeon: W55 XC
Peter Boszko/Roger Mitchell: M70 10km walk

See @emacvenice2019 on Twitter.

Jose Mourinho has said Cristiano Ronaldo's mental and physical form is worthy of a case study.

The Juventus forward scored four goals as Portugal beat Lithuania in a Euro 2020 qualifier on Tuesday to increase his tally to 93 international goals.

- Euro 2020 qualifying: All you need to know

Ronaldo, who achieved his eighth hat trick in international football against Lithuania, surpassed Robbie Keane to become the all-time record scorer in European qualifiers on 25 goals.

"It doesn't surprise me," Mourinho, who coached Ronaldo at Real Madrid for three seasons, told Portuguese TV.

"At 34, he is top in the world, in a top team, in top condition. I'm not surprised whatsoever because genetically and mentally he is a case study.

"He is someone that only thinks about winning, about beating records, achieving more and becoming better. He is truly a phenomenon and it really doesn't surprise me."

Only Iranian legend Ali Daei with 109 has scored more goals in international football than Ronaldo.

Mourinho joked the five-time Ballon d'Or winner will continue scoring even after he retires.

"When he is 50 years old he will be at home and FIFA will invite him to a game of legends," Mourinho said. "He will play the game and score a goal. I am sure it will be like that."

Doing a fair impersonation of invincibility, Manchester City resume their quest for a third successive Premier League title at Norwich on Saturday.

Surprisingly, they have been held to 0-0 draws at Carrow Road on their last two league visits. You could get rich putting money on a repeat of that scoreline this time around.

The newly-promoted Canaries, a bold bunch, are quoted at 20-1 by bookmakers to win this weekend and that is a realistic assessment of their chances given the lethal attack of City and their own porous and inexperienced defence.

Nothing we have seen suggests any club other than Liverpool can possibly keep pace with Pep Guardiola's smooth operators. The recent 2-2 draw between Arsenal and Spurs, while thrilling, highlighted the flaws in both teams. Chelsea are easy on the eye but suspect defensively, and Manchester United look short of a creative No. 10 and a prolific goal scorer.

- Luck Index 2019: City unlucky, United worse than sixth?
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But might there just be one nagging worry for City? Aymeric Laporte's nasty knee injury, which will rob them of their first-choice central defender for four months, restricts options in a key area. It leaves John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi holding the fort and neither were automatic selections last year; Stones played 24 and Otamendi appeared in only 18 of 38 league games. Those statistics suggests neither are totally trusted by Guardiola, though he must tell us he has unswerving devotion to both.

City fans must be wishing they still had their inspirational leader Vincent Kompany to call on, but he has left for Anderlecht. Other options include the immensely talented but untried youngster Eric Garcia or, more likely, pushing defensive midfielder Fernandinho back into the defence. Even left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko can play more centrally at a push.

But this is not an ideal situation for a team likely to be allowed few slip-ups by a Liverpool side that lost only once last season.

Guardiola will certainly be keeping his fingers crossed for no further injuries in this area. Having pointed out that issue, it is more than probable that even if City do concede a few more goals with Laporte out, they will usually still score enough at the other end to keep winning.

Meanwhile, Liverpool have made a 100% start and show signs of hitting even higher gears. The sideline tantrum by Sadio Mane at Burnley though was surprising. He was apparently fuming about Mohamed Salah's greedy refusal to set him up when far better placed to score.

Was the incident a storm in a teacup, a little creative tension between fired-up players? Or was it a sign that the relationship between these two excellent strikers is a little strained? Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, of course, insists all is "cool," to use his favourite word.

In any event, it need not be a big deal. When Manchester United won their Treble 20 years ago, strikers Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole famously never spoke to each other off the pitch. There is nothing in the players' contracts that says they have to like one another. But it helps if they do.

In truth, we might be reaching at straws to find holes in two title-chasing teams when none actually exist.

The second season of the Afghanistan Premier League (APL) has been postponed to 2020 after the Afghanistan Cricket Board terminated the league's Sanction and Commercial Rights Agreement with Snixer Sports over failure to pay the complete rights fees and "risks for the integrity of the league posed by people connected to Snixer Sports". The tournament had been scheduled for October this year.

"The failure by Snixer Sports to pay the complete rights fees of the first edition as per the fees and payment schedule of the agreement, and concerns about risks for integrity of the league posed by people connected to Snixer Sports are the reasons for termination that form material breaches of the agreement," the ACB said in a statement.

The board also said that it had written to the Attorney General's Office of the Government of Afghanistan to "fully investigate the administrative allegations of corruption in the league" and that it remained committed to "ensuring transparency in all its affairs and is accountable to all stakeholders."

A tender for sanction and commercial rights to the second season of the league will be issued in due course.

Following the signing of the tournament's MoU in January last year, the first edition of the league was held between October 5 and 21 in Sharjah, UAE and featured a host of international names. Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Andre Russell, Brendon McCullum and Rashid Khan were picked as icon players by the five franchises, representing Paktia, Kabul, Balkh, Nangarhar and Kandahar

The Afghanistan league is the second T20 league to run into problems in as many months. In August, the inaugural season of the Euro T20 Slam was cancelled, only two weeks prior to its scheduled start. The Euro T20 Slam organisers, led by Gurmeet Singh's Bombay Sports Limited and Woods Entertainment, the same group in charge of the Global T20 Canada, had run into increasing financial difficulties. The Global T20 Canada, too, faced issues, with player protests over unpaid wages.

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