The autographed last NHL jersey ever worn by Wayne Gretzky sold for $715,120 with Grey Flannel Auctions on Sunday night.

It was the highest sale price for a U.S.-based hockey jersey, eclipsing Mike Eruzione's 1980 "Miracle On Ice" jersey that sold for $657,250 in 2013.

Gretzky wore the record-setting No. 99 jersey while scoring his 2,857th and final NHL point as a member of the New York Rangers on April 18, 1999. No other player in NHL history has reached 2,000 points.

The jersey was displayed in Madison Square Garden's "Defining Moments" Museum from 2016 to 2019, but this auction is the first time it was offered publicly, including a photo-matched letter from authenticator MeiGray and Rangers-letterheaded testimony from John Rosasco, the former and longest-serving head of communications in Rangers history supporting the jersey's veracity.

It's also the third most expensive hockey jersey of all-time, behind Gretzky's final Edmonton Oilers jersey ($1.452 million, also with Grey Flannel Auctions) and Paul Henderson's Canada national team jersey worn during the 1972 Summit Series against the USSR ($1.275 million in 2010).

There have been only 50 seasons of 130-plus points in NHL history; Gretzky posted 13 and only three other players (Mario Lemieux, Phil Esposito and Marcel Dionne with six, four and three, respectively) have more than three. Gretzky also has 11 of the 13 100-plus assist seasons in NHL history; his 1,963 career assists are 714 more than Ron Francis' second-place total.

Gretzky retired in 1999 and was immediately inducted into hockey's Hall of Fame in Toronto, an hour and a half southwest of his hometown of Brantford. He became the 10th player in NHL history to bypass the three-year waiting period.

Gretzky remains only the third athlete to have his number retired league-wide, preceded by Jackie Robinson's No. 42 in Major League Baseball and joined by Bill Russell's No. 6 in the NBA after his death last July.

Jamie Mulligan’s normally relaxed smile brightens when he talks about Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course. “There’s a subtle pride in California golf,” he says.

Mulligan grew up playing junior events on the North Course and is considered by many the dean of L.A. golf. He’s the CEO of Virginia Country Club, which is about 20 miles from LACC; a longtime PGA Tour swing coach, whose stable of players includes world No. 4 Patrick Cantlay; and as West Coast as golf can be. Like so many others, he’s also waited a long time for this L.A. Open.

“There’s a mystique about West Coast golf because most of the golf world is east of that – it’s Texas, it’s Georgia, it’s Florida, it’s the Northeast. We’re so proud of our golf and our heritage in golf but it’s pretty sneaky compared to the rest of the world,” Mulligan says. “When you come west it’s special.”

The golf world will receive a crash course in LACC golf this week as the first major descends on the Los Angeles area since the 1995 PGA Championship at Riviera Country Club. For the likes of Mulligan, who has been playing the North Course for so long he can describe five distinct versions of the venerable layout, this year’s U.S. Open is a long-awaited showcase of nuance and subtle brilliance. For so many others, LACC looms as a great unknown.

Few have any practical competitive experience on the North Course since Gil Hanse’s redesign in 2010 and those who do, like Cantlay and fellow L.A. native Max Homa, it’s a limited snapshot under non-USGA conditions.

“It’s going to play hard. I’ve heard the rough’s thick and that time of year in L.A., it can get really firm. It will put a premium on driving which is great for the U.S. Open, especially for a big U.S. Open,” says Homa, who shot a North Course-record, 9-under 61 in the 2013 Pac-12 Championship. “I think they’ll spice it up.”

Justin Suh may be the player in this week’s field with the most experience on the North Course, having played the layout 10 times while he was in college at USC.

“It's long, it's very difficult. It's probably one of the most craziest green complexes that I've seen. You got to, there's places to miss it, places to favor and I think it's just going to be a great test of golf,” Suh says.

Most accounts of the North Course paint a familiar picture – thick rough (although the Bermuda was late to fill in this year because of an unseasonably wet and cool spring), small greens and fast conditions. Most also touch on the heart and soul of the layout which are the par 3s, particularly the juxtaposition between the 11^th hole, which can play to a staggering 300 yards, and the 15^th, which can measure under 90 yards.

But that, according to most “locals,” is an oversimplification of what makes the North Course special.

“I’m not a huge fan of crazy long, long par 3s. The best par 3 out there is the 15^th and it can play 75 yards. It’s an amazing hole,” Homa says. “It depends on which tees they use but they are the hardest part of the golf course.”

With a favorable forecast for the week, USGA officials are expected to make the course hard and fast which, Mulligan explains, is what makes the North Course one of the game’s true gems – late movement.

“The thing about West Coast golf that a lot of people don’t get is the topography of the land going toward the ocean is prevalent all up and down the coast. You don’t see it but it’s the way the ground spills,” Mulligan says. “Late movement, on the fairways and the greens. Everything is going to spill off that topography, especially if they get it hard and get it fast.”

Compared to traditional U.S. Open venues, the fairways on the North Course are wide but because of that topography and the firm conditions they will effectively play extremely narrow.

The best example of this is the par-4, 419-yard second hole, which Mulligan explains is a textbook example of the course’s subtle demands. “You have to play into the cambers and take into account which way the wind is blowing. The second hole is a perfect example of that,” he says.

Like most things in Los Angeles, the North Course and Hanse’s reimagined handiwork of George Thomas Jr.’s original layout will only be a part of the story. A decades'-long wait for a major championship, combined with the kind of high-profile energy you can only find in Tinsel Town, promises to be a potent combination.

Rory McIlroy has never seen the North Course before this week but he envisions something special because, “West Coast Opens deliver,” and unlike Torrey Pines or The Olympic Club or even Pebble Beach, a Los Angeles Open will be the show within the show.

“The West Coast feel is laid-back, chill California and this is swanky, laid-back and chill California. You’re right in the middle of Beverly Hills,” says Mulligan, to sum up this championship’s vibe. “If you get a clear day out there you can see the Hollywood sign.”

The North Course is a part of the West Coast golf fabric and Mulligan’s pride is well placed. As he explains, “all the great ones, when you get on it there’s a feel to it.”

Minnesota Vikings pass-rusher Danielle Hunter is planning to hold out from the team's mandatory minicamp this week as questions persist about his future with the team, a source confirmed Monday.

Hunter, 28, is entering the final year of a contract he originally signed in 2018. A renegotiation last year moved a portion of his future compensation up to 2022, leaving him with a deal that calls for him to earn a base salary of $4.9 million in 2023 with weekly roster bonuses that could total $500,000.

He skipped the voluntary portion of the Vikings' offseason program as the sides discussed further contract adjustments, but the decision to hold out increases the stakes of the dispute. Skipping mandatory minicamp will subject him to mandatory fines of $16,459 for the first day and $32,920 for the second, according to the NFL's collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association, and calls into question whether he will report to training camp when it begins in late July.

Hunter, 28, returned last season from two years of injuries to record 10.5 sacks even after transitioning from a 4-3 defensive end to a 3-4 outside linebacker. Multiple NFL teams have monitored his status this offseason, but there have been no serious trade talks to date.

Hunter's decision caps a busy offseason for general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who has accelerated a roster revamp in the second year of what he has called a "competitive rebuild." He has bid farewell to four longtime veteran starters (receiver Adam Thielen, running back Dalvin Cook, linebacker Eric Kendricks and cornerback Patrick Peterson), convinced two to take a pay cut (safety Harrison Smith and linebacker Jordan Hicks) and traded one (pass-rusher Za'Darius Smith).

Adofo-Mensah did sign free agent pass-rusher Marcus Davenport to a one-year contract, but his arrival was initially viewed as a replacement for Za'Darius Smith. Fourth-year player D.J. Wonnum has been working in Hunter's spot during OTA practices.

The NFL Network first reported the news of Hunter's pending holdout.

LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has opened a review of the PGA Tour's planned alliance with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the subcommittee, notified PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan of the inquiry in a letter Monday. The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund (PIF) announced on Tuesday that they're forming a new for-profit entity that will combine their commercial businesses, including the LIV Golf League, which PIF is funding.

Blumenthal sent a nearly identical letter to LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman on Monday.

"While few details about the agreement are known, PIF's role as an arm of the Saudi government and PGA Tour's sudden and drastic reversal of position concerning LIV Golf raise serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the announced agreement," Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Monahan.

Blumenthal noted that PIF, with assets of more than $700 billion, was created by the Saudi Arabian monarchy and operated by a board under the guidance of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who will serve as chairman of the new golf entity, is one of Bin Salman's close friends and confidants.

"PGA Tour's agreement with PIF regarding LIV Golf raises concerns about the Saudi government's role in influencing this effort and the risks posed by a foreign government entity assuming control over a cherished American institution," Blumenthal wrote. "PIF has announced that it intends to use investments in sports to further the Saudi government's strategic objectives."

Blumenthal and other politicians have criticized the Saudis' billion-dollar investments into sports, including Formula 1, England's Premier League and professional golf, as a form of "sportswashing" to soften the country's image around the world, given the monarchy's history of human rights abuses and its role in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

"[P]rior to this agreement, PGA Tour was one of the loudest critics of LIV Golf's affiliation with Saudi Arabia," Blumenthal wrote.

The PGA Tour has said the new agreement with PIF would not affect its operations. The tour said it would continue to operate as a tax-exempt nonprofit and would control its scheduling, sanctioning of events, rules and competition. Blumenthal told Monahan that the tour's alliance with the Saudis might put its tax-exempt status at risk.

"This assertion raises additional questions about the terms of the agreement and whether a foreign government may indirectly benefit from provisions in U.S. tax laws meant to promote not-for-profit business associations," Blumenthal wrote.

In the letters to Monahan and Norman, Blumenthal requested myriad documents and communication related to the relationship between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and PIF; a copy of the agreement and any plans for the new entity; Monahan's communication with others "concerning risks to PGA Tour posed by LIV Golf, ownership of LIV Golf, and Saudi Arabia's influence on LIV Golf;" those related to any dispute between the PGA Tour and PIF, LIV Golf, Monahan or Al-Rumayyan; records relating to the Tour's tax-exempt status; documents produced by the Tour in response to any inquiry or investigation by law enforcement or a regulatory agency; and the tour's and new entity's organizational charts.

The PGA Tour and the LIV Golf League have until June 26 to produce the documents to the subcommittee, according to the letter.

Shortly after the stunning deal was announced Tuesday, Blumenthal said in a statement: "The PGA Tour has spent two years lambasting Saudi sports-washing and paying lip service [to] the integrity of the sport of golf, which will now be used unabashedly by the Kingdom to distract from its many crimes. The PGA Tour has placed a price on human rights and betrayed the long history of sports and athletes that advocate for social change and progress. I will keep a close eye on the structure of this deal and its implications."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also expressed concerns about the proposed alliance and said she'll be watching its structure closely. In a statement to Time, Warren said the PGA was "selling out to the Saudi regime to draw attention from its atrocious human rights record with a new golf monopoly."

The U.S. Department of Justice is also conducting an investigation into the PGA Tour's alleged monopolistic behavior. The investigation was launched after 11 LIV Golf players filed a federal antitrust case against the PGA Tour. The new alliance ends all court proceedings between the PGA Tour and PIF, according to a news release announcing the deal.

Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro, who was officially upgraded to questionable Monday, is expected to dress and attempt to play in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, sources told ESPN.

Herro has been out since April 16, when he broke his right hand in Game 1 of the Heat's first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks. He's still experiencing a level of discomfort in the surgically repaired hand but is hopeful to try to give the Heat what he can with the team trailing 3-1 to the Denver Nuggets, sources said.

Herro has been the Heat's second-leading scorer this season, averaging 20.1 points while converting on 203 3-pointers in the regular season. The Heat can certainly use that production as their starting backcourt of Gabe Vincent and Max Strus are shooting 29% from 3 so far in the Finals.

Karsten Warholm won’t die wondering. This is a man completely committed to his cause and it doesn’t need an expert observer to recognise this most elemental of athletes transfers every ounce of his being to the track. 

Exhibit A: the 400m final at this year’s European Indoor Championships in Istanbul. The man who is best known for being the 400m hurdles world record-breaking Olympic champion is pretty useful over the flat, too, and was the undoubted favourite to take gold. 

He wasn’t about to start playing the percentages, though, and catapulted himself out of the blocks like a man possessed. The first half was covered in a near suicidal 20.84 (an outright 200m PB), with the second lap clocked at a considerably more painful 24.51 as the lactic swept through his body and he tumbled across the line with the competition closing in. When he got to his feet, though, Warholm had finished as the champion. 

As athletics writer Cathal Dennehy observed at the time: “Karsten Warholm is the most violent runner I’ve ever seen. It’s like he hates the track with every step.” The athlete in question smiles and has a little laugh to himself at the memory of that final. He knows it wasn’t a race run by the book, but where’s the fun in that?

Warholm is one of the most refreshing athletes to be found on the international circuit. Ask for his opinion on something and he will give it. There’s no skirting around any issue, rather a head-on approach which mirrors his running style. We start with that distinctive, “violent” operating style. It’s a description with which he doesn’t disagree and points to it being the very foundation for his considerable success.

“To be honest, I think there are a lot of athletes around the world that have bigger natural potential than myself,” says the two-time world champion. “I think it’s easy when you see a very gifted, talented runner who has all these things naturally, but me? It’s something I have created over the years with training.

“It’s always been me running because I really want to win, I really want to achieve and it’s all this willpower going into my stride. Yes, I think it’s violent. It’s not something that I do on purpose but that’s the way I get out my speed and I think, from the first step, for me it’s a battle to win.

“When the gun goes, there are no jokes for me anymore. This is all the hours that I put in.

“I just run with a lot of aggression, but it works well for me.”

It is indeed an important point to make that such a relentlessly forceful template would not work for most athletes, yet for Warholm it does come with some important benefits. 

“A lot of athletes have tried my spike, but they can’t bend the [carbon] plate [within the shoe] – it’s the way I’m pushing with every step. That’s why I can have probably the stiffest carbon plate in the game, because there’s so much power in each step.

“It doesn’t always look technically out of the schoolbook but it’s the way that I run the fastest and I don’t want to change that.”

And with that we veer towards the next subject, which can be a touchy one in athletics circles: footwear. Some distance athletes have become increasingly willing to discuss the role being played by the rapid advances in shoe technology on the roads, but that is not necessarily a situation being replicated by track competitors when it comes to their spikes. 

Warholm, again, is an exception. He made headlines in the aftermath of his extraordinary Tokyo gold medal-winning run by calling Nike’s super spikes “bull***t” at a time when the American super brand were still very clear leaders in the technological race. 

The landscape has shifted, though, and Warholm has worked very closely with sponsors Puma to develop his current competition footwear. He now sees the battle between the brands as a positive step for the sport. 

He isn’t about to pretend the tools of his trade don’t make a difference, though, and there’s a reminder of his willingness to poke fun at himself, too, given that his Naio Nitro Elite spikes are adorned by a logo which reads #BS.

“I think I’m the only athlete that’s actually been honest about what shoes bring to the game but it’s a game changer for sure. But now I have the best shoe so I don’t care,” he grins.

“I was really stressed about this before going to Tokyo because you saw all of these prototypes coming up and nobody had control. The athletes didn’t have control, a lot of brands weren’t on top of it and I even think that it came as a surprise to Word Athletics.

“Now it’s open. Puma has given me great opportunities to make a shoe. I find it very interesting and I like to work with it but I will never say that the shoe doesn’t matter anymore because we are already past that point.

“How much does it matter? I don’t know and I think it’s very individual. Some shoes work on some people, some shoes don’t work on others. I have a very stiff plate and if I can bend that plate I’ll get a lot of energy out of it – that’s how the physics works – but if you were in my shoe you would probably just pull your Achilles or your calf and you wouldn’t get anything out of it.”

He continues: “In the beginning, I was just p****d because I didn’t have the shoes! But now every brand has had a couple of years to get into it and I think it’s good for the sport that a lot of brands find this as a competition between themselves.

“I won’t say that everything is bad. I’m just saying let’s not live in denial.”

Warholm would also like to see a change in attitude when it comes to the next subject of our conversation. There is a recurring discussion in elite athletics about getting more exposure and money for the sport and its top names, that those at the very sharp end are hard done by in comparison with other sports. 

The two-time European champion can understand the grumbles of discontent but insists the best way for athletes to change the situation is to work on doing something about it themselves.  

“I don’t think our sport is in as such bad shape as some people say and I also think that, whenever people are complaining, it doesn’t make the sport more sexy, does it?” he says. “Whenever somebody complains: ‘Oh people aren’t giving me money’ do you think somebody will just come with a big bag of money and give it to you? 

“You’ve got to step up and show what you can bring to the table and I think there’s a lot of great personality in the sport right now and there are a lot of cool meetings. The Diamond Leagues go to a lot of cool places, the World Championships are popular and whenever there’s track and field in the Olympics it’s sold out. 

“If there’s one thing I would stop doing it’s complaining. If we stop complaining and start doing something about it, we actually have a chance. It needs to be an interesting product.”

He cites his own event as a prime example. It’s not so long ago, Warholm says, that the 400m hurdles was being considered as one of the events to be dropped from the Diamond League circuit when there was a reshuffle of the disciplines back in 2019. However, his exploits, not to mention those of women’s world record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Dutch star Femke Bol, have turned hurdling into a marquee event once more. 

“The 400m hurdles was in that [Diamond League] discussion and now they wouldn’t throw it out for anything,” adds Warholm. “That just shows that interest is created and it’s not going to be a constant and I think we need to bring that with us and create interesting projects.”

Kelsey Jones has one of the biggest smiles in sport and that grin became even bigger at the weekend.

They will take on last year's runners-up Exeter Chiefs back at Kingsholm on Saturday, 24 June.

Jones says the achievement was made even more special by sharing it with some of her international team-mates.

"To play with my best friends, it's amazing," she told BBC Sport Wales.

"I am buzzing and smiling from ear to ear.

"And what's lucky for us as Welsh players is we take that continuity back into camp and you can see the progression we've made."

While Bristol Bears used to boast the lion's share of Wales internationals, there has been a gradual west country shift to Gloucester in the last couple of years.

There are currently 13 Wales players on the books, including current Wales captain Hannah Jones and former captain Siwan Lillicrap.

Bethan Lewis and Lleucu George joined Jones in the starting XV on Saturday, with Sisilia Tuipulotu and Lisa Neumann among the replacements.

Speaking after the match, Jones said: "The first thing I knew what to do after that 80 minutes was cry.

"The hard work that the girls have put in this year, and not just this year, but in previous years as well, you can see that we have built such a good team.

"I've always said we'll take one game at a time and here we are, we've got to the final.

"We will rest up, look after ourselves and then we've got a big week ahead to prepare."

Best feeling in the world

Wales prop and Gloucester lock Tuipulotu was also full of emotion at the final whistle, with a place in the final capping an incredible season for the 19-year-old.

She was nominated as one of the players of the 2023 Women's Six Nations having burst on to the international scene 12 months earlier.

"It's class. I am proud of my team and the performance they put out," she said.

"I've got to give it to the girls, we have had some new people in the team this year, but I feel we have got closer as a team and I guess that shows on the field as well as off."

Tuipulotu joined the players in signing autographs after the match and said: "I'm just glad I get to inspire little ones.

"I had a little girl the other day come up to me and say 'I started playing rugby because of you' and that really touched my heart," she said.