BARCELONA, Spain -- Everything has happened so quickly for Aitana Bonmati that the Barcelona midfielder, voted the fifth best player in the world in this year's Ballon d'Or, has hardly had a moment to take in the scale of the success she has had.

On Saturday, she will play in her fourth Champions League final in five years. Last season, en route to the final which they lost to Lyon, Barca twice broke the attendance record in women's football. A crowd of 91,553 attended their quarterfinal win against Real Madrid at Camp Nou, with 91,648 present for their semifinal victory over Wolfsburg, who they meet again in this weekend's showpiece in Eindhoven.

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Domestically, the only way to describe this Barca side is "all-conquering." They have won four consecutive Liga F titles, two under previous coach Lluis Cortes and two more with his successor, Jonatan Giraldez, and, during that time, embarked on a 62-game winning run. Though, after wrapping up this year's title, that streak ended with a draw at Sevilla and they then lost their unbeaten run against Madrid CFF last week, clocking out at 64 games.

That success has had a knock-on effect. Players like Bonmati and two-time Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas have become idols for a new generation of fans. Bonmati is one of six players whose face adorns the ginormous facade outside Camp Nou's main stand. She can no longer pass through the streets of Barcelona unnoticed, while commercial and media commitments have surged.

"I almost haven't realised, but thinking about it now, I realise [my life] has changed, but it has happened so quickly that you don't take it in," Bonmati tells ESPN ahead of Saturday's final.

Bonmati, 25, was never prepared for this level of attention. An only child from what she describes as "not a footballing family," she originally played basketball. At 5-foot-3, her talent was always likely to be better placed elsewhere and, after a kick about on the school playground around the age of six, she felt an instant connection to football.

She played on local boys' teams until she was 14, when she joined Barca. Even then, the 50km bus trips from her hometown outside Barcelona to the club's training complex were a world away from Camp Nou. Her mum, the only driver in the family, has fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, so public transport was the only option. Eating her dinner on the go, it would be past midnight when she got back from training after a day at school.

There was no relationship with the first team and no real pathway to a professional career. Even making her senior bow, as a false No. 9 in the Copa de la Reina in 2016, feels a long way from where she is now.

"When I made my debut, I never would have imagined a Champions League final, the amazing fans we have filling Camp Nou and becoming idols," she says. "Before, this simply did not happen. In my early years in the team, it didn't happen, either.

"I think the click, or the moment I started to realise things were changing, was when we won the first Champions League [in 2021]. That was an important moment. When you win, you're recognised more. That brought a lot of people on board. From that moment, everything began to progress quicker."

The progress at Barca, while aided by investment, feels organic. There is a defined style shared by the men's team and the youth teams that has been easily implemented in the women's team. There is a prototype of player -- think Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta from the men's team -- that the club develops and Bonmati, graceful on the ball, all touch and technique, fits that mould.

"I am certainly one of the examples," she acknowledges. "I have been at the club for 11 years, I have grown here since I was young. I have not left and come back. I have been through the whole process.

"My idols were men, Xavi, Iniesta and, when I was older, Pep Guardiola because the years he was the [Barca] coach were so enjoyable. It's not just about girls, either, but boys as well. That's important. If I had male idols, why can they not have female idols? I think that's positive because from a young age they are seeing equality.

"I have been playing in the same [Barca] way for many years. I am a player that plays in a key position. In any Barca team, the midfielders are so important, so I feel a like a benchmark in that sense, carrying the [club's] DNA in me."

The phrase "Barca DNA" is banded about a lot. But what does it actually mean for Bonmati's role in the team?

"A lot of things are needed really," she adds. "It seems easy, but understanding football is not that easy. It requires having that pausa, that management of space, knowing where your teammates and your opponents are. It's important to be constantly aware what is going on behind you and around you. It's about knowing how to manage moments during a game: what does the team need? When do you need to accelerate or slow down the rhythm? Should we switch play? It's a combination of things. It's understanding football and it's obviously having that technique and those resources to help as a team player."

Watch Bonmati, who can be as tenacious as she is talented, and you will see she has all those qualities. In the absence of the injured Putellas this season, the team has revolved around her. She has responded with 19 goals in 36 appearances, including five in the Champions League, in addition to a competition-leading seven assists.

Happier playing in a more advanced midfield position -- "I like to create and be close to the box," she admits -- the individual prizes may follow if Barca win a second European trophy this weekend.

"I think everyone would like to win the Ballon d'Or," she says. "But it depends on your performances. I focus on myself, what I can do better and how I can help the team. My objective is to keep improving in areas where I need to and to be better than the year before. From there, I am sure good things will come."

But getting into a position to be regularly winning Champions Leagues and Ballons d'Or naturally increases the pressure on any player, and that has been the challenging aspect of Barca and Bonmati's success. The demands are now sky high. Was she prepared mentally?

"In elite [sport], you have tough times," she says. "All elite players have been through difficult moments because the pressure is so high, the demands you place on yourself are supreme and you are always in the spotlight. You want to play well every match, but you're a person at the end of the day and you have bad days. You suffer because you want to be at your best, but I don't think it has ever been too much for me. I always say that the worst pressure is the pressure I put on myself. I am a very self-demanding person.

"It's true there is a lot of focus on us and being at the club we are and having done what we have done, we are obliged to win and to play well. The day we lose or draw is a disaster. You have to learn to live with that, but it's normal in this profession and I accept that responsibility." Barca did lose last week, as their two-year unbeaten streak in Liga F ended, but with the title sewn up, it was not a catastrophe.

"Losing always hurts, because we are not used to it," Bonmati adds. "But if you think about it with a cool head, you have already won the league and, without a fixed objective, without meaning to, your body and mind disconnect. It's more mental than anything. You have to allow yourself to lose every now and then. We are not robots."

Defeats are more common in Europe. Barca have lost two of their previous three finals, to Lyon in 2019 and 2022, and have been beaten away against Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich in the last 14 months. The level of competition across the continent means matching Lyon's run of six Champions Leagues in the last seven years will be difficult, even if that is Barca's ambition.

"Before, Lyon were the queens of women's football, but now it's more even," Bonmati says. "There's us, the German teams, Chelsea, Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain ... it keeps changing. We are lucky to have been in finals in recent years but who knows next year, maybe we won't be. You have to give value [to four finals in five years].

"We are accustomed to [reaching finals] and the day we don't make it will be a failure, but that's not the case. It takes a lot to reach the final. I hope we reach more, but it's more even now and that is positive for women's football.

"[Staying on top] is about reinventing yourself every year. There is a lot of tactical work now. The level is always improving in that sense, so [the teams] know each other well. Depending on the players you have, you can do one thing or another. I think this year, with the players we have, we are more direct in moments than we have been in previous seasons.

"Our style will always be the same but there are facets, movements, tactical concepts that change, which is what helps you to improve and keep progressing so teams don't find a way to stop you."

Patrick Kane will be shelved four to six months after undergoing a hip resurfacing procedure, his agent said Thursday.

Pat Brisson told reporters that Kane had the surgery Thursday and that the 34-year-old still "wants to play for a long time."

Kane played out the final 19 games of an eight-year, $84 million deal with the New York Rangers last season. The Rangers acquired Kane from the Chicago Blackhawks on Feb. 28. Kane had played all 1,161 games in a Blackhawks sweater prior to the trade.

Brisson expects Kane to make a full recovery. It was not immediately clear how the surgery impacts Kane's impending free agency, though Brisson said they would consider options if the prolific winger does not have a contract on July 1.

The priority, Brisson said, is that the surgery was successful.

Kane tallied 12 points for the Rangers and just 57 overall, his lowest output since 2012-13. Kane is a nine-time All-Star and three-time Stanley Cup winner, all with the Blackhawks, who selected him No. 1 overall in the 2007 draft.

Kane has also won the Calder, Smythe, Hart, Pearson and Ross trophies in his career. He won the Hart as MVP of the 2015-16 season.

He has 1,237 points (451 goals, 786 assists) in his 16-year career.

Hip resurfacing is an alternative to hip replacement. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, "the femoral head is not removed, but is instead trimmed and capped with a smooth metal covering" in hip resurfacing.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The SEC won't be moving to a nine-game conference schedule after all. But it will be going forward in 2024 without divisions.

Commissioner Greg Sankey told reporters Thursday that the league has approved a temporary eight-game conference schedule for the 2024 football season when it welcomes Texas and Oklahoma to the league.

Sankey said that the league will continue exploring scheduling options for 2025 and beyond.

Sankey had strongly hinted at his preference for a nine-game conference schedule leading up to the SEC's spring meetings in Destin, Florida. The proposal would have featured three permanent opponents, which would preserve longstanding rivalries, as well as six rotating opponents.

In response to a question about the argument for a nine-game schedule, Sankey said on Monday, "A league at the forefront of college athletics does not stand still."

The SEC currently plays an eight-game conference schedule - games against all six division opponents plus two cross-divisional games.

The eight-game conference schedule discussed at spring meetings this week features one permanent opponent and seven rotating opponents. While it would preserve certain rivalries like Alabama-Auburn and Georgia-Florida, it would throw into jeopardy historical rivalry games like Alabama-Tennessee and Georgia-Auburn.

There were a number of issues causing concern among stakeholders regarding the 9-game conference schedule. Among them: competitive balance and the desire for more revenue in return for the additional conference game.

Asked about the possibility of being compensated for an extra conference game, Sankey said he believes, "Money follows. It doesn't lead."

Coaches focused on the impact a ninth conference game would have on bowl eligibility and the ability to make the College Football Playoff.

Alabama coach Nick Saban had been an advocate for playing nine conference games in the past. But his position appeared to change recently, focusing instead on the need to play only Power 5 teams, which he said would be better for fans and improve each teams' strength of schedule.

"I think one of the more difficult things with going to nine games is we've tried to schedule two out-of-conference Power 5 games to try to improve our strength of schedule over the next 7, 8, 9, 10 years. And if we go to nine games, we'll have to unwind that," he said. "My deal was always to play more SEC games because we couldn't get other people to schedule. So now I think there's more people in tune to scheduling. So having a balance is probably the most important thing."

Florida coach Billy Napier said he wondered about the impact scheduling would have on at-large bids in an expanded 12-team playoff in 2024 and beyond. How strength of schedule is viewed would be a "critical factor" in the decision, he said.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart took a different approach, calling the entire debate over eight vs. nine conference games, "The most overrated conversation there ever was."

He pointed out that, regardless of eight of nine conference games, by moving to a division-less format they would play every team in the SEC twice - home and away - during a 4-year period.

In the past, cross-divisional teams could go long stretches without playing one another. When Georgia traveled to Mississippi State last season, it was their first trip to Starkville since 2010.

"I get traditional rivalries. You have two, you have three, you have one," Smart said. "You guys need something to write about bad when you start talking about this. It's just not that big a deal to me. Because you have to win your games to advance, right? You need to be in the SEC championship, possibly, with expanded playoff. That's a lot better topic for me. Is somebody going to get an advantage by not going to the SEC championship but making the playoff?"

Smart said it would be difficult potentially losing the Auburn rivalry. A former Georgia football player, he counts himself among the fans who wants to see it continue every year.

"But I think it's one of the costs of progress bringing two more teams in," he said. "It's one of the costs of scheduling, getting more balance in terms of you're going to play everybody. I think that it's not going to be just Georgia- Auburn, it's going to be somebody else vs. somebody else. Sometimes you call that progress. Sometimes you upset the fan.

"I think that that's a good debate ... because your traditionalists want those rivalries and others want to see you play the teams they never get to see you play. You can't have both."

The SEC will announce the full 2024 schedule on June 14.

"We have been engaged in planning for the entry of Oklahoma and Texas into the SEC since the summer of 2021, but the change of the membership date from 2025 to 2024 creates scheduling complexities that can better be managed with a one-year schedule," said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. "Creating a one-year schedule will provide a longer on-ramp to manage football scheduling around existing non-conference commitments of our members," Sankey said. "It will also provide additional time to understand the impact of an expanded College Football Playoff and engage with our media partners as we determine the appropriate long-term plan for SEC football scheduling."

The SEC also updated its field access policy.

Each school must provide security and a uniformed police presence around the visiting team and game officials before, during and after competition to prevent contact with fans. It will also be a requirement that teams create a secure, clear path off the playing surface in the event of a field or court storming.

Penalties for violations were increased to $100,000 for the first offense, $250,000 for the second offense and $500,000 for each additional offense.

If the visiting team and game officials have cleared the playing surface before fans enter the field or court, the home school may avoid the prescribed penalty.

CAMDEN, N.J. -- New Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse was asked about the status of pending free agent James Harden and how he'd sell the star guard on playing for him next season.

"Winning has to be the sell, right?" Nurse said Thursday during his introductory news conference at the team's practice facility. "Can we be good enough to win it all? That's got to be a goal of his.

"And if it is, then he should stay here and play for us, because I think there's a possibility of that."

Nurse, who was hired by the Sixers just a few weeks after his successful five-year run with the Toronto Raptors ended, said he already has talked to Harden and plans to meet with him as well as every other player on the roster, including Joel Embiid, with whom he sat down during the interview process.

And while a championship is the natural expectation for this team, Nurse inherits a group that has reached the end of the road in the Eastern Conference semifinals in five of the past six seasons.

It has been a generation since Allen Iverson led Philadelphia to its last NBA Finals, and two since Julius Erving took the 76ers to their last championship, but Nurse said none of that matters now.

Instead, the focus will be on what lies ahead.

"I look at it this way," Nurse said. "I don't really vibrate on the frequency of the past. To me, when we get a chance to start and dig into this thing a little bit, it's going to be only focused on what we're trying to do forward. [The past] doesn't matter. Next season, whatever's happened for the last how many whatever years doesn't matter to me.

"You guys have mentioned the second round to me twice already, and we're going to hit that head-on. Like we know we're going to be judged on how we play in the playoffs. It was the same in Toronto; we hadn't played that well, and certain players hadn't played that well and all those kinds of things. So the reality is, that's, that's the truth. So, I would imagine from day one we're going to talk about that and that we're going to try to attack that, you know. We're going to have to face it, and we're going to have to rise above it."

Part of rising above it will come down to whether Nurse can help Embiid, the NBA's MVP, take his game to a new level in the postseason. The coach will try to do so from a place of familiarity, given how often they've gone head-to-head over the past five years.

The Raptors and 76ers, beyond facing each other four times a year in the Atlantic Division, also met twice in the playoffs: the epic seven-game Eastern Conference semifinal clash in 2019, when Kawhi Leonard's buzzer-beater in Game 7 allowed Toronto to move on, and a six-game first-round series last year.

Along the way, Nurse and Embiid have had some colorful exchanges on the sidelines. Embiid has taken some jabs at Nurse in the media, including comparing Brooklyn Nets coach Jacque Vaughn to Nurse after Vaughn agitated for foul calls against Embiid during their first-round series last month.

Still, those battles have led Nurse to a newfound appreciation for his new star.

"I think that it's been an interesting experience coaching against Joel," Nurse said. "We threw everything almost I think you could possibly throw at a guy, because it was that hard for us to try to stop him. So we threw a lot at him. So at least I think that we can offensively say this is what we did and here's how we can beat it. And we've almost covered [almost everything].

"The rest of that, it's just, well, it's a little bit entertaining for me. I understand there was some exchanges and things ... when you're out there and you're in the heat of really competing, I didn't even really remember them. But I accidentally had my TV on yesterday and I saw a couple of them, and they were pretty good.

"It kind of grew to such a -- for me anyway -- respect level of him. We'd throw one thing and literally even in that playoff series a game later, he would adjust to it and we couldn't do it."

Nurse opened the news conference by thanking everyone in Toronto for "10 great years," having spent five years there as an assistant before taking over as the head coach prior to the 2018-19 season.

He went on to win a title that first season with Leonard, won Coach of the Year in 2020 when Toronto lost in seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals to the Boston Celtics in the NBA's bubble, and made the playoffs in three of his five years with the franchise, losing to the Chicago Bulls in the play-in tournament this season.

Also a candidate for coaching vacancies in Milwaukee and Phoenix, Nurse said the combination of talent and stable ownership made the 76ers his top choice.

"Obviously a championship pedigree at multiple levels is a big, big factor," president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said in explaining why Nurse was his choice to replace Doc Rivers. "His creativity, the fact that a partner in how to create results together I think is a big factor.

"I think he sort of checks every box."

Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro will continue to test his surgically repaired right hand, and a return to the lineup for Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets looms as a possibility, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Thursday.

Herro, who had surgery to fix the third and fourth metacarpal on his right hand on April 21, will continue ramping up his workouts and try to get a sense of how the hand responds to contact before making a decision, sources told ESPN.

If he's unable to return for Game 2 on Sunday (8 p.m. ET, ABC), there's confidence that Herro will be available for Game 3 on Wednesday ( 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC), sources told ESPN.

The Heat visit the Nuggets in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).

Herro suffered the injury during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Milwaukee Bucks on April 16.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra on Wednesday said that he did not want to set a timeline for Herro, who had said he hoped to return at some point during the NBA Finals following the Game 7 win over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.

Herro stayed long after most of his teammates left Ball Arena on Wednesday to get in another workout and to put up extra shots. He averaged 20.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists during the regular season.

He could change the geometry of Miami's offense when he returns, as he is the Heat's main threat to pull up for 3s and long 2s against dropback coverages. He also could represent another defensive vulnerability for Denver.

ESPN's Nick Friedell and Zach Lowe contributed to this report.

NEW YORK -- Mets pitcher Max Scherzer is not happy with the strict enforcement of the pitch clock.

Before the fifth inning of Thursday's 4-2 victory over the Phillies at Citi Field, Scherzer got into an intense conversation with plate umpire Tripp Gibson over enforcement of the pitch clock. MLB rules state there is two minutes between innings for local broadcasts, with pitchers allowed eight warmup pitches. But with Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez making the last out of the bottom of the fourth, delaying his arrival behind home plate as he needed time to put on catching gear, Scherzer could not finish his warmup pitches before Gibson signaled for the start of the inning, prompting the discussion between pitcher and umpire.

"Why can't the umpires have discretion in that situation to allow eight normal warmup pitches?" Scherzer said. "Why do we have to be so anal about this to have the clock shoved in everybody's face and try to step out every little second that's going into the game?"

According to Scherzer, when he asked Gibson why he couldn't finish his warmup pitches, the umpire said the league would "get mad at him" if he did not strictly enforce the clock. While MLB previously implemented a clock to measure break times between innings in 2015, they were not strictly enforced, giving umpires leeway to let pitchers warm up longer even if the time on the clock expired.

That has changed in 2023, according to Scherzer.

"It's situations like this that really are frustrating not only for pitchers, players, but even umpires," Scherzer said. "That's what Tripp says. Tripp is handcuffed. Why is Tripp handcuffed to not allow something normal, a normal routine. Why can't Tripp make that call?"

Scherzer said Gibson wanted him to speak out about the issue publicly because the umpires want discretion to give players more time in situations like Thursday, when Alvarez came out later than usual after making the final out of an inning.

"They want to allow the game to be normal," Scherzer said. "The umpires are frustrated that the game is not normal, that we're living and dying by the clock. I said I would speak for him. We're way too far thinking about the clock in every single situation instead of letting players have their normal routines."

Throughout the season, Scherzer has had a love-hate relationship with the pitch clock. In February, he described it as a "cat-and-mouse" game that gave pitchers power to dictate pace.

"Really, the power the pitcher has now -- I can totally dictate pace," Scherzer said at the time. "The rule change of the hitter having only one timeout changes the complete dynamic of the hitter-and-pitcher dynamic. I love it."

The future Hall of Famer tested the boundaries of the rules during spring training, getting called for a balk in his second preseason start in March after he started throwing a pitch to Washington Nationals outfielder Victor Robles the moment umpire Jeremy Riggs reset the clock.

"We have to figure out where the limit is," Scherzer said in March.

In Thursday's start, Scherzer went seven innings, allowing just one run on five hits while striking out nine and walking one. The outing marked the third straight quality start for Scherzer, who has a 3.21 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and a 5-2 record in nine starts this season, good for 0.8 bWAR.

AW collaboration: Sir Mo Farah shows support for athlete aiming to become first man to run length of Africa

If you’re undertaking a serious challenge on the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent, then there aren’t many better people to cheer you on your journey than Sir Mo Farah. That’s exactly what has happened to Russell Cook, a recognisable face from the world of YouTube who is aiming to become the first man to run the full length of Africa.

Cook’s challenge is in its early stages but it has managed to gain a lot of traction so far. Sir Mo Farah, a legendary long-distance runner who has captured the attention of the UK public on numerous occasions after winning major races and being backed by millions when it comes to race predictions and sports betting, is one of many celebrity faces who have shown their support for the Worthing-born runner and his attempt, a journey that initially started on April 22.

Day 32 of running the entire length of Africa. Todays message courtesy of a true icon Sir Mo Farah? pic.twitter.com/Dyvfgtbgrt

— Russ (@hardestgeezer) May 23, 2023

Sir Mo sent a video message 

With serious progress already being made by Cook, Sir Mo Farah was made aware of the remarkable effort that is being put into the challenge. After all, Sir Mo overcame a number of obstacles of his own, with the British athlete’s rise to the top providing a number of celebrated achievements along the way.

Farah’s rise to the very top wasn’t a foregone conclusion. Many critics wrote him off in the early stages of his career but it was the public who loyally backed him. Watchful fans placed their bets on the athlete by making the most of useful tools like a bet calculator to see how much they could win in a flash and gain a clearer understanding of their wagers in the process. His achievements are remarkable, be it at London 2012 when won gold in the Men’s 5000m, or in the array of other iconic races he managed to reign supreme in.

In a video message to Russell Cook, who is also known as the ‘Hardest Geezer’ on YouTube, the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history said: “I just wanted to say amazing work. I am so proud of you for what you’re doing. It’s incredible. No one can tell you, you can’t because you can. Believe in yourself. Everyone is supporting you. The nation is supporting you.”

Day 32 of running the entire length of Africa. Todays message courtesy of a true icon Sir Mo Farah? pic.twitter.com/Dyvfgtbgrt

— Russ (@hardestgeezer) May 23, 2023

Cook has a long way to go yet 

Although Cook is currently making admirable progress at the time of writing, running through 16 different African countries is a challenge even Sir Mo Farah himself would potentially struggle to accomplish. For Cook, running the equivalent of 360 marathons in 240 days is going to be tough, but after training hard and with a supportive team of people behind him, including Sir Mo, it’s a mission he could certainly accomplish.

A Christmas finish is the aim

The finish line is the most northerly point of Tunisia for Cook, who is currently in Namibia after smashing through South Africa at the start of an almighty challenge that nobody has ever managed to pull off. With a team behind him capturing every kilometre for his growing YouTube channel, Cook’s aim of finishing in time for Christmas is a very real one. Make no mistake about it, with immensely talented athletes like Sir Mo Farah on his side, Russell Cook is a name we could become even more familiar with in the future.

DUBLIN, Ohio – Sam Bennett has hit countless opening tee shots but Thursday’s start at the Memorial marked a fresh beginning for the darling of this year’s Masters.

Bennett, who was in third place going into the weekend at Augusta National before finishing tied for 16^th, made his professional debut at Muirfield Village with a 1-under 71 that left him three off the early Day 1 lead.

Bennett said he’d been anticipating his jump to professional golf for a long time but once he was on the first tee everything felt normal. When asked what he needs to do to experience success as a pro, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion said, “Just quit living like a college kid. I'll probably start with that.”

After his performance at the Masters, Bennett returned to Texas A&M to finish his fifth year on the golf team, but he admitted the call of professional golf was always there.

“I was itching. But I knew what was at stake [for his final season],” Bennett said. “I came back for my fifth year and I wanted to respect my team, respect my decision, they're first and foremost. And tour golf's always going to be there for me. I wanted to have one last run at a national championship with my team.”

Competing in this week’s NCAA Championships, Texas A&M failed to qualify for match play and Bennett finished T-74 as an individual.

His college career over as of Monday, Bennett said he’s playing next week at the RBC Canadian Open and is also playing the U.S. Open (he did not have to remain an amateur to use his U.S. Am victory exemption) the following week. He’ll likely receive more sponsor exemptions before the end of the season and also has status on the Korn Ferry Tour this year via his fifth-place finish on the final PGA Tour University rankings.