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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Through three holes Friday at the PGA Championship Rory McIlroy had one foot out of the door at Bethpage Black.

A wild drive and a bad decision led to a double bogey at his opening hole (No. 10). He kept the theme going with a bogey at the 11th hole and when he needed four shots to reach the 12th green on his way to his second double bogey at No. 12 he was four shots outside the cut and fading fast.

When the 2012 and ’14 PGA champion finally limped his way up the 18th fairway at 5 over for the day a rally seemed unlikely.

“I said to [caddie Harry Diamond] going up the 18th, ‘Let's not shoot any worse than I shot yesterday [2-over 72]. Let's make 72 the worst score we're going to shoot,’” McIlroy said. “It was nice to go one better than that and shoot 1 over in the end.”

McIlroy began his comeback with a 13-footer for birdie at the fourth, added two more at Nos. 5 and 6 and made one of seven birdies from the early wave at the par-3 eighth hole to secure his spot in the field on the weekend with a 71 and a 3-over total.

“I was just trying to play a good round of golf and try to get something that's close to the best out of myself,” he said. “I don't like missing cuts. It's not something that I'm used to fortunately, and I wanted to be around for the weekend.”

McIlroy will need to continue that momentum going into the weekend if he’s going to have any chance with leader Brooks Koepka pulling away from the field at 9 under par early in his second round.

The New York faithful got an up-close-and-personal look at Tiger Woods early in his second round at the PGA Championship. And it was every bit as chaotic as one would imagine.

Woods pulled his tee shot at the par-4 first hole into the left rough. He had to wade through a sea of people to reach his ball and it took several minutes – with Tiger trying to help direct traffic – in order to clear a path for Woods to hit his second shot.

Woods eventually hacked out into a greenside bunker and got up and down for par.

Highlights: Koepka fires 65, dominating PGA field

Published in Golf
Friday, 17 May 2019 11:30

Brooks Koepka picked up right where he left off.

A day after shooting 7-under 63 in Thursday's opening round around Bethpage Black, Koepka again started strong Friday at the PGA Championship.

The reigning PGA champ took an aggressive line at the par-4 fourth to set up an opening birdie.

Koepka added a second straight birdie with a 9-foot make at the par-4 second.

And Koepka extended his lead to five shots with a two-putt birdie at the par-5 fourth hole.

Koepka made four consecutive pars to close out his opening nine and then bogeyed the par-4 10th, his first dropped shot of the championship. But he got back to double-digits under par with this birdie at the par-5 13th.

He moved six clear of the field with a birdie at No. 15.

And then made it back-to-back birdies with another at No. 16. At 12 under par, Koepka was seven shots ahead of second place. He bogeyed the 17th hole, but rebounded with a birdie at the last.

Koepka finished with a 5-under 67 and, at 12 under for the championship, was seven up on second place.

Cart-riding Daly goes 75-76 to miss cut at PGA

Published in Golf
Friday, 17 May 2019 10:27

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - John Daly and his bum right knee rode away from the PGA Championship happy to get the chance to play, even with the aid of a cart that caused some controversy.

Daly shot a 6-over 76 on Friday and finished 36 holes at Bethpage Black at 11 over, a score that will miss the cut for the weekend.

The results were not surprising, considering the 53-year-old Daly has been playing in the PGA Tour Champions, a 50-and-older circuit that allows for carts, since 2016, winning once in 2017. He has not won on the PGA Tour since capturing the 2004 Buick Open.

The decision by the PGA of America to allow Daly to use a cart in this event because of his arthritic right knee has been an issue for many.

But the fans loved seeing the cigarette-smoking, long-hitting Daly, who looks more like an average weekend golfer than a pro.

''I was happy I played,'' Daly said after the round. ''I played good. It's a major championship. If you miss a fairway here and there by just a little bit, you are going to score bad and I did.''

The worst might have been the bogey on the 18th, his final hole. His drive found a bunker. His second shot found another bunker and his third found a greenside bunker.

After the second shot, he drove to his bag as the caddie manicured the sand, grabbed a club and slammed the bag down.

Daly drove to the greenside bunker, hit the sand wedge to within 2 feet and knocked it in for a bogey.

The crowd roared.

It was a perfect ending to a performance that was anything but.

Daly said he felt obligated to play in the PGA Championship, the tournament that made him a fan favorite after he won at Crooked Stick in 1991 at the ninth alternate. He added a second major, capturing the British Open in 1995.

''This is a week I can't leave disgusted because I played good golf,'' Daly said. ''It played long and you just miss fairways by a little bit, the rough is so thick; probably the thickest I have ever seen, you are just laying up. I'm not strong enough to get it anywhere near.''

Daly, who visibly limped when he walked on the course, added that he just couldn't get his putts to the hole.

When someone noted he had two birdies on Friday, he quipped, ''At least I finally made a few.''

Daly is the first player to ride in a cart at a major since Casey Martin in the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in 1998 and 2012.

He also has asked for an exemption for the British Open and is awaiting a response.

Man City 'just better' in end than Liverpool - KDB

Published in Soccer
Friday, 17 May 2019 17:00

Kevin De Bruyne said he has no sympathy for Liverpool after Manchester City pipped them to the Premier League title by just a point because they were the better team in the end.

Liverpool lost just one match all season to finish on 97 points -- the highest total ever by a runner-up and a figure that would have been enough to win the title in all-but three Premier League seasons.

But they lost out to City after a 14-game winning streak to finish the season and De Bruyne says it shows they were better than Jurgen Klopp's side.

"It's a remarkable effort [from Liverpool], but it means that we were just better than them in the end," De Bruyne told reporters. "I don't feel sorry for them, because I don't think they'd feel sorry for us.

"I don't think anybody felt sorry about the way we went out of the Champions League. You take it. I know how they feel, because you're going to feel disappointed. We'd feel the same if it happened to us. But we're still competitors. We want to win as much as they do, but I can understand the feelings they have.

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"It's the general view of athletes. You feel compassionate with other teams, but in the end the most important thing is, if you play an individual sport, it's yourself, and when it's your team, it's your team. It's been a great battle. But to feel 'sorry' for them is maybe going a little too far."

City boss Pep Guardiola described their exit as "cruel" after Raheem Sterling's injury-time winner against Tottenham was ruled out after a review by the video assistant referee.

That ended City's hopes of winning a Quadruple although they can complete a domestic Treble at Wembley by beating Watford in the FA Cup final on Saturday (live on ESPN+ at noon ET) after also winning the Carabao Cup earlier in the season.

Sterling grew up just a few miles away from Wembley and is desperate to win his first FA Cup winners' medal.

"To be in the final, that's massive and people might say it's just another cup, but for us to be in the final is a massive achievement," Sterling said. "There's been many a year we have tried, and we've not been able to get there and this year we've got there.

"We just need to be positive going into it and try to win it. It's a beautiful trophy and it's a trophy that I've never touched and hopefully I can walk up those stairs and get my hands on it.

"We've got a long way to go and we know how difficult it will be against a really tough Watford team, but it's a challenge we're up for."

Meanwhile, Guardiola said he wants Leroy Sane to stay at Manchester City but says the German winger, whose starts were limited during the team's stretch run, is no closer to signing a new contract.

Bayern Munich have been linked with a summer move for Sane, 23, who has two years remaining on his current contract.

Sources told ESPN FC that Sane was close to signing a new deal in March but he has started just three Premier League games since, although Guardiola insists he wants him to remain and fight for a starting place.

"We have been one-and-a-half years trying to [get him to] sign his [new] contract, we want him," Guardiola told a news conference ahead of the FA Cup final against Watford.

"If you want to extend [someone's] contract, it's because you want him. You're not going to extend his contract because you don't want him.

"[He's not playing] because he's competing with Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva. It's not easy. If you want to play in for competitions for the quadruple we need Leroy, Sterling, Riyad [Mahrez], Bernardo, we can't compete for the quadruple with just two wingers.

"They have to fight each other and play the best as possible to convince me to put them in the lineup."

But with the contract remaining unsigned, Guardiola refused to confirm that Sane will still be at the club next season.

Vincent Kompany's future is even more uncertain with the City captain's contract running out at the end of the season.

Saturday's FA Cup final at Wembley could be his final appearance for the club after 11 years and 359 appearances for the club.

"Hopefully not," Guardiola said when asked if it will be his last game. "We spoke with Vinny and we are going to speak after this game. But my words are unnecessary for what he has done over the last few weeks and his career.

"Vinny has shown again when he is fit what he is able to do. It is top. The problem is the period between November and February and March. We were losing quite often for that reason. When he is fit he is incredible."

Middlesex 349 (Gubbins 75, Scott 55, Lace 51, Abbas 4-72) and 223 (Simpson 59*) drew with Leicestershire 268 (Ackermann 63, Dearden 61, Rayner 4-58) and 226 for 5 (Ackermann 70*)

Leicestershire's hopes of a first County Championship win at Lord's for 39 years were thwarted by rain as their see-saw clash with Middlesex ended in a draw.

The pendulum had appeared to swing back in the visitors' favour, with Colin Ackermann unbeaten on 70 from 88 balls, and five wickets standing as they chased a victory target of 305. But the overcast conditions, which led to five separate stoppages during the final day, eventually triumphed as the match was abandoned with the Foxes on 226 for 5 - still 79 short.

Middlesex, who have yet to record a Championship win this season, dropped three catches, but were still scenting an opportunity after removing the visitors' top four, all to lbw decisions, with 154 on the board.

Leicestershire began the fourth day on 38 without loss, needing another 267, but they had shaved only three more off that target when the darkening St John's Wood sky brought about the first of the weather delays.

With the Lord's floodlights switched on and the players back on the field, Leicestershire extended their opening stand to 51 before James Harris made the breakthrough, trapping Ateeq Javid in front of his stumps.

One other wicket fell during the morning session, with the consistent Ethan Bamber removing Paul Horton - but Middlesex should have claimed at least a third before lunch. Hasan Azad, who made a slow start to his innings, was the fortunate recipient of two reprieves with just seven runs to his name.

First, Sam Robson spilled an edge at first slip off the bowling of Harris and, in the next over, when Azad drove Ollie Rayner, Nick Gubbins was unable to pocket the chance at short cover.

That double escape appeared to help Azad lift the shackles and he and Mark Cosgrove, with a breezy 22 from 42 balls, guided the Leicestershire total past 100.

Rayner removed Cosgrove in the third over after lunch, but Ackermann immediately displayed an attacking intent, using his feet to the off-spinner and climbing into Harris as he struck successive boundaries. The South African dominated a fourth-wicket partnership of exactly 50 with Azad, contributing 34 before Harris registered his second lbw of the innings to dismiss the latter.

Harry Dearden, who had shared a century partnership with Ackermann on the second day, survived an early scare when he miscued Rayner to mid-off, but the chance eluded the diving Bamber.

Despite a further half-hour's delay due to rain, the fifth-wicket pair added another 52 before Tom Helm uprooted the off stump of Dearden. Ackermann did his best to maintain the Leicestershire charge in tandem with Lewis Hill, but a further downpour finally put paid to the visitors' hopes of forcing a victory.

Big scores aplenty but match ends in a draw

Published in Cricket
Friday, 17 May 2019 10:54

Gloucestershire 463 (Bracey 152, Higgins 103) and 137 for 6 (Howell 44) drew with Glamorgan 250 (Hemphrey 60, Wagg 50) and 481 for 8 dec (Selman 140, Labuschagne 137, Hemphrey 58)

Glamorgan fought back so well after they were asked to follow on 213 runs adrift at the start of the third day, that it was Gloucestershire who had to defend and avoid defeat at the end of an absorbing championship game at Spytty Park in Newport.

Glamorgan batted so well in their second innings, they had the luxury of declaring and setting the visitors a target, and with the visitors at one stage faltering at 41 for 4 in the 13th over they would have had visions of an improbable victory.

Glamorgan began the final day on 359 for 1, with Nicholas Selman and Marnus Labuschagne going on to achieve career-best scores. Selman, though, only added two more runs to his overnight score before edging David Payne to wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick for 150.

Labuschagne went to score 137 before padding up to a ball from Matt Taylor that nipped back off the seam. There was more assistance for the seamers on the final day as the ball moved off the pitch while the cloud cover also assisted swing.

Only Graham Wagg offered resistance towards the end of the innings and when Glamorgan declared on 481 for 8, Wagg was undefeated on 25. The declaration required Gloucestershire to score at fractionally over five runs an over, but batting was not as straightforward as it had been in the first innings.

Timm van der Gugten struck with his first ball and the seventh of the innings when Chris Dent was caught low at slip, and with Marchant de Lange bowling at a brisk pace at the other end, Gloucestershire lost their second wicket when Miles Hammond edged to the substitute wicketkeeper Tom Cullen.

James Bracey, who scored 152 in the first innings, began confidently by striking four boundaries, but then succumbed to a rash shot when he slashed at a wide delivery from Wagg and was caught at second slip.

Two runs later, Kieran Bull's off-spin accounted for George Hankins, who was bowled by a ball that turned from the rough and reduce the visitors to 41 for 4. Glamorgan were then thwarted by Gareth Roderick and Benny Howell, who shared 62 for the fifth wicket but - more importantly - were together for 22 overs.

The partnership was broken by Bull, who had Howell well caught at slip by Lloyd diving forward, and Ryan Higgins almost went next ball when Labuschagne just failed to hold on at bat-pad.

Glamorgan needed to take five more wickets in the final 16 overs and, with the ball turning for Bull and Labuschagne, the spinners assumed control with Labuschagne dismissing Roderick, who had faced 86 balls for 19.

Higgins and Graeme van Burren held out for the final 8.5 overs, but Glamorgan would have been heartened by their battling performance before their next championship game, which starts at Derby on Sunday.

Jason Roy had to overcome a lack of sleep and concerns about his new-born daughter to make a match-winning century against Pakistan.

Roy made 114 - the eighth century of his ODI career - to help England to the fourth highest successful run-chase in their ODI history at Trent Bridge; a result that gives them an unassailable 3-0 series win.

But afterwards Roy revealed he had spent much of the night in hospital after his daughter, Everly, was taken ill and managed only a couple of hours' sleep. While Everly, who is seven weeks old, is understood to be out of danger, Roy returned to be by her hospital bedside immediately after the game.

And while he admitted it "was not the most fluent innings of my life," Roy described it as "a special" performance in testing circumstances.

"I had a bit of a rough morning, so this one is a special one for me and my family," Roy told the BBC. "It was my little one. We had to take her to hospital at 1.30 in the morning.

"I stayed there until 8.30 and came back for a couple of hours sleep. I got to the ground just before warm-up and cracked on. It was a very emotional hundred."

Meanwhile Jos Buttler - captain in place of the suspended Eoin Morgan - expressed his confidence in England's run-chase despite their apparently challenging total.

"I thought the bowling unit did a great job to keep them to 340," he said. "As daft as it sounds, I didn't think 340 seemed such a vast score on a wicket like that with a very fast outfield and small boundaries.

"The strength of the batting line-up has been a big plus for us overs the past few years. Jason played fantastically well and it is great to watch him in full flow.

"We had four really poor overs with some soft dismissals, but Ben Stokes played fantastically well and for him to soak up that pressure and play so well will give him a lot of confidence."

England were also grateful for some flawed fielding from the Pakistan side, too. As well as several dropped chances, the ground fielding cost Pakistan at least a dozen runs while Tom Curran survived a run-out chance on 6. Curran, running for overthrows after a direct hit had removed one bail from the stumps but sent the ball ricocheting into space, might have been run out had Sarfaraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, appealed when removing the remaining bail as Curran attempted to complete a second run.

The Laws were updated a couple of years ago so that instead of removing a stump from the ground in such circumstances, only the remaining bail needs to be removed. Curran went on to make an important 31.

"We had enough runs on the board," Sarfaraz said. "If we had fielded well, we would have won this game.

"The only thing we can do is work hard. Over the last year-and-a-half our fielding has been much improved, but in these three matches it is a concern for us.

"I've seen a replay of the run-out. I thought both bails came off and, if the third umpire saw on TV, hopefully he would tell the on-field umpires. But we didn't appeal."

ST. LOUIS -- The San Jose Sharks have been quite good in the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs. They hold a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference finals against the St. Louis Blues. They have won two Game 7s, are averaging 3.29 goals per game and have the playoffs' leading scorer, Logan Couture.

They've also been lucky. Some would argue really lucky.

Just don't use the L-word around the Sharks.

"It irks me when you use words like that because this team has played four or five elimination games. Not moments -- games," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said Friday. "Twelve to 15 periods of elimination hockey against Vegas, against Colorado in Game 7, so I think it's a ridiculous statement.

"You know what? We've found a way. And we've faced a lot of adversity. We've had calls go against us and we've had calls go for us, and we're still standing. For anybody to minimize that, I think is disrespectful to our group and what we've done."

San Jose rallied in Game 7 against the Golden Knights in Round 1, thanks to a five-minute major penalty called on Vegas forward Cody Eakin that could have been a two-minute minor. The NHL apologized to Vegas for the error, and the officials who worked that game haven't worked again in the playoffs.

There was a coach's challenge in Game 7 against the Colorado Avalanche in Round 2, where Gabriel Landeskog was ruled offside while changing at the bench -- a rare, although correct, call. On Wednesday, there was the hand pass by Timo Meier that all four officials missed in overtime and led to Erik Karlsson's game-winning goal.

"I don't know if there's ever been a lucky team who's won," Sharks forward Evander Kane said. "I think at the end of the day, it boils down to finding ways to win, and every team goes through adversity throughout the course of the playoffs. We've battled throughout these playoffs. There's been a lot of different types of scenarios that haven't gone our way that we've been able to push through and find a way to be successful."

Forward Gustav Nyquist said that even if the breaks the Sharks have gotten could be considered lucky, they still had to take advantage of them -- or in the case of Game 3 against the Blues, put themselves in position to benefit from them.

"I wouldn't say we're lucky," said Nyquist. "[Against Vegas], our first-unit power play executed that to perfection. They scored four goals in five minutes. In Game 3, [Couture] comes up clutch and ties the game. We battle through. We know we're never out of a game until it's over."

Center Tomas Hertl said it agitates him when the team's accomplishments are minimized as a product of good fortune.

"We're battling. We had two seven-game series. We're battling through a lot of ups and downs," he said. "I don't think it's lucky. We just work for it. I don't care what everybody's saying. We deserve to win. I don't like 'lucky' overall. If you work for it, you deserve it."

Koepka shatters 36-hole major record with 128

Published in Breaking News
Friday, 17 May 2019 17:04

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- Brooks Koepka has a big lead at the PGA Championship and another entry in the major championship record book.

Koepka birdied three of his final four holes Friday for a 5-under 65 to shatter the 36-hole record in all four majors. He was at 12-under 128, breaking the mark of 130 set at the Masters by Jordan Spieth, the U.S. Open by Martin Kaymer, the British Open by Nick Faldo and Brandt Snedeker, and the PGA Championship by Gary Woodland.

Still to be determined was the size of his lead, which most likely would be another PGA Championship record.

Tiger Woods witnessed it all, but that's all Woods will see at Bethpage Black. He shot a 73 and will miss the cut. It's the first time Woods has missed the cut at a major in the same year he won a major since 2006.

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