Sports

Brooks Koepka holds off Tiger Woods, Adam Scott to win PGA Championship

Brooks Koepka secured his status as one of the best golfers in the world Sunday as he won his third major in 14 months at the PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club outside St. Louis. Koepka, who successfully defended his U.S. Open title at Shinnecock Hills in June, shot a final-round 66 to hold off Tiger Woods (64) by two shots. Adam Scott shot 67 to finish alone in third, a shot behind Woods. Koepka is the first man to win two majors in the same calendar year since Jordan Spieth won the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015. He is the first man to pull off the U.S. Open-PGA Championship double since Woods in 2000. His 72-hole score of 264 set the PGA Championship scoring record and matched the major championship record set by Henrink Stenson at Royal Troon in the 2016 British Open. The 28-year-old Floridian also joined Jordan Spieth, Woods, Nicklaus and Tom Watson as the only players with three majors before turning 30 since World War II. Koepka had started the final round two shots ahead of Scott, who was playing with a heavy heart after fellow Australian pro Jarrod Lyle died of cancer earlier this week. The Florida native appeared to be in command halfway through the round, weathering bogeys at 4 and 5 to take a three-shot lead over Scott at the turn. But Scott rallied at the same time that Koepka’s touch with the putter deserted him. The Australian birdied 10, 12, and 13, while Koepka missed short birdie putts at 12, 13, and 14. With Koepka stuck in neutral, Woods put on a charge and sent the galleries into a frenzy when he birdied the par-4 15th to get within a shot of the lead after sticking his second shot within a foot of the flagstick. However, Koepka regained control of the championship on the 15th hole, when he drilled a 10-foot birdie putt into the center of the cup to take a one-shot lead. He added to his advantage at the par-3 16th, when he stuck his tee shot to inside seven feet of the hole, then drained the ensuing birdie putt. Scott had one last chance to force some drama on the last hole, but a six-foot birdie putt on the 17th green that would have put him within one shot of Koepka curled wide of the cup. He then bogeyed the final hole to slip out of a tie for second. Woods’ 64, which included two bogeys, is his lowest final-round score in any major. It was his seventh runner-up finish and first since the 2009 PGA Championship. Woods and Koepka played nine holes of a practice round on Wednesday, and the 14-time major champion knew what he was up against. “It’s tough to beat when the guy hits it 340 down the middle,” Woods said. “What he did at Shinnecock, just bombing it, and then he’s doing the same thing here. … And when a guy’s doing that and hitting it straight, and as good a putter as he is, it’s tough to beat.” Koepka never imagined a year like this. He missed four months at the start of the year when a partially torn tendon in his left wrist, causing him to sit out the Masters. He outlasted good friend Dustin Johnson at Shinnecock Hills to become the first back-to-back U.S. Open champion in 29 years. And now this. Koepka joked about working out in a public gym this week with Johnson and not being recognized. He has been motivated by more serious moments, from being left off the “notable scores” section of TV coverage at tournaments and even last week, when he was not summoned for a TV interview to preview the PGA Championship. He now is No. 2 in the world, with a shot at overtaking Johnson in two weeks when the FedEx Cup playoffs start,

Tiger came close…but no purse!  Congrats to Brooks!  Over 55,000 fans were in attendance and the players were impressed with the politeness and positive attitude of the St. Louis fans.  Excellent!!  To see some pics and videos from Bellerive Country Club, just click on the text above.    🙂

NFL won’t discipline kneelers as anthem protests make preseason return

Professional football is back and so are the take-a-knee protests, but the NFL isn’t planning on disciplining players who refuse to stand during the national anthem—at least for now. Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch sat on the bench while the anthem played before Friday night’s preseason game, just as he did last year, and Miami Dolphins receivers Kenny Stills and Albert Wilson knelt prior to the Thursday game in Miami. In a statement, the NFL said it was still engaged in “constructive discussions with the NFL Players Association regarding the anthem and issues of equality and social justice that are of concern to many Americans.” In May, the NFL announced a policy change requiring players on the sideline before games to stand for the anthem ceremony or remain off the field, but the league backed down a month later after a grievance was filed by the union arguing that it should have been consulted. “While those discussions continue, the NFL has agreed to delay implementing or enforcing any club work rules that could result in players being disciplined for their conduct during the performance of the anthem,” said the statement. In addition, NFL officials said they “remain committed to working with the players to identify solutions and to continue making progress on important social issues affecting our communities.” President Trump pounced on the issue after Thursday’s games, urging players to “[B]e happy, be cool” and “[F]ind another way to protest! Stand proudly for your National Anthem or be Suspended Without Pay!” While the vast majority of players stood, several engaged in other gestures such as raising fists and linking arms. Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Michael Bennett, a protest leader last season in Seattle, walked to the bench during the anthem, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. Ten New York Giants players knelt in the end zone before the national anthem was played, according to Fox6, while the Florida Times Union reported that several Jacksonville Giants remained in the tunnel for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Egging on the protesters was free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who led the kneeling during the 2016 regular season but has not played since. He has filed a grievance with the NFL accusing team owners of colluding to keep him out of the league. “My brother @kstills continued his protest against systemic oppression tonight by taking a knee,” said Kaepernick on Instagram. “Albert Wilson @ithinkisee12 joined him in protest. Stay strong brothers!” The NFL saw its ratings drop by nearly 10 percent in the 2017 regular season, a decline attributed in large part to fan outrage over the protests. The NFL doesn’t have much time left to resolve the issue before the 2018 regular season. After three more weeks of preseason games, the season is scheduled to begin Sept. 6 with a Thursday night game between the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles.

Sounds like the NFL will continue to show how spineless it is, and continue to grab it’s collective ankles and allow the NFLPA to just bully them.  Unreal..  Guess I’ll miss yet another NFL season…at least until the NFL grows a pair and makes its EMPLOYEES stand for the national anthem while in UNIFORM, and on COMPANY TIME.  It’s really that simple.  Nobody is saying don’t go out there and use your First Amendment rights to spout off about whatever nonsense they think.  Just don’t do it on company time, while in uniform, and during a game.  We all watch pro sports to get AWAY from politics; NOT have it rubbed in our faces by a bunch of self-righteous, bed-wetting, MILLIONAIRES who play a game, for crying out loud.  And the NFL wonders why it’s ratings have been tanking and taking the last two years.  Let’s hope it bottoms out altogether.

NFL’s first male dancers will hit the sidelines this season

NFL fans will see history made this season, and it has nothing to do with what goes on between the goalposts. The Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints will have male cheerleaders dancing on their squads for the first time. Dancers Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies have been preparing for the NFL season since they made the Rams cheerleading squad in March. “Still can’t believe I’m one of the first males in history to be a pro NFL cheerleader!” Jinnies tweeted after being selected. Other teams, like the Indianapolis Colts and the Baltimore Ravens, have stuntmen, USA Today reported, but Peron and Jinnies will be dancing alongside their female teammates and doing the same moves.

I think I’m gonna vomit..  Just more of the NFL shoving their liberal, politically correct agenda down the throats of middle America which is the overwhelming demographic that watches NFL games.  And they wonder why their ratings have tanked the last 2 years since all of the kneeling nonsense..which is apparently still not resolved.  This is just more of the same.  For more of this eye-rolling story, click on the text above.

St. Louis Cardinals rookie’s no-hit bid broken up by fire alarm, then Reds

In his first game as a starter for the St. Louis Cardinals, rookie pitcher Austin Gomber was throwing a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds going into the seventh inning Tuesday. Then the fire alarm went off. Gomber’s shot at a no-hitter was abruptly interrupted by ear-piercingly loud sirens that caused a game delay of nearly 8 minutes at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. The Reds said it resulted from “a malfunction in one of the detector units,” according to MLB.com. When the game finally resumed, Reds first baseman Joey Votto delivered a single with one out in the inning — and Gomber’s shot at a no-no was gone. Nevertheless, his impressive start came one day after Daniel Poncedeleon made his first MLB start with the Cardinals and pitched a no-hitter through seven innings against the Reds on Monday, MLB.com reported. Twitter was quick to call out the rather bizarre timing of the fire alarm going off as a mere coincidence. “Setting off the fire alarm while you’re being no-hit is the ultimate home field advantage power move,” one Twitter user wrote, while another praised the person who pulled the alarm as a “hero.” The Reds eventually tied the game, but the Cardinals got the last laugh, winning 4-2 victory in 11 innings.

Yeah!!   GO CARDINALS!!!    🙂

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher who had brain surgery after being hit in head tosses 7 no-hit innings in MLB debut

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Daniel Poncedeleon was 14 months removed from suffering a life-threatening injury when he stepped on the mound in Cincinnati for his first major start — and tossed seven no-hit innings. Monday night was Poncedeleon’s MLB debut and his lengthy rehab culminated in a magnificent performance. Even though he didn’t earn the win. And the Cardinals didn’t either. Poncedeleon, 26, was struck in the right temple by a line drive on May 9, 2017 while pitching for Triple-A Memphis. He suffered a fractured skull, which caused bleeding in the brain and required emergency surgery. A slow recovery followed. The righty made his first start this season with the Triple-A squad on April 5 and quickly worked his way back to form. In 18 minor league games, Poncedeleon posted a 2.15 ERA with 103 strikeouts. Opponents were only batting .198 against him in the Pacific Coast League. Monday, he finally got a taste of the major leagues and was able to get the Reds’ first batter, Jose Peraza, to lineout to right field. “I don’t know if words can describe that,” interim Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. “It’s what’s magical about this game and what we love about this game — stories like that.” Poncedeleon was battling a sore neck heading into his debut and once he threw pitch 116, Shildt had no qualms about taking him out early. “We weren’t in a situation where he would have been able to finish that game with a no-hitter,” Shildt said. The Cardinals had a one-run lead when Poncedeleon left. However, the Reds made a charge in the bottom of the ninth against Cardinals closer Bud Norris, winning the game, 2-1.

What a great story, indeed!  Congrats to Daniel for his performance.  GO CARDINALS!!!    🙂

US World Cup ratings down 42 percent without American team

The lack of a U.S. team caused a big viewership drop for World Cup telecasts. The 48 group stage broadcasts on Fox and FS1 averaged 2,069,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That is down 42 percent from the 3.54 million average on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC four years ago and down 15 percent from the 2,429,000 average on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC eight years ago. Excluding games involving the U.S. team in previous World Cups, the average declined 28 percent from the 2014 tournament in Brazil and was up 1 percent from the 2010 tournament in South Africa. Most group-stage kickoff times this year were morning EDT, starting as early as 6 a.m., and the latest matches began at 2 p.m. Games in 2014 started mostly from noon to 4 p.m. EDT, while in 2010 games there were many matches at 10 a.m. and some as early as 7:30 a.m. Twenty-six group-stage matches were aired on Fox, up from six on ABC in 2014 and four on ABC in 2010. Ratings include only television viewers and not those who viewed digital streams. Spanish-language coverage for Telemundo and Universo, both part of Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal Inc., averaged 1.96 million viewers, including digital streaming. That was down 26 percent from the 2.64 million average on Univision and Unimas four years ago and up 7 percent from the 1.84 million average for Univision’s networks in 2010.

Of course ratings are down in the U.S. for the World Cup.  Without Team USA playing, there really isn’t much interest in it, except from those die-hard soccer fans.  But, this isn’t Europe or Latin America where soccer is almost a religion.  Here in America, it’s NFL or MLB as the two biggest pro sports….and then NBA and NHL a far distant second.  Soccer isn’t even in the running.  And, again, with Team USA not at the World Cup, most Americans aren’t paying attention.  So, nothing surprising in this article..

Another Win for Donald Trump: FIFA Votes for 2026 World Cup in North America

FIFA announced a vote to hold the 2026 World Cup in North America on Wednesday, signaling another win for President Donald Trump. The president celebrated the news on Twitter on Wednesday. ” The U.S., together with Mexico and Canada, just got the World Cup. Congratulations – a great deal of hard work!” “The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & Mexico for the 2026 World Cup,” Trump wrote in April on Twitter. “It would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid. Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t support us (including at the United Nations)?” Trump also personally urged African countries to support the bid for the World Cup. “I hope all African countries and countries throughout the world, that we also will be supporting you and that they will likewise support us in our bid, along with Canada and Mexico, for the 2026 World Cup,” Trump said in a joint press conference with Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari. The FIFA federation held a vote in Moscow giving it to North America with a vote of 134-65 over Morocco.

Yeah!!!   For more on this story, click on the next story immediately below.    🙂