Go Michael Lorenzo-Vera!

That’s certainly what Bernd Wiesberger is thinking after two rounds of the European Tour season finale, the DP World Tour Championship.

Wiesberger leads the overall Race to Dubai, but with the way he’s played thus far this week, he could use some help from the Frenchman to finish in first place.

And still, that might not be enough.

Only four players can surpass Wiesberger for the season title, but a pair of them are inside the top 2 through two rounds in Dubai.

Lorenzo-Vera (69) leads the climactic event at 12 under. Tommy Fleetwood, currently No. 2 in the RTD, and Jon Rahm, No. 3, are tied for second place at 9 under.

Fleetwood, who won the RTD in 2017, shot 68 on Friday. Rahm, seeking his first overall title, eagled the par-5 18th for a 69. Wiesberger (71) is at 3 under par, tied for tied for 13th.

"I was jealous of Rory [McIlroy] yesterday so I tried to copy that," Rahm told reporters, in reference to McIlroy's eagle on 18 in Round 1.

"No, I actually had some doubts. It was 236 metres to the pin, 245 [yards] to cover the water on the left side and the wind came in from the right.

"It had to be a perfect 5- wood to get all the way there. If it missed it could potentially go in the water and for a 3-wood – long right or long left is not a good spot to be on that hole. 

"I decided to be brave on that one and hit as hard a 5-wood as I could hit and it came out, I could not have hit a better shot."

Here is a full look at the Race to Dubai scenarios in place, but should Fleetwood or Rahm win this week, and Wiesberger doesn’t finish solo second, then they would capture the seasonal trophy. Fleetwood and Rahm can also earn RTD honors title by finishing in second place, depending on where Wiesberger ends up.

Given the current standings through 36 holes in Dubai, Fleetwood would win the Race to Dubai title.

One day after shooting a 64, capped by what he called his “best shot of the year,” Rory McIlroy tumbled down the leaderboard at the DP World Tour Championship.

McIlroy couldn’t recapture the form he displayed on Thursday – really, for the better part of the year – in Round 2 on The Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. He made only two birdies on Friday, compared to seven birdies and one eagle to open the tournament.

"It's a very fickle game," McIlroy told reporters. "I've always said that one day it can seem very easy and someone up there says, 'no, not so fast' and brings you back down to earth. That's golf. 

"I battled through it. I'm still in with a shout to have a go at winning this tournament, I just need to stick the head down over the weekend and get in there and try to shoot a couple of good scores."

Starting the day one shot behind leader Michael Lorenzo-Vera, McIlroy parred his first five holes before a double bogey at the par-3 sixth. From there it was a mundane 12 holes consisting of two birdies and two bogeys. After making a brilliant eagle on the par-5 18th on Thursday, McIlroy hit his tee shot into the water on Friday and salvaged a par.

It all added up to a 2-over 74, 10 shots worse than Round 1.

McIlroy, a three-time Race to Dubai champion, doesn’t have a chance to capture a fourth season title this week. However, he is seeking his fifth worldwide victory of the year. McIlroy enters the weekend at 6 under par. He’s tied for fifth place, but now seven shots behind Frenchman Lorenzo-Vera.

NAPLES, Fla. – LPGA pros will play for a record $75.1 million next year.

The 2020 schedule, released Friday, features 33 official events, plus the UL International Crown biennial team event.

That’s one more event than the tour featured this year and almost $5 million more in total prize money.

“I could not be more excited about what the future will bring for the LPGA tour and the sponsors that support us,” LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said in a statement.

Whan was pleased that total prize money made another notable increase.

“That number is a testament to the support we are receiving from sponsors and industry partners around the globe,” he said.

The new schedule will see the loss of the Thornberry Classic in Wisconsin and the Indy Women in Tech in Indiana, but it will see the addition of three events, including two new Florida events, upping the total to four events in the Sunshine State, where LPGA headquarters are based. The season will open at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Jan. 16-19, and then move south the following week to the new Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in Boca Raton, Florida. The new Pelican Women’s Championship will be staged in Belleair, Florida, May 14-17. The season will once again conclude with the CME Group Tour Championship, Nov. 19-22, in Naples, Florida.

The Blue Bay China, March 5-8, is also returning to the schedule.

“As I enter my second decade as commissioner, we find ourselves in a new phase of the LPGA tour,” Whan said. “We’ve grown, but now we must flourish. We talk a lot about the next generation, but we lift this generation. I know a lot of our fans understand the difference we are making for women’s golf in America, but they might be surprised to know about the impact our tour is having all around the globe.”

While the CME Group’s doubling of its Tour Championship purse to $5 million was a big deal this year, with its record $1.5 million first-place check, there are other title sponsors continuing to step up this year. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is increasing its purse to $4.3 million, up $450,000 from this year and up $1 million from its inception four years ago. The Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational is increasing its purse to $2.3 million, up $300,000, making it the largest total purse in women’s golf outside the major championships and the CME Group Tour Championship.

Next year’s schedule features the return of the UL International Crown (Aug. 13-16) in a busy summer stretch that includes the Olympics (Aug. 5-8). The Crown will be played at the Centurion Club in Scotland. The U.S. Women’s Open (June 4-7) will be played at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas, the KPMG Women’s PGA (June 25-28) at Aronimink Golf Club in Newton Square, Pennsylvania, and the Women’s British Open (Aug. 20-23) at Royal Troon in Scotland.

Here's a look at the full schedule, courtesy the LPGA (or click here to download):

Luis Suarez has told ESPN FC that the growth of Major League Soccer makes the competition an "attractive" proposition and that the option of moving to the United States when he leaves Barcelona is a "nice possibility."

Suarez, who will turn 33 in January, has been strongly linked with a move to David Beckham's Inter Miami franchise over the last year. He has a contract until 2021 at Camp Nou -- with an option to extend the deal by an additional year -- but has begun to think about what his next move might be.

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Wayne Rooney are among the big-name veterans who have moved to the U.S recently, but it's the addition of younger talent which is drawing Suarez to the league.

"MLS is a competition which has grown a lot in the last few years and you can see that with the young players that have moved there in the last two years, above all the South Americans," Suarez told ESPN FC at the launch of the new Puma Future Flash boots.

"That shows that the league wants to grow and not just bring in players of a certain age that are going to retire there. They look for that mix to make the league better."

Uruguay's Nicolas Lodeiro, who plays for MLS Cup winners Seattle Sounders, claimed recently that Suarez told him he wants to move to MLS when his time in Spain is up.

The Barcelona striker, who was named fifth-best striker in the ESPN FC 100, said he wasn't quite that explicit but confirmed he did speak with his international teammate and that he would be interested in playing in the U.S.

"I didn't commit to anything [with Lodeiro]," Suarez said. "I had a conversation with him. MLS is a league that any player would be interested in and I asked him about the competition and about his teammates.

"I have a contract with Barca and I am very happy here. In the future you never know, it's an attractive league.

"Given that I have been lucky to have had success at the top level for a long time, what I would look out for [next] is stability for my family and the well-being of my children. They would all make the decision along with me and the United States is a nice possibility."

Suarez remains a key player at Barcelona. He has scored eight goals this season, becoming the fourth top scorer in the club's history, although sources told ESPN FC earlier in November that the Blaugrana would face a dilemma were they to receive a concrete offer for the striker from a MLS side.

While his goals and his relationship with Lionel Messi remain important, there's acknowledgement at the club that he is no longer the player they signed from Liverpool for €75 million in 2014.

Suarez nearly led Liverpool to their first league title since 1990, coming up just short before signing for Barca. However, Liverpool's 30-year wait for the title could finally end this season. They have already opened up an eight-point lead in the Premier League, although Suarez warned that it's too early to view that as definitive.

"[Winning the Premier League] is difficult because the season is very long," he said. "But they have a nice advantage at the moment and with this current Liverpool side, it's complicated [to imagine] them letting that slip. But we all know how football is. They had a similar advantage at one stage last season and, in the end, Manchester City won the league.

"We were close to winning the league at Liverpool with young players. We almost managed it without the budget they have today. Given everything Liverpool are now, to have won it then would have had more merit."

How do you know when a team has toggled away from rebuild mode? The answer to that isn't always as easy to pinpoint as you might think. But one probable indicator is that when a team signs a 31-year-old catcher to a four-year, $73 million contract, that team feels like it is ready to crack the contention window.

That is what the Chicago White Sox signified on Thursday when they announced their signing of Yasmani Grandal: It is now winning time on the South Side. But make no mistake, while the acquisition of one of baseball's elite backstops might act as a kind of signal switch, the ChiSox locomotive has plenty of track to traverse before it pulls into the station. More moves are coming.

"I'm not sure how we'll be perceived with other free agents," White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said during a conference call. "Our intention, similar to what we did with Yas, was to state our case directly and show that our words are true as to what actions we plan to take. At the end of the day, it comes down to converting on deals."

The timing of Hahn's splash might look odd at a glance. Chicago lost 89 games last season, which was actually a big improvement from a 100-loss season in 2018. Going from that to a team playing in the upper level of free agency is in some respects an act of faith. For Hahn, team president Kenny Williams and owner Jerry Reinsdorf, that faith is based on several years of carefully planned rebuilding. And it's based on the knowledge that Chicago is playing in what is right now a highly winnable division.

The final image we have of Gerrit Cole's tenure with the Houston Astros was after Game 7 of the World Series, when he was wearing a Scott Boras Corporation cap instead of drinking champagne during a victory celebration.

Still, it was a wonderful two seasons in Houston for Cole, as he shed his previous rep as a talented but inconsistent right-hander to become arguably the best starter in the majors. He went 35-10 with a 2.68 ERA and a ridiculous 602 strikeouts in 412 ⅔ innings with the Astros -- a big improvement over his final two seasons with the Pirates when he went 19-22 with a 4.12 ERA and 294 strikeouts in 319 innings.

Cole is now a free agent, likely to receive the biggest contract ever for a pitcher. Next up for the Astros, or any other team for that matter: Find Gerrit Cole 2.0.

We have a guy in mind. We'll get to free agent Zack Wheeler in a moment and why he's an interesting comp for where Cole was two years ago, but let's first do a quick synopsis of how Cole made the leap after his trade to Houston.

Cole was the No. 1 overall pick out of UCLA in 2011 and had his best season with the Pirates in 2015, when he went 19-8 with a 2.60 ERA and finished fourth in the Cy Young voting. His follow-up seasons were not as impressive, and the Astros traded four players to acquire him -- with a clear idea on how to make Cole better.

The Pirates liked to emphasize two-seam fastballs down in the zone, the better to generate ground balls. The Astros encourage their pitchers -- especially those with good velocity -- to throw more four-seam fastballs up in the zone, the better to generate strikeouts. Ditching his sinker wasn't the only change Cole made. He also started throwing his slider and curveball more often -- which also helped produce more strikeouts. Here's his pitch selection percentages with the Pirates compared to the Astros:

Pirates, 2016-2017
4-seam fastball: 48.7%
2-seasm fastball: 13.7%
Changeup: 8.6%
Curveball: 11.3%
Slider: 17.6%

Astros, 2018-2019
4-seam fastball: 50.9%
2-seam fastball: 4.2%
Changeup: 6.0%
Curveball: 17.3%
Slider: 21.6%

With the Pirates in 2016-17, Cole's four-seam fastball generated a strikeout rate of 20.7%. His two-seamer generated a strikeout rate of just 9.4%. With the Astros, Cole's strikeout rate on the four-seam fastball improved to 39.2%, so it's not just about simply throwing it more often, but locating it better along with the interplay of throwing more breaking balls.

There aren't many pitchers who have Cole-like potential, simply because there are few starting pitchers who can match his velocity. Among pitchers with at least 100 innings in 2019, Cole had the second-highest average fastball velocity at 97.4 mph, behind only Noah Syndergaard. Wheeler was fourth on the list, averaging 97.0 mph.

Wheeler is not a perfect match for Cole. Most notably, he missed all of 2015 and 2016 with injuries, including Tommy John surgery. He went 23-15 with a 3.65 ERA over the past two seasons with the Mets with 374 strikeouts in 377 ⅔ innings, numbers that line up with Cole's final two seasons in Pittsburgh. Wheeler is expected to receive a four- or five-year contract for about $20 million per season. Teams are interested not just because he has been a quality pitcher for the Mets, but because of the expectation that there's some upside the Mets weren't able to extract.

Check out Wheeler's numbers from 2019:

Four-seamer: 918 pitches, .241/.309/.341, 29.4% strikeout rate
Two-seamer: 946 pitches: .297/.331/.484, 17.2% strikeout rate

Even though Wheeler's four-seam fastball was the more effective pitch, he threw the two-seamer more often. A team like the Astros might look at those numbers and advise Wheeler to throw his four-seam fastball more often and perhaps unlock some of that upside.

Of course, it is not that simple. You have to break down when Wheeler threw all those pitches. He threw almost an equal amount in hitters' counts -- 201 four-seamers, 194 two-seamers (both were hit hard). The big difference came in pitchers' counts (0-1, 0-2, 1-2, 2-2). The results:

Four-seamer: 330 pitches, .151/.160/.258, 52.5% strikeout rate
Two-seamer: 363 pitches: .297/.300/.469, 30.5% strikeout rate

Again, it's clear that Wheeler's four-seam fastball was the much better pitch in 2019. While this suggests a repertoire change, à la Cole, it may not be quite so simple. In 2018, Wheeler's two-seamer was the better pitch, at least in terms of damage:

Four-seamer: 1,238 pitches, .249/.327/.357, 23.8% strikeout rate
Two-seamer: 427 pitches, .200/.239/.295, 13.8% strikeout rate

Wheeler actually threw his four-seamer much more often in 2018. You wonder if somebody showed him those triple-slash lines and suggested he throw the two-seamer more often -- even though his four-seamer registered a much higher strikeout rate.

The general belief is the Mets' analytics department isn't on par with some other organizations -- certainly not the Astros. Wheeler also threw his fastball (both types) 59% of the time in 2019, compared to 54% for Cole. That's only a difference of five fastballs over 100 pitches, but a different analytics department might suggest a few more curveballs -- Wheeler has a very good one with a strikeout rate of 37%, but he actually threw his slider (strikeout rate of 22.8%) twice as often.

Look, there are no guarantees here. Wheeler's mechanics aren't always fluid or consistent, and pitching greatness is often as much about intuitive feel and precise command as it is pure stuff. Still, it will be fascinating to see what Wheeler might do with another team -- somebody might just give him $100 million to find out.

Four other potential Gerrit Cole 2.0s:

• Brandon Woodruff, Milwaukee Brewers: He was having an excellent first full season in the Milwaukee rotation until he suffered an oblique injury in late July. Still, he averages 96 mph with his fastball and struck out 143 in 121 ⅔ innings. He generates a huge number of whiffs with his four-seam fastball (41.7%), yet he threw it 38% of the time compared to 26% for his two-seamer (which generated a 21% K rate).

• Frankie Montas, Oakland Athletics: He had a 2.70 ERA through 15 starts when he was suspended for 80 games for a positive PED test. He came back for one final start and allowed one run in six innings. In his breakout half-season, Montas averaged 97.1 mph on his fastball. His wipeout pitches are a slider and splitter, but he threw his two-seamer twice as often as his four-seamer even though his four-seamer had a 22% strikeout rate compared to 11.3% for the two-seamer.

• Jon Gray, Colorado Rockies: He averages 96.1 mph with his fastball, and while he actually has a lower career ERA at Coors Field than on the road, all he may need to develop into an ace is a different home park. Gray is basically a fastball/slider guy, mixing in some curveballs against lefties, but southpaws pound his fastball (.989 OPS in 2019). Maybe he needs to add a two-seamer, splitter or changeup.

• Sandy Alcantara, Miami Marlins: The Marlins' All-Star rep in 2019, Alcantara averaged 95.9 mph with his fastball and also throws a hard sinker that he threw almost as often. Neither is a big swing-and-miss offering, however, and his sinker generated just a 10.3% strikeout rate (although not a ton of hard contact). There's something here, and while he may never be a big strikeout guy, there is some upside.