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WOODSTOCK, Ga. – The United Sprint Car Series events July 12-13, at Travelers Rest Speedway and Dixie Speedway, respectively, have been postponed due to weather.
The USCS Sprint Cars will make their annual July stop at Carolina Speedway on Friday, July 19 next weekend, then travel 90 minutes south to Travelers Rest Speedway on July 20th for the rescheduled event at that facility.
The 11th annual Randy Helton Memorial Race at Dixie Speedway during the Dixie Sprint Car Nationals will be made up on Aug. 3.
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Vegas leads at midway point of revitalizing John Deere Classic
Published in
Golf
Friday, 12 July 2019 11:50
With most of the PGA Tour’s stars taking the week off or playing in Scotland, the John Deere Classic was likely going to offer the chance for players to resurface atop a leaderboard and collect some much needed FedExCup points. On cue, Jhonattan Vegas leads Andrew Landry by a shot at the halfway point of Revitalization Week at TPC Deere Run:
Leaderboard: Vegas (-13), Landry (-12), Lucas Glover (-11), Harold Varner III (-10), Russell Henley (-10), Daniel Berger (-10), Cameron Tringale (-10)
What it means: A week after Matthew Wolff and the young guns dominated the headlines in Minnesota, we’ll enter the weekend in the Quad Cities with some contenders we haven’t seen in a while. Vegas, who had missed four of his past five cuts entering the week, has slipped to 89th in the world – a T-3 at The Players the only reason he was back inside the top 100 in the first place. Landry, who won for the first time on Tour last summer, has slipped 102 spots in the world rankings and hasn’t had a top-25 finish on Tour in more than a year. And then there’s Berger, now No. 104 in the world; Chris Stroud, who has now made two weekends in his past 10 tries; and Henley, who is shockingly ranked 200th in the world and had made just one cut in his last seven events before this week. All three are within four shots of Vegas.
Round of the day: Vegas did it all Friday, making nine birdies, missing just two greens and holing over 117 feet of putts to shoot 9-under 62, the best round of his Tour career.
Best of the rest: Glover fired a 7-under 64, highlighted by the shot of the day (see below). Landry and Varner each used second-round 65s to climb into the top 4. Varner is looking for his first top-10 since Phoenix. Roger Sloan and Chris Stroud were among the other players to shoot 6 under.
Biggest disappointment: Cameron Champ continued his struggles, entering the day at even par and with a chance to make the cut. However, Champ shoot 75 to punch his ticket home.
Biggest storyline entering the weekend: With just four weeks remaining until the start of the FedExCup Playoffs, the John Deere Classic is one of the final chances for players to secure their spots in the Tour’s postseason. Vegas is comfortably at No. 70, though a win would move him inside the top 30. Landry and Henley are both well outside the top 125, and Henley would have to go to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals should he fail to move inside that number. Bill Haas and Stewart Cink are other veterans in contention who desperately need a FedExCup boost. Of course, there’s also a spot in The Open on the line. Glover is the only player inside the top 10 who is already qualified.
Shot of the day: Playing alongside Wolff, Kevin Tway showed off his driving ability on the 14th hole. #Gainz
But that's the not the shot of the day. That belongs to Glover, who holed his 255-yard second shot at the par-5 10th hole for an albatross.
Quote of the day: “It was business. I was grinding my tail off. No, it was a lot of fun. I mean, I guess you guys can see the scorecard. I haven't really looked – I signed the scorecard, but I didn't really look at it. Yeah, I just feel like I'm doing a lot of good things.” – Varner
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Goosen (62) catches fire to take 3-shot lead at Senior Players
Published in
Golf
Friday, 12 July 2019 11:50
AKRON, Ohio – Retief Goosen shot an 8-under 62 on Friday to take a three-stroke lead in the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, the fourth of the PGA Tour Champions' five major tournaments.
After returning in the morning to birdie the 18th for a 69 in the rain-delayed first round, Goosen made an 8-foot eagle putt on the par-5 second hole in the second round and added six birdies in the bogey-free round at Firestone Country Club.
"I got it off to a nice flying start on my 18th hole at 7 this morning. I birdied 18 this morning, then went back to the hotel, had an hour and a half sleep again. Came back out and continued the great play after that."
The 50-year-old South African is winless in 11 starts in his first season on the senior tour, losing a playoff to Jerry Kelly last month in the American Family Insurance Championship. Goosen won seven times on the PGA Tour, taking major titles at the U.S. Open in 2001 and 2004.
Playing partner Steve Stricker, the first-round leader after a 64 that he completed with a birdie in the morning, had a 70 to drop into a tie for second with Brandt Jobe.
"Steve got off to great start yesterday and you feel like you're falling way behind," Goosen said. "I managed to finish OK this morning only being five behind and suddenly I went on a roll and his game went dead. So it's funny how it works."
Stricker is coming off a victory two weeks ago in the U.S. Senior Open at Norte Dame, and also won the major Regions Tradition in May.
"Never really got anything going at all," Stricker said. "Drove it in the rough quite a few times, missed quite a few greens, and just when I did hit it on the green, it really wasn't that close to have legitimate birdie putts at it. It's just a good golf course. And if you're a little off off the tee, you pay the price."
Firestone is a longtime PGA Tour venue, hosting the World Golf Championships event and previously the World Series of Golf.
"It's a golf course that I've had some good rounds and I've also had lots of bad rounds," Goosen said. "It's that kind of course. If you're a little bit off your game you could be on the fairway behind a tree. So, it's a course that can get the best of you very quickly and not really playing all that bad."
Jobe shot 69-65.
"It's a hard golf course. No let-up," Jobe said. "I played almost 28 holes. I'm tired. On this golf course, with it being wet and long, it was a long day."
Jay Haas (68), Kent Jones (67) and Tommy Tolles (67) were tied for fourth at 3 under.
Defending champion Vijay Singh was even par after his second 70. Bernhard Langer was tied for 50th at 8 over after rounds of 76 and 72. He won the event three straight times from 2014 through 2016.
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S.Y. Kim (64) holds 1-shot lead heading to weekend at Marathon Classic
Published in
Golf
Friday, 12 July 2019 12:31
SYLVANIA, Ohio – Sei Young Kim shot a 7-under 64 on Friday to take a one-stroke lead over U.S. Women's Open champion Jeongeun Lee6 in the Marathon Classic.
Kim had four straight birdies on Nos. 3-6 and also birdied the par-4 12th and 15th holes and the par-5 18th to get to 11-under 131 at Highland Meadows Golf Club. The South Korean player won the LPGA Mediheal Championship in May in California for her eighth tour title.
Lee6 shot her second straight 66. The South Korean birdied two of the last three holes.
Lexi Thompson, Stacy Lewis and Jennifer Kupcho were 9 under. Kupcho shot 66, Thompson 67, and Lewis 68, with Lewis playing alongside Kim the first two days.
Lewis won the last of her 12 LPGA tour titles in 2017. She was born in nearby Toledo and has an endorsement deal with Marathon Oil.
Thompson is coming off a two-week break.
Kupcho is making her sixth tour start as a pro. The former Wake Forest star won the inaugural Augusta National Women's Amateur in April.
Yealimi Noh, the 17-year-old from California who tied for sixth last week in Wisconsin in her LPGA Tour debut, missing the cut with rounds of 73 and 72. She played on a sponsor exemption after Monday qualifying last week.
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Trio of Americans lurking behind South Korean stars at Marathon Classic
Published in
Golf
Friday, 12 July 2019 13:05
Lexi Thompson continues to build on strong momentum with yet another run into weekend contention.
Jennifer Kupcho looks to break through as a pro three months after making history at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Stacy Lewis takes another step to winning as a hometown favorite.
Those three Americans put themselves in position Friday to win halfway through the Marathon Classic in suburban Toledo, but they’ll have to get through two players looking to continue South Korea’s dominance this year.
Sei Young Kim posted the day’s best round with a 7-under-par 64, taking the second-round lead at 11 under overall. She’s one shot ahead of Jeongeun Lee6 (66), winner of last month’s U.S. Women’s Open.
Kim and Lee6 are looking to give the Koreans their ninth victory in 18 LPGA events this year. They’re each also looking for their second victories this season.
Thompson (67), Kupcho (66) and Lewis (68) are all one shot back.
“I feel good where my game’s at,” Thompson said.
Her record demonstrates why. In Thompson’s last eight starts, she has finished T-4 or better five times, a run that includes a victory at the ShopRite Classic and two runner-up finishes.
It’s a good time to be at top form. After taking two weeks off to rest, Thompson is embarking on a run of four consecutive weeks that will end with back-to-back majors.
“It was very much needed,” Thompson said. “I played five weeks straight before that and was just mentally drained. I had two majors in that five-week stretch. Really, my whole career, I've never played five weeks straight.”
Thompson, 24, is the highest ranked American in the world at No. 4.
After this week, Thompson will partner with Cristie Kerr at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational’s inaugural team event in Michigan, then it’s off to France for the Evian Championship and England for the AIG Women’s British Open.
Kupcho’s profile soared winning the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April, but it has taken time to get used to the rhythms of life as a pro. She’s coming off back-to-back missed cuts with a T-23 her best finish in her five LPGA starts since leaving the amateur ranks.
Her growing popularity has added to the challenge in transitioning to the pro game.
“So many time things, that it's definitely been hard to calm down and really focus on golf,” Kupcho said.
She’s eager to have something more than the ANWA to talk to media about.
“There are still people that are like, 'Oh, can we interview you for Augusta?’ I'm like, 'That happened two months ago,'” Kupcho said. “I'm trying to move on and work on pro stuff.”
Lewis is looking for her 13th LPGA title, her first since becoming a mom and her first in Toledo, where she was born and where her parents grew up. She’s got her child, Chesnee, with her this week and lots of local family and friends following her.
“It's just a lot of fun this year to give them something to cheer about,” Lewis said. “They were pretty pumped after the round yesterday. It's always fun to have them, and have those family dinners every night, and just be around everybody.”
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Defending champ Romo (70) leads American Century Championship
Published in
Golf
Friday, 12 July 2019 13:49
STATELINE, Nev. – Defending champion Tony Romo birdied six of his final 11 holes to take the first-round lead Friday in the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course.
The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback turned NFL analyst shot a 2-under 70 and scored 26 points in the celebrity tournament that uses the modified Stableford scoring system.
Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson was two points back, and former major league pitcher Derek Lowe was another point behind. Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz was fourth at 22, and actor Jack Wagner, a two-time winner in the event, had 21.
Romo, who has competed in two PGA Tour events this year, played the back nine in 5-under 31 after getting off to a slow start with two bogeys and a double bogey on his first five holes.
"I think I had two points after five holes," Romo said. "So from that point on, I got pretty hot."
Charles Barkley, the former NBA star who has regularly finished last or second to last, birdied the second hole.
"Did he hit somebody and they threw it in the hole," Romo joked.
Barkley was at minus-12 points, but was ahead of 14 players in the 90-player field.
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Manchester United have hardened their stance on Paul Pogba by intimating privately that they value the midfielder at more than £150 million, sources have told ESPN FC.
The France international has suggested he would like to find a "new challenge" this summer amid interest from Real Madrid and Juventus.
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Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said on Wednesday United will not be bullied into selling Pogba after a series of public statements from his agent, Mino Raiola.
The World Cup winner, 26, has three years left on his contract and sources have told ESPN FC that United believe he is worth in excess of £150m in line with the spike in the transfer market following Neymar's £198m move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017.
Pogba arrived in a then world record £89.3m deal from Juventus in 2016. After travelling to Perth as part of United's preseason tour squad, Pogba is set to play in the first game of the summer against Perth Glory on Saturday.
Perth Glory are suffering from a lack of numbers for the friendly and may be forced to field two 15-year-olds, one the son of coach Tony Popovic.
Meanwhile, sources have told ESPN FC that United have distanced themselves from a move for Mario Lemina. The midfielder is set to leave Southampton this summer.
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The struggling stars like Sanchez and Bale trapped on inflated contracts
Published in
Soccer
Thursday, 11 July 2019 11:24
Some of the biggest moves in this summer's transfer market are taking a long time to come to fruition, and part of the reason for that is the size of the contracts involved. Which players are the most overpaid? Which player's deal is the hardest to move? Here are 10 of the most bloated contracts -- some even unmovable -- in terms of weekly wages in football today.
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- Quiz: Which star are you? Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar or Mbappe?
10.) Diego Costa
The "angriest man in football" has never come across as someone afraid to assert his worth. Or at least what he thinks he's worth. Still, eyebrows were apparently raised last season when Costa -- who had scored just three league goals at that point since returning to Atletico Madrid from Chelsea -- asked for a pay raise. That raise was not granted, and you can see why: He's already on something like £140,000-a-week, which for an aging striker who can't stay fit and isn't scoring goals... is quite a lot. Surprisingly, he was this summer linked with a move back to the Premier League with Everton.
9.) Oscar
In some respects, you can't blame a player for taking the money when a team from the Chinese Super League comes calling. Footballers' careers are short and it's hard to turn that sort of money down. The problem comes when you elect to return to a higher standard of football -- which, when you move there in the prime of your career, is an urge that will come to many. Take Oscar, for example: he moved to Shanghai SIPG nearly three years ago, but he's still just 27. Yet if he wants to come back to Europe, or South America, who's going to match wages said to be around the £400,000-a-week mark?
8.) Danny Drinkwater
Such is the financial insanity of football. Danny Drinkwater's wages of £100,000-a-week actually aren't too exorbitant in relative terms. The problem comes in what sort of value he might have provided for that money, the answer to which is: not much. None at all, really, when you consider that since his £35 million transfer from Leicester City in January 2018, Drinkwater has made just 12 league appearances for the Blues, last season only playing a total of 30 minutes, which came in the Community Shield. In that sense, Drinkwater's contract definitely qualifies as "bloated."
Everyone was so optimistic about Philippe Coutinho's move to Barcelona in January 2018, the hope being that he could be a replacement for Andres Iniesta. That has... not entirely gone to plan, and the word on the street is that Barca got buyer's remorse pretty quickly, and they would now very much like to rid themselves of Coutinho and his around £240,000-a-week wages. There are certainly bigger contracts in football, but this ranks up there with the worst of them on the expectations vs. delivery scale.
6.) Gonzalo Higuain
You have to feel pretty sorry for Gonzalo Higuain, really. It must be quite a blow to have been rejected by three teams in one season. First, Juventus, his parent club, loaned him out to Milan, who quickly decided he wasn't worth their time and shifted him on to Chelsea, who after a few months also declared they were not keen to retain the Argentine. Of course, sympathy might fade a little after a glance at his pay cheque; Higuain is apparently taking home something close to £300,000-a-week, a wage packet that -- along with his lack of goals -- isn't likely to have potential suitors queuing around the block.
5.) Paul Pogba
When the apocalypse comes, after some nuclear war has wiped out humanity as we know it and the world is rubble and ashes, whatever primitive lifeforms remain will still be arguing over whether Paul Pogba is a social media obsessed chancer or an unappreciated genius. At the time of writing, it seems that Pogba's relationship with Manchester United is only heading one way, and that it would be for the best if he left. But to where? Who will take on his wages, reported to be £290,000-a-week? Whether you think he's great or terrible, everyone can agree he's not a sure thing, and even in today's money-drenched game, if you're paying that sort of dough, you want a sure thing.
4.) Gareth Bale
The man who scored in two Champions League finals has plenty of cause to be annoyed by his treatment at Real Madrid. He seemingly can do no right, with rumours of his lack of integration in the dressing room and Spain in general apparently overshadowing all the good he has done at the Bernabeu. That said, perhaps the vast six-year, £350,000-a-week contract he signed in 2016 doesn't help his popularity, and is the biggest reason he's still at Real, a club seemingly keen to move him and his contract from the moment he signed it. The trouble is, who will take a player on such extraordinary money with a long and well-documented injury history? The answer at the moment seems to be: nobody.
3.) Neymar
You could say that on the list of problems with Neymar, the size of his contract is actually pretty far down. Not turning up for training and a laissez-faire attitude toward teamwork in general are probably bigger issues, but you can be pretty sure that plenty more teams would be queueing up to take him off PSG's hands if his remuneration were a little more reasonable. With a deal worth a reported £775,000-a-week, with which most clubs could pay a decent whole team, Barcelona seem the only club keen to liberate him from his Parisian prison, a prison that is presumably constructed entirely from stacks of cash.
2.) Mesut Ozil
Though they did escape falling into an Alexis Sanchez-shaped hole (see below), Arsenal did trip straight into another one. In fact, after they tripped, they dug a little more and covered themselves with dirt all the way to their noses in giving Mesut Ozil a contract worth around £350,000-a-week in 2018. The error was compounded by the subsequent dithering that saw Aaron Ramsey depart for nothing, Juventus giddily taking advantage while Arsenal were left with a player draining money from their coffers while offering little on the pitch. Fenerbahce were the latest club to reportedly investigate signing Ozil, before looking at the number of zeros on his pay slip and breaking into a cold sweat. Probably.
1.) Alexis Sanchez
Arsenal have received plenty of entirely justified criticism for their handling of contracts and transfer business in the last couple of years, but they certainly dodged a bullet when it came to Alexis Sanchez. Manchester United took a hefty punt on the Chile international, a punt that has sailed high and wide into the crowd, with Sanchez not nearly justifying his basic wage of £350,000-a-week, nevermind a reported appearance bonus of £70,000 and various other juicy clauses. In the real world, you wonder what performances would justify that sort of money, but even in the oddness of football, it's a colossally bloated and, by the looks of things this summer, an entirely unmovable contract.
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Russell Westbrook thanked Oklahoma City fans Friday night in a heartfelt Instagram post, saying he is "eternally grateful" for the 11 years he spent in a Thunder uniform.
The Thunder agreed Thursday night to a blockbuster trade to send Westbrook to Houston, reuniting him with former Oklahoma City teammate James Harden. The Rockets will send Chris Paul, two protected first-round picks (2024 and 2026) and two pick swaps (2021 and 2025) to Oklahoma City, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported.
Meanwhile, Harden appeared at a sneaker event Friday and was asked about the agreed-to trade that will pair the NBA's two highest scorers over the past five seasons: Harden with 11,958 points and Westbrook with 10,025.
"When I left OKC, I was sad. Then Houston made a home for me," Harden said. "Rockets is my home. And now an opportunity came available where Russ wasn't happy. Now we're back. It's going to be a lot of fun this year, I guarantee you that. Believe it."
Westbrook and Harden, two former league MVP guards, were Thunder teammates for three seasons, the last of those being the 2011-12 campaign in which that duo and Kevin Durant took Oklahoma City to the NBA Finals. The Thunder lost in five games to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, and Harden departed that summer for Houston, where he has been an All-Star ever since.
The Westbrook-Paul swap has not been formally announced, but the Thunder acknowledged Westbrook on their Twitter account.
?#Russ pic.twitter.com/OlVx1K48SJ
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) July 12, 2019
Thunder general manager Sam Presti worked with Westbrook and his agent, Thad Foucher, to help honor his hopes of playing with the Rockets, league sources said.
"We're excited to have Russell Westbrook," Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta told Fox 26 in Houston on Thursday. "I would watch him play for Oklahoma City, and he's so athletic. At the same time, this franchise just had the two years with the most wins it's ever had in consecutive years, and we wouldn't have accomplished that without Chris Paul. Chris Paul is unbelievable, and he's gonna be sadly missed."
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LeBron James won't be giving up his No. 23 to new teammate Anthony Davis after all.
The planned jersey swap for the 2019-20 season has been postponed due to potential production and financial issues with manufacturer Nike, a source told ESPN's Dave McMenamin, confirming a Yahoo! Sports report.
James wore No. 23 during both of his stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers and last year in Los Angeles. It's the number Davis wore during his seven seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans.
After the Lakers agreed to a blockbuster trade for Davis last month, James appeared to confirm on social media that he would switch back to No. 6 -- which he wore with Team USA in the Olympics and with the Miami Heat -- while giving No. 23 to Davis.
That swap hit some road blocks in recent weeks.
A league source confirmed to ESPN that the NBA notified the Lakers that a March 15 deadline for jersey changes had passed, but it would waive it if Nike, the league's official outfitter, complied. The company did not, as the unused inventory of No. 23 James jerseys already produced would have led to a financial hit "well into the tens of millions of dollars," a source told ESPN.
James, per the Yahoo! report, thus decided to postpone the jersey change out of what the website called consideration for fans who already purchased his No. 23 and a desire to keep the situation from becoming a distraction.
As of Friday, James had yet to file an official request to change from No. 23 to No. 6 for the 2020-21 season, a league source told McMenamin. James has until March 15, 2020, to do so.
The Lakers will introduce Davis during a news conference on Saturday in El Segundo, California. James is expected to attend.
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