Bouchard pays off blind date bet at NBA game
PERTH, Australia: Australia’s Brett Rumford and Mark Foster of England shared the first-round lead at the European Tour’s revolutionary new World Super 6 Perth event at Lake Karrinyup on Thursday.
The Perth native fired an opening round six-under 66 along with Foster.
There were 21 players within two shots of the lead as players vied to make it into Sunday’s innovative new six-hole match play knockout format.
The European Tour is trying to sex up golf for a 21st century audience and hopes the Perth event, and the recently announced GolfSixes over two days in England, in May will attract a new generation of fans.
A regular cut will take place after Friday’s second round of strokeplay before the field is cut to 24 players for Sunday’s finale in what is a first for the European Tour.
Rumford, who finished fifth at the Australian PGA Championship on the Gold Coast last December, said he was looking to continue his good form in his homeland after losing playing privileges last season.
“I actually feel as though the year has kind of been flipped on its head and I don’t really feel any pressure whatsoever,” Rumford said.
“I don’t feel pressure to win but my focus is on purely winning every golf tournament I’m trying to get into.”
Raumford, 39, made birdies on NEW YORK: Canadian tennis star Eugenie Bouchard paid off her lost Super Bowl bet Wednesday by joining blind date John Goehrke at a Brooklyn Nets NBA home game against Milwaukee.
Goehrke, a 20-year-old University of Missouri student and New England Patriots supporter, won his dream date with Bouchard, who turns 23 on February 25, thanks to the Patriots’ record-setting rally to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51 earlier this month.
The Montreal-born blonde predicted an Atlanta triumph on Twitter with the Falcons ahead 21-0 and her suitor pitched a date if the Patriots rallied to win.
Bouchard agreed, only to then see Tom Brady lead the Patriots to a 3428 comeback triumph.
Bouchard, ranked 44th in the WTA rankings after a third-round run at the Australian Open, tweeted a photo of herself in a bikini on Wednesday morning saying she was honoured to have been included in the 2017 edition of the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
She then tweeted: “Busy day with @si_swimsuit and then tonight... I’m going on a date” with a winking emoji.
On Wednesday night, she tweeted a two-person selfie photo with her date saying, “Just met my ‘Super Bowl Twitter Date’ John. On our way to the @BrooklynNets game!”
The two were sitting court side, the tenth, 11th, 14th and 15th — with a dropped shot on the 13th — to turn in 33 before picking up further shots on the first and fourth.
Foster also turned in 33 and then added further gains on the first, fourth and fifth to join the lead.
The Englishman also lost his tour card last year but quickly reclaimed it at the qualifying school and is embarking on a 16th consecutive season on Tour.
“I’m pleasantly surprised,” he said. “You come all this way and you don’t know what to expect and, obviously, as the round went on it got better so I was really pleased.
“You just come down, you want to give yourself a chance, so I came down early because I’ve not been playing anything, so that was the best thing I probably could have done.”
There was a group of 10 players a shot off the lead containing American duo Casey O’Toole and Johannes Veerman, Englishman Robert Dinwiddie, German Sebastian Heisele and Japan’s Hideto Tanihara.
Thailand’s Thitiphun Chuayprakong, Phacara Khongwatmai and Pavit Tangkamolprasert were among those on four under.
The 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa was three shots off the lead and Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen was a stroke further back after a two-under 70. New York Daily according News.
Bouchard was confident enough in Atlanta’s victory on February 5 with a three-touchdown edge to start sending Twitter messages predicting victory.
“I knew Atlanta would win btw,” she tweeted, later adding, “Just predicted the future.”
That prompted TW1, a Twitter identity sporting a photo of a man in a Cleveland Cavaliers NBA jersey, to tweet Bouchard with a longshot bid of his own.
“if patriots win we go on a date-” came the pitch.
“Sure,” Bouchard replied, although she shot down a second such suitor with merely “C’mon...”
As the Patriots made their successful fightback, Bouchard was asked by another tweeter: “are you getting nervous-!- Lol.”
“Umm...kinda...,” she replied, adding later, “So...where do you live-”
When the Patriots won the game, and their fifth title with Brady as quarterback, Bouchard could only manage letters: “Omfg.”
“Lesson learned,” Bouchard followed with later. “Never bet against Tom Brady.”
Realising she had become a big deal in the Twitter-verse, Bouchard made it clear the next day she would pay off. “Lol it made a Twitter moment,” she tweeted. “And I will do it, I stay true to my word.” to the