HOT WHAT’S WHAT’S NOT

HOT BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU

NOT the easiest chap to warm to. For a catch-up on that, maybe search his name and ‘fire ants’ or ‘brand’. But popularity is trivial. He took a major risk with his career this year and the pay-off is that his bulking up project could change an entire sport, whether that is a good thing or not. The US Open won’t be his last major title.

LES FERDINAND

NOT everyone will agree with his stance around footballers taking the knee, but once again he sounded like one of the smarter guys in the room. There is a value in gestures; there is a greater value in having the courage to call out a sport that tends to favour soundbites over action.

TADEJ POGACAR

AGED 21, the Slovenian won the yellow, polka-dot and white jerseys at his first Tour de France. His time trial to snatch the yellow from Primoz Roglic on the penultimate day was extraordinary. But it was also a head-scratcher for many. And that’s because it’s cycling, where no great feat should pass without a quick history lesson.

NOT RONNIE O’SULLIVAN

COMEDY is in the timing etc. So how very amusing that Ronnie O’Sullivan’s first match since winning the worlds — where he ridiculed the young talent coming through — should end in defeat at the European Masters to Aaron Hill, an 18-year-old, ranked No 115.

GRANT McCANN

HULL’S manager was asked the other night why they turned down the offer of a virus test from West Ham. ‘We didn’t want to create anything,’ he said. True, Hull are highly unlikely to be alone in not wanting to ‘create’ a problem for themselves. And presumably football’s authorities can do more to take the decisions out of their hands. But deary me.

PATRICK SIELE

THE number of Kenyan athletes serving doping bans now stands at 66. Siele was given a three-year suspension for evasion and the case centres on the rather fun detail that when testers turned up at the marathon runner’s base, he bolted and hurdled a fence to get away.