RORY TOUR DE FORCE
GOLF’S BACK THE CHARLES SCHWAB CHALLENGE Team USA bid to claim six on fire Jordan tees up big turnaround Judd won’t park tilt UPDATE
STEVE STRICKER will be left to pick half his team for the Ryder Cup.
The USA skipper will get six wildcards for September’s showdown at Whistling Straits, up from Jim Furyk’s four two years ago.
The Americans moved to cut the number of automatic places and extend the qualification period after the golf calendar had to be overhauled.
Players can now clinch a slot until the end of the BMW Championship on August 30, while his six wildcards will be announced on September 2 or 3 – three weeks out from the event.
Stricker, above, said: “These changes were sparked by circumstance but conceived with integrity in mind. We believe they will allow us to put our best team together to compete at Whistling Straits in September.”
Padraig Harrington wants to keep his final wildcard pick for Europe until after the US Open at Winged Foot, the week before the biennial battle.
JORDAN SPIETH saw the threemonth shutdown as a “big-time opportunity” to resurrect his career.
And the Texan believes today at the Charles Schwab Challenge is the perfect place to start.
His last victory was The Open in 2017 and he’s dropped out of the top 50 for the first time since 2013.
The ex-world No.1, now No.56, said: “I looked at it as a big-time opportunity for myself and didn’t take it lightly. I was certainly grateful for the time.
“Certainly it’s not a positive situation in general but, for me personally, I tried to look at how can I make this an advantage to myself.”
Spieth, above, focused on getting better physically and mentally as he added: “It’s not something that clicks and all of a sudden you’re automatically the best player in the world.
“It’s certainly a process. But creating the right little habits that get me back on track was a big emphasis. I feel like I’m progressing in the right direction.”
JUDD TRUMP says he would be happy to defend the World Championship “in a car park somewhere”.
Snooker has returned behind closed doors with the Championship League amid the prospect of next month’s Crucible showdown being the same.
But he said: “As long as it’s on, it doesn’t really matter where it is.” OLYMPICS: Tokyo 2020 chief Toshiro Muto admits the rearranged Games will “not be done with grand splendour”.