Grace is LIV Golf's latest $4M winner
Branden Grace won LIV Golf's first stop on American soil, an event that drew critics and protestors alike because of the upstart series' funding by Saudi Arabia.
Grace closed with a 7-under 65 on Saturday to finish at 13 under in the 54hole tournament at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. The 34-year-old South African won $4 million.
The fledgling LIV series, fronted by CEO Greg Norman and funded by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, aims to challenge the PGA Tour. It has lured some players, including Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, with the promise of big signing bonuses, hefty prize purses and fewer events.
Grace beat Mexico's Carlos Ortiz by two strokes.
“Played flawless golf, played really, really well when I needed to do something special and came up and managed to pull it out,” Grace said. “But just what a great day, it was amazing to come here, this new format, this new everything is amazing and everybody here is having a blast.”
Ortiz, ranked No. 119 in the world, shot a 69. Johnson (71) finished four back with Patrick Reed (67).
The 48-man field in Oregon competed for a $20 million purse, with an additional $5 million prize fund for a team competition. There was no cut and even the last-place finisher earned a payday of $120,000. Charl Schwartzel won the tour's inaugural event outside of London (and the team portion) and pocketed $4.75 million.
The Four Aces team, led by Johnson, won the team competition at Pumpkin Ridge.
LIV Golf also announced Saturday that English player Pat Casey has joined the series. Casey, 44, has won three times on the PGA Tour and 15 times on the European Tour, and is ranked No. 26 in the world. He has not played a tournament round since March because of injuries.
The tour's next event is set for July 29-31 at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster,N.J. Casey is expected to join at that time.
• J.T. Poston continued his quest for a wire-to-wire victory with a 4-under-par 67 during Saturday's third round at the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill.
Poston sits at 19-under 194, three shots ahead of Argentina's Emiliano Grillo (65), Denny McCarthy (66) and Scott Stallings (64).
Poston is chasing his second career victory on the PGA Tour after taking the 2019 Wyndham Championship.
He opened with three birdies on the front nine before posting a birdie, two bogeys and an eagle on the back.
“Obviously the first two days I had everything working great,” Poston said. “And today wasn't as sharp tee to green and didn't putt it as well. To be able to still shoot 4-under, which is still very solid today, that gives me some confidence going into tomorrow.
“Hopefully hit it better, but if I don't, I still got the ability to shoot a decent number.”
Callum Tarren (65) sits alone in third at 15 under while Chris Naegel (67) and Bo Hoag (63) are tied for sixth at 14 under, five shots back. Hoag shot the best round of the day to vault 18 spots up the leaderboard on moving day.
• Adrian Meronk will take a narrow lead into the final round of the Irish Open as he bids to become the first Polish winner in the history of the European tour.
Meronk, who has three top-three finishes this season, carded a third round of 4-under 68 at Mount Juliet to edge in front on a crowded leaderboard.
The top 14 players are separated by four shots. At 14 under par, Meronk is one shot ahead of Jack Senior, Jorge Campillo and Fabrizio Zanotti. Another stroke back are 2020 winner John Catlin and Espen Kofstad.
U.S. men qualify for '24 Olympics in Paris
The U.S. men's national team qualified for the Paris Olympics in 2024, marking its first appearance in the Summer Games since 2008.
The team guaranteed its spot in the 16-nation field Friday night with a 3-0 victory against host Honduras in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Under-20 championship.
Paxten Aaronson opened the scoring in the third minute and the Americans added goals by Alejandro Alvarado (23rd minute) and Quinn Sullivan (43rd).
The USMNT face the Dominican Republic in the final today.
Olympic soccer is limited to players under 23, with each nation allowed three wild cards over the limit.
O'Ward ninth IndyCar pole winner this year
The IndyCar championship race faces a major shakeup at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where the top title contenders struggled and Pato O'Ward won the pole to match a series mark set in 1961.
O'Ward became the ninth different pole winner through nine races this season — the first time that's happened in 61 years — and the Arrow McLaren SP driver now has a shot at the IndyCar points lead.
The modern-day record for different drivers winning the pole to start a season is 10 in 1952.
“This is huge man, it's a track position race,” O'Ward said of the difficulty to pass on Mid-Ohio's 13- turn, 2.258mile course. “It's a long race. A lot can happen but we have a great starting position.”
The championship leaders will start today's race mired in deep traffic. Marcus Ericsson, Will Power and Josef Newgarden all failed to advance out of the first group of qualifying, then reigning series champion Alex Palou was knocked out of the second round.
• With a masterful pass of pole winner Kyle Larson on the final lap of overtime, Ty Gibbs won the NASCAR Xfinity Henry 180 at Road America.
Larson took the white flag in the lead, but Gibbs had a better run down the frontstretch and dogged Larson's No. 17 Chevrolet through Turns 1 and 2. Gibbs took advantage of an opening to the inside in Turn 3 and powered his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota past Larson for the lead and the win.
The victory was Gibbs' first at Road America, his fourth of the season and eighth in 34 career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
“This is just awesome,” said Gibbs, who had just beaten the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion headto-head. “I can't believe it. This is just wonderful.”
•It took 151 attempts for Carlos Sainz to earn his first Formula One pole. Now he'll chase that elusive first win.
But starting alongside Sainz on the front row today at the British Grand Prix will be defending F1 champion Max Verstappen, a year removed from the crash with Lewis Hamilton that turned their title fight into a bitter rivalry.
Verstappen was booed by some in the crowd after Saturday's action-packed qualifying session in the rain, and said he could barely hear his on-track interview questions over the jeers.
“If they want to boo, they do that. For me, it's not going to change anything,” he said. “Maybe some of them don't like me, but that's fine. They all have their own opinions. I don't care.”
Sainz set the fastest time late in the third qualifying session to edge Verstappen by just .072 seconds. It was the seventh pole in 10 races for Ferrari this season, though Sainz teammate Charles Leclerc had earned the first six poles prior to Sainz's surprise run.
“First pole position, it's always special, and especially to do it in Silverstone in the wet,” Sainz said. “Kept it cool through the session and toward the end I decided to push.”
Big trades highlight All-Star Game draft
Breanna Stewart traded for her Seattle teammate Sue Bird in the WNBA AllStar draft.
Bird was set to be a cocaptain with A'ja Wilson before Stewart pulled off the deal to acquire Bird for Sylvia Fowles. Bird and Fowles are set to retire at the end of the season and were named co-captains with Stewart and Wilson.
“We can do legend for legend. OK, I got that. I'm good with that,” Wilson said. `I feel good about that. We're back on track. That was a good one.”
Bird will be playing in her record 13th All-Star Game on July 10 in Chicago. Fowles will be in her eighth.
Stewart also acquired Nneka Ogwumike for Sabrina Ionescu in a separate trade with Wilson.
Wilson had the first pick in the draft and chose Candace Parker, who will be playing in front of her home fans. The Las Vegas star then chose her Aces teammate Kelsey Plum with her second pick. Stewart drafted the third Las Vegas starter Jackie Young with her first pick and Jonquel Jones with her second choice.
Stewart had the first pick in the reserve round and selected her Seattle teammate Jewell Loyd. Stewart also drafted Kahleah Copper, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Alyssa Thomas, Arike Ogunbowale and Emma Meesseman.
Wilson chose rookie Rhyne Howard with her first pick of the All-Star reserves. Howard is the only rookie in the game. The co-captain then selected her Aces teammate Dearica Hamby. Wilson also drafted Courtney Vandersloot, Ariel Atkins, Brionna Jones and Natasha Howard.