Serious at the right moment, Homa wins hometown tourney
LOS ANGELES » Leave it to Max Homa to be so brutally honest that it easily passes as humor, even when he’s the subject.
Homa set the stage for the greatest moment of his career on Sunday at the Genesis Invitational. He was tied for the lead at Riviera, his favorite golf course in the world. The storied clubhouse was high on a hill over the
18th green, looking magnificent against a blue sky. Tiger Woods, the tournament host, was watching and waiting to present the trophy.
Homa sent a sand wedge high and true, and it settled 3 feet from the hole, a winning shot.
Except that he missed the putt.
Homa walked up the stairs toward the clubhouse, signed for a 5-under 66 that put him a playoff with Tony Finau and then called his wife, Lacy.
“I said, ‘I think I choked a little bit.’ And I laughed,” Homa said.
This had a happy ending, a true Hollywood finish for someone who grew up 30 miles away and whose father brought him to the tournament since he was a toddler.
He worships Riviera. He idolized the tournament host. He was close to tears, struggling to get out words, after his superb chip from the base of a tree on No. 10 for the first playoff hole and his winning par on the next hole at No. 14.
EPL coach fed up with fantasy soccer game
If a Premier League team wants the inside track on an opponent’s injury status ahead of a game, there’s an online resource it can increasingly lean on to get crucial information.
The Fantasy Premier League soccer competition.
The absence of Jack Grealish proved to be a major blow for Aston Villa in its 2-1 loss to Leicester on Sunday, though an injury to the England midfielder had been extensively trailed ahead of the game via chat on social media — specifically by participants of the fantasy game played by more than 8 million people worldwide.
That’s because it had been flagged up to the socalled “FPL community” on Twitter on Friday that three Villa players — Matt Targett, Conor Hourihane and Neil Taylor — had taken Grealish out of their team ahead of the latest round of Premier League matches. As, indeed, had one of Villa’s scouts and its first-team performance analyst.
Maybe it was just coincidence but, sure enough, when the lineups for the Villa-Leicester game were published an hour before kickoff, Grealish’s name was conspicuous by its absence.
Villa manager Dean Smith spoke after the game about his unhappiness that speculation about an injury to Grealish — the team’s captain and star player — had spilled out before the game.
Morris’ loan ends in second ACL tear
SWANSEA, WALES » American forward Jordan Morris tore his left ACL while on loan for Swansea in the English League Championship, three years after rupturing his right ACL during a match for MLS’s Seattle Sounders.
Morris tore his left ACL on Saturday during Swansea’s 4-1 loss at Huddersfield. Swansea said he will miss the rest of the English season.
The injury appears likely to sideline Morris from at least the first eight U.S. World Cup qualifiers, which start in September. There are three additional qualifiers in both January and March 2022.