RORY SURGES EARLY One stroke back at Bay Hill
The leading players at Bay Hill are no surprise, even if they have next to nothing in common.
Rory McIlroy, the No. 1 player in the world who hasn't finished out of the top 10 in any tournament since September, shot a 6-under 66 on Thursday morning in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Matt Every, the No. 309 player in the world whose only two PGA Tour victories in 237 starts were back-to-back at Bay Hill, played in the tough afternoon wind and was one shot better with a 65.
Every, who served a threemonth suspension at the end of last year for using cannabis that he said was prescribed legally for mental health treatment, played bogey-free and put on a clinic with his irons.
EMBIID DOES A ‘180’
Jeopardy contestants tend to have a blind spot with sports categories.
“Current Sports Nicknames” on Wednesday night's show was another example.
Given “Joel Embiid in 2019 won the trademark for this nickname that also describes the 76ers' strategy of improving the team,” a player buzzed in with “Do a 180.”
The correct answer was “The Process,” but the internetaddicted Embiid quickly changed his Twitter display name to “Joel ‘Do a 180' Embiid???” and posted a video of him doing an ill-fated 180 in high school. DENNIS YOUNG
U.S. WOMEN BOOT ENGLAND
Christen Press and Carli Lloyd scored in the second half to give the United States a 2-0 victory over England in the SheBelieves Cup on Thursday night in Orlando.
Alyssa Naeher stopped three shots to keep England scoreless and extend the topranked Americans' unbeaten streak to 29 games.
Spain beat Japan, 3-1, earlier Thursday to open the tournament. Spain plays the United States on Sunday when the tournament shifts to Red Bull Arena in New Jersey.
PELE: ‘ALL IS GOOD’
Pele is in the hospital for what he says are two days of routine physical exams.
“I hope to be back home tomorrow and starting my physical therapy. All is good, thank God,” the 79-year-old Pele wrote on social media.
The soccer great has suffered with mobility problems since a failed hip replacement surgery in 2012.