PGA TOUR UPS ANTE AS PRIZE MONEY PUSHES TOWARD $500M

The PGA Tour is raising purses even higher in five of its biggest events, with two FedEx Cup playoff events now offering $15 million in a schedule that pushes prize money closer to the $500 million mark this year.

The increases, which include $12 million purses in the three invitational tournaments, were approved at a board meeting two weeks ago in Houston and outlined in a memo PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan sent to players on Monday.

“We are positioned to grow faster in the next 10 years than we have at any

point in our existence,” Monahan

said in the memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

Monahan said the tour’s forecast is for 55 percent of revenue going back to the players in prize money, bonus programs and other benefits. The $838 million allocated to the players includes $32 million from the reserve fund.

Prize money from official events comes out to $360.1 million. That doesn’t include the $75 million from the FedEx Cup, and it doesn’t include the majors, which now are lagging behind regular PGA Tour events.

The memo was a yearend message that was delivered earlier than usual, in part because of an announcement earlier this month that a Greg Normanled group funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund plans to inject $200 million into the Asian Tour as a step toward creating a world tour promising guaranteed riches.

Monahan did not mention competing tours in his memo.

Death

Doug Jones, a five-time All-Star reliever who had his best success closing for the Cleveland Indians, died. He was 64. Jones spent seven seasons with the Indians and ranks third on the club’s career saves list with 129. The club, which officially transitioned to Cleveland Guardians last week, said it was “saddened by the loss of one of our organization’s all-time greats.” The team said Jones died in Arizona. A cause was not immediately known.

College football

Nebraska quarterback

Adrian Martinez will miss the Cornhuskers’ season finale against Iowa because of a shoulder injury, coach

Scott Frost announced.

• UMass is bringing back

Don Brown as head coach in the hopes that the struggling program can return to the time of its greatest success. Brown led the Minutemen to a 43-19 record in the Football Championship Subdivision from 2004-08.

Soccer

Gareth Bale and Eden Hazard were not included in Real Madrid’s squad for the Champions League match at Sheriff because of health issues, the club said.

• England’s most successful manager for more than half a century, Gareth Southgate agreed to stay in the job until 2024.

Also

The San Diego State women’s basketball team improved to 4-1 with a 55-51 win over UAB (3-1) inside Viejas Arena. Asia Avinger led the Aztecs with 13 points.

• Two-time U.S. figure skating champion Alysa Liu, 16, is making a coaching change less than three months before the Winter Olympics. The 2019 and 2020 U.S. champ will begin training in Colorado Springs with

Christy Krall, Drew Meekins and Viktor Pfeifer. She previously trained in Oakland, under

Scali and