There’s a story behind Spieth’s ‘Go get that’ line
BASEBALL: The Yankees finalized LHP CC Sabathia’s one-year, $10 million contract, a deal that raises the team’s projected luxury tax payroll for next year to about $178 million. The deal was announced about 10 days after the sides reached an agreement pending a physical. Sabathia, 37, made $25 million last season while going 14-5 with a 3.69 ERA in 27 starts . ... The Reds signed RHP Jared Hughes to a two-year, $4.5 million contract. Hughes, 32, went 5-3 with a 3.02 ERA for the Brewers last season with one save in 67 appearances.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Zach Moss ran for 150 yards with a career-long 58-yard run for a touchdown and Tyler Huntley scored twice on 2-yard keepers as Utah got its fifth consecutive bowl victory, a 30-14 win over West Virginia in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. On a drizzly and chilly day in Cotton Bowl Stadium, the Utes (7-6) led for good after Moss took a third-and-1 handoff, quickly burst into the open field and went all the way to the end zone to cap their opening drive. The Mountaineers (7-6) had only 153 total yards . ... Daniel Jones threw for two touchdowns and ran for another while finishing with 338 yards of offense as Duke (7-6) beat Northern Illinois 36-14 in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit. Marcus Childers threw for 234 yards and a score for the Huskies (8-5) . ... Mississippi DT Breeland Speaks will skip his final year of college eligibility and enter the NFL draft.
NHL: The Blue Jackets announced that RW Cam Atkinson and C Alexander Wennberg will miss the next four to six weeks. Atkinson suffered a broken right foot Saturday against the Flyers while Wennberg injured his back Thursday against the Penguins . ... Former Maple Leafs G Johnny Bower, who helped the franchise win its last Stanley Cup in 1967, died following a short battle with pneumonia. He was 93.
SOCCER: Manchester United was on the right side of a last-minute equalizer in the English Premier League as Jesse Lingard’s double from the bench salvaged a point against Burnley in a 2-2 draw . ... Harry Kane set the Premier League record for goals in a calendar year, raising his total to 39 with a hat trick that led Tottenham over Southampton 5-2. Kane headed in Christian Eriksen’s free kick in the 22nd minute, breaking the Premier League’s previous record of 36 set by Alan Shearer in 1995 . ... Liverpool handed Swansea a 5-0 thrashing, keeping Liverpool in the top four, a point ahead of Tottenham . ... A former South American soccer official was acquitted of a corruption charge stemming from the FIFA bribery scandal after two others were convicted last week. Jurors found Manuel Burga, 60, the former president of Peru’s soccer federation, not guilty of a single racketeering conspiracy charge.
ALSO: World champion swimmer Katie Ledecky was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. Ledecky earned five golds and a silver at this year’s world championships in Budapest, maintaining the upward trajectory she first established as a surprise gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics. In balloting by U.S. editors and news directors, Ledecky received 351 points, edging out tennis star Serena Williams, who had 343.
With three words, Jordan Spieth delivered a British Open moment as memorable as the 50-foot eagle putt that prompted his famous line. “Go get that.” He was telling Michael Greller to get his ball from the cup as Spieth stood to the side of the 15th green, still soaking up the significance of such a long eagle putt that restored his lead with three holes to play.
And there’s a story behind it.
The reaction, while entirely spontaneous, might not have happened except for Spieth being in the makeshift gym all week at Royal Birkdale.
“I had been watching replays of the Open in the gym,” Spieth said. “There was a TV in there, and they were playing old Opens. For whatever reason, it intrigued me earlier in the week that the guys, when they made putts, they never went and picked their ball out of the hole. The caddie went and got it on long putts. And I guess that stuck in my headY: `ou don’t have to pick the ball out of the hole. Michael can go get it.“’
There was more to moment, of course.
Two holes earlier, Spieth missed the 13th fairway so far to the right that it hit a spectator in the head and caromed into the dunes. When he found it, he realized the driving range was not out of bounds, took a drop, had to take relief from the equipment truck and sent Greller toward the green to scout out the shot. The whole process took some 20 minutes as Matt Kuchar waited at the green.
On the 15th hole, he was in a bunker in two and blasted out to about 6 feet, and then Spieth made his 50-foot eagle putt.
“Michael, when I looked over, he’s laughing,” Spieth said. “For whatever reason, I didn’t want to walk all the way up there. It was pretty far away. He started to walk toward the bag, but I was already walking toward the bag and I was really intense at that pointM. ` ichael, go get that!’
“It was half being serious, like: ‘Go get it quickly because Kuch still needs to putt and we don’t need to drag this on. I’ve already been in his way too much the last couple of holes. Let’s not do that anymore.’ And it was half intense — ‘Pick that ball out of the hole.’ ”
MASTERS UPDATE: Some of the best mail during the holidays is a simple white envelope from Augusta National, officially extending invitations to those who have met criteria for the Masters (and for past major champions no longer exempt who will be honorary invitees).
At the end of the year, 80 players already were eligible and expected to compete, a list that includes (for now) Tiger Woods.
That’s two fewer than at this time a year ago, increasing the odds that the Masters again will meet its target of having fewer than 100 players at Augusta National the first full week in April. the Having a small field is important to the club. The Masters has not had more than 100 players since 1966.
One spot awarded next month is reserved for the Latin American Amateur champion. No more than 13 spots will be available for winners of PGA Tour events (except for the new Dominican Republic event held opposite the Match Play). One of those is at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, where all but seven players at Kapalua already are exempt.
TOUR LEVELS: Kevin Kisner has learned all about the different levels of the PGA Tour based on performance.
It starts with getting a PGA Tour card, a big deal until players realize they are limited in where they can play. Kisner didn’t play a tournament with guaranteed money and no cut until two years ago at the Bridgestone Invitational.
The next stage is keeping a full tour card, followed by winning.
At the close of a year that saw him win Colonial for his second PGA Tour title and make his first U.S. team at the Presidents Cup, Kisner noticed something else about his change in fortunes.
“The tournaments I play now, I don’t even see half the guys I used to see all the time,” he said.
There’s also the case of Scott Brown, one of his best friends who grew up with Kisner in Aiken, South Carolina, and is a member with him at Palmetto Golf Club.
“It’s almost three levels of the tour,” he said. “But that’s fine. It’s part of it.”
Brown was a rookie in 2012, and Kisner had returned for a second season on the PGA Tour after losing his card. They played 23 of the same 24 events that year, the difference being Brown played the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook and Kisner played the Houston Open.
Fast forward five years, and Brown played 32 times in 2017. Kisner was only in 17 of those tournaments. The seven tournaments Kisner played that Brown didn’t were three majors (Masters, U.S. Open and British Open), three World Golf Championships and the Tour Championship.
DIVOTS: Twenty players who began 2017 outside the top 50 finished the year in the top 50. The biggest jump belonged to Patrick Cantlay, who had been out of golf for nearly three years and started at No. 1,866. He ended the year at No. 38. Tiger Woods ends the year at No. 656 in the world, just four spots lower than he began in 2017. He played seven rounds of golf and had a missed cut, a withdrawal and a tie for ninth in the 18-man field at the Hero World Challenge. Dustin Johnson has to keep his No. 1 ranking for seven weeks to start 2018 to become only the fifth player to hold the No. 1 ranking for an entire year.
STAT OF THE WEEK: Jason Day and Rory McIlroy ended last year at No. 1 and No. 2 in the world. Neither won a tournament and ended this year out of the top 10.