SPORTS BRIEFS
Stricker fills out U.S. team with 4 Ryder Cup rookies
Equipped with the most captain’s picks in Ryder Cup history, Steve Stricker added four more rookies to his American team that included a mixture of obvious choices and perhaps a surprise, but no Patrick Reed.
Stricker filled out his 12-man team with Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth and Harris English. They were the next four in the Ryder Cup standings. The other two picks went to Daniel Berger and Scottie Scheffler.
Reed has a history of thriving in team events with his personality and short game. He has a 7-3-2 record in the previous three Ryder Cups and is undefeated in singles. But he has had a poor summer, and Reed couldn’t play the final two qualifying events while hospitalized with pneumonia that made him fear for his life.
He returned to play the Tour Championship and tied for 17th in the actual score from the 30-man field.
Europe’s qualifying ends after this week’s BMW PGA Championship in England, and then Padraig Harrington announces three captain’s picks. The Ryder Cup is Sept. 24-26 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. Europe not only is defending champion, it has won nine of the last 12 times dating to 1995.
Penguins’ Crosby out at least 6 weeks after wrist surgery
The Pittsburgh Penguins will have to start the season without captain Sidney Crosby.
The team announced Wednesday that the two-time Hart Trophy winner will be out at least six weeks after undergoing wrist surgery.
General manager Ron Hextall said Crosby had been dealing with the injury for years and that the team exhausted all minimally invasive options before deciding surgery was the best course of action.
“We all, including Sid, wish we had known this a month or two months ago,” Hextall said. “That would be great, but we are where we are.”
The Penguins begin training camp later this month and open the season on the road against two-time defending Stanley Cup champions Tampa Bay on Oct. 12. The door for Crosby’s possible routine would likely open around Oct. 20 at the earliest.
The 34-year-old Crosby missed just one game during the COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season, finishing with 24 goals and 38 assists to help lead the Penguins to the East Division title. He had a goal and an assist in six games during Pittsburgh’s openinground playoff loss to the New York Islanders.
Hextall said Crosby rested the injury after the season while weighing to see if he could withstand playing with it for another year.
IOC suspends North Korea from Beijing Olympics
North Korea was formally suspended from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by the IOC on Wednesday as punishment for refusing to send a team to the Tokyo Games citing the COVID19 pandemic.
IOC president Thomas Bach said the North Korean national Olympic body will also now forfeit money it was due from previous Olympics. The unspecified amount — potentially millions of dollars — had been withheld because of international sanctions.
Individual athletes from North Korea who qualify to compete in Beijing could still be accepted by a separate decision in the future, Bach said.
The suspension marks a steep drop in North Korea’s Olympic status since the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea, where the International Olympic Committee tried to aid a diplomatic breakthrough.