PGA Tour, LIV under scrutiny
The leader of a Senate subcommittee is demanding the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf present records about negotiations that led to their new agreement and plans for what golf will look like under the arrangement.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent letters to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV chief executive Greg Norman
spelling out the “serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the announced agreement.”
Blumenthal, who is chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said he also wanted to hear the tour’s plans to retain its tax-exempt status.
Last week the PGA Tour stunned the golf world by agreeing to merge with the Saudi golf interests, while also dropping all lawsuits between the parties.
Additionally, a new lawsuit was filed against LIV Golf and Phil Mickelson
over a logo.
Cool Brands Supply, an Argentine lifestyle and skateboard company, filed a trademark infringement lawsuit that claims Mickelson’s “HyFlyers” logo used in LIV Golf is a knockoff of their Fallen Footwear logo.
Both logos feature a pair of F’s facing in opposite directions.
Mickelson is the team captain of HyFlyers, which includes Brendan Steele, Cameron Tringale and James Piot.
The NCAA is changing its penalty for delay-of-game violations and adding a new rule on flopping in women’s basketball. Players no longer will get charged a technical foul for certain delay-ofgame violations. Players who flop will be issued a warning on the first offense and a technical foul will be charged for each subsequent infraction.
Vice President Kamala Harris saluted more than a thousand U.S. college athletes from championship teams who gathered at the White House South Lawn, saying that sports have a “very special way of bringing people together.”
Just days after leading Oklahoma’s softball team to its third straight national championship, pitcher Jordy Bahl posted on social media that she is transferring and heading back to her home state of Nebraska.
Danielle Hunter is expected to skip the Minnesota Vikings’ mandatory minicamp this week, a move that continues the uncertainty surrounding his future. ... Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey had a misdemeanor assault charge against him dropped in Texas after he completed a pretrial diversion program.
The Rams, attempting to boost their receiver corps, agreed to terms with veteran Demarcus Robinson, the team announced.
Robinson, 28, played last season for the Baltimore Ravens. He caught 48 passes, two for touchdowns. He has 193 catches, 16 for touchdowns, in his career.
Robinson played at Florida and was a fourth-round pick by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2016 draft.
—Gary Klein
Rob Vaughn, who revitalized Maryland’s baseball program and turned the Terrapins into one of the Big Ten Conference’s best, has left after six seasons to fill the coaching vacancy at Alabama. Matt Swope, who was Vaughn’s associate head coach for the last two seasons, was named the new coach.
Silvio Berlusconi, a former Italian premier and owner of AC Milan, died at age 86. Under his ownership, the team won 29 trophies, including eight Serie A titles and five European Cups. ... Stan Savran, who spent nearly five decades in sports broadcasting chronicling Pittsburgh’s rise to the “City of Champions” has died. He was 76. ... World champion sprinter and three-time Olympic medalist Tori Bowie died from complications of childbirth, according to an autopsy report obtained by USA Today. She was 32.
Drew Bowser hit a routine fly that Texas outfielders lost in the sky, allowing Alberto Rios to score the game-winning run as Stanford beat the Longhorns 7-6 to advance to its third straight College World Series. Drew Beam struck out seven in six innings, Zane Denton hit a three-run blast and Tennessee beat Southern Miss 5-0 to clinch the final spot in the CWS.