Archive February 18, 2025

Shane Lowry’s The Bay defeated Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf Club to conclude the Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL) triple-header on Monday in Florida.

McIlroy was competing alongside former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama and American Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley in the indoor competition along with Tiger Woods.

However, Wyndham Clark’s final-hole eagle secured The Bay’s 5-4 victory after his Boston team had already lost for the third time in the opening season.

Ludvig Aberg was the Bay’s top performer less than 24 hours after his PGA Tour victory at the Californian Genesis Invitational.

They had previously defeated Atlanta Drive GC 6-5. By winning three of the opening four holes, The Bay had won the first game.

Atlanta, which had previously unbeaten, rallied, but Justin Thomas’ eagle putt for overtime just fell short.

In the first match of the day, Atlanta had beaten Los Angeles by the same margin, after overtime.

On the 14th, LA’s Tommy Fleetwood drained a 17-foot putt down the hill to put the game in overtime, but Thomas outperformed Sahith Theegala.

In the nearest-the-pin challenge, Patrick Cantlay’s ball finished closer than Theegala’s to seal victory.

Jannik Sinner’s case was “a million miles away from doping”, a senior figure at the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has said.

After reaching a settlement over his two positive drug tests last year, Wada issued an immediate three-month ban for the men’s tennis world no.1.

After testing positive for the banned substance clostebol in March of this year, Sinner, 23, was found innocent by an independent panel.

Following the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s (ITIA)’s initial decision to not suspend Sinner, Wada had been requesting a suspension of up to two years after filing an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

Wada, however, agreed that Sinner lacked malicious contamination and “did not intend to cheat.”

Sinner has stated that he was inadvertently contaminated by his physiotherapist, who was treating a cut on his hand with an over-the-counter spray, which was later found to contain the banned substance.

The timing and length of the ban, how the Italian was able to agree a deal, and inconsistent trends between recent doping cases have divided the tennis world.

It led to Switzerland’s three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka posting on X: “I don’t believe in a clean sport any more”.

Novak Djokovic, the 24-time Slam winner, questioned the fairness of the process and said there is “favouritism” towards high-profile players.

According to Wada’s general counsel Ross Wenzel, “this case was a million miles away from doping.”

According to the scientists, this could not possibly be a case of intentional doping, including microdosing.

Wenzel defended any suggestion of special treatment and said the ban’s terms, which some had claimed would have little impact on Sinner, were appropriate for the situation and weren’t intended to be based on the tennis calendar.

Sinner is eligible to play in the French Open, the next Grand Slam, which will start on May 25 and runs until May 4 because of his suspension, which first came into effect on February 9, 2019.

Since missing the Australian Open final on January 26, he hasn’t competed and could still be ranked first when he makes a competitive return.

Wenzel stated: “Wada has received messages from people who think the sanction was too high. In some ways, if some people think it’s unfair to the athlete, while others think it’s not enough, maybe it’s an indication that it’s in the right place.”

Three days after Sinner’s suspension was lifted, the Rome Masters is scheduled to begin on May 7th, with him eligible for a second suspension.

Before advancing to the French Open, the three-time Grand Slam champion would have the chance to engage in some competitive clay-based action.

On Monday, British player Liam Broady said he believed Sinner’s ban had been timed to impact the world number one’s career” as little as possible”, while former British number one Tim Henman said it” seems a little bit too convenient”.

Wenzel argued that a resolution must be reached before the ban could be put in effect, and that it must be carried out as quickly as possible.

” Once you’ve reached an agreement, what you can’t do is then say ‘ oh, but we’re going to have this apply from two months in the future for a period of three months’, “Wenzel said.

” It must come into effect quickly. Of course, once the deal is done, it’s important that it is executed and that it is made public for reasons of transparency.

“So it happened, because of the timing of the CAS proceedings, it happened to be decided last Friday, it was a very late night, and it came into effect immediately, so that is the reason for the timing.

” The sanctions that we impose and the code even says this, they’re blind to the calendar. The appropriate sanction should be imposed and put into effect when it is put into effect, and it shouldn’t be altered or modified to account for whether or not the events that are occurring are significant.

Wada only discussed reaching a resolution agreement in 2021, which would allow it to reach an agreement with athletes.

Wenzel believes that about 67 resolution agreements have been implemented since Wada’s rules added that provision.

Since the provision became effective in January 2021, I checked this morning and it might be one or two out, according to Wenzel.

” That’s just over four years and there’s been 67 of them and they’ve been applied at different stages, almost all stages of the results management process.