Category Sports News

Three PGA Tour victories and two near misses in the majors have left Justin Rose feeling vindicated by his decision to reject offers from the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf series.

The Englishman claimed his 13th PGA Tour title on Sunday after a dominant week at Torrey Pines in California, winning with a tournament record score.

In 2022, some of the sport’s biggest names chose to defect to the breakaway LIV Golf with lucrative contracts being offered by the controversial new competition.

Rose, however, chose not to move and since then the 45-year-old has climbed to third in the world rankings. He has won three times on the American circuit, finished runner-up at the 2024 Open Championship and was beaten in a play-off at last year’s Masters by Rory McIlroy.

“I’ve been sniffing and knocking on the door for a couple of majors since those decisions have been made, and those moments did validate that decision.

“It’s good to see people wanting to play where it motivates them to be their best.”

Rose finished 23 under at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open, beating the tournament’s previous best winning score of 22 under by Tiger Woods in 1999 and George Burns in 1987.

Rose also became the oldest player to secure a wire-to-wire finish on tour – leading in all four rounds – since Rocco Mediate in October 2010 aged 47.

“I want to play in and among the best players in the world; that’s what keeps me motivated, keeps me hungry, keeps me pushing,” Rose continued.

“It would have been easy to potentially do other things but none of that excited me and none of that gave me access to what I wanted to achieve.

“I always felt my childhood self wouldn’t feel very good about making that decision and giving up on those dreams.”

Last month, Patrick Reed announced he was leaving LIV Golf to make a return to the PGA Tour, following American compatriot Brooks Koepka in departing the series.

Five-time major champion Koepka, 35, made his comeback at Torrey Pines under a new returning member programme.

The also opened the door to the return of other major winners Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith but all three pledged their commitment to LIV before the 2 February cut-off date to apply to get on the programme.

Blackburn Rovers have sacked boss Valerien Ismael after a run of eight league games without a win left the club in the relegation places in the Championship.

The 50-year-old was appointed as head coach in February 2025 and replaced John Eustace, who left Ewood Park to take over at Derby County.

Ismael steered Blackburn to a seventh-placed finish last term, narrowly missing out on a play-off place by two points. However, they have struggled this term.

Rovers have managed just seven wins in the league all season and have won just once in their past 15 games in all competitions.

The club issued a statement confirming Ismael would leave by “mutual consent” with immediate effect, with assistant coach Dean Whitehead also departing.

“Blackburn Rovers would like to thank Valérien and Dean for their efforts during their time at the club and wish them both the very best for the future,” said the statement.

“The club will now begin the process of appointing a new head coach and will make no further comment until an appointment is confirmed.”

A 1-0 defeat at home to Hull City on Saturday left Ismael’s side three points from safety in the final relegation spot in 22nd and proved the final straw.

The Lancashire club have maintained Championship status ever since winning automatic promotion from League One at the first attempt in 2017-18.

Mercedes driver George Russell says his hope for the 2026 Formula 1 season is to find himself in a title fight with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Russell said he would “love for it to turn out that way” as he and Mercedes officially launched their new car on Monday.

The 27-year-old Briton added that he did not feel any more pressure as a result of his status as pre-season favourite.

“I do want to go head-to-head with Max and obviously Lando [Norris, McLaren’s world champion] had a great season last year but, no, it didn’t add any more pressure,” he said.

F1 has made the biggest regulation change in its history over the winter, with the cars, engines, tyres and fuel all new heading into 2026.

Russell said that although the first test in Barcelona had gone well for Mercedes, he had been impressed by other teams, especially Red Bull, who are producing their first in-house engine in partnership with Ford for this season.

“Probably the fans and people were expecting potentially Mercedes versus McLaren because there was a lot of anticipation that Mercedes would clearly have the best power unit,” Russell said.

Russell and team boss Toto Wolff were downplaying expectations of Mercedes, saying it was impossible to know at this stage which team was the most competitive.

“It’s still very early days but, quoting Toto, it doesn’t look like it’s a turd, which is a bonus,” Russell said.

“In the early days like this, you know when it could be a really bad car and you can sort of highlight those negatives early on.

“We don’t believe it is, but is it a car that can produce a world championship? It’s still way too early to say.”

Wolff added: “We don’t have really a performance picture yet because we haven’t seen Max driving the car fast and we haven’t seen McLaren and Ferrari doing what they can do. So I would carefully refrain from saying that was great for us. We simply don’t know.”

Russell, who said he felt ready to fight for a title, was generally positive about the new generation of cars.

They are smaller and lighter than last year’s, while energy management is a much bigger factor in performance now that there is a 50-50 split between the power provided from the internal combustion engine and the hybrid system.

“The faster driver will be the one who still comes out on top. I don’t think it will be an engineering race from the cockpit,” said Russell, who is partnered by Italian Kimi Antonelli for a second season, while Dane Frederik Vesti has become Mercedes’ official third driver.

“Definitely still is Formula 1, it still very much feels like a race car and you’re still very much pushing the limits but you are driving it differently.”

Wolff added: “They look spectacular. They look like Formula 1 cars now again. They’re not too small, they’re not too big, they’re not like the whales of the past. The aesthetics are very good.

Wolff dismissed allegations from other teams that Mercedes’ engine might fall foul of the rules.

Audi, Ferrari and Honda have complained to governing body the FIA because they believe Mercedes have found a loophole in the rule regarding compression ratio.

This must be a maximum of 16:1 and is measured in the garage at ambient temperature. The fear of Mercedes’ rivals is that the German manufacturer and Red Bull have found a way to use materials technology and thermal expansion to increase this when the car is running on track.

Wolff said: “I just don’t understand that some teams concentrate more on the others and keep arguing a case that is very clear and transparent.

“Communication with the FIA was very positive all along. And it’s not only on compression ratio, but on other things too. And specifically in that area, it’s very clear what the regulations say.

“Maybe you want to find excuses before you even start it why things are not good.

“Everybody needs to do it at the best of their ability. But that is really not how we would do things. Especially not after you’ve been told a few times that that is fine.

Emma Finucane set a new world record for the women’s flying 200m time-trial at the 2026 UEC Track Elite European Championships in Turkey.

Olympic and former world champion Finucane, 23, took nearly a quarter of a second off the previous best, with a time of 9.759 seconds during qualifying at the Konya velodrome.

Shortly after fellow Great Britain rider Sophie Capewell had become only the second woman ever to ride sub 10 seconds, Finucane eclipsed her team-mate’s time of 9.982 with an average speed of 73.78kph (45.84mph) to achieve the new world mark.

The previous record of 9.976secs was set by China’s Yuan Liying at the same velodrome last March.

The Welsh rider already holds the world record for the team sprint, which she set with Capewell and Katy Marchant in their gold medal-winning ride at the Paris Olympics in 2024.

While injured in November, Huw Jones got a different perspective on what it is to watch a Scotland team that can raise the spirits and crush the soul.

The Glasgow Warriors centre took in the match against New Zealand – when Scotland thrillingly rallied from 17-0 down to draw level, only for the All Blacks to kick on again for victory – from the BBC Radio Scotland commentary gantry.

“Now I understand why you guys and the fans get so frustrated with us,” Jones said in the post-match analysis, having witnessed Scotland spurn several chances to put the All Blacks away when they had them on the ropes.

Of course, one week later, the Scots served up an altogether more egregious example of their wastefulness, surrendering a 21-0 lead to lose to Argentina.

Jones is now back in the fold, free from injury and looking as sharp as ever.

He may not carry the scars of those agonising November defeats as much as those who were involved, but he believes those experiences may prove to be a watershed moment for Gregor Townsend’s side.

“For too long we were letting games slip, even if we were still winning them. I look at two Wales games in the last two Six Nations where they’ve come really close when we were in a position to put it away.

“The Italy game away [in 2024] when we lost. And so I think it had maybe gone not unnoticed, but sort of unchecked. And I think the Argentina one is obviously the really obvious one, 21 points up, to let that slip.

“There’s been really good conversations, a lot of learnings from that around processes in the game, what our mindset is with momentum swings.

“I feel really positive coming in and seeing the change in everyone and sort of buying into the plan. And I think we obviously want to see a major improvement in that area.”

Like a trademark Jones break, Scotland players have been slipping and sidestepping away from any questions around targets for this Six Nations.

After several underwhelming campaigns these past few years, and coming off a deeply disappointing autumn series, they are aware any bold talk about winning the championship will likely be met with a collective groan from Scotland supporters.

The focus is entirely on Italy in round one, and considering their last visit to Rome ended in defeat after one of those signature Scotland collapses, it is a sound strategy.

“We really have to believe, but we have to take it one game at a time,” said Jones.

“If we start looking ahead and thinking what we’ll do when we get there to that last game, that’s doing no-one any good. So really, it’s Italy. It’s one at a time.

“So, all we’re focusing on is Italy and how to beat Italy whilst sorting our plan and believing in ourselves and believing what we can do. But it’s just that game.

Having started all three Tests for the British and Irish Lions in their series win over Australia last summer, Jones’ stock has never been higher.

It was no surprise, then, when it was announced he will be leaving Glasgow Warriors at the end of the season to join French giants Toulon.

“It’s come to the point in my career where you almost have to capitalise on where you’ve got to,” he said.

“The offer came from Toulon, a historic club, with a history of success. Obviously, the lifestyle that goes with that, south of France, is very difficult to turn down.

“I’ve always been open about wanting to play in France. I enjoy experiencing different countries, different cultures. I started my career in South Africa, came out to Scotland and spent a year in the Prem. I want to experience everything in rugby.

“So, to get the chance to go play down there, I was never really going to turn that down. I’m excited about it. It’s a big move.”

Jones says his Warriors team-mates were all delighted for him and understood the decision despite Glasgow’s current on-field strength.

“It was difficult because right now, I think with Glasgow, we’ve got such a good group and we’re a successful team,” he said. “We’re one of the best teams in Europe. And so that’s a really difficult thing to leave.