Category Sports News

The world’s best golfers began the US PGA Championship on Thursday, but the main talking point coming out of Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, United States, was a bit unexpected.

Mud balls.

A mud ball is actually quite self-explanatory – it’s when golf balls get covered in mud and dirt during bad weather.

That might not sound too important, but it can greatly affect the flights and trajectory of balls, often causing them to spin unpredictably.

Quail Hollow was hit by heavy rain from last Friday to Tuesday with more than three inches falling and while most of the course was in good condition on Thursday, the 16th hole caused serious problems for the best players in the world.

World number one Scheffler and world number three Xander Schauffele picked up mud on their balls, before both pulled their approach shots to the green well wide and into the water. Both carded double bogeys.

It’s unlikely either would have made that mistake under normal circumstances.

Scheffler is joint 20th in the standings on two under after day one, while Schauffele is joint 60th on one over.

Both Scheffler and Schauffele voiced their frustrations at the PGA of America’s decision not to allow ‘preferred lies’ on Thursday.

“It’s one of those deals where it’s frustrating to hit the ball in the middle of the fairway and get mud on it and have no idea where it’s going to go,” Scheffler said.

“I understand it’s part of the game, but there’s nothing more frustrating for a player. You spend your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball, and due to a rules decision all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes.

“But I don’t make the rules. I just have to deal with the consequences of those rules. I did a good job of battling back today and not letting a bad break like that, which cost me a couple shots, get to me. Did a good job battling after that and posting a decent score.”

Schauffele wasn’t happy either.

“It is what it is, and a lot of guys are dealing with it, but it’s just unfortunate to be hitting good shots and to pay them off that way. It’s kind of stupid,” he said.

“I wouldn’t want to go in the locker room because I’m sure a lot of guys aren’t super happy with sort of the conditions there.

“I feel like the grass is so good, there is no real advantage to cleaning your ball in the fairway.

The PGA of America decided against introducing preferred lies after weather conditions improved.

“We do not plan to play preferred lies. The playing surfaces are outstanding and are drying by the hour. We are mowing the fairways this evening,” read a statement published on Wednesday evening.

“We are looking forward to an exciting opening round to the 107th PGA Championship.”

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West Indies batter Sherfane Rutherford and all-rounder Romario Shepherd will miss the upcoming tour of England and Ireland to remain at the Indian Premier League.

The IPL, the world’s richest T20 franchise league, restarts on Saturday but its’ postponement means the play-offs now begin on 29 May and clash with the Windies’ one-day and T20 tour of England.

England – with a richer national board – picked five IPL players in their one-day international squad but those players are expected to return.

“We acknowledge that players have their individual contractual arrangements which they would want to honour as it relates to their continued participation,” Cricket West Indies said.

Shepherd, who has played 37 ODIs and 53 T20s, will be replaced in the squad by left-arm seamer Jediah Blades.

He has played four matches for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL, including a 14-ball 53 not out in his most recent innings.

Rutherford has played in nine matches for current IPL leaders Gujarat Titans this season.

He will be replaced by top-order batter John Campbell for the Ireland leg of the tour while Shimron Hetmyer will take his place for the matches against England.

Hetmyer is another West Indies player at the IPL but his Rajasthan Royals side are already eliminated. He was originally left out of the Windies ODI squad after a poor run of form.

Seamer Shamar Joseph is at the IPL but has not featured for his side Lucknow Super Giants and remains in the West Indies squad.

The Windies play three ODIs in Ireland from 21 May before a three-match series in England from 29 May.

Scottish Premiership play-off semi-final second leg: Livingston v Partick Thistle (agg 2-0)

Venue: Almondvale, Livingston Date: Friday, 16 May Time: 19:45 BST

As the Partick Thistle people travel east along the M8 towards Livingston on Friday afternoon, they will have plenty to ponder.

Not least how they turn a threadbare squad into an irresistible force capable of dislodging the Livingston-shaped immovable object that beat them in Tuesday night’s Scottish Premiership Play-off semi-final.

Two-nil down is a sizeable hurdle in a second leg. Especially when you are running on fumes.

But it would be silly to write Thistle off. The miracle of Somerset Park was just a week ago. Brian Graham ‘100 not out’ and all that.

The 37-year-old captain, co-interim manager and all the other job titles must have a new fire burning in his belly after missing a late chance on Tuesday at Firhill that sailed over the bar.

But back to the bigger picture.

Beyond this semi-final second leg, there is uncertainty, for both clubs.

Will Brian Graham and fellow co-manager Mark Wilson even be in charge at Thistle after Friday?

What exactly must they do to lose the ‘interim’ tag? Have they already done enough?

Thistle have a new sporting director in former Motherwell and Northern Ireland boss Ian Baraclough. The new manager or management team will report to him.

“It is a difficult job having to come from the playing side of it, still playing and still make big decisions,” he said of Wilson and Graham when asked about the situation on Tuesday night.

“That is where I think Mark [Wilson] has dovetailed really well with Brian. I think they have coped with it well. I think there has been a bounce from that as well.

“But it is my job to assess and help the board to make the right decision come the end of the season and do it as quickly as possible so the new man has got a chance to prepare for what will be a big season next year – might still be in the Premiership.

“I said to the guys on day one when I first came in, ‘you are in no better position. The audition is there. You are doing it live’.

“I have had to speak to plenty of people, will continue to do that. But, at the moment, the way they have looked after the players, looked after the staff, the whole ethos around the club it has been driven by them at the moment.

There are plenty of other names who know the division that you could throw into the mix for the Thistle job. Stuart Kettlewell, Callum Davidson, Ian Murray are all on the available list.

Dougie Imrie has impressed with Greenock Morton. Would any of the current interim Rangers management team fancy it if they don’t get the gig full-time at Ibrox? And what about David Martindale?

Nobody was really touting his Livingston side as major promotion hopefuls when the season started, let alone potential champions.

However, Martindale and Livingston were unwilling to slip quietly into the night. Instead, Livi have rallied and roared with renewed vigour.

However, their manager admits himself his own future is far from clear with potential fresh investment on the horizon for the West Lothian club.

In his straight talking way, Martindale is not a man who wastes time talking up trivialities.

“I know they’re speaking to a couple of groups just now,” he says.

“At this point, I’m out of contract at end of May, so there’s nothing really progressed. We’re not looking to progress. I am not looking to sign a new contract, club’s not looking to talk to me about a new contract. I think, for me, I’m fairly irrelevant in all this.

“That’s a future without me. I’d be more than happy to shake their hand if it’s going to safeguard the future of the club. And then I’ll go and look at what’s next for me.

“But somebody comes in, they want to have a conversation with me and they’d like to keep me about, I’m open to having that conversation.

“But, for me, I’m really just focused on, in all honesty, the next game, the next game, and the next game. And I’ll maybe look at me once we come to the end of that fixture list – whatever that’s going to be, one game or three games.

“I think I’ve tried to come into Livingston every day and put Livingston first and today’s no different, tomorrow’s no different. So I’m quite happy. Whatever the near future is for me, I’m comfortable with that.”

Scottish Premiership play-off semi-final second leg: Livingston v Partick Thistle (agg 2-0)

Venue: Almondvale, Livingston Date: Friday, 16 May Time: 19:45 BST

As the Partick Thistle people travel east along the M8 towards Livingston on Friday afternoon, they will have plenty to ponder.

Not least how they turn a threadbare squad into an irresistible force capable of dislodging the Livingston-shaped immovable object that beat them in Tuesday night’s Scottish Premiership Play-off semi-final.

Two-nil down is a sizeable hurdle in a second leg. Especially when you are running on fumes.

But it would be silly to write Thistle off. The miracle of Somerset Park was just a week ago. Brian Graham ‘100 not out’ and all that.

The 37-year-old captain, co-interim manager and all the other job titles must have a new fire burning in his belly after missing a late chance on Tuesday at Firhill that sailed over the bar.

But back to the bigger picture.

Beyond this semi-final second leg, there is uncertainty, for both clubs.

Will Brian Graham and fellow co-manager Mark Wilson even be in charge at Thistle after Friday?

What exactly must they do to lose the ‘interim’ tag? Have they already done enough?

Thistle have a new sporting director in former Motherwell and Northern Ireland boss Ian Baraclough. The new manager or management team will report to him.

“It is a difficult job having to come from the playing side of it, still playing and still make big decisions,” he said of Wilson and Graham when asked about the situation on Tuesday night.

“That is where I think Mark [Wilson] has dovetailed really well with Brian. I think they have coped with it well. I think there has been a bounce from that as well.

“But it is my job to assess and help the board to make the right decision come the end of the season and do it as quickly as possible so the new man has got a chance to prepare for what will be a big season next year – might still be in the Premiership.

“I said to the guys on day one when I first came in, ‘you are in no better position. The audition is there. You are doing it live’.

“I have had to speak to plenty of people, will continue to do that. But, at the moment, the way they have looked after the players, looked after the staff, the whole ethos around the club it has been driven by them at the moment.

There are plenty of other names who know the division that you could throw into the mix for the Thistle job. Stuart Kettlewell, Callum Davidson, Ian Murray are all on the available list.

Dougie Imrie has impressed with Greenock Morton. Would any of the current interim Rangers management team fancy it if they don’t get the gig full-time at Ibrox? And what about David Martindale?

Nobody was really touting his Livingston side as major promotion hopefuls when the season started, let alone potential champions.

However, Martindale and Livingston were unwilling to slip quietly into the night. Instead, Livi have rallied and roared with renewed vigour.

However, their manager admits himself his own future is far from clear with potential fresh investment on the horizon for the West Lothian club.

In his straight talking way, Martindale is not a man who wastes time talking up trivialities.

“I know they’re speaking to a couple of groups just now,” he says.

“At this point, I’m out of contract at end of May, so there’s nothing really progressed. We’re not looking to progress. I am not looking to sign a new contract, club’s not looking to talk to me about a new contract. I think, for me, I’m fairly irrelevant in all this.

“That’s a future without me. I’d be more than happy to shake their hand if it’s going to safeguard the future of the club. And then I’ll go and look at what’s next for me.

“But somebody comes in, they want to have a conversation with me and they’d like to keep me about, I’m open to having that conversation.

“But, for me, I’m really just focused on, in all honesty, the next game, the next game, and the next game. And I’ll maybe look at me once we come to the end of that fixture list – whatever that’s going to be, one game or three games.

“I think I’ve tried to come into Livingston every day and put Livingston first and today’s no different, tomorrow’s no different. So I’m quite happy. Whatever the near future is for me, I’m comfortable with that.”

Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has seen his wealth fall by £6.473bn – more than a quarter of his fortune – in the last year, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

The 72-year-old’s wealth has declined from £23.519bn to £17.046bn in the past 12 months.

He has slipped from fourth to seventh on the annual list of the UK’s 350 richest people.

Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group bought a 27.7% stake in United in February 2024 in a deal worth about £1.25bn ($1.6bn) that saw Ineos take control of football operations.

The British billionaire’s time at Old Trafford has drawn criticism after United raised ticket prices and made two rounds of redundancies in a bid to improve the club’s finances.

Ratcliffe defended some of United’s financial cost-cutting measures in a wide-ranging BBC interview in March in which he said the club would have “run out of cash by the end of this year” had he not made “unpopular” decisions.

However, in March United unveiled ambitious plans to build an “iconic” new £2bn, 100,000-seater stadium close to Old Trafford.

Ratcliffe has said that financial pressures on British petrochemical firm Ineos would not impact Manchester United.

Ineos walked away early from its sponsorship deal with New Zealand Rugby in February, while it also parted ways with four-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie earlier this year after backing the Britannia America’s Cup sailing team since 2018.

Ineos blamed “cost-saving measures” across its business, citing the struggling chemicals industry in Europe because of “high energy taxes and extreme carbon taxes”, along with “the deindustrialisation of Europe”.

While Ratcliffe has seen his wealth decline, athletes such as Rory McIlroy, Anthony Joshua, Sir Andy Murray and Harry Kane have increased their fortunes.

Golfer McIlroy is the leading athlete in the Sunday Times’ 40 under 40 list, which charts the worth of the 40 richest people under the age of 40.

The Northern Irishman, who completed the career Grand Slam by winning the Masters last month, is 19th on the list after increasing his personal fortune from £225m to £260m.

Boxer Joshua appears 24th on £195m, despite not fighting since his defeat by Daniel Dubois in September, while Murray is 35th on £110m following his retirement from tennis in August.

Jordan Puente was 13 when he was first expelled from school. At 14 his anger and aggressive behaviour was so challenging, his mum feared he would end up in prison.

Then one day a sports coach and mentor called Roddy Slater began working with him through his school in Reading and set Jordan on a path that would transform his life.

“He started taking me down to the gym and he helped me use weightlifting as a tool to get away from that troubled life as a teenager, from being on the streets and getting in trouble with the law,” he told BBC Sport.

“I’d come in there with all these problems. He’d listen to me. In my head I’m just training, but then I’d come out of that session with a weight off my shoulders, being like ‘hang on a minute I know how to handle it now’. Suddenly you’ve just been mentored for an hour without even realising it.”

A decade on from that first session in the gym Puente’s life has come full circle, with the 25-year-old now working for Slater mentoring and coaching vulnerable young people at a time when the importance of positive role models is in the spotlight.

The release of the popular Netflix series Adolescence and former England manager Gareth Southgate’s Richard Dimbleby lecture have sparked a nationwide discussion about the issue of toxic masculinity and online influencers shaping young boys’ minds.

The Adolescence drama shone a light on the corrosive impact of social media and the dangerous stereotypes about masculinity some teenage boys see online.

In today’s digital age, providing an interaction with “real life” influencers is more important than ever, according to Slater.

“I think we’re giving them that space to actually see a role model face to face,” the 52-year-old said. “They can talk about what they want to talk about, and they’ll be listened to. A good coach listens first.

“I think so many of our young people today lack the ability to build those relationships. Their social interactions are limited. Everything is online, either on their phone or on the end of their PlayStation 5 or whatever.”

Mark Gannon, chief executive of UK Coaching, said the face-to-face role of sports coaches was particularly important in “trying to get young people to understand the reality versus what they might see on social media, particularly with [online] misogyny”.

Every day around 30 young people facing significant challenges in their lives come to the Raw Mentoring site in Reading, which Slater runs. They are given one-to-one coaching in different sports and activities, while at the same time being mentored.

Zeph, who is in year eight at school, has been supported here for three years, telling BBC Sport: “It makes me happy. When I come here, I don’t want to leave. I used to get into fights nearly every day, I’m much calmer now.”

It is something Puente can relate to, describing his weekly run-ins with the police and being “a silly teenager” who got into a lot of fights before turning his life around.

“When you’re young, your brain’s like a sponge,” said Puente, who now helps youngsters alongside his job running a personal training business.

“You just reflect everything that you see. And I think if you don’t have that strong role model growing up, you’re kind of just going through those transitional periods as a teenager a little bit lost and unguided.

“I think it’s underestimated how beneficial a structured role model and supportive person can be.”

Basketball coach Ryan Evans speaks about showing youngsters “the flip side” when trying to move them away from the influences of toxic masculinity.

“You can see [issues with toxic masculinity] from time to time, and it’s upsetting at first because we kind of look back at when we were younger – those trappings weren’t necessarily there or they weren’t the same as what they used to be,” said Evans, who works for Greenhouse Sports, a charity which partners with schools in disadvantaged areas to inspire young people through sport.

“So for me it’s, once I recognise them, not berating them for it, because at times it’s not their fault. It’s actually just the way that the world is constructed through their phones, social media, the influences of younger and older here at the school.”

“I think when we talk about toxic masculinity, the other side of it is allowing boys to express themselves and be themselves, and we need to give them that room to do so. Sometimes the solution doesn’t come from me. It actually comes from them, or it’s driven by something in their environment.”

Fellow coach Kiran Wiltshire, who has coached thousands of children in the Leicester area over 20 years, says people like her are “an important lifeline” for the youngsters.

“We’re a little piece of the puzzle in their big world,” she said. “But that little piece of the puzzle is the difference between them completing school and going to college and getting their GCSEs or joining the local gang.”