Playing without world No. 1 Tiger Woods, host Isleworth lost to rival Lake Nona 17-13 in the Tavistock Cup, a two-day match between PGA players from private clubs that concluded on Tuesday.
Lake Nona leveled the rivalry at 3-3 with one drawn by becoming the first club to win at the other’s course.
Woods had considered playing in the event, but said his preparations to return from a golf break in the wake of an infidelity scandal were not far enough along to allow him to compete.
Woods will make his comeback in two weeks at the Masters, the year’s first major championship at Augusta National Golf Club, where Woods played 36 practice holes on Monday and was to play again on Tuesday, according to Golf Digest.
Lake Nona seized a 6-4 lead in four-ball pairs matches on Monday ahead of 20 final-round singles matches on Tuesday with each player in each group playing against each member of the opposing duo in a foursome.
England’s Ross Fisher fired a three-under par 69 to beat American Lee Janzen by three strokes and India’s Arjun Atwal by 10 to give Isleworth two key points while Swede Peter Hanson’s 74 was enough to beat Atwal and lose to Janzen in a pivotal penultimate foursome.
When England’s Ian Poulter fired a 68 in the last round to beat Australian Robert Allenby and halved American J.B. Holmes, it was enough to clinch victory for Lake Nona, which added a final half-point when Sweden’s Henrik Stenson halved with Allenby.
Aussie Nick O’Hern fired a seven-under par 65 to defeat South African Ernie Els by four strokes and Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell by two in the opening matches.
The two points for Isleworth were matched by Lake Nona when Els and Woods each finished ahead of England’s Brian Davis, who shot 75.
England’s Justin Rose completed an unbeaten run by shooting a 68 to collect two points for Lake Nona, downing US veteran Mark O’Meara by a stroke and Aussie Stuart Appleby by four.
O’Meara beat countryman Ben Curtis by three strokes but Curtis halved at 72 with Appleby, leaving Lake Nona three points ahead.
American Charles Howell answered for Isleworth, shooting a 68 to edge South Africa’s Retief Goosen by a stroke and South African Trevor Immelman by five.
American John Cook halved with Immelman at 73, losing a point to Goosen to leave the hosts trailing by two and setting the stage for the final drama.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS