There aren't many players who make more eagles and birdies than Billy Mayfair. And there aren't any tournaments that reward below-par shooters the way the International does.
Mayfair, who ranks second behind only Vijay Singh in birdies and eagles this season, rolled in a 70-foot putt for eagle on No. 17, then finished with a birdie to take the lead after the first round of one of the tour's most unique events on Friday.
"Any more on this tour, it's better to be aggressive than anything else," Mayfair said. "I'll play the same way tomorrow -- as aggressive as I can. But not stupid."
Playing at high altitude (1,800m) and using the modified Stableford scoring system, two factors that reward big hitters and aggressiveness, Mayfair scored 15 points to lead Brandt Jobe by two, D.A. Points and Charles Howell by three and Geoff Ogilvy and Tim Petrovic by four.
Under the Stableford scoring system, players get five points for eagles, two for birdies, nothing for pars and lose one point for bogeys.
Mayfair finished with five birdies to bring his total to 313 for the year. But it was his long roller on No. 17 -- for his 13th eagle of the year -- that went down as the shot of the day.
"I was just hoping to hit a good two-putt, make a birdie and go on," he said. "It was just one of those 40-footers."
Told a bit later that it was really more like 70 feet, Mayfair said, "Oh, OK, 70 feet."
Howell, Jobe and Points also made eagle on No. 17, an uphill, 492-yard par-5 that more often than not determines the winner of this tournament. If things keep going the way they started, the final round could be fun: The 17th yielded 15 eagles in the opening round; last year, it produced 17 over all four rounds.
"The guy who sits in this chair winning on Sunday is going to have to make a few eagles," Howell said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but