South Africa’s Ernie Els, confident in his game as he prepares to defend his title at the PGA Arnold Palmer Invitational, sees a wide-open fight for the Masters crown next month.
“I think it’s one of most open Masters in probably the last 10 years,” Els said on Tuesday. “The way the world of golf has gone over the last year or so, there are so many guys that have come through and really shown their form.”
The world’s top players will gather at Augusta National Golf Club between April 7 and April 10 in the year’s first major championship, with four European players atop the rankings ahead of fifth-ranked Tiger Woods and No. 6 Phil Mickelson, the defending Masters champion.
Photo: AFP
Germany’s Martin Kaymer, last year’s PGA Championship winner, England’s Lee Westwood and Luke Donald and Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, the reigning US Open champion, top the rankings, but no European has won the green jacket since Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal in 1999.
“You look at Graeme McDowell, you look at Kaymer, obviously, Lee Westwood, Paul Casey I think has got a really good chance there, and obviously Tiger and Phil, they might not even take their best games in there, but they arrive there and they feel good about it, especially Phil,” Els said. “I would say Phil is probably the favorite and Tiger second-favorite still, even if they don’t play very well leading in there.”
Els, 41, won the 2002 British Open and the 1994 and 1997 US Opens, the latter on the same Congressional Country Club course which hosts this year’s US Open. He was second at the Masters in 2000 and 2004 and has six top-10 showings at Augusta.
Els looks at experience rather than driving length as a big advantage at Augusta National as the course has been lengthened over the past few years.
“We will see the guys with experience and maybe the guys who really have the belief stay there until Sunday afternoon,” Els said. “I think with the new setup, you know, every kid out there, all of the guys out there are long now. Everybody hits it 300 just about. So length is not that big a factor around Augusta any more.”
“Especially around Augusta, the more experience you have there and the more belief that you have that you can win, the better chance you have, rather than just a guy that bombs it,” he said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB