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Yahoo Sports AM: Bryson tames Pinehurst
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🚨 Headlines
⚾️ No no-no: The Astros pulled Ronel Blanco on Sunday after seven hitless innings (and 94 pitches), ending his bid to become the seventh pitcher in MLB history with two no-nos in the same season after first tossing one on April 1.
🥇 Fourth Olympics: Katie Ledecky is headed to Paris 2024, making her just the eighth American swimmer to qualify for four Olympics.
🏀 Barkley to retire: Charles Barkley dropped a stunning announcement on Friday, revealing that he plans to retire from TV after the 2024-25 NBA season.
⚾️ Another betting scandal: MLB umpire Pat Hoberg was reportedly disciplined for violating the league’s gambling rules. Hoberg, who denies betting on baseball, is appealing.
🏏 USA advances: Team USA advanced to the Super 8s of the T20 Cricket World Cup after their final group stage match against Ireland was abandoned due to weather. The final eight: USA, India, England, Australia, Afghanistan, West Indies, South Africa, Bangladesh.
⚾️ Dodgers injuries: Mookie Betts (fractured wrist) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (strained rotator cuff) are both out indefinitely after suffering injuries this weekend.
🏈 Lions sign Bates: Jake Bates, who hit three 60-yard field goals this season for the UFL’s Michigan Panthers, signed a two-year contract with the Detroit Lions.
⚽️ Fastest goal: Albania scored the fastest goal in Euros history on Saturday, finding the net just 23 seconds into their eventual 2-1 loss to Italy.
⛳️ Victory for Bryson, heartbreak for Rory
Bryson DeChambeau won his second U.S. Open on Sunday, firing up the crowds and holding off a late charge from Rory McIlroy, who watched yet another major slip away.
Dispatch from Pinehurst: Here’s Yahoo Sports’ Jay Busbee…
In an epic battle, DeChambeau and McIlroy went to the 18th hole tied at 6-under. McIlroy, up ahead, missed a 4-foot putt for par, opening the door for DeChambeau. Only, it took some sorcery from DeChambeau to make it happen.
After a wayward drive left him hunched under a tree, forcing him to punch out to a greenside bunker, DeChambeau hit the bunker shot of his life, dropping it to within 4 feet.
Unlike McIlroy, he wouldn’t miss, and a second U.S. Open championship was his.
“I can’t believe that up-and-down on the last,” DeChambeau said. “Probably the best shot of my life.”
For McIlroy, it’s another major gone without lifting a trophy, this one maybe as bitter as any in the 37 (and counting) since his last major victory at the 2014 PGA Championship. He missed two putts inside 4 feet in the final three holes. Watching inside the scoring tent as DeChambeau’s putt dropped, McIlroy understandably looked as dejected as ever.
For DeChambeau, who decamped from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf two years ago, he’s suddenly found himself the darling of the galleries, cheers and chants of “U-S-A!” accompanying his every step.
What this means for the ongoing PGA Tour-LIV split remains to be seen, but it’s clear that DeChambeau is now one of the game’s top draws, especially after making good on his post-round promise to let everyone touch the 18-inch tall, sterling silver winner’s trophy.
More heartbreak for McIlroy…
Where does Rory go from here? Where do you even start to pick up the pieces of a shattered dream?
Does he comfort himself with the fact that, yet again, he was in the mix for a major right until the final holes?
Does he consider that he’s lost three majors in the past two years — the 2022 Open Championship, the 2023 U.S. Open and this — by a total of four strokes?
Does he collapse? Implode? Plod his way through the rest of his career wondering how 6 feet worth of putts on Sunday night could have changed his life?
Sunday night at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, McIlroy saw his best chance to win a major in the past decade — a decade, let’s not forget, already full of near-misses — roll toward the cup, peer over the edge, and lip right on out. Twice.
Every championship ends in heartbreak for someone. At this point, every golf major ends in heartbreak for McIlroy.
Every time the sun sets on another major Sunday and McIlroy leaves the 18th green without a trophy; every time he has to walk into another major week and face the questions of “Is it going to happen this week, Rory?”; every time an engraver taps out yet another player’s name … well, how much more can one guy take?
Notes:
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Elite company: DeChambeau joins Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Bobby Jones as the only players to win the U.S. Amateur and multiple U.S. Opens.
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Insane stat: McIlroy was 496-for-496 putting inside 3 feet this season before his brutal miss on 16.
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Olympics roster: Collin Morikawa edged out Patrick Cantlay for the final Team USA spot, joining Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Wyndham Clark.
Must-see TV: Do yourself a favor and watch DeChambeau’s post-round interview with Golf Channel’s Johnson Wagner. So good.
🇺🇸 Photos across America
Dallas — The Mavericks annihilated the Celtics on Friday to keep their season alive and hand Boston its first loss in five weeks. The 122-84 win was the third-largest in NBA Finals history.
St. Louis — The Birmingham Stallions shut out the San Antonio Brahmas, 25-0, to win the inaugural UFL championship and claim their third consecutive spring football title, having won the USFL in each of the past two years before it merged with the XFL.
Indianapolis — Gretchen Walsh, 21, smashed the world record (55.18*) in the women’s 100m fly on Saturday, then won Sunday’s final to earn her first trip to the Olympics.
Las Vegas — Gervonta “Tank” Davis returned from a 421-day layoff to successfully defend his WBA lightweight title, knocking out Frank “The Ghost” Martin in the eighth round to improve to 30-0 (28 KOs).
*First since Phelps: This was the first time a world record has fallen at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials since Michael Phelps’ 200m individual medley in 2008.
🌎 Photos around the world
Edmonton — Connor McDavid (3 assists*) and the Oilers staved off elimination against the Panthers on Saturday with an 8-1 shellacking, marking the second-largest margin of victory in Stanley Cup Final history.
Stuttgart, Germany — Three years ago, Christian Eriksen suffered cardiac arrest on the field at Euro 2020. On Sunday, he scored Denmark’s first goal of Euro 2024.
Le Mans, France — Ferrari won its second consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday, outlasting Toyota in a wild and wet 92nd edition of the iconic endurance race.
Villars-Sur-Ollon, Switzerland — The 87th Tour de Suisse, the final tune-up before the Tour de France, concluded on Sunday.
*Passing Gretzky: McDavid’s three assists gave him 32 for the playoffs, passing Wayne Gretzky’s 1988 mark of 31 for the most ever in a single postseason.
⚾️ A weekend of walk-offs
The College World Series got off to a thrilling start over the weekend, with three walk-offs in the first four games.
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Friday: Tennessee* rallied from a 9-4 deficit to beat FSU, 12-11, on a walk-off single; UNC beat Virginia, 3-2, also on a walk-off single.
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Saturday: Kentucky beat NC State, 5-4, on a walk-off homer in the 10th; Texas A&M beat Florida, 3-2, after robbing a would-be go-ahead homer in the ninth.
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Sunday: FSU cruised to a 7-3 win over Virginia to eliminate the Cavaliers; Tennessee beat UNC, 6-1, to push the Tar Heels to the brink.
Where it stands: Seven teams are still alive in the double-elimination bracket, with Kentucky, Texas A&M and Tennessee sitting pretty with zero losses. NC State and Florida play an elimination game this afternoon, while FSU and UNC play one tomorrow.
*Historic performance: Tennessee 2B Christian Moore — a projected first-round pick in next month’s draft — hit for the second cycle in CWS history, with the first coming all the way back in 1956.
📆 June 17, 1994: The day the Juice got loose
30 years ago today, O.J. Simpson’s infamous freeway chase headlined a day so chock-full of newsworthy sporting events that it inspired a “30 for 30” film.
What else happened? The first U.S.-hosted World Cup kicked off, the Rangers held their victory parade, the Knicks took a 3-2 lead over the Rockets in the NBA Finals, Arnold Palmer played his final round at the U.S. Open and Ken Griffey Jr. tied Babe Ruth’s then-record for most home runs before July, with his 30th.
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⛳️ 1962: Jack Nicklaus won the first of his record 18 majors, defeating then five-time major champion Arnold Palmer in an 18-hole playoff at the U.S Open.
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🏀 1976: The ABA and the NBA merged, with the NBA absorbing four of the ABA’s six remaining teams* into the new 22-team league that tipped off in the fall.
*Which teams were absorbed? The Nets, Nuggets, Spurs and Pacers all got ported over to the NBA. The Kentucky Colonels and Spirits of St. Louis folded, with their players dispersed in a special draft.
📺 Watchlist: Game 5 in Boston
The NBA Finals head back to Boston tonight for Game 5 (8:30pm ET, ABC), where the Celtics hope to rebound from their historic loss to clinch their 18th title.
Bottoming out: The C’s scored just 84 points in Game 4, the only time in 100 games this season they failed to break 90. They also had just 35 points at halftime, the fewest they’ve scored in any half under Joe Mazzulla.
More to watch:
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⚾️ CWS: NC State vs. Florida (2pm, ESPN); Kentucky vs. Texas A&M (7pm, ESPN)
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⚽️ Euro 2024: Ukraine vs. Romania (9am, FuboTV); Slovakia vs. Belgium (12pm, FS1); France vs. Austria (3pm, Fox)
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🇺🇸 Swimming/Diving: U.S. Olympic Trials (8pm, NBC)
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⚾️ MLB: Reds at Pirates* (6:40pm, FS1); Giants at Cubs (8pm, MLB); Brewers at Angels (9:30pm, MLB)
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🏏 T20 World Cup: New Zealand vs. Papua New Guinea (10:30am, WillowTV); West Indies vs. Afghanistan (8:30pm, WillowTV) … Final matches of the group stage.
*Skenes day: Rookie phenom Paul Skenes (3-0, 2.43 ERA) takes the mound for Pittsburgh.
🏀 NBA trivia
Klay Thompson has unfollowed the Warriors on social media, fueling speculation that the pending free agent could leave the only team he’s ever known.
Question: How many championships has Thompson won with Golden State?
Bonus points: What years did they win?
Answer at the bottom.
🍿 Baker’s Dozen: Top plays of the weekend
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⛳️ Timely ace
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⚾️ Basket catch
Trivia answer: Four (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022)
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