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U.S. Open: Sepp Straka ace is perfect redemption story u,s,open,sepp,straka,ace,is,perfect,redemption,story,sbnation,com,golf,us-open-golf,golf-majors,golf-pga-tour,golf-news

On: June 14, 2024 By: admin

Sepp Straka brought the excitement on Friday at the U.S. Open.

He showed the full spectrum of what golf can provide during his second round, following up his triple bogey on the 3rd hole with a hole-in-one on the par-3 9th.

Straka’s 194-yard ace marked his first hole-in-one during a PGA Tour round.

His playing partners watched him as he hit the ball, and as soon as they realized it went in the hole, everyone shot their hands up to celebrate. Straka gave high fives all around, as that shot clearly boosted his mood.

The U.S. Open’s social team got a slight dig with the caption as they referenced his triple bogey earlier in the round. That shot on the third was such a tough break for the Austrian.

Straka nailed the flagstick on the fly, and his ball ricocheted into the greenside bunker. He went on to make a mess of things, making a triple bogey after airmailing his third shot from the sand over the green. So what looked like a birdie opportunity from the fairway quickly turned into a disaster.

Nevertheless, the golfing gods at Pinehurst No. 2 blessed Straka with an ace, a Shakespearean redemption story of sorts. From recording a seven to a one on the scorecard, it does not get any wilder than that.

Straka became the third player to make a hole-in-one on the 9th hole at No. 2. He joins Zach Johnson, who made one in 2014 during the final round, and Peter Jacobson, who did so in 2005 during the third round.

Straka’s ace vaulted him back up to 2-over for the championship, which is inside the cutline at this point. But that hole-in-one helped him immensely after his tough break at the 3rd threatened his chances of making the weekend.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.

Gervonta Davis vs. Frank Martin is easy to overlook, but Tank’s return is big for boxing gervonta,davis,vs,frank,martin,is,easy,to,overlook,but,tank,s,return,is,big,for,boxing,sbnation,com,front-page,boxing,dot-com-grid-coverage

On: June 13, 2024 By: admin

Gervonta “Tank” Davis will be back in the ring on Saturday night, marking the return of one of boxing’s most talked-about stars and reliable draws as he puts his WBA lightweight title on the line against undefeated Frank Martin.

Davis (29-0, 27 KO) hasn’t been seen in action since his win over Ryan Garcia 14 months ago, in what was probably the biggest fight of 2023. The 29-year-old “Tank” will not have that level of spotlight against Martin (18-0, 12 KO), who just isn’t near Garcia’s level in notoriety and fame, but any time Davis fights, it’s a big deal for the boxing world.

As is usually the case, however, a lot of the talk days ahead of the fight is about what everyone would like to see Gervonta do next, once he’s done with this fight that pretty much everybody assumes he will win without much trouble.

Martin, also 29, is a good fighter. “The Ghost” has spent the last couple of years earnestly battling his way up the 135-pound ranks with wins over Romero Duno, Jackson Marinez, Michel Rivera, and Artem Harutyunyan, his most recent opponent, and a fight where we saw him struggle a good deal more than he had against the prior trio of opponents.

That struggle leads most to believe that Martin just won’t be good enough to pull the upset on Davis, and it’s a reasonable position. It is worth keeping in mind boxing’s “styles make fights” rule, because Davis fights nothing like Harutyunyan.

Unfortunately for Martin, the things he’s best at are things Davis excels in, too, and “Tank” also packs the power that Martin doesn’t. Davis is not an aggressive fighter by nature, taking his time to figure opponents out, but once he does, he lets the power go, and there’s a reason his knockout percentage is so high.

In a way, Saturday’s Gervonta return feels a little ho-hum, a little pedestrian, because the intrigue just isn’t there. It’s hard to even expect that he will come in unprepared and overlooking his opponent, because he never does that no matter how heavily he’s favored or how easy a fight is supposed to be.

It’s easy to want to look ahead, then, so are we any closer to Gervonta giving the public the fights they want to see instead of just lining up the next available PBC-affiliated name?

Boxing matchmaking is often overwhelmed by the political issues between various promoters and stables, and then further complicated by the broadcast deals tied to those promoters and stables.

Actual star fighters, though, ultimately have the most say, at least when they want to use their leverage. That’s how we got Tank vs Ryan Garcia last year; the fighters made that deal happen, Garcia in particular. Anything really can be done, and with the Saudi government showing wider-ranging interest in the sport, that’s more true than ever. Money will always talk in boxing, and they have a lot more of it than anyone else.

The key fights at 135 for Davis would be a long-awaited showdown with Vasiliy Lomachenko, who holds the WBO title, or a meeting with Shakur Stevenson, the WBC titleholder. Both of those fighters are currently with Top Rank and ESPN. Davis vs Lomachenko might come too late for Loma; as good as the Ukrainian still is, he’s past his best days. But Davis vs Shakur would be a meeting of two of boxing’s smartest in-ring tacticians, and they’ve floated a good bit of animosity into the world. Whether it’s real or not doesn’t even matter — it’s just about getting enough people to believe it’s real.

Maybe one of those guys will be across the ring from Davis next time we see him, whenever that comes, or maybe Davis will entertain a move up to 140, where he’s fought once and wasn’t quite himself, to take on someone like Devin Haney or Teofimo Lopez. There are always curveballs, too. It might sound crazy right now, but Davis may look at a currently soft welterweight division and a chance to become a four-division world champion with a favorable vacant title fight, now that Terence Crawford is moving up in weight.

Whatever it is, the real hope is that we see Davis in against someone you can reasonably see as a serious threat to him. Boxing is at its best when there is an actual split in opinion on who can win a fight and not just building, bit by bit, the marketability of a single fighter with carefully-chosen matchups, which unfortunately has been the bulk of Davis’ career, and seems most likely to be what we get this weekend.

U.S. Open: Tiger Woods starts hot, teases fans, then falters u,s,open,tiger,woods,starts,hot,teases,fans,then,falters,sbnation,com,front-page,golf,us-open-golf,golf-majors,golf-pga-tour,golf-news

On: June 13, 2024 By: admin

Tiger Woods got off to a roaring start on Thursday at Pinehurst No. 2, making birdie to begin the championship at the par-5 10th. He briefly held a share of the lead.

Some clutch par putts followed at the 12th and 13th holes, but then the train began to veer off the tracks at the challenging par-4 16th.

Four bogies over the next six holes followed, and suddenly, Woods went from 1-under to 3-over at the drop of the dime. He ultimately carded a 4-over 74.

The 15-time major winner blamed it on his poor ball striking and putting afterward.

“I didn’t hit my irons particularly well. Didn’t putt that great,” Woods assessed.

“Drove it on the string all day. Unfortunately, I just didn’t capitalize on it.”

Woods hit 12 of 14 fairways but only nine greens in regulation. He lost more than two strokes on approach and missed plenty of irons to the right. But he did not try to play aggressively and attack flag sticks, which is a necessity for success at Pinehurst No. 2.

“I was somewhat conservative in some of my endpoints,” Woods said.

“Then again, I didn’t hit the ball very well either. It added up to quite a bit of distance away from the flag. It’s not where I wanted to be on a lot of the holes. It just ended up being that far away because I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be.”

Because Woods left himself plenty of real estate between his ball and the hole, he three-putted on a few occasions—an easy way to drop strokes.

“This golf course is all about the greens. The complexes are just so difficult and so severe that, I think 1-under par is only in fifth [right now]. There aren’t that many scores that are low. It’s hard to get the ball close,” Woods explained.

“In most golf courses you play, you hit shots into where it’s feeding off of slopes into flags, whereas collecting. Here everything is repelling. It’s just hard to get the ball on top of the shelves. If you miss it short side, it’s an auto bogey or higher. Being aggressive to a conservative line is I think how you need to play this particular golf course.”

Woods did get cheeky on the dogleg right par-4 7th but wound up short-siding himself into the greenside bunker. He then hit his third shot 18 feet past the hole, as another bogey stared him right in the face. But he drained the comebacker to save par. He made a few of those momentum-saving putts on Thursday and still shot 74.

But then, he dropped another shot on the challenging par-4 8th, his 17th hole of the day.

As for how he feels after the round, Woods said his mobility is improving.

“I’m physically getting better as the year has gone on,” Woods said.

Tiger Woods, U.S. Open — Tiger Woods on the 9th green during the first round of the 2024 U.S. Open.

“I just haven’t been able to play as much because I just don’t want to hurt myself, so I won’t be able to play in the major championships. It’s pick your poison, right? Play a lot with the potential of not playing, or not playing, and fight being not as sharp.”

He now has 24 hours to prepare for his second round, which will begin at 1:14 p.m. ET on Friday. But instead of heading to the recovery room, Woods said he would like to go to the putting green to work on some things. Perhaps his son Charlie can lend a helping hand.

“I’d like to hit a few putts. My speed was not quite there,” Woods said.

“If I clean that up, if I get a couple of iron shots not as loose as I did, I’m right there at even par. It can go so far the other way here, the wrong way. It’s just so hard to get back. This is a golf course that doesn’t give up a whole lot of birdies. It gives up a lot of bogeys and higher.”

If he can clean up those mistakes, Woods will play the weekend. But if he fails to figure out the pace of Pinehurst’s famed ‘Turtleback Greens,’ Woods will miss the cut, just as he did in his last U.S. Open appearance at Winged Foot in 2020.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.