Manassero, Fox share PGA Canadian Open lead with plenty in pursuit
MONTREAL: Italian veteran Matteo Manassero was poised to challenge for his first US PGA Tour title after conjuring seven birdies in a six-under par 64 to share the 54-hole lead at the Canadian Open with New Zealand's Ryan Fox.
Fox also fired seven birdies and a bogey at TPC Toronto Osprey Valley, their 14-under par total of 196 putting the leaders one stroke clear atop a congested leaderboard, with 22 more players within four strokes of the lead.
On a day when as many as 11 players shared the lead at one point, Manassero was the first to reach 14-under with his sixth birdie of the day at the 15th.
He bogeyed 17, where he was in the left rough off the tee and missed a four-footer to save par, but he birdied the par-five 18th.
'It was a really good round,' Manassero said. 'I missed the short one on 17, and I did miss a couple more short ones today. I try to think of them just like a shot really, like a driver, like a six-iron, whatever. It's just a shot.
'It wasn't that hard for me to stay focused into what I was doing and not ruining (it) at the end.'
Manassero, a five-time winner on the DP World Tour, is seeking his first US tour title. The 32-year-old Italian has revived his career after briefly walking away from the game in the midst of a prolonged slump. He claimed his first DP World Tour victory in more than a decade in March of 2024.
'It's definitely made me more mature and much better perspective toward golf, which at one point was everything,' he said of the ups and downs of his career. 'I have a better perspective toward, for example, a day like tomorrow.'
Fox, 38, is aiming to build off his first US PGA Tour title, captured in a playoff at the Myrtle Beach Classic last month.
He launched his round with three straight birdies and had five on the front nine, bouncing back from a bogey at 11 — where he was in the water — with birdies at 12 and 18.
'To be honest, everything went pretty right,' Fox said. 'I drove it great. I think, if you do that round here, you give yourself lots of chances.
'Had a lot of good wedge shots, holed a few putts early. Just played really solid kind of stress-free golf for the most part.'
Americans Lee Hodges and Mat McCarty and Taiwan's Kevin Yu were tied for third on 13-under 197.
Hodges bookended his seven-under 63 with eagles at the first and 18th, with three birdies in between.
Yu had eight birdies and a bogey in his 63 while McCarty had seven birdies in his 64.
Canadian Mackenzie Hughes and Americans Jake Knapp and Andrew Putnam were tied on 12-under, one stroke clear of a group of seven players on 11-under 199.
Ireland's Shane Lowry headlined a group of nine players on 200.
Fox said his victory last month had him feeling 'more comfortable in my own shoes,' but he with so many within striking distance he said that Sunday promised to be a shoot-out.
'Obviously there's a lot of good players behind me,' he said. 'I feel like it's going to take a pretty low (score) to get the job done.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
2 days ago
- Arab News
Manassero, Fox share PGA Canadian Open lead with plenty in pursuit
MONTREAL: Italian veteran Matteo Manassero was poised to challenge for his first US PGA Tour title after conjuring seven birdies in a six-under par 64 to share the 54-hole lead at the Canadian Open with New Zealand's Ryan Fox. Fox also fired seven birdies and a bogey at TPC Toronto Osprey Valley, their 14-under par total of 196 putting the leaders one stroke clear atop a congested leaderboard, with 22 more players within four strokes of the lead. On a day when as many as 11 players shared the lead at one point, Manassero was the first to reach 14-under with his sixth birdie of the day at the 15th. He bogeyed 17, where he was in the left rough off the tee and missed a four-footer to save par, but he birdied the par-five 18th. 'It was a really good round,' Manassero said. 'I missed the short one on 17, and I did miss a couple more short ones today. I try to think of them just like a shot really, like a driver, like a six-iron, whatever. It's just a shot. 'It wasn't that hard for me to stay focused into what I was doing and not ruining (it) at the end.' Manassero, a five-time winner on the DP World Tour, is seeking his first US tour title. The 32-year-old Italian has revived his career after briefly walking away from the game in the midst of a prolonged slump. He claimed his first DP World Tour victory in more than a decade in March of 2024. 'It's definitely made me more mature and much better perspective toward golf, which at one point was everything,' he said of the ups and downs of his career. 'I have a better perspective toward, for example, a day like tomorrow.' Fox, 38, is aiming to build off his first US PGA Tour title, captured in a playoff at the Myrtle Beach Classic last month. He launched his round with three straight birdies and had five on the front nine, bouncing back from a bogey at 11 — where he was in the water — with birdies at 12 and 18. 'To be honest, everything went pretty right,' Fox said. 'I drove it great. I think, if you do that round here, you give yourself lots of chances. 'Had a lot of good wedge shots, holed a few putts early. Just played really solid kind of stress-free golf for the most part.' Americans Lee Hodges and Mat McCarty and Taiwan's Kevin Yu were tied for third on 13-under 197. Hodges bookended his seven-under 63 with eagles at the first and 18th, with three birdies in between. Yu had eight birdies and a bogey in his 63 while McCarty had seven birdies in his 64. Canadian Mackenzie Hughes and Americans Jake Knapp and Andrew Putnam were tied on 12-under, one stroke clear of a group of seven players on 11-under 199. Ireland's Shane Lowry headlined a group of nine players on 200. Fox said his victory last month had him feeling 'more comfortable in my own shoes,' but he with so many within striking distance he said that Sunday promised to be a shoot-out. 'Obviously there's a lot of good players behind me,' he said. 'I feel like it's going to take a pretty low (score) to get the job done.'
Arab News
3 days ago
- Arab News
Federal judge approves $2.8 billion settlement, paving way for US colleges to pay athletes millions
NEW YORK: A federal judge signed off on arguably the biggest change in the history of college sports Friday, clearing the way for schools to begin paying their athletes millions of dollars as soon as next month as the multibillion-dollar industry shreds the last vestiges of the amateur model that defined it for more than a century. Nearly five years after Arizona State swimmer Grant House sued the NCAA and its five biggest conferences to lift restrictions on revenue sharing, US Judge Claudia Wilken approved the final proposal that had been hung up on roster limits, just one of many changes ahead amid concerns that thousands of walk-on athletes will lose their chance to play college sports. The sweeping terms of the so-called House settlement include approval for each school to share up to $20.5 million with athletes over the next year and $2.7 billion that will be paid over the next decade to thousands of former players who were barred from that revenue for years. The agreement brings a seismic shift to hundreds of schools that were forced to reckon with the reality that their players are the ones producing the billions in TV and other revenue, mostly through football and basketball, that keep this machine humming. The scope of the changes — some have already begun — is difficult to overstate. The professionalization of college athletics will be seen in the high-stakes and expensive recruitment of stars on their way to the NFL and NBA, and they will be felt by athletes whose schools have decided to pare their programs. The agreement will resonate in nearly every one of the NCAA's 1,100 member schools boasting nearly 500,000 athletes. 'Approving the agreement reached by the NCAA, the defendant conferences and student-athletes in the settlement opens a pathway to begin stabilizing college sports,' NCAA President Charlie Baker said. The road to a settlement Wilken's ruling comes 11 years after she dealt the first significant blow to the NCAA ideal of amateurism when she ruled in favor of former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon and others who were seeking a way to earn money from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) — a term that is now as common in college sports as 'March Madness' or 'Roll Tide.' It was just four years ago that the NCAA cleared the way for NIL money to start flowing, but the changes coming are even bigger. Wilken granted preliminary approval to the settlement last October. That sent colleges scurrying to determine not only how they were going to afford the payments, but how to regulate an industry that also allows players to cut deals with third parties so long as they are deemed compliant by a newly formed enforcement group that will be run by auditors at Deloitte. The agreement takes a big chunk of oversight away from the NCAA and puts it in the hands of the four biggest conferences. The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC hold most of the power and decision-making heft, especially when it comes to the College Football Playoff, which is the most significant financial driver in the industry and is not under the NCAA umbrella like the March Madness tournaments are. Roster limits held things up The deal looked ready to go since last fall, but Wilken put a halt to it after listening to a number of players who had lost their spots because of newly imposed roster limits being placed on teams. The limits were part of a trade-off that allowed the schools to offer scholarships to everyone on the roster, instead of only a fraction, as has been the case for decades. Schools started cutting walk-ons in anticipation of the deal being approved. Wilken asked for a solution and, after weeks, the parties decided to let anyone cut from a roster — now termed a 'Designated Student-Athlete' — return to their old school or play for a new one without counting against the new limit. Wilken ultimately agreed, going point-by-point through the objectors' arguments to explain why they didn't hold up. 'The modifications provide Designated Student-Athletes with what they had prior to the roster limits provisions being implemented, which was the opportunity to be on a roster at the discretion of a Division I school,' Wilken wrote. Her decision, however, took nearly a month to write, leaving the schools and conferences in limbo — unsure if the plans they'd been making for months, really years, would go into play. 'It remains to be seen how this will impact the future of inter-collegiate athletics — but as we continue to evolve, Carolina remains committed to providing outstanding experiences and broad-based programming to student-athletes,' North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said. Winners and losers The list of winners and losers is long and, in some cases, hard to tease out. A rough guide of winners would include football and basketball stars at the biggest schools, which will devote much of their bankroll to signing and retaining them. For instance, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood's NIL deal is reportedly worth between $10.5 million and $12 million. Losers, despite Wilken's ruling, figure to be at least some of the walk-ons and partial scholarship athletes whose spots are gone. Also in limbo are Olympic sports many of those athletes play and that serve as the main pipeline for a US team that has won the most medals at every Olympics since the downfall of the Soviet Union. All this is a price worth paying, according to the attorneys who crafted the settlement and argue they delivered exactly what they were asked for: an attempt to put more money in the pockets of the players whose sweat and toil keep people watching from the start of football season through March Madness and the College World Series in June. What the settlement does not solve is the threat of further litigation. Though this deal brings some uniformity to the rules, states still have separate laws regarding how NIL can be doled out, which could lead to legal challenges. NCAA President Charlie Baker has been consistent in pushing for federal legislation that would put college sports under one rulebook and, if he has his way, provide some form of antitrust protection to prevent the new model from being disrupted again.
Arab News
3 days ago
- Arab News
What the Trump travel ban means for the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games
GENEVA: US President Donald Trump often says the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are among the events he is most excited about in his second term. Yet there is significant uncertainty regarding visa policies for foreign visitors planning trips to the US for the two biggest events in sports. Trump's latest travel ban on citizens from 12 countries added new questions about the impact on the World Cup and the Summer Olympics, which depend on hosts opening their doors to the world. Here's a look at the potential effects of the travel ban on those events. What is the travel ban policy? For the latest updates, follow us @ArabNewsSport They are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Tighter restrictions will apply to visitors from seven more: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Trump said some countries had 'deficient' screening and vetting processes or have historically refused to take back their own citizens. How does it affect the World Cup and Olympics? Iran, a soccer power in Asia, is the only targeted country to qualify so far for the World Cup being co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico in one year's time. Cuba, Haiti and Sudan are in contention. Sierra Leone might stay involved through multiple playoff games. Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and Libya have very outside shots. But all should be able to send teams to the World Cup if they qualify because the new policy makes exceptions for 'any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the secretary of state.' About 200 countries could send athletes to the Summer Games, including those targeted by the latest travel restrictions. The exceptions should apply to them as well if the ban is still in place in its current form. What about fans? The travel ban doesn't mention any exceptions for fans from the targeted countries wishing to travel to the US for the World Cup or Olympics. Even before the travel ban, fans of the Iran soccer team living in that country already had issues about getting a visa for a World Cup visit. Still, national team supporters often profile differently to fans of club teams who go abroad for games in international competitions like the UEFA Champions League. For many countries, fans traveling to the World Cup — an expensive travel plan with hiked flight and hotel prices — are often from the diaspora, wealthier, and could have different passport options. A World Cup visitor is broadly higher-spending and lower-risk for host nation security planning. Visitors to an Olympics are often even higher-end clients, though tourism for a Summer Games is significantly less than at a World Cup, with fewer still from most of the 19 countries now targeted. How is the US working with FIFA, Olympic officials? FIFA President Gianni Infantino has publicly built close ties since 2018 to Trump — too close according to some. He has cited the need to ensure FIFA's smooth operations at a tournament that will earn a big majority of the soccer body's expected $13 billion revenue from 2023-26. Infantino sat next to Trump at the White House task force meeting on May 6 which prominently included Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. FIFA's top delegate on the task force is Infantino ally Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs partner whose two-year run as US Soccer Federation president ended in controversy in 2020. Any visa and security issues FIFA faces — including at the 32-team Club World Cup that kicks off next week in Miami — can help LA Olympics organizers finesse their plans. 'It was very clear in the directive that the Olympics require special consideration and I actually want to thank the federal government for recognizing that,' LA28 chairman and president Casey Wasserman said Thursday in Los Angeles. 'It's very clear that the federal government understands that that's an environment that they will be accommodating and provide for,' he said. 'We have great confidence that that will only continue. It has been the case to date and it will certainly be the case going forward through the games.' In March, at an IOC meeting in Greece, Wasserman said he had two discreet meetings with Trump and noted the State Department has a 'fully staffed desk' to help prepare for short-notice visa processing in the summer of 2028 — albeit with a focus on teams rather than fans. IOC member Nicole Hoevertsz, who is chair of the Coordination Commission for LA28, expressed 'every confidence' that the US government will cooperate, as it did in hosting previous Olympics. 'That is something that we will be definitely looking at and making sure that it is guaranteed as well,' she said. 'We are very confident that this is going to be accomplished. I'm sure this is going to be executed well.' FIFA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the new Trump travel ban. What have other host nations done? The 2018 World Cup host Russia let fans enter the country with a game ticket doubling as their visa. So did Qatar four years later. Both governments, however, also performed background checks on all visitors coming to the month-long soccer tournaments. Governments have refused entry to unwelcome visitors. For the 2012 London Olympics, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko — who is still its authoritarian leader today — was denied a visa despite also leading its national Olympic body. The IOC also suspended him from the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.
