Golf's big names enjoy 'sport's most famous bench'
Sitting proudly on the sixth tee at Royal Portrush, with views of the beach below and coast for miles either side, it has gone viral at this year's Open.
Some of the sport's biggest names - including Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm - have all been pictured resting up at the back end of the course.
The inscription reads: "Jim McDowell - from just a few of his many golfing friends to mark the occasion of his 70th birthday".
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CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Venus Williams, 45, becomes oldest player to win WTA singles match in more than 20 years
Venus Williams rolled back the years to produce a brilliant display as she eliminated fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 to reach the round of 16 of the DC Open. Williams, 45, becomes the oldest player to win a singles match on the WTA Tour since Martina Navratilova won in the first round of Wimbledon in 2004 aged 47. It was Williams' second tour victory in as many days after she recorded a doubles win at the DC Open alongside Hailey Baptiste on Monday. 'You know, it's the first step, and the first match is always extremely difficult,' Williams said after the match, per the WTA. 'It's hard to describe how difficult it is to play a first match after so much time off. 'So going into the match, I know I have the ability to win, but it's all about actually winning. So this is the best result, to play a good match and win. 'I'm here with my friends, family, people I love, and the fans too, who I love and they love me, so this has been just a beautiful night.' It was an impressive display from Williams against world No. 35 Stearns, fighting back from a break to love in her opening service game and again effectively using her aggressive serving and returning as a weapon. Tuesday's win was Williams' first singles match on tour since an opening-round defeat to Diana Shnaider at the Miami Open in March 2024, while her last victory came in 2023 against Veronika Kudermetova in the opening round of the Cincinnati Open. Monday was also Williams' first doubles match in almost three years, and until this week she had been listed as 'unactive' on the WTA Tour. Over the course of her career, the American former world No. 1 won seven grand slam singles titles and 14 in doubles alongside younger sister Serena – as well as two mixed doubles grand slam titles in 1998. 'There are no limits for excellence,' Williams said. 'It's all about what's in your head and how much you're able to put into it. If you put in the work mentally, physically and emotionally, then you can have the result. 'It doesn't matter how many times you fall down. Doesn't matter how many times you get sick or get hurt or whatever it is. If you continue to believe and put in the work, there is an opportunity, there is space for you.' Williams faces a tough test in Poland's world No. 24 Magdalena Fręch in the next round on Thursday, while her next doubles match with Baptiste is scheduled for Wednesday against fellow American Taylor Townsend and China's Zhang Shuai. Following the match, Williams also spoke about her recent engagement to Italian actor Andrea Preti, who was in attendance to watch her play for the first time. 'My fiancé is here and he really encouraged me to keep playing,' Williams said. 'There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill. 'Do you know how hard it is to play tennis? You guys don't know how much work goes into this, like it's 9 to 5 except you're running the whole time. Lifting weights and just like dying and then you repeat it the next day. 'So he encouraged me to get through this and it's wonderful to be here. He's never seen me play.'
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Venus Williams, 45, becomes oldest player to win WTA singles match in more than 20 years
Venus Williams rolled back the years to produce a brilliant display as she eliminated fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 to reach the round of 16 of the DC Open. Williams, 45, becomes the oldest player to win a singles match on the WTA Tour since Martina Navratilova won in the first round of Wimbledon in 2004 aged 47. It was Williams' second tour victory in as many days after she recorded a doubles win at the DC Open alongside Hailey Baptiste on Monday. 'You know, it's the first step, and the first match is always extremely difficult,' Williams said after the match, per the WTA. 'It's hard to describe how difficult it is to play a first match after so much time off. 'So going into the match, I know I have the ability to win, but it's all about actually winning. So this is the best result, to play a good match and win. 'I'm here with my friends, family, people I love, and the fans too, who I love and they love me, so this has been just a beautiful night.' It was an impressive display from Williams against world No. 35 Stearns, fighting back from a break to love in her opening service game and again effectively using her aggressive serving and returning as a weapon. Tuesday's win was Williams' first singles match on tour since an opening-round defeat to Diana Shnaider at the Miami Open in March 2024, while her last victory came in 2023 against Veronika Kudermetova in the opening round of the Cincinnati Open. Monday was also Williams' first doubles match in almost three years, and until this week she had been listed as 'unactive' on the WTA Tour. Over the course of her career, the American former world No. 1 won seven grand slam singles titles and 14 in doubles alongside younger sister Serena – as well as two mixed doubles grand slam titles in 1998. 'There are no limits for excellence,' Williams said. 'It's all about what's in your head and how much you're able to put into it. If you put in the work mentally, physically and emotionally, then you can have the result. 'It doesn't matter how many times you fall down. Doesn't matter how many times you get sick or get hurt or whatever it is. If you continue to believe and put in the work, there is an opportunity, there is space for you.' Williams faces a tough test in Poland's world No. 24 Magdalena Fręch in the next round on Thursday, while her next doubles match with Baptiste is scheduled for Wednesday against fellow American Taylor Townsend and China's Zhang Shuai. Following the match, Williams also spoke about her recent engagement to Italian actor Andrea Preti, who was in attendance to watch her play for the first time. 'My fiancé is here and he really encouraged me to keep playing,' Williams said. 'There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill. 'Do you know how hard it is to play tennis? You guys don't know how much work goes into this, like it's 9 to 5 except you're running the whole time. Lifting weights and just like dying and then you repeat it the next day. 'So he encouraged me to get through this and it's wonderful to be here. He's never seen me play.'
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Ryder Cup 2025 roster projection: Who will make the U.S., Europe teams?
With major championship season now in the rearview mirror, all road signs now directly point to the last week in September and the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York. That also means the opportunities to make a case for yourself are dwindling, though history suggests someone will get very hot in August and force themselves into the Ryder Cup discussion in a way no one saw coming. That type of 11th-hour push is not always successful, though, with many captains instead taking a longer view and trusting the bigger body of work. Advertisement That's why our latest Ryder Cup roster projections will feel much more set in stone than other iterations over the last three months have. For Brody Miller, who took on the role of U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, and Hugh Kellenberger, acting as Team Europe boss Luke Donald, the job is now about poring over the final one or two spots and filling in any gaps the team may have. The broader picture of the U.S. Ryder Cup team appears dramatically more stable than it did just three months ago, when projections were reaching for anyone in even partially good form or any big name with cup experience. Suddenly, the problems for Bradley are about leaving off players you'd love to have in their current form, or Bradley himself playing so well that it's less about whether he deserves to be on the team than it is about whether he should stay in the captaincy role. He'll have to decide if he's comfortable leaving off all-time cup greats versus brushing off golfers currently winning tournaments and competing for majors. Really, really deserving golfers will be left off this team, no matter what Bradley decides. But with a month until teams get finalized, let's predict what Bradley will do. Scottie Scheffler: Moving on. Xander Schauffele: His past two months have consistently had him living in the top 10 and 20 of leaderboards again as he's gaining two strokes on the field. He'll be just fine. J.J. Spaun: This is not purely somebody on a team because he won the U.S. Open. He's been runner-up at the Players and the Cognizant this year. He's No. 20 in the world on DataGolf, playing solid golf all year. Even if he might ultimately only be the 12th-best player on the U.S. team, you're very happy to have him. Russell Henley: I felt confident Henley would be on this team 10 months ago, as he thrived at the Presidents Cup and positioned himself as the perfect Scheffler pairing. Now, it's so much more. Henley won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and has finished top 10 at four of his last six majors. He can be both a good four-ball partner, as the steady rock finding fairways while his partner gets aggressive, and he's a great alternate shot teammate who is world-class with his irons and won't ever put his partner in bad position off the tee. Plus, he's a fantastic putter. It's no longer just a nice story. He's simply one of the best players in the world. Advertisement Bryson DeChambeau: No conversation needed. A top-four player in the world and the longest hitter by far. Bethpage go boom. Harris English: When English won at Torrey Pines, he still wasn't anywhere near this list. Nor was he after a T12 Augusta. Or even really when he finished runner-up at the PGA Championship. Credit where it's due. English is fully back. Now at 35, three years removed from back surgery that stunted his career, the 2021 Ryder Cup winning player is simply killing it. Two major runner-ups and three top 20s. And the U.S. will take all the good putting it can get. Even if he gets surpassed for automatic qualifying, he'll be on the team. Justin Thomas: Hey, maybe his one year left off a cup team served its purpose! Despite an extremely disappointing season at majors, Thomas is back to being the No. 8 player on DataGolf, the fifth-highest ranking on the team. All that with the memories of his 7-4-2 Ryder Cup record lingering. There's no doubt this time. Collin Morikawa: You are more than welcome to worry about his play the last three months. It's been a steep dropoff. But Morikawa is still one of the five best iron players on Earth and a guy with four Ryder Cup match wins and a 4-1 record last year at the Presidents Cup. Don't be silly. Keegan Bradley: This is not the big captaincy debate. You can read that here. For now, I'm just projecting what I think will happen, and this is no longer a situation where Bradley is on the bubble for the final spot. I'd argue he's been the sixth- or seventh-best U.S. player in 2025. He won with incredible clutch play at the Travelers in June. He hasn't finished worse than 41st at any tournament since April. And you cannot deny the passion he brings and the way crowds respond to him. The only reason to leave Bradley off is purely because you believe his captaincy is that important. If that's how you feel, it is completely understandable. But if you are picking the 12 best, it's not even a debate. Advertisement Ben Griffin: The missed cut at the Open is a disappointment, and if he has a terrible August, this can be revisited. But Griffin's play has not merely been a nice heater over the summer (although what a heater it was). He's been in contention in tournaments every single month of the season, going back to January. And again, sometimes the vibe test adds something. Griffin at Bethpage? Immaculate vibes. Patrick Cantlay: What are we doing here? Suddenly, there's a strong conversation that Cantlay shouldn't be a lock. People, he's a lock. After decades of hearing Americans bemoan the Europeans having all these form-agnostic killers like Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood who win no matter what, now the U.S. has the best cup player of the 2020s and is nitpicking him? My goodness. Also, he's not even having a bad year! A poor major run, absolutely. But if we're going off overall statistical golf, he's been the ninth-best American. He's played in 10 signature events this year and been top 20 in eight of them! If anything, last year was the real down year for Cantlay, and he still was the absolute star of the Presidents Cup. Stop this madness. Sam Burns: Woof, this was hard. He's played overall better golf this year than Jordan Spieth, Maverick McNealy, Andrew Novak or Chris Gotterup. From the RBC Heritage through the Travelers, he essentially earned two strokes on the field every week he went out. He's been here before, and he'll be perhaps the best putter in the entire competition. I've said in every projection this year that if Spieth plays perfectly solid golf — which he has — then you have to have him on the team. But at the end of the day, too many golfers like Spaun, English and Griffin went out and earned spots. Final thoughts • Chris Gotterup making the team would be awesome, and his absurd length off the tee makes him a perfect fit. It's very encouraging to see the 25-year-old bomber do so well on the biggest stages, like his third-place finish this week at the Open. But it's just a little too in-the-moment for me. If he tears it up this August? Absolutely. He should be considered. I just don't want to make a rash decision. • Deep down, the best thing that could happen is Maverick McNealy or Spieth winning a tournament in the next month. McNealy has played such impressive golf all season long. He is more than deserving of playing in a Ryder Cup. He just hasn't been better than the 12 golfers picked. But I'd love nothing more than for McNealy to win in Memphis or the BMW and grab a spot. The same goes for Spieth. Advertisement • Don't rule out Andrew Novak. Captain Bradley went out of his way recently on the 5 Clubs podcast to toss Novak's name in, saying, 'Guys like Andrew Novak have shown throughout the year what a tough competitor he is. I love his mindset and his attitude.' It wouldn't be a bad pick at all. The only thing holding me back is him slowing down a bunch since his April-May heater. When Europe decided to run it back for 2025, enlisting Luke Donald again as captain and watching as he reassembled his vice-captain team, it all felt very intentional. To be the first road team to win a Ryder Cup since 2012, keep as much as you can with what worked and build off of that. It's a dramatic contract from the U.S. squad, facing their latest existential crisis about leadership and passion. So if you're going to bring back Donald and four of his vice-captains, including analytics wizard Dodo Molinari, why not also bring back the players? So that's what I'm doing here — between the six automatic qualifiers and my captain's picks, 11 of the 12 European teammates in 2023 are returning. All 11 brought home at least one full point in Rome, the result of their talent but also of a cohesive approach where veteran Justin Rose was willing to be paired with nervous rookie Robert MacIntyre in fourball and sit the foursomes sessions. MacIntyre's career has taken off since then, and he currently sits second in the European points rankings. Rory McIlroy, of course, is on top, and already automatically qualified, though there's little doubt he waited until that news to book his tickets to New York. Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton and Shane Lowry are Nos. 3-5, and will again be foundational elements of the lineup. Hatton and Fleetwood each played four matches in Rome, and Lowry is a ready-made partner for our sixth automatic pick, Sepp Straka. Of all of these men, Straka has the most nervous road to Bethpage. He missed the first three majors cuts of the year and finished T52 at the Open, and will need some positive results in the PGA Tour's playoffs to not need a captain's pick. Jon Rahm has not done well enough outside of LIV to qualify on points but c'mon, how can you not bring the Spaniard? His good is still better than most's best, and he hits it a mile off the tee. You need that at this course. This is where the questions begin, and you have to have at least some doubt about what you're getting from them during Ryder Cup week. Advertisement Viktor Hovland is going to be on the team, which is not something I would have guaranteed at different points over the last two years. The Norwegian has figured out his game enough to earn the spot, though the boom-or-bust nature of his game the last four months has me worried. Could he win 3 1/2 points again? Sure. Could he be a disappointment and struggle? Also yes. Ludvig Åberg's PGA Tour season has been a definite sophomore slump, with a regression off the tee and around the greens causing him to be a middle-of-the-pack player. Among just Europeans, he's 12th in strokes gained overall the last three months, behind several players not on this team. So why take him? One, he's Ludvig Åberg and the long-term view is still him as one of the most exciting young players in golf. But the unique format of the Ryder Cup would allow an enterprising captain to use Åberg in foursomes, setting him up for his still-strong iron play to be a weapon on approaches and the par-3s. Rose will be 45 by the end of September and he needs to be a role player at Bethpage. After his playoff loss at the Masters, he regressed badly for several months, until a sixth-place finish at the Scottish Open and T16 at the Open Championship. He's a good player, but would it be entirely shocking if he has an off week? Not at all. The last veteran to make the team is Matt Fitzpatrick. His performance at Royal Portrush, playing in the last group on Saturday and finishing in the top five, was a very loud announcement that the Englishman is back. Over the previous three months, he has been sixth in the world in strokes gained, and it's not weighted toward one particular category. Overall, he's been very efficient. All four of these players have earned their spots, and you'll take the risk because of the potential. If two or three (or four) all struggle and you lose the cup, that'll be unfortunate, but you can live with it because you still gave yourself the best chance to win. That leaves just one spot and a handful of contenders. Nicolai Højgaard is powerful off the tee and trending in a positive direction. Thomas Detry won in Phoenix earlier this year against a good field. If you're looking strictly at current form, then Harry Hall and Aaron Rai must be on the long list. Advertisement There's also Sergio Garcia. He's a Ryder Cup legend, no doubt. He caught fire for a month, winning LIV Hong Kong and backing it up with two top fives. But nothing in the last three months has approached that level of play, making him an unnecessary reach and potential liability. No, I'm going with Rasmus Højgaard. While he'll be the lone Ryder Cup rookie on this team, he was a part of things in Rome. When twin brother Nicolai made it, Donald invited Rasmus to come and have a role, to be around the team room as much as he desired. It's an example of an approach to leadership that builds buy-in and continuity, taking what could be an awkward situation and making it as comfortable as possible. Two years later, Rasmus is the brother who's seventh in the Ryder Cup points standings, with enough positive results that he cannot be ignored. Do we expect him to be a killer? No. But he'll do his job, and another true driver of the golf ball is the final piece that Europe needs. (Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Photos: David Cannon, Richard Heathcote / Getty Images; Zac Goodwin / PA Images via Getty Images; Stuart Franklin / R&A via Getty Images)
