England's Rhodes holds nerve to claim maiden LET victory
Women's NSW Open: Final leaderboard
-17 M Rhodes (Eng); -15 K Rudgeley (Aus), A Fanali (Ita); -14 S Kouskova (Cze); -11 K Metraux (Swi), B Fernandez (Spa), M Folke (Swe), N Iturrioz (Spa)
Selected others: -7 D Harry (Wal), A Foster (Ire); -6 C Gainer (Eng); -3 K Henry (Sco), A Fuller (Eng); -2 H Screen (Eng), L Walsh (Ire)
England's Mimi Rhodes held her nerve to claim her first Ladies European Tour victory at the Women's NSW Open in Australia.
The 23-year-old rookie led by one heading into the final round in Wollongong and produced a composed final day to beat Australia's Kirsten Rudgeley and Italy's Alessandra Fanali by two shots.
Competing in just her fourth event as a full LET member, Rhodes went bogey free on Sunday, carding a two-under 69 to finish on 17 under.
"I'm honestly still in shock, but I'm so happy," she said. "I've worked really hard for this."
Victory came a week after Rhodes missed the cut at the Australian Women's Classic in Coffs Harbour.
After heading down the New South Wales coast to Wollongong, she fired a course record on Friday, hitting a nine-under 62 to take a share of the lead with Sara Kouskova.
During Saturday's round of 68, Rhodes gained the outright lead and did not relinquish it on the final day.
After birdies at the second and fourth holes, Rhodes carded 14 straight pars as Rudgeley and Fanali put the pressure on.
Home favourite Rudgeley had five birdies en route to a three-under 68 while Fanali's third birdie of the day on the par-3 17th put her one off the lead.
But the Italian pulled her tee shot on the closing par-five 18th, forcing her to take a penalty drop, allowing Rhodes the comfort of two-putting to secure victory.
"I had a difficult week last week - I went through a swing change and it obviously worked," added Rhodes, who said she would celebrate with family and friends in Sydney.
"I was fine on the front nine but when it started to get tight, I got a bit stressed. I kept breathing and tried to remain focused. It's difficult in those situations but I'm just really glad I got it done."
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New York Times
11 hours ago
- New York Times
Welcome to America, the ATM of world soccer
Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed guests, football (soccer) fans around the globe, welcome to America! In just a few days, you'll descend upon the United States to cheer on your team, witness some of the planet's biggest stars gracing the world stage one more time before they head off into their summer break — albeit a brief one. Advertisement This is an extraordinary time for soccer in this part of the world. The Copa América was here in 2024. The Club World Cup kicks off this weekend. The World Cup — the grandest soccer show of all — is in 365 days. The 2027 Women's World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games will be upon us before we know it. But while the U.S. is going to be a summer soccer paradise, it's not going to be a cheap one for those who like to budget with caution. Last year, MLS commissioner Don Garber told The Athletic: 'There's no question now that America has become the ATM for the soccer world. We have raised the commercial value of the sport in our country in ways where it now is perhaps the most valuable soccer market, commercially.' Garber's comments reflect reality. Part of the reason America is such an attractive proposition for FIFA, international leagues and elite global teams is that large numbers of fans are willing to pay sky-high prices. For decades, the U.S. was soccer's purgatory. While the rest of the world was obsessed with the jogo bonito, Americans were busy with football, basketball and baseball — their favorite pastime. But that's changed. Over the past decade, especially once American investors started putting money into soccer teams abroad, the sport's footprint and impact in the U.S. haven't just grown, but surged. With interest in soccer at an all-time peak, clubs, leagues and governing bodies are racing to capitalize on the American fan base and to tap into the U.S.'s commercial and economic might. On top of all the global events mentioned above, there is also a continuously steady stream of high-profile summer friendlies in between, as has been the case for well over a decade. No one is pretending soccer has the same foothold and history in the U.S. as it has in Europe or South America, but what it does have is a potential audience that is accustomed to paying top dollar for its entertainment interests. Advertisement As FIFA tries to fill more seats for its Club World Cup opener between Inter Miami and Al-Ahly on Saturday, it was revealed Tuesday that Miami Dade College students could acquire five tickets for $20, a phenomenal deal aimed at avoiding the embarrassment of having banks of empty seats for the kickoff game. However, without your college ID card, it should be noted that regular seats still start at $69, and that figure was more than $300 when they first went on sale. Add in parking, food and other expenses, and the total cost for a family of four could easily exceed $1,000, especially for a highly sought-after match, with the dynamic pricing model used to set costs. 'Football has been industrialized,' professor Simon Chadwick, who teaches geopolitics of sport at Emlyon Business School in Lyon, France, told The Athletic. 'Very often people talk about commercializing, but the sport has been industrialized with the objective to extract as much financial value from customers as is possible. 'Clubs and governing bodies are developing products that take advantage of the latest developments in markets, and this means that the football product now, instead of just being a game that you go and watch, or you go and buy a ticket to watch, the product is now an experience.' Alas, soccer has become a very expensive experience in the U.S. When you break down the costs of attending events like Copa América or marquee summer friendlies, the numbers add up fast. Last summer, tickets for Argentina vs. Chile were starting at $391 on Ticketmaster. According to ticket resale platform TickPick, the average purchase price for the 2024 Copa América group stage was $187, a 61 percent rise from 2016, when it was $116. The most expensive group stage ticket was for the match between Argentina and Peru, with an average purchase price of $478. For the final, tickets were priced anywhere from $1,300 to $7,000 through websites such as Ticketmaster and SeatGeek. Another report from the Local 10 News claimed tickets for the final ranged from $1,670 to nearly $97,900 on resale platforms TickPick and StubHub. A year before Copa América, summer friendly games featuring European clubs like Arsenal and Manchester United saw ticket prices exceeding $200, especially in major U.S. cities. At those prices, fans aren't just paying to watch a soccer game, they're paying to be part of a meticulously crafted entertainment experience. FIFA and many other soccer governing bodies are curating entertainment experiences that go well beyond the game. From Coldplay's Chris Martin choosing halftime music to seamless one-touch engagement with teams and tournaments through an app, it's all very much in line with the kind of immersive, branded experiences 'you'd expect from Disney,' Chadwick said. Advertisement 'These immersive, high-touch offerings cost money to build, but FIFA knows fans are willing to pay for them. There's a clear alignment between what FIFA is offering and what consumers want. The proof? Stadiums sell out, sponsors keep lining up, and broadcast deals are still climbing. The takeaway for FIFA is simple: This model works.' But not perfectly, it seems. Earlier this week, tens of thousands of seats remained unsold for the opening Club World Cup match at Hard Rock Stadium, which holds 65,326 fans. The exclusivity of the Club World Cup and other FIFA events, though, goes beyond ticket prices, all the way to concession stands. FIFA Club World Cup matches will be held in 12 NFL and MLS stadiums, including Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, New Jersey's MetLife Stadium (where the final of CWC and the World Cup will take place), Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field, Seattle's Lumen Field and Washington's Audi Field, where DC United and Washington Spirit plays their home games. The cost of the average classic American combo — a beer and a hot dog — is approximately $15.02 across NFL stadiums, with some venues like Lumen Field charging up to $19.98, according to Food and Wine's 2024 research. However, recent personal experience shows prices are vastly higher than that. Last week at the USWNT's match against Jamaica at Energizer Park in St. Louis, a Reuben sandwich was priced at $18.99, a bottle of water was $8 and a large beer was going for $20, with tax and tip on top. The truth is that the beautiful game is increasingly catering most directly to those who can afford to pay more. 'Let's be brutally honest about this, people who are economically disadvantaged, they are no longer anywhere near the top of football's agenda,' Chadwick said. 'In simple terms, the yield per fan from richer members of society is going to be much higher than the yield per fan from poorer members of society. And so I guess you could say we are going through a kind of period of the gentrification of football.' Unlike the iconic song from 'West Side Story,' nothing in America comes for free. Buying on credit sure feels like a sweet deal, just don't check your credit card statement after the game.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Simone Biles' social media post ‘good thing guys don't compete against girls' resurfaces as Riley Gaines feud takes a twist
Conservative sports activist Riley Gaines used Olympian Simone Biles' own words against her Sunday as their feud over transgender athletes reached a fevered pitch. Gaines — a former University of Kentucky swimmer vehemently opposed to trans participation in women's sports — unearthed a nearly decade-old tweet that the gymnastics icon posted in which she appeared to agree with Gaines' stance. Advertisement 'ahhhh good thing guys don't compete against girls or he'd take all the gold medals !!' Biles wrote in the 2017 tweet, apparently responding to the men's division results at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Canada. Gaines — who Biles referred to as a 'sick bully' for her anti-trans stance Friday — let the Olympian have it. 'Oop don't you hate it when your past self completely undermines your current nonsensical argument?' she wrote while retweeting Biles' post. An old social media post from Olympic gymnast Simone Biles resurfaced amidst her feud with Riley Gaines over transgender athletes. Getty Images Gaines hosts the 'Gaines for Girls' podcast on OutKick, and has been outspoken about transgender athletes competing in women's sports. Independent Women's Forum 'How has 2025 Simone reconciled with the fact 2017 Simone was a 'truly sick bully' by her own standard?' she added. The spat between the athletes started Friday when Biles aimed an unprompted tweet at Gaines, 25, amid furor over a Minnesota trans high-school softball pitcher whose shutout performance in the state finals Thursday helped win the championship. Advertisement '@Riley_Gaines_ You're truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race,' 28-year-old Biles tweeted, referencing Gaines' tie during a race with trans University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championship. 'Oop don't you hate it when your past self completely undermines your current nonsensical argument?' Gaines wrote on X in response to the 2017 post. Getty Images 'Straight up sore loser. You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!!' Biles wrote. 'bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male,' she later added. Gaines quickly called Biles' comments 'disappointing' and said it wasn't her task to figure out how to include trans people in sports. Simone Biles poses with the bronze medal during the Women's Balance Beam Final medal ceremony on day eleven of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Getty Images 'It's not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces. You can uplift men stealing championships in women's sports with YOUR platform. Men don't belong in women's sports and I say that with my full chest,' Gaines said. Advertisement But it didn't end there — Gaines went so far as to drag Biles' battle with former Team USA gymnastics doctor and prolific sex criminal Larry Nassar into the fray. 'All the horrific sexual abuse @Simone_Biles witnessed and spoke out against caused by one man, yet [she] believes women should be forced to strip naked in front of men to validate the man's feelings,' Gaines wrote in another tweet. Biles helped take down Nassar, who is serving up to 175 years in prison for molesting her and hundreds of other female gymnasts, including stars Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas. 'You know how many gold medals you'd have if your 'inclusive' dream came true? Zero,' Gaines added to Biles.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw Gets Last Laugh After Cardinals Video Board Troll
Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw Gets Last Laugh After Cardinals Video Board Troll originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Minutes before the St. Louis Cardinals were set to take on Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday afternoon, a video was played on the Busch Stadium video board looking back at a historic moment in Cardinals postseason history. Advertisement It was a highlight of Matt Adams' three-run home run off Kershaw in the seventh inning of Game 4 of the 2014 NLDS. Adams' heroic blast not only propelled the Cardinals into the NLCS against the San Francisco Giants, but it came off the eventual 2014 NL MVP Kershaw, who had finished the regular season 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA and 239 strikeouts. The timing of Sunday's video troll, however, didn't sit well with some Cardinals fans. "Probably not a great idea to piss off a hall of famer," one user suggested on 'X.' "Sadly that seems to have made Kershaw just lock in" another wrote. "And then got it shoved up their asses by a 38-year-old soft, tossing left-hander who struck out almost half the outs that he got," another fan lamented. Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) pitches against the St. Louis CardinalsJeff Curry-Imagn Images Kershaw, who is 37-years-old, was flat out dominant Sunday, allowing just one run in five innings of work in the Dodgers 7-3 win. It was his first victory since August 18, 2024, which was also at Busch Stadium. Advertisement He threw 82 pitches, gave up six hits, and struck out seven batters, bringing his total to 2,983, just 17 shy of 3,000 for his career. Only 19 pitchers in Major League Baseball have accomplished that feat. With the loss, the Cardinals fell to 36-29 (22-11 at home) on the season and are four games back of the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central and one game out of a wild card spot. St. Louis will next host the Toronto Blue Jays for a three-game set beginning Monday. Related: Cardinals' Nolan Arenado Issues Message to MLB After Walk-Off Against Star-Studded Dodgers Related: Cardinals Make Highly Anticipated Roster Move Amid Rotation Shake-up This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 8, 2025, where it first appeared.