PGA TOUR

While We’re Young (Ideas)

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs start next weekend at The Northern Trust at Liberty National in New Jersey. The 2021 playoff will be the first since 2009 without popular golfer Rickie Fowler. Fowler missed the cut at the Wyndham Championship – as he shot (71-72) – and failed to qualify for postseason for the first time in his 12-year PGA Tour career. … Fowler endeared himself to the Boston faithful when he bought a dozen bottles of “Dom” after his 2015 Deutsche Bank Championship. We later thanked and then advised him, “We’d be happy with a case of Sam Summer, and you could’ve saved yourself $2,500.”

The FedEx Cup Playoffs are only three rounds:

1. August 19-22: Northern Trust (New Jersey)
2. August 26-29: BMW Championship (Maryland)
3. Sept. 2-5: Tour Championship (Georgia)

After a brief break from the Tour, the United States and Team Europe will play for The Ryder Cup from September 21-26 at Whistling Straits at Kohler, Wisconsin. That’s only 35 days away. Kohler is a 9-iron from Sheboygan and an hour drive north of Milwaukee.

JUSTIN ROSE RECEIVES PAYNE STEWART AWARD: In recognition of his character, sportsmanship and commitment to charitable giving, Justin Rosewas named the 2021 recipient of the PGA Tour’s Payne Stewart Awardpresented by Southern Company. Rose will be honored on Tuesday, August 31, at the Payne Stewart Award Ceremony in conjunction with the TOUR Championship. The ceremony will be televised live on Golf Channel as part of a “Golf Central” special from 7-8 p.m. EDT at the Southern Exchange in downtown Atlanta. … The Payne Stewart Award is presented annually by the Tour to a professional golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s steadfast values of character, charity and sportsmanship. Stewart, an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour and World Golf Hall of Fame member, died tragically 22 years ago during the week of the TOUR Championship in 1999. … On October 25, 1999, NTSB investigations found that Stewart’s private plane lost pressurization and back-up oxygen on a flight from Orlando to Dallas. The Learjet 35 eventually crashed near Aberdeen, South Dakota after military jets followed and attempted to examine the aircraft. The captain, first officer and four passengers (including Stewart) passed away.

“FORE” MORE YEARS (of eligibility): ESPN is reporting that former NBA Sixth Man of the Year (2013) JR Smith enrolled at North Carolina A&T and intends to join the historically Black university’s men’s golf team if he gets clearance from the NCAA. … North Carolina A&T athletics spokesman Brian Holloway told ESPN that Smith is officially enrolled in the school and has petitioned the NCAA to be eligible to play. Smith’s clock to compete as a collegiate athlete has not yet started because he went to the NBA after high school. Athletes, in most cases, get five years to complete four years of eligibility. … Smith played 16 NBA seasons since getting drafted by New Orleans out of St. Benedict’s Prep (NJ) in 2004. In a journeyman style, he made stops with Denver, New York and Cleveland but won an NBA title with the Lakers and LeBron James in the NBA Bubble of 2020, the Cavaliers and LeBron James in 2016 and was the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2013 with the Knicks.

STAY IN THE PRESENT: The list of Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement presenters was released this week and it always provides a little insight into how the new Hall of Famer made it to the corridors of immortality in Springfield, Massachusetts. A quick look at this year’s presenters shows that Rick Welts, an inductee in 2018, will have a busy night as he’s been asked to present both Val Ackerman (former NBA attorney, the WNBA’s first President and current Big East Conference Commissioner) and also NBA All-Time great and perhaps the Greatest NBA Player of All-Time in Bill Russell. Russell was inducted as a player in 1975 and this year will be enshrined as a head coach. Welts was a ballboy for the Sonics and met Russell at an early age.

Here’s the full list of inductees and presenters for the September 10-11th Induction ceremony to be held at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut with the formalities in Springfield.

• Val Ackerman, presented by Russ Granik (’13), Rick Welts (’18)
• Rick Adelman, presented by Vlade Divac (’19), Jack Sikma (’19)
• Chris Bosh, presented by Ray Allen (’18), Pat Riley (’08)
• Bob Dandridge, presented by Oscar Robertson (’80)
• Cotton Fitzsimmons, presented by Charles Barkley (’06), Jerry Colangelo (’04), Phil Knight (’12)
• Howard Garfinkel, presented by John Calipari (’15), Grant Hill (’18), Bobby Hurley (’10)
• Yolanda Griffith, presented by Van Chancellor (’07)
• Lauren Jackson, presented by Sheryl Swoopes (’16)
• Clarence Jenkins, presented by Wayne Embry (’99)
• Toni Kukoc, presented by Michael Jordan (’09), Jerry Reinsdorf (’16)
• Pearl Moore, presented by Sylvia Hatchell (’13)
• Paul Pierce, presented by Kevin Garnett (’20)
• Bill Russell, presented by Charles Barkley (’06), Julius Erving (’93), Spencer Haywood (’15), Alonzo Mourning (’14), Bill Walton (’93), Rick Welts (’18)
• Ben Wallace, presented by Larry Brown (’02)
• Chris Webber, presented by Isiah Thomas (’00)
• Jay Wright, presented by Charles Barkley (’06), Bill Cunningham (’86), Herb Magee (’11), George Raveling (’15)

BOSTON MARATHON: Instead of training in the dead of winter and in freezing cold conditions, the Boston marathoners are running up Heartbreak Hill in Newton in 90-degree heat as they prepare for the October 11th race day. Yes, instead of running on Patriots’ Day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, they’ll be running on Indigenous Peoples’ Day (formerly Columbus Day) which is celebrated on the second Monday of October. In 56 days, 9,215 runners will truck out to Hopkinton, Mass to begin the race. … The 2022 Boston Marathon is scheduled for April 18, 2022, to be staged on the traditional Patriots’ Day in the Commonwealth.

A WHOLE NEW MEANING TO SALE: The return of starting pitcher and staff ace Chris Sale means the world to the Boston Red Sox. His 5.0 innings of six-hit, two earned run pitching earned a “W” on Saturday, anchoring Boston’s 16-2 thrashing of the hapless Baltimore Orioles. Sale struck out eight batters walked none but let up two homers in his first big league outing in 732 days, dating back to 2019. His recovery from surgery seems complete. … That should be enough for the fans of the Red Sox, but what about the people who bought their furniture at Jordan’s during the “No Hitter” promotion? … Remember? If the Red Sox “no hit” an opponent from now through October 3, all the furniture purchased would be free of cost. Certainly, the return of Chris Sale changed the odds for the furniture buyers of New England.

HURT LOCKERS: Unfortunately, the 2021 MLB season will also be remembered for the rash of injuries to Tier 1 star players such as Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna, Jr. (ACL), the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts (hip) or New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom (among many others). … If you remember, the NFL suffered a string of injuries to star-level talent last season with NY Giants’ RB Saquon Barkley, Charlotte’s RB Christian McCaffrey, Dallas’ QB Dak Prescott, SF 49ers’ defensive-end Nick Bosa, among many others.

CELTICS RE-LOADED: In the early part of the off-season, the Boston Celtics, under former head coach and new head of basketball ops Brad Stevens, by-passed any serious endeavors in free agency, unloaded oft-injured guard Kemba Walker and re-acquired C/PF Al Horford to solidify the rotation. … This week, Stevens worked around the edges and obtained some depth at the guard position with Dennis Schroder (1-year at $5.9m), while adding much-needed rebounding with the acquisition of C Enes Kanter, a member of the 2019-20 Celtics and signed rookie forward Sam Hauser to a two-way contract.

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