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🚨 Headlines
🏀 Clark sets assists record: Caitlin Clark dished 19 assists in the Fever‘s loss to the Wings on Wednesday, breaking Courtney Vandersloot‘s WNBA record (18) for the most in a single game.
⚽️ Angel City sale: Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife purchased a controlling stake in the NWSL’s Angel City FC at a valuation of $250 million, making it the most valuable women’s sports team in the world.
🏀 WNBA media rights deal: The WNBA’s new media rights deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon will reportedly pay the league $2.2 billion over 11 years — four times as much annually as its current broadcast package.
⚾️ ASG viewership: 7.4 million viewers tuned into the MLB All-Star Game, up 6% over last year’s record low but still the second-lowest ever for the event. Home Run Derby viewership fell to 5.5 million, the lowest since 2014.
⛳️ The 152nd Open Championship
The season’s fourth and final major is underway at Scotland’s Royal Troon, where the 152nd Open Championship teed off early this morning.
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The 158-player field will compete for a tournament-record $17 million purse, including $3.1 million for the winner.
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Early tee times might have an advantage in the first two rounds, when rain and wind are expected throughout the day, getting stronger in the afternoon.
The favorite: Who else but Scottie Scheffler (+500 at BetMGM), who shrugged off a mediocre U.S. Open to win the Travelers Championship last month for his sixth victory of the season.
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The world’s No. 1 golfer is the first player to be favored outright at all four majors in one year since Tiger Woods in 2013.
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If he comes out on top at Troon, he’ll be the first to win the Masters and Open in the same year since Tiger in 2005 and the first to win seven events in a season since Tiger in 2007.
The rest: I won’t go through all 158 players, but here are five to keep an eye on this weekend.
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Rory McIlroy (+800): Rory won his fourth major at the 2014 PGA Championship, and though he’s had 11 top-five major finishes since then — including last month’s U.S. Open heartbreak — he’s still looking for No. 5. Will the drought finally, mercifully end this weekend?
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Bryson DeChambeau (+1600): As a member of LIV Golf he’s only allowed to play in majors, and outside of Scheffler he might be having the best year on either tour, winning the U.S. Open, finishing second at the PGA Championship and tying for sixth at the Masters.
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Collin Morikawa (+1600): Which version of Collin will we get? The one who won his Open Championship debut in 2021 and has two top-four major finishes this year, or the one who missed the cut at the past two Opens?
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Ludvig Åberg (+1600): He’s had some trouble closing out tournaments this year, but with two runner-up finishes this season (including the Masters) and another five top-10’s, it seems only a matter of time before the 24-year-old Swede wins a major.
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Tiger Woods (+20000): He’s already said this will be his final event of the year, so for his and his fans’ sake let’s hope he plays better than what we’ve seen out of him lately, with just one made cut in his last six major starts.
The course: Royal Troon, which is hosting its 10th Open Championship and first since 2016, will play as a 7,385-yard par 71.
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Like most links courses, Troon is peppered with deep “pot bunkers” that you’d be well-served to avoid entirely* if possible.
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The signature holes are the “Postage Stamp,” a devilishly short par 3 (No. 8) whose green is surrounded by five bunkers, and “The Railway,” a long par 4 (No. 11) that ranks as one of the toughest holes on the PGA Tour.
Open Championship live updates.
*Winning strategy: Brian Harman dominated last year’s Open at Royal Liverpool by six strokes thanks in part to the fact that he landed in just three bunkers all tournament.
🌎 The world in photos
Chester, Pennsylvania — Cavan Sullivan, at 14 years and 293 days old, became the youngest player in MLS history* on Wednesday after subbing on in the 85th minute of Philadelphia’s win over New England, breaking the record set by Freddy Adu 20 years ago.
Paris — Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo swam in the Seine on Wednesday alongside Olympics officials and members of local swimming clubs to prove the water is safe for the Games after its $1.5-billion cleanup.
Abu Dhabi — Stephen Curry led all scorers with 24 points (6-9 3PT) in Team USA’s 105-79 win over Serbia in Wednesday’s exhibition.
Nimes, France — Just four days left in the Tour de France after Wednesday’s Stage 17 saw Tadej Pogačar extend his lead to three minutes, 11 seconds in his bid to win for a third time.
*It goes beyond MLS: He’s also the youngest to appear in any major U.S. team sports league, and is younger than anyone who’s ever played in Europe’s Big Five soccer leagues.
🏀 How WNBA players will spend their Olympic break
The WNBA’s first half came to an end on Wednesday, and after this weekend’s All-Star Game the league will take a nearly month-long break for the Olympics, giving most players a chance to reset for the stretch run.
What they’re saying: “It’s a refresher for everybody,” Lynx guard Courtney Williams told Yahoo Sports. “Because [it’s] an Olympic season, everything is so crunched into such a tight schedule that we don’t get many [off days].”
Yes, but: While a few days off are certainly in the cards, the hiatus is about more than just rest and relaxation.
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“We have three weeks to work on us,” Caitlin Clark, whose Fever had a particularly hectic early schedule, said last month in anticipation of the time off.
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“It’s almost like training camp again. We have a young team so that time to really get in the gym and improve will be super valuable for us.”
Not everyone has that luxury: The league may be pausing for the Olympics, but the players heading to the Summer Games — where they’ll represent nine different countries* — certainly won’t be.
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A majority of WNBA teams are sending at least three players to Paris, led by the defending champion Aces with five. The Sky are the only team without an Olympian.
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That could actually prove valuable for Chicago, which has played itself into postseason contention over the past few weeks and can keep that momentum going with everyone available over the break.
Looking ahead: The women’s Olympic basketball tournament runs from July 27 through Aug. 11, and the WNBA season resumes on Aug. 15.
*Countries represented by WNBA Olympians: USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, China, Japan, Belgium and Azerbaijan.
📆 July 18, 1996: The Lakers sign Shaq
28 years ago today, the Lakers won a bidding war with the Magic, signing Shaquille O’Neal to a then-record seven-year, $120 million contract.
The deal before the deal: A few weeks earlier, in order to clear cap space to make a competitive offer for Shaq, the Lakers traded starting center Vlade Divac to the Hornets for the draft rights to their 13th pick that year — a high school kid named Kobe Bryant.
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⚾️ 1921: Babe Ruth hit a titanic 560-foot blast for his 36th homer of the season* and 139th of his career, passing Roger Connor to become MLB’s all-time leader en route to a then-record 714.
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⚾️ 1987: Don Mattingly joined Pirates 1B Dale Long as the only two players to hit a home run in eight consecutive games. Six years later, Ken Griffey Jr. became the third.
*Utterly dominant: Ruth ultimately hit 59 home runs that season, more than twice as many as second place (Bob Meusel and Ken Williams, 24 each).
📺 Watchlist: The Open Championship
It’s a quiet sports day outside of the 152nd Open Championship, which is already underway (USA/Peacock) but still has five must-watch groups teeing off in succession shortly.
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9:26am ET: Wyndham Clark, Hideki Matsuyama, Brooks Koepka
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9:37am: Tiger Woods, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay
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9:48am: Collin Morikawa, Sam Burns, Si Woo Kim
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9:59am: Shane Lowry, Cameron Smith, Matthew Fitzpatrick
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10:10am: Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young
Major champs: Notice anything about the 15 names above? Cantlay, Burns, Kim and Young are the only ones who haven’t won a major.
⚾️ MLB trivia
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy on Tuesday became the second skipper in MLB history to win the All-Star Game in both leagues.
Question: Who was the first?
Hint: He’s won the second-most games ever by an MLB manager.
Answer at the bottom.
⚽️ MLS retro kits
Five MLS clubs will wear retro jerseys in select games for the remainder of the season after the league unveiled its Archive Collection, akin to MLB’s City Connect and the NBA’s City Edition.
New duds: The Galaxy, LAFC, Inter Miami and Portland each came up with some pretty good designs, but if I had to pick one I’d go with Sporting KC’s throwbacks based on the rainbow kits from their early years as the Kansas City Wizards. Yes, I grew up in the 90’s. Why do you ask?
Trivia answer: Tony La Russa
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