Cameron Smith was not even prioritising golf in the lead-up to The Players Championship, where he carded 10 birdies in the final round to claim the largest purse in PGA Tour history.

The Australian finished one shot clear of Indian Anirban Lahiri, with England's Paul Casey in third, taking home a winner's cheque of $3.6million in the process.

The 28-year-old spoke with NBC Sport's broadcast after walking off the final green and ended up fighting back tears as he discussed the challenges of spending so much time away from his family and friends.

"[The win] is huge –  it's going to take a while to sink in I think," he said.

"It's cool being here in Jacksonville – I live here now, I call this place home and I had a lot of fans out there rooting for me today.

"I haven't seen [my family] in two years, it's really cool to have them here. 

"My main priority really was just to hang out with them, and golf was second for these few weeks, so it's nice to see them – and nice to get a win for them."

Smith only ended the day with four pars after what was a wild round.

But while other parts of his game may have been erratic, Smith was thankful he could rely on his putting to get himself out of some tricky situations, before touching on his remarkable tee-shot on the 17th.

"[Putting] was probably the big key for me today – it kept me in it," he added.

"I obviously made plenty of birdies, and I had to make a lot of good par puts at the end. 

"It's definitely the strength of my game, and sometimes I lean on it too much, but it's nice to see them go in.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't push [the tee-shot on 17] a little bit. 

"I was trying to hit it over the bunker there and hold it up against the wind, and the wind didn't really do much for three-quarters of the shot, but it held it up right at the end there – that was just awesome."

Cameron Smith claimed the biggest victory of his career and heftiest purse in golf as he won The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass despite a tense finish.

It was an action-packed final day for the tour's most-famous mullet, finishing with only four pars from his 18 holes on his way to a final score of 13 under for the tournament.

Smith started like a house on fire, birdieing the first four holes of the day and also the sixth, before things started to go awry with bogeys on the final three holes of the front nine.

Undeterred, Smith responded with another streak of four successive birdies to open up the back-nine, resulting in a multi-stroke lead with five holes to play.

On the famous 17th, Smith admitted he pushed his shot well right of his intended target, but it landed within one yard of the hole for a tap-in, taking a three-stroke lead.

However, the contest was far from over. Anirban Lahiri also birdied the 17th, trimming the margin to two with one hole to play.

It was a horror start to the last for Smith, spraying his drive into the trees before his recovery shot back towards the fairway ran all the way into the water.

Needing a clutch chip to put himself in a position to save a bogey, Smith delivered, again landing within one yard of the hole and tapping in for a final-round 66.

Trailing by one stroke, Lahiri needed a birdie on the par-four last to force a playoff, but his second shot failed to make the green and he ultimately settled for par and a second-place finish.

Two-time major champion Dustin Johnson responded to a disappointing 76 in the third round to post a nine-under 63 – three strokes better than the trio of Smith, Max Homa and Rory McIlroy with 66.

In a day to forget, world number one Jon Rahm posted an eye-watering five-over nine on the par-four fourth hole, going on to finish with a final-round 77, tying for 55th.

For the win, Smith nets $3.6million – the biggest winner's purse in PGA Tour history – while Lahiri takes home over $2.1m in second, and Paul Casey collects nearly $1.4m in third.

Bernardo Silva insisted it is better to be in Manchester City's position rather than Liverpool's after the Premier League leaders were held at Crystal Palace.

Liverpool cut the gap on Pep Guardiola's side to three points with a 2-0 victory over Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday, and City could only respond with a 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park on Monday.

City were twice thwarted by the frame of the goal, with Kevin De Bruyne and Joao Cancelo denied either side of the interval, but Palace battled valiantly to share the spoils.

Silva also squandered a pair of glorious chances in either half, with his touch letting him down from close range in the first before nudging wide from Jack Grealish's low cross after the break.

Liverpool play their game in hand against Arsenal on Wednesday and could be top by the time the two sides meet at the Etihad Stadium on April 10, but Silva claimed he would rather be in his side's position.

"It was a tough game, we actually played well, we controlled the game apart from one or two times," Silva told Sky Sports after the match.

"We couldn't score, and we should've scored. Nine games to go, but it's still better to be in our position than in Liverpool's, and they have to play in our stadium, so it's going to be exciting.

"It's never easy to play at any team away in the Premier League. It's always better to win than draw, and we wanted to have an advantage of six points over Liverpool."

The goalless draw ended a run of 18 consecutive Premier League games in which City had scored, since a 2-0 defeat to Palace in October 2021.

Guardiola's side also mustered 18 shots in total without scoring against Palace, their biggest tally without a goal in the competition since their 18 efforts against Tottenham in August 2021.

City will be hoping to make amends in their next league outing at Burnley on April 2, after the international break and an FA Cup quarter-final trip to Southampton on Sunday.

Pep Guardiola insisted he had "no regrets" with his Manchester City side, despite them failing to restore their six-point lead at the Premier League summit on Monday.

Reigning top-flight champions City headed to Crystal Palace knowing victory would see them regain their advantage over Liverpool, who defeated Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 on Saturday.

However, Guardiola's team had to settle for just a point at Selhurst Park as they were twice denied by the woodwork through Joao Cancelo and Kevin De Bruyne either side of the break.

That leaves Liverpool, who are four points behind and play their game in hand against Arsenal on Wednesday, with the chance to top the table by the time the two teams meet on April 10 at the Etihad Stadium should City fail to beat Burnley in their next game.

But Guardiola, who did not introduce Gabriel Jesus or Raheem Sterling off the bench in search of a winner, refused to criticise his side after they again failed to breach Patrick Vieira's astute defence, Palace having recorded a 2-0 victory in the reverse fixture this season.

"I think they [Palace] played good," he told Sky Sports after the game.

"There are still many games to play, we have to win a lot of games but the way we played, there are no regrets about the team. We would have preferred to win of course but the game was well played.

"We played to win the game; we created more. The way we played was amazing in a difficult stadium with the grass not perfect."

He added to BBC Sport: "We played a really good game. In 90 minutes, we conceded mistakes a little bit, but the way we played was really good.

"Luck doesn't exist in football. We have to score goals and we didn't do it. We played to score goals and concede few. We struggled a little bit.

"The guys who were playing were playing good, that's why I didn't make changes. We didn't score, that was the mistake.

"The team that was there today was there before and will be there in the next game. I am very pleased with the performance and the way we played."

The Miami Dolphins have agreed to a one-year contract with quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, likely adding an experienced backup behind 2020 fifth overall draft pick Tua Tagovailoa.

The sides can finalise the deal on Wednesday when the NFL's free agency period begins. Monday marked the beginning of the league's legal negotiating period.

Bridgewater, 29, is a South Florida native who had a decorated career at Miami Northwestern Senior High School and has returned to his alma mater frequently to watch Friday night games.

While Tagovailoa is expected to remain the Dolphins' starter, he has dealt with several injuries in his first two pro seasons, making the acquisition of a reliable quarterback a priority for Miami.

The 32nd overall pick in 2014 out of Louisville, Bridgewater will once again be relegated to a backup role after starting 29 games over the last two seasons for the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos.

In 14 games last season, he threw for a career-high 18 touchdown passes for the 7-10 Broncos, who revamped the position last week by agreeing to a blockbuster deal with the Seattle Seahawks to acquire Russell Wilson.

With Bridgewater set to be signed and Mitchell Trubisky agreeing to a deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the offseason quarterback carousel is beginning to settle, with Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota remaining the top two available free agents.

The elephant in the room for teams acquiring quarterbacks remains the status of Deshaun Watson, who has requested a trade from the Houston Texans despite having 22 civil lawsuits against him for allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault, which he denies. A grand jury deemed there insufficient evidence for criminal proceedings last week.

The Dolphins and Texans were deep into conversations about sending Watson to Miami before last year's trade deadline, but no deal was made.

A four-year deal for Christian Kirk reported to be worth up to $84million is to be among a significant outlay by the Jacksonville Jaguars in free agency.

Within hours of the start of the legal tampering period on Monday, the Jaguars secured five deals, according to widespread reports.

The Jaguars had $39.3million in cap space to work with – the fifth-most in the NFL – and made the most of it in addressing key needs at receiver and on the offensive line.

Kirk was the player they identified as a target for second-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence, albeit at a significant cost.

The former Arizona Cardinal, who fell 18 yards shy of 1,000 receiving last season and has 11 touchdowns over the past two campaigns, is said to be due a $20m signing bonus, $37m fully guaranteed and $39m over the first two years, with $12m available in incentives.

Lawrence will also be able to look to tight end Evan Engram and will do so under the protection of five-time Pro Bowl guard Brandon Scherff, having been sacked 32 times in 2021.

Linebacker Foye Oluokun and defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi are also heading to Jacksonville after a busy day for the Jaguars.

Former New England Patriots star cornerback J.C. Jackson will suit up for the Los Angeles Chargers going forward after signing a reported five-year deal worth up to $82.5million, with $40m guaranteed.

The Patriots allowed Jackson to walk when they opted to not use the franchise tag to lock him up for one more year.

Over the past three seasons, no player in the NFL has record more interceptions than Jackson's 22. His closest challenger is Xavien Howard (16).

Jackson finished 2021 having allowed a big play on 18.9 per cent of his targets, the eighth-best rate among corners with at least 50 targets.

At 26 years old, Jackson is an elite player at one of the sport's premier positions with seemingly plenty of gas left in the tank, and if the $82.5m figure is accurate, it would place Jackson as one of the six highest-paid cornerbacks in the league based on average annual salary. 

The Chargers are in their prime spending window while exciting quarterback Justin Herbert remains on his rookie contract for the next two seasons.

Herbert is currently making less than $9m per season and is expected to fetch an average annual salary north of $40m when the time comes for his extension, giving the Chargers a two-year window to go all-in surrounding their QB with a championship-level team.

Ralf Rangnick's tenure as Manchester United interim manager has not been a resounding success.

While United have climbed from seventh in the Premier League when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked to fifth, closing the gap to the top four from six points to one, fourth-placed Arsenal have three games in hand and should expect to qualify for the Champions League.

United's hopes of returning to Europe's elite club competition next year – by which time Rangnick will likely have moved upstairs – might instead rest on success in this year's tournament.

Atletico Madrid visit Old Trafford on Wednesday with their last-16 tie level at 1-1, apparently finely balanced – although the first leg was anything but. United were hugely fortunate to escape with a draw after lacking any real fluency in Spain.

Real Madrid great Cristiano Ronaldo will still no doubt be eagerly anticipating this match following his Tottenham hat-trick, but repeating those heroics represents a tall order. He will need help – and the manager's job is to provide that.

Although Rangnick has so far failed to deliver a coherent side able to produce consistent performances, that is not to say there have not been success stories of his reign.

And perhaps Jadon Sancho, who is definitely one of those, can be the man to lift United and their talisman this week.

Sancho is now finding form after a tough start to life at Old Trafford that was somewhat overshadowed by the various other issues United have faced this season, both before and since Solskjaer's sacking.

At another club, Sancho's struggles would have been front and centre, as he remarkably failed to contribute either a goal or an assist in 14 appearances for Solskjaer in all competitions.

That was certainly not what United envisaged when they paid £73million for an England winger whose 107 goal involvements (50 goals, 57 assists) for Borussia Dortmund arrived every 93 minutes on average.

There would have been relief then when Sancho was the star of Michael Carrick's short stint as caretaker, following his first United goal at Villarreal with a second at Chelsea.

Yet more than two months passed before Sancho scored again, kickstarting a vastly improved spell under Rangnick – a coach belatedly having the transformative effect on the 21-year-old many had forecast.

Rangnick's preference for a pressing game was expected to suit Sancho, whose Dortmund in the Bundesliga last season allowed the fifth-fewest opposition passes per defensive action (PPDA – 11.0) and won the fourth-most high turnovers (329).

Under Solskjaer, United ranked a passive 14th in PPDA (14.4), yet that statistic has not altered as drastically as one might have imagined; since Rangnick's appointment, United are 12th (13.3).

Others who have flourished under Rangnick have still done so by leading the press – Fred (51.8) and Anthony Elanga (51.2) rank first and second for Premier League pressures per 90 by United players since the interim boss came in – whereas the speed of United's attacking once they win possession has suited Sancho.

Opta defines a direct attack as "an open play sequence that starts just inside the team's own half and has at least 50 per cent of movement towards the opposition's goal, and ends in a shot or a touch in the opposition box".

Since the start of February, United have scored four league goals from such attacks – twice as many as any other side. Sancho has been involved in all four, striking on the break against both Southampton and Manchester City while laying on assists for Bruno Fernandes and Fred at Leeds United.

The goal at City may have counted for little on a dark day for United, but Sancho has been flying since scoring on his return to the team against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup on February 4, having been granted a period of leave following a death in his family.

"Jadon Sancho is now getting closer to the Jadon Sancho I've known from Germany," Rangnick said at the weekend. "In the end it's all about confidence. Game time, confidence. Confidence, game time. He was performing at a very high level."

He added: "This is what he should be. The club paid quite a few pounds for him in order to lure him away from Borussia Dortmund, and if you pay that amount of money in a transfer fee for a player, he should perform on this kind of level."

Rangnick was speaking after the win against Tottenham, where there was finally a goal courtesy of his combination play with Ronaldo.

It was suggested earlier in the season the pair could not work together – and the woes of both Sancho and United might agree with that argument – but the rapid run in behind and pinpoint square pass for the second of Ronaldo's three goals were evidence of how this attack can succeed.

Ronaldo can continue to thrive with that sort of service, while Sancho only looks better for having a focal point to play off in the mould of former Dortmund team-mate Erling Haaland.

Now, with 13 goals in his past 15 home games against Atletico, including two hat-tricks in the last four, do not bet against Ronaldo proving the difference again on Tuesday. Also, do not bet against Sancho being the man to supply him.

Vinicius Junior and Karim Benzema were the difference once again as Real Madrid beat Real Mallorca 3-0 on Monday to take full advantage of Sevilla's latest slip-up and go 10 points clear at the top of LaLiga.

Carlo Ancelotti's men were aiming for a fourth league win in a row and, although they rode their luck at times, Los Blancos got the job done to see their points cushion at the summit reach double figures.

Mallorca arguably created the better chances in the first half, though Vinicius was more ruthless soon after the restart, even if there was a hint of controversy around it.

It set Madrid on their way and Benzema put the game beyond Mallorca from the spot before nodding in his second of the day late on, though Ancelotti will be worried that he failed to complete the game.

Amid a busy start, Madrid were fortunate to not fall behind in the 11th minute, as Vedat Muriqi steered a close-range volley off target from Brian Olivan's excellent cross.

They got even luckier just past the half-hour mark when Pablo Maffeo scuffed wide from 10 yards with only Thibaut Courtois to beat.

Predictably, Mallorca were made to pay.

Referee Jose Maria Sanchez Martinez refused to penalise Federico Valverde for tripping Iddrisu Baba just outside the hosts' box, and Benzema fed Vinicius into the area for a straightforward finish.

Mallorca's response was lacking and Madrid finished them off 13 minutes from time, Benzema slotting home a penalty after Vinicius was nudged over while trying to reach a pass from his partner.

Benzema added another with a well-placed header from a Marcelo cross, but he was then withdrawn with an apparent calf strain in what could be a major blow ahead of the Clasico.

The Green Bay Packers have re-signed linebacker De’Vondre Campbell.

The deal will not be official until the start of the league-year on Wednesday, with Campbell's five-year contract reportedly worth up to $50million if he plays out the entire deal.

A fourth-round pick in the 2016 NFL draft, 28-year-old Campbell spent the first four years of his career in Atlanta, before a one-year stint in Arizona where he caught the eye of the Packers.

Playing on a one-year 'prove it' deal, Campbell established himself as a first-team All Pro inside linebacker by managing 102 solo tackles and adding six quarterback hits, two forced fumbles and two interceptions.

The move represents a big investment by the franchise, eating into salary cap space that may be required to bring back superstar offensive duo Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams.

Both Rodgers and Adams are expecting contracts that would reset the market in their respective positions.

England cannot settle for "small incremental changes to make the difference" to their men's cricket setup if they want to compete, according to interim manager director Andrew Strauss.

Strauss left his role at the top of English cricket in 2018 but returned in a temporary role following the 4-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia.

The first of former England captain Strauss' changes saw head coach Chris Silverwood dismissed, with Paul Collingwood stepping up in the interim for the tour of the West Indies.

Joe Root's much-changed tourists, without star bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad, shared the spoils in an uneventful first Test with Kraigg Brathwaite's West Indies side in Antigua, but Strauss is aware that success will not arrive "overnight" for a struggling England side.

"The results do not lie," former opener Strauss, whose managing director role started to be advertised for a long-term successor on Monday, told the BBC.

"We have been number one in the world in Test cricket for 12 months in the last 42 years. Small incremental change isn't going to make the difference we need.

"We need to be bold and ambitious."

Strauss headed the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) committee that called for a full independent review into English cricket's domestic setup, and he appreciates that "time is ticking" to find a solution in appointing a managing director, who will find the next head coach of the men's team.

"There is a slight ticking clock in terms of the start of the international summer at the beginning of June and we want to get that person in position," he continued.

"It will be their decision around the coach and/or coaches as well, which hopefully will also be in position by the start of the summer, but there is a bit of time pressure for us to make that happen.

"It's going to be his [the new managing director's] team and so he has to look at how he wants to structure the England high-performance department.

"Whether he goes down the single coach or two coach model, he has to have the people that he feels can work with him and has a similar philosophy."

South African Gary Kirsten has been floated as Silverwood's red-ball successor, but Strauss believes whoever the next managing director and head coach are, England have to compete in all formats.

Questioned on who the new managing director may be, and whether they would have to be English, Strauss responded: "I've always been uneasy in saying overseas candidates cannot do the role.

"But what a time to get involved. It is very rare you get the opportunity to start with a blank piece of paper and this person is going to have that.

"Despite the doom and gloom around English cricket, there are a lot of good players out there. We are not going to become brilliant overnight but I think we have a lot of the raw ingredients in place.

"While a lot of the focus post-Ashes has been on red-ball cricket and the domestic structure, our project is broader than that.

"Our ambition has to be for us to be the best team in all formats. We have the ability to do that, and in order for that to happen, we have to look at the whole system.

"We have to accept we have never had a system that has produced that.

"Whatever your focus on red-ball cricket, it's like a Rubik's Cube and it affects white-ball cricket. You cannot look at them in isolation, you have to look at them together.

"The game around us has been moving very quickly. Not just our international players, but our domestic players are playing a lot of cricket abroad in the winter and it's time to ask what our role is in all of this.

"How do we protect our own system but also enhance that system?"