Europe captain Luke Donald admits he will find it hard to give his side a significant advantage with the way he sets up this year’s Ryder Cup course.
As the home skipper, Donald is allowed to dictate how Marco Simone Golf Club will play for this year’s contest against the United States as Europe look to bounce back from the record defeat at Whistling Straits in 2021.
The former world number one and some of his potential team members also have the opportunity to contest this week’s Italian Open at the venue on the outskirts of Rome, with Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre defending the title he won last year.
“Since playing it last year, we looked at a few different fairway lines, bringing in a few fairways a little bit tighter,” Donald told a pre-event press conference.
“The template for European golf is to have a slightly narrower golf course, a little bit more rough, not greens that get too fast because that’s obviously what the US guys are always used to.
“There’s not a whole lot we have changed but we have added a couple of bunkers to create opportunities for better driving. I feel like Europe has good drivers of the golf ball.
“I think it’s a fun golf course in terms of there’s potentially two or three driveable par fours. Statistically, driving is a good part of our games so to have those in there could give us a slight advantage.
“But there’s only so much you can do. The players are very evenly matched when it comes to statistics.
“You’re just trying to find little potential differences that you can capitalise on but the standard of play is very close these days. It’s hard to gain a big advantage.”
MacIntyre defeated US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick in a play-off to win his second DP World Tour title last September, the left-hander making a birdie on the first extra hole after he and Fitzpatrick had finished tied on 14 under par, a shot ahead of Victor Perez.
Pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy, who was within a shot of the lead until hitting his tee shot on the 16th into the water, finished fourth on 12 under.
That was just the second qualifying event for the Ryder Cup and although MacIntyre has since fallen outside the automatic places, the world number 91 is trying to play down the potential significance of a successful title defence.
“I worried about that for the last Ryder Cup, worried about what could be,” he said. “This year, I’m not worried at all about what could be. What will be will be and I’ll be going out there to play golf because you enjoy it.
“This week is not going to define my season. I get it’s on the golf course where the Ryder Cup is going to be. Course set up is pretty similar to last year. I did it on that golf course.
“But, to be honest, I am not worried just about this week and there is so much golf to be played and it’s not going to define the season, good or bad.
“We’ll just keep marching on and working hard and hopefully we make it there come September.”
Erik ten Hag wants Alejandro Garnacho to kick on and challenge for a regular starting spot after the 18-year-old committed his long-term future to Manchester United.
The talented winger arrived at Old Trafford from Atletico Madrid in 2020, in the last wave of international signings before the Brexit regulations changed.
Garnacho was named last season’s Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year after playing a key role in United’s FA Youth Cup triumph and went on to make his first-team debut in April.
The Argentina youth international did not appear on the pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia after frustrating Ten Hag, but has since won the Dutchman over and has signed a new deal until 2028.
“First of all, I think he has the prize and it’s a prize,” the United manager said of Garnacho. “He also shows he can make the final step – not only in talent but also, he made it.
“But now it’s a new start, a restart, because now the expectations will be higher, the demands definitely will be higher.
“He is on his way, he is a strong character and that’s why he’s there in the moment on this level, and he did it by himself.
“But now is coming more work to go because the demands are higher, we expect more from him.
“But it’s great he made it because it tells we will give young players opportunities, but they have to deserve it.
“When I say ‘give’, translate it to ‘deserve’ and they have to deserve with their feet, they have to show it on the pitch and that means you have to invest a lot and deserve it by training performances, by performance in the under-21s, then wait for your moment and prove it again.
“For Alejandro, he is that step beyond but now the demands will be even more because he has now to compete for a starting XI position.
“So, every time is the same: you have to cross limits and every time you have to go in the next level.
“We go with him in that challenge but most important is the player has to do it.”
Garnacho has been laid low for the last seven weeks with an ankle injury sustained against Southampton – an issue that also saw him miss the chance to link up with the Argentina senior team in March.
But the teenager has made good progress and is closing in on a return to action, albeit Thursday’s Premier League trip to Brighton comes too soon.
“We have one training but I think it’s too soon to be available,” Ten Hag said. “I think he’s short, I think he needs some training and then short notice he will be available.”
Raphael Varane is also making good progress on his return to fitness.
The 30-year-old went off injured in last month’s Europa League quarter-final first leg against Sevilla, when fellow centre-back Lisandro Martinez suffered a season-ending metatarsal injury.
Varane will be unavailable at Brighton and then at West Ham on Sunday, but Ten Hag suggested he could return in United’s home match against Wolves on May 13.
“The prognosis, I think Rapha is closer than Scott McTominay in this moment,” the United boss said. “But still for the coming two games, they are not available.”
United have the chance to strengthen their grip on a Champions League qualification spot when they head to the high-flying Seagulls on Thursday.
Brighton are the only away team to have won at Old Trafford in the league this term but are reeling from their recent FA Cup semi-final penalty shoot-out loss to the Red Devils at Wembley.
“I think everyone involved in top, top sport, if you get beaten you want to have revenge and that is normal that they have a huge motivation to beat us,” Ten Hag added.
“But we have to match that and not only match that – we have to do more.
“We have to show we have more hunger than them to win this game and willingness – that is the word for (Thursday).”
Rob Baxter says Exeter do not shoulder responsibility for Wales centre Joe Hawkins’ controversial World Cup omission.
Hawkins was left out of Wales’ preliminary World Cup training squad on Monday following his move from Ospreys to Exeter.
The 20-year-old will join the Devon club this summer and, with five caps, has less than the 25 needed to continue at international level and play outside Wales.
National-team head coach Warren Gatland said he was “disappointed” to lose Hawkins for the World Cup in France later this year after Wales’ Professional Rugby Board told him he was ineligible upon studying documentation over the timing of his move to England.
Hawkins, who was first named in a national squad in October 2022 and made his debut against Australia the following month, could still have been deemed available for Wales by eligibility rules if he was uncapped when he signed his Exeter contract.
Exeter rugby director Baxter said: “We don’t take any responsibility because we approached it completely with open arms, with the anticipation that he would play for Wales.
“We felt that we had got everything in place we needed to. We complied with what we were asked to do with the information we had.
“Obviously Wales feel there’s stuff that doesn’t prove certain dates and times that they wanted.
“We haven’t done anything wrong, we certainly haven’t broken any rules.
“I think what will surprise people is how early we looked at Joe. He was playing under-20s rugby and I was watching those games with players we’ve got here.
“We’ve been looking at him for years basically. Whatever has happened has happened, but we’ll get on with it and support Joe in what he wants to do.”
The spotlight was shone on Wales’ eligibility rules after Gatland named a 54-man squad that, while omitting Hawkins, did include former England prop Henry Thomas, France-bound Dragons forward Will Rowlands and Japan-based Cory Hill.
Thomas, capped seven times by England between 2013 and 2014, has served World Rugby’s stand down period of three years to represent another country.
The 31-year-old Montpellier tighthead has not been capped by Wales, so is not affected by the 25-cap criteria.
Thomas would, however, have to play in Wales after his current Montpellier deal expires should he be capped in the meantime.
Rowlands has won 23 caps and his registration will remain in Wales before he joins Paris-based Racing 92 next season.
Two World Cup warm-up games against England and another with South Africa in August could take Rowlands to the 25-cap mark.
Asked if he was surprised by Hawkins’ World Cup omission, Baxter said he was a “little bit”, but added: “It certainly isn’t my place to be critical of the WRU (Welsh Rugby Union).
“I’ve got to be very careful without knowing in depth what the situation is in Wales, what the regions’ thoughts are on it.
“There is a lot going on within rugby across the world, a lot going on in the Premiership.
“But if Wales decide they don’t want to take Joe to the World Cup then that’s their decision.”
Jamaica's top shooters came out on top of their Caribbean rivals in last Saturday's Spectrum Handgun Championship held at Jamaica Rifle Association’s Mountain View shooting range in Kingston.
The home shooters topped all four divisions with Ryan Bramwell emerging the victor in Open Division, Andrew Yap taking the Standard Division and Chris Hart winning the Production Optics Division. Yeonie Campbell captured the Production Division.
Bramwell put on a master-class display of speed and accuracy to earn 1059.57 points, firing 215 rounds in 130.70 seconds over the 12-stage course.
Alrice Palmer scored 949.3 points to claim the runner-up spot while Lennie Moulton scored 879.76 points for third place.
"It was a great day. I shot very well. I was very fast and aggressive today (Saturday) and I had very good hits so overall I came out the winner,” the victorious Bramwell said.
“It’s a great feeling. Having put in the work and gotten the results, it’s fantastic and we go back to the drawing board and keep training."
Campbell copped the Production Division and topped the Ladies Category. In the Production Division she got the better of Anthony Johnson in a nail biter with just one point separating them while Rohan Wallace was third.
In the Ladies Category she was comfortably ahead of second place Florence Golding and third place Philana Brown.
"My performance today was okay. I think that the stages were very challenging as well as they allow you to express yourself so I was pleased with my performance," Campbell said.
“The ladies did very well today, exceptionally well today. I am very proud of them. I think that we all competed admirably today and the results showed it."
There was keen competition in the Standard Division which went to Master Class shooter Yap, who scored more than one hundred points more than of Darin Richards and Lennie Moulton who were second and third, respectively.
The Production Optics Division went to Chris Hart ahead of Adrian Randle and Michael Bradshaw who took third place.
One overseas-based shooter got on the podium with Richard Durrant of Barbados getting second place in the Senior Category of the Standard Division behind Ellsworth Dixon while Thomas Jones was third.
Durrant commended the Jamaican shooters.
"The quality of shooting here is really high. I had some hope of placing on the podium. The last time I was in Jamaica was in 2018 and since that time the standard has really, really sky-rocketed,” he said.
“Andy Yap and Greg Henry, I shot against them before but today it was a different level. I have to go back to the lab now so I have to recalculate my shooting. The experience was really good. I would come again."
Major John Nelson, president of JRA was pleased with the overall standard of the competition.
"It’s a Level 3, which, is in fact the highest match we have had now for about four years. It is such a highly respected match that we had international shooters from the Cayman Islands, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago,” he said.
“It was attractive enough for them to be here. We had the highest turnout of our local shooters including our shooters from Trelawny, Negril and May Pen, who came in to compete in this particular shoot.
“Spectrum Systems have outdone themselves and as Mr. (Andrew) Stanigar said to me at the end of the presentations, you are not getting rid of us we are here to stay with you and support you."
David Martindale is adamant there is no chance of Livingston winding down in the closing weeks of the season even though they have little to play for.
The Lions spent much of the season in the top half of the cinch Premiership and in contention for a European place but a run of six defeats in nine games before the split led them to slip into the bottom six.
Livingston have little chance of being relegated – they are 11 points clear of second-bottom Kilmarnock – but Martindale feels duty-bound to ensure his team do not take their foot off the gas as each of the five sides they will be coming up against are still threatened by the drop.
“In the last batch of fixtures we fell a bit short for the top six and we’ve only got ourselves to blame,” he said. “But when you look at the bottom six it would be hard to say there’s nothing to play for when you look at the teams that are around us.
“Our next three games are Ross County, Kilmarnock and Dundee United who are all fighting for their lives to stay in the Premiership.
“I’ve got to make sure for the integrity of the league, not just Livingston Football Club, that I’m not tinkering with my squad thinking about next season because there’s a lot at stake for teams within the bottom six.
“I’ll be trying to play my strongest team possible because I genuinely do think I’ve got to do that for sporting integrity.
“Have I got one eye on next year? Potentially. But is that going to have an impact on my decision-making just now? Probably not because of the reasons I’ve touched on, for the better of Scottish football and the teams in the bottom six.”
Livingston missed out on the top six on the last pre-split weekend last season but picked themselves up from that blow and finished a comfortable seventh in the league with three wins and two draws from their five bottom-six fixtures.
Martindale is confident his team will not be plagued by any lingering negativity this time round either.
“We did it last year and we’ll do it again,” he said when asked if it would be hard for the players to rouse themselves for the run-in. “The way I like to coach is ‘one game at a time’ so there’s not going to be a hangover.
“If we go up to Ross County (this Saturday) and don’t pick up points it will not be because of their mindset about not getting into the top six.
“That doesn’t play a part in my psyche anyway, and I’ll be making sure it doesn’t play a part in the players.”
Arsenal have condemned the shining of a laser into the face of Chelsea forward Mykhailo Mudryk as a fan was arrested over the incident on Tuesday night.
Television cameras at the Emirates Stadium picked up a light being beamed in the direction of the Ukraine international, who had been jeered after coming on as a second-half substitute for the visitors.
Mudryk had been close to joining the Gunners in January before instead signing for their London rivals and was targeted with the laser during the 3-1 home win which saw Mikel Arteta’s side move back to the top of the Premier League table.
An Arsenal statement on Wednesday morning read: “An arrest has been made following the use of a laser during last night’s match.
“This behaviour is dangerous and totally unacceptable, and we will fully support the police with their enquiries. We will obviously take the strongest possible action.”
The PA news agency understands the Football Association will be investigating the matter and that the Metropolitan Police made a further three arrests at the game for ticket touting.
Rory McIlroy insists it was an “easy decision” to potentially forfeit £2.4million in bonus money as he spoke for the first time about how missing the cut in the Masters “sucked”.
McIlroy did not speak to waiting reporters after a second round of 74 at Augusta National brought a premature end to his latest bid to win a green jacket and complete the career grand slam.
The world number three then withdrew from the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head, meaning he had missed his second ‘designated event’ of the year on the PGA Tour and was subject to losing 25 per cent of his Player Impact Program bonus.
“We certainly have our minimums, we obviously signed up for this designated-event series this year,” McIlroy said at a promotional event for FedEx ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship.
“I obviously knew the consequences that could come with missing one of those. It was an easy decision, but I felt like, if that fine or whatever is to happen, (it) was worth that for me in order to get some things in place.
“I had my reasons not to play Hilton Head. I expressed those to Jay [Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner] and whether he thinks that is enough to warrant… look, again, I understood the consequences of that decision before I made it.
“So whatever happens, happens.”
McIlroy revealed that he had allowed himself to think about his prospects of becoming just the sixth player to have won all four major titles after shooting five under par on the back nine of his Wednesday practice round at Augusta.
“Me thinking that way isn’t a good thing,” the four-time major winner said. “All I should be thinking about is that first shot on Thursday.
“You need to stay in the present moment and I feel like at Augusta I didn’t quite do a good job of that because of how well I came in playing. I maybe got ahead of myself a little bit.”
Describing his performance, McIlroy added: “It sucked. It sucked.
“It’s not the performance I obviously thought I was going to put up. Nor was it the performance I wanted. Just incredibly disappointing. But I needed some time to regroup and focus on what’s ahead.
“It’s been a big 12 months and I don’t know if I fully reflected on stuff. I never really got a chance to really think about the Open and St Andrews (where he was joint leader after 54 holes) and everything that went on there.
“It was nice to have three weeks to just put all that stuff in the rearview mirror and just try to focus on what’s ahead.”
What’s ahead on the course includes the US PGA Championship later this month and July’s Open Championship at Hoylake, where McIlroy lifted the Claret Jug in 2014.
And McIlroy hopes he will now be able to expend less energy on his role as an unofficial spokesperson for the PGA Tour in its battle against LIV Golf as the season progresses.
“I wasn’t gassed because of the golf, I was gassed because of everything that we’ve had to deal with in the golf world over the past 12 months and being right in the middle of it and being in that decision-making process,” McIlroy added.
“I’ve always thought I’ve had a good handle on the perspective of things and where golf fits within my life, but I think over the last 12 months I’d lost sight of that, lost sight of the fact that there’s more to life than the golf world and this silly little squabble that’s going on between tours.
“And I think once I disconnected from it a little bit, I could see things a little clearer and where everything fits. I guess that was a good reset.”
Scotland forward Jonny Gray is in serious danger of missing the Rugby World Cup after dislocating his kneecap.
Gray sustained the injury during Exeter’s 47-28 Heineken Champions Cup semi-final defeat by La Rochelle on Sunday.
“It’s relatively serious without being the worst it could be,” said Exeter rugby director Rob Baxter.
“From what I’ve been told unless the operation goes exceptionally well and his recovery is exceptionally quick, I would say he is very doubtful for the World Cup.
“It’s a patella tendon injury, he’s dislocated his kneecap.
“Fortunately the other major ligaments within the knee are all stable.
“It’s a relatively complex patella tendon injury, which is going to require surgery this week, and there’s a relatively long period of rehab
“We are hopeful to have him back fairly early next season, especially with the Premiership starting late next year with the World Cup first.”
Second-row Gray, 29, has won 77 caps for Scotland and his absence from the World Cup in France would be a huge blow for Gregor Townsend’s side.
Scotland start their World Cup campaign against defending champions South Africa in Marseille on September 10.
Pool B also includes Six Nations Grand Slam champions Ireland, Romania and Tonga.
Anthony Davis had 30 points, 23 rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots, leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 117-112 Game 1 road win over the Golden State Warriors.
Davis had a double-double by halftime with 23 points and 11 boards at the break, and finished with a personal playoff high in rebounds.
Reigniting his playoff rivalry against Stephen Curry, LeBron James scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Dennis Schroeder added 19 points off the bench.
The Warriors made 21 3-pointers to the Lakers’ six, but Los Angeles offset that deficit by dominating inside. The Lakers outscored the Warriors in the paint 54-28 and shot 25 for 29 from the free throw line, while Golden State attempted just six free throws – the team’s fewest in a playoff game in franchise history.
Curry, coming off a Game 7-record 50 points to close out the Sacramento Kings on Sunday, made 6 3-pointers en route to a team-high 27 points but shot 10 of 24 from the field.
The Lakers took a 112-98 lead with 5:58 remaining, but the Warriors tied the game with a 14-0 run, capped by a Curry 3-pointer that sent the Chase Center into a frenzy with 1:38 left.
Los Angeles sent aggressive double teams at Curry late, leaving Jordan Poole with a pair of last-minute shot attempts that did not fall.
Poole and Klay Thompson each made six 3-pointers for the Warriors, while Kevon Looney continued his rebounding spree, grabbing seven offensive boards and 23 total.
The Warriors will look to bounce back when they host Game 2 on Thursday.
Brunson, Randle help Knicks even series with Heat as Butler sits
Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, Julius Randle was strong in his return from injury and the New York Knicks earned a 111-105 victory Tuesday over a Miami Heat team without Jimmy Butler, evening their second-round playoff series at a game apiece.
Brunson, who shouldered some blame for Sunday’s Game 1 loss after going 0 for 7 from 3-point range, bounced back by shooting 6 of 10 from deep.
Battling a sore right ankle, Brunson scored 23 of his 30 points in the second half, helping the Knicks rally from a fourth-quarter deficit to avoid a demoralizing loss.
The Heat led 93-87 with 7:03 remaining, but Brunson scored 10 points in the Knicks’ ensuing 14-3 run that secured the victory.
Randle, who missed Game 1 due to a sprained left ankle, responded with 25 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, while Josh Hart came up just short of a triple-double with 14 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists.
The Knicks outrebounded the Heat 50-34.
The Heat played without the leading scorer in this year’s playoffs after Butler was ruled out because of a right ankle sprain. Caleb Martin replaced Butler in the starting lineup and led Miami with 22 points.
Butler, who is scoring 35.5 points per game this postseason, will get a few extra days to rehabilitate before Game 3 in Miami on Saturday.
Jenson Button believes Lewis Hamilton will sign a new deal with Mercedes because he remains “hungry” to win his record eighth world championship.
Speaking before the start of the season, Button, the 2009 world champion, suggested Hamilton will only extend his contract – which expires at the end of the year – if Mercedes can provide him with a winning car.
Hamilton finished sixth last weekend in Azerbaijan and already trails championship leader Max Verstappen by 45 after just four rounds, with the Dutchman’s Red Bull team in a league of their own this year.
However, Button, 43, said: “I don’t think Lewis is going to walk away from the sport.
“As a racing driver, if you have been winning for so long and then you are suddenly not, you want to fight back to winning ways. You are not going to retire.
“If you are in a bad car for many years, you want to retire because it just gets you down, but Lewis is not in a bad car. He is just in a car that is not as good as what he has been used to, and I get that.
“But he knows the strength of the team, he knows how quick he still is, so he is going to work with this team to get back to fighting with Red Bull, and they will.
“It probably won’t be this year, but in 2024, we will see Lewis on the grid. He is still hungry to win another world championship.”
Verstappen remains the overwhelming favourite to win his third consecutive title despite Sergio Perez moving to within six points of his Red Bull team-mate after winning the sprint race and Grand Prix in Baku.
And Button said another victory at Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix will fuel Perez with confidence that he can beat Verstappen to the title.
“I’ve been really impressed with Sergio,” added Button.
“Max has to be the toughest team-mate because he just goes out there and gets it done.
“Consistency is where Sergio has been lacking, but if he can do it in Miami, which like Baku is a street race, too, he has a chance to fight for the championship.
“I didn’t think I would be saying that, I really didn’t, but it is good for the sport. Red Bull has an advantage at the moment and we need both of them to be fighting it out.”
Two weeks ago, Memphis Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks created controversy with a few insults directed at superstar LeBron James.
He reportedly will no longer be making any more questionable comments as a member of the Memphis Grizzlies.
The unrestricted free agent was informed by the Grizzlies on Tuesday that they will not be bringing him back "under any circumstances," according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Memphis told Brooks of the decision in an exit meeting, with his showing in the Grizzlies' first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers coming as the final "breaking point," according to the report.
Brooks made headlines after the Grizzlies evened their series against the Lakers with a Game 2 win on April 19, when he took a shot at the league's all-time leading scorer.
In addition to calling James "old", he said: "I poke bears. I don't respect no one until they come and give me 40 [points]."
Brooks' comments backfired, as the Lakers responded by winning the series in six games – including a 125-85 thrashing in Friday's clincher.
While the 38-year-old James stepped up his play in the series, Brooks seemed to shrivel.
After taking his jab at James, Brooks averaged just nine points on 28 per cent shooting and 22.2 percent on 27 three-point attempts in the series' final four games.
This came after Brooks averaged 14.3 points on 39.6 per cent shooting and 32.6 per cent on three-pointers in 73 regular-season games in 2022-23.
He did not talk to the media after the Grizzlies' three losses in Los Angeles, and was subsequently fined $25,000 for violating the league's rules regarding media interview access.
The 27-year-old ended up speaking to the media during the team's exit interviews on Sunday, but said he had no regrets about the comments he made.
"That's who I am," he said. "I don't regret it. I'm a competitor, I compete. I don't think it got LeBron geeked up."
Chief executive Alan Burrows has warned that Aberdeen “will be a very difficult club to deal with” if any interested parties attempt to sign their best players.
Strikers Luis “Duk” Lopes and Bojan Miovski have notched 18 goals apiece in their maiden seasons at Pittodrie and have been the subject of interest from elsewhere.
“Both Duk and Miovski are in the first year of long-term contracts,” said Burrows. “The club is under no pressure to sell them and the club don’t want to sell them.
“If anybody wants to take our best assets away from us, particularly ones who have long contracts, we’re going to be a very difficult club to deal with.
“We have to marry up a model that says we develop young players through the academy and players we bring in to develop and sell, but at the same time you’ve got to balance that by building a squad rather than consistently chipping away at it, so in order to do that you’ve got to retain the best value for these players.
“People have got to know that Aberdeen Football Club will do that. The board have done that in the past, they’ve knocked back big offers for players and I sense from the ownership group and the board that they’re more than prepared to do that again.
“We want to build a strong team and retain the best players whilst also understanding that there is a model that requires us to continually look to trade on players to continue the health of the football club and invest in the team.
“It won’t be easy for anybody who wants to take any of our best players, that’s for sure.”
Burrows was speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, a day after interim boss Barry Robson – who was initially in situ only until the end of this season – was handed a contract for the next two years.
The recently-recruited CEO explained why former under-18s coach Robson, who has won eight of his 10 games in charge, emerged as the favoured choice following an “extensive” recruitment process that explored “a number of key candidates”.
“I had never met Barry before I came to the club but I’d heard a lot about him. I was really taken aback by how highly regarded he was by the senior people at Pittodrie and then after my first meeting with him at Cormack Park,” said Burrows, who joined Aberdeen at the end of February, a month after Robson took the reins from the sacked Jim Goodwin.
“That hour-and-a-half I could really sense what type of character he is and I really liked him from the get-go. I thought ‘this guy’s really got the materials to be doing it’.
“In terms of the stuff he’s been doing away from the pitch, Barry’s been developing a bit of a DNA about what it means to be an Aberdeen player, right through from the youngest academy players, to the development age groups, to the first team, and really trying to home in on what it means to play for this club and be successful.
“And now that he’s the manager, we’re really excited about him being able to drive that forward from the top down.
“It’s almost that utopia of what football clubs want, that connectivity between the three different areas of player development and we think Barry now is the flagship, most senior person within the football department and he can really drive that forward and connect up those departments.
“First and foremost it’s about winning matches – and he’s doing that. Developing players and giving them confidence and a structure, and he’s done that.
“And the third thing is to connect up all the various departments and the various age groups to create a real synergy between the very youngest player and the most senior player.
“Those were the three key reasons about (appointing) Barry and also we’ve got a big job to do this summer and that was part of the reason for expediting the process slightly from what we’d said about six weeks ago.”
Sports stars and clubs across the world continue to provide an insight into their lives on social media.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the best examples from May 2.
TennisAn announcement from Serena Williams.
View this post on InstagramAndy Murray was “gutted” to have missed the Met Gala.
FootballBirthday wishes for David Beckham.
View this post on InstagramView this post on InstagramDavid Rocastle was remembered on his birthday.
Kasper Schmeichel reflected on Monday Night Football duties.
Rugby unionA third baby for Sam Warburton.
View this post on InstagramBoxingJob satisfaction for Joe Cordina.
Formula OneWill Lando Norris opt for another NBA-style helmet this weekend?
Daniel Ricciardo scrubbed up well for the Met Gala.
It was like Christmas in Romain Grosjean’s house.
Carlos Alcaraz cruised to victory over Alexander Zverev in a rematch of last year’s Madrid Open final.
Zverev is still trying to rediscover his best form after suffering a serious ankle injury at the French Open last summer and this time he was no match for the young Spaniard, who claimed a 6-1 6-2 victory to reach the quarter-finals at the Caja Magica.
Alcaraz, bidding for back-to-back titles after winning in Barcelona last week, dominated from the start and Zverev could find no answers, with his forehand particularly wayward.
Alcaraz, who turns 20 on Friday, said in an on-court interview: “For me it’s amazing to play the level that I played today.
“It’s been a question mark for me – this result isn’t normal. I played great, I feel really good right now and this match gives me a lot of confidence.”
There were two shocks in all-Russian contests, with Daniil Medvedev losing to Aslan Karatsev and Karen Khachanov beating Andrey Rublev.
Second seed Medvedev complained about the lack of space behind the baseline on the Arantxa Sanchez Stadium during a 7-6 (1) 6-4 loss to qualifier Karatsev, who plummeted down the rankings last year after his remarkable 2021 breakthrough, where he reached the Australian Open semi-finals.
This was a brilliant display of power hitting from Karatsev, who will return to the top 100 next week.
Fifth seed Rublev has been enjoying an excellent season, winning his first Masters 1000 tournament in Monte-Carlo last month, but he was edged out 7-6 (8) 6-4 by doubles partner Khachanov.
“I hope he will play with me tomorrow,” said Khachanov, who now faces Alcaraz in singles. “This match is over, we need to have some time maybe to absorb it, for him.
“It was the same in Monte-Carlo, he beat me. Life goes on, he’s doing well this year, I’m doing well.”
Amber Hill has admitted she will never get over the moment she discovered her dream of competing at the Tokyo Olympics had been dashed due to a positive test for coronavirus.
The 23-year-old skeet shooter had her bags packed and had bade farewell to her family when she received the news just two days prior to the opening ceremony in the Japanese capital.
All the stars had seemed to align for Hill, who was to have gone into her second Games as the reigning world number one and one of Team GB’s strongest hopes to stand on top of the podium.
Instead, she found herself isolating at home where her mental health deteriorated and she spent sleepless nights seriously considering quitting her sport.
“It was one of the hardest moments of my life and it’s something I don’t feel like I’ll ever get over,” Hill told the PA news agency.
“What I found really hard was that I was at the best point of my career, my training was perfect, and I was genuinely feeling as happy as I ever had.
“The disappointment of not knowing how that Olympic journey was going to end for me was heartbreaking. I had resentment towards the sport, I was bitter towards it all. I’d lie awake at night worrying about everything.
“I didn’t realise at the time, but I was going through a traumatic experience. I got into a very dark place with it all and I was ready to quit.”
Hill, a precocious junior who became her sport’s youngest winner of a World Cup series at the age of 15 in 2013 and had made her debut at the Rio Olympics, soon realised she required more than just the support of her family and friends to help her through.
Working with a psychologist recommended to her by British Shooting, Hill learned to take a step back from the sport to which she had devoted most of her life since the age of eight, and began to prioritise her life away from the range.
She married her long-term partner in February this year – something she admitted she would have previously struggled to schedule – and is also spending more time pursuing business interests that remain, for the time being, under wraps.
View this post on Instagram
Quietly, Hill’s shooting career began to flourish again. In 2022, she won three medals at the World Championships in Osijek, European gold in Nicosia, World Cup golds in Nicosia and Changwon, and a trio of European golds in Larnaca.
She said: “I began to understand that as much as I believed that I was putting myself first, I really wasn’t. Everything was put on hold because of my shooting schedule. I realised I had to start focusing on the things that make me happy in daily life.
“I wasn’t in a great place with the sport, but I knew I had people who relied on me. I went to competitions with no expectations again, like I had when I first started competing, and that’s where the success really came from.
“It was totally unexpected, but last year was my most successful to date. I’ve had some massive low points and I’m surprised I’ve managed to push through. But I feel like I have a much healthier relationship with my sport.”
Arguably the most significant of Hill’s sporting achievements in 2022 was her European title in September that confirmed a quota place for Paris – meaning she has effectively spared herself the potential insecurity of qualifying going down to the wire for what will be her second Games.
She is likely to go the French capital as a gold medal favourite but confesses to still struggling to come to terms with her gruelling ascent to the summit of her sport – and much better equipped should she come up short against those inevitable external expectations.
“Regardless of what the outcome is, I realise now that there is so much more to my sport than just a medal around my neck,” Hill added.
“It’s got to fit in with what I want to do and what makes me happy. If the day comes when it doesn’t, then it’s clearly not for me any more.”
Two-time reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic has "zero interest" in the hype surrounding this year's award.
Jokic is a leading candidate for the 2022-23 MVP award, alongside Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks.
The winner will be announced on Tuesday, a day after Jokic led the Denver Nuggets to a 97-87 victory over the Phoenix Suns in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Jokic delivered a performance worthy of an MVP, scoring 39 points and adding 16 rebounds to help Denver take a 2-0 series lead.
But the 28-year-old Serbian is not paying much credence to the speculation over who will claim the prize.
"I don't really think about it. Like zero interest," said Jokic, who is hoping to spend Tuesday recovering.
"Hopefully, it's going to be a sunny day, so I can be in the swimming pool," he quipped.
Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell are the only other players to have been named an MVP for three seasons running.
"I mean, I cannot think about that, because I cannot control it," Jokic said.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone knows that Jokic is not motivated by individual success.
"I marvel at his greatness, I marvel at his consistency, his excellence, his ability to find so many different ways to beat you, whether it's scoring, rebounding, playmaking, not afraid of the moment," Malone said of Jokic.
"There's so many quality [MVP] candidates, and it'll be a really close race.
"But I know what motivates Nikola Jokic, what motivates myself and the rest of the guys in that locker room, is not the MVP.
"It's our journey to try and win the first championship in franchise history."
After two home wins for the Nuggets, Game 3 in Phoenix takes place on Friday.
James Harden's "perfect mindset" was lauded by Doc Rivers after the Philadelphia 76ers got the better of the Boston Celtics.
The 76ers nudged themselves ahead in their Eastern Conference semifinals series against the Celtics with a 119-115 win on Monday.
Philadelphia were without talisman and NBA MVP candidate Joel Embiid, who was ruled out of Game 1 due to a sprained ankle.
Yet Harden stepped up, scoring 45 points, matching his playoff career-high.
"I thought that he had just the perfect mindset tonight," 76ers coach Rivers said of Harden.
"He really did. I'm so happy for him because it just tells you what he can do on given nights.
"The guy is a Hall of Famer, and all you hear is the other stuff about him, and he was fantastic."
Harden finished with 17-for-30 from the field and 7-for-14 three-pointers.
"I haven't felt one of those zones in a minute," Harden said. "You know what I mean? Just to be aggressive and shoot the basketball and do what I want.
"That felt really good. I'm capable of doing it, so it felt good. It felt good to make those shots, to give ourselves a chance."
Harden, though, does not feel he needs to prove himself all over again – he just wants to help the Sixers win.
"I don't need to make a statement," Harden added. "My coaches, my team-mates, what they expect me to do all throughout the course of the year was be a facilitator and get Joel the basketball and score when necessary. Joel wasn't here tonight, you know what I mean? And, we knew that going into this series.
"Now it's like, 'All right, open the floor. James, you be aggressive.' And tonight, I was aggressive. So, it's not that I'm not capable of doing it, this is my role for this team. Now, if you want me to do [what I did] tonight, then I can do that as well.
"I don't think a lot of players can do that. So yeah, I appreciate that."
For Harden's team-mate P.J. Tucker, Monday's win was evidence the Sixers are not wholly reliant on star player Embiid.
"I think we take pride in playing without the big fella," Tucker said. "As good as he is, I think it gives others opportunities to step up and play.
"Everybody took a little step up with him out. It's like a pride thing for us."
Chris Paul hobbled off with an apparent groin problem in the Phoenix Suns' loss to the Denver Nuggets.
The Suns lost 97-87 on Monday, with the Nuggets moving into a 2-0 lead in the series.
There was further concern as Paul left the game in the third quarter, and the Suns can now only hope for the best in regard to his status.
"All we can do is hope he has a speedy recovery," said Devin Booker, who scored 35 points.
"We're going to be behind him. We're going to hold it down while he is out, or if he's out, and just take it from there."
Monty Williams added: "He just came up where he couldn't push off of it or anything.
"We're not quite sure what it is right now, but it seems to be something in the groin area. We'll find out more [on Tuesday].
Should Paul fail to recover, Booker said he is ready to shoulder extra responsibility.
"I mean, the playoffs is a lot, a lot comes with this, so you just have to embrace it," he said.
"Embrace the challenge, embrace the opportunity that we have right now, even down 0-2.
"Get back home, protect our home court and go from there. But a lot is on all of our plates, and that's everybody throughout the playoffs right now."
When Luca Brecel burst onto the Crucible stage as a history-making 17-year-old in 2012 he was still putting in arduous hours on the practice table and had never taken so much as a sip of beer.
“I really don’t know what it tastes like,” Brecel told the Belgian website Humo as he prepared to become the youngest ever player in the first round of the tournament. “It doesn’t really interest me that much.”
Fast forward 13 years and the angel-faced teen who also admitted he had no time for chasing girls is a beer-swilling, party-loving champion of the world, having fended off Mark Selby to claim the crown in thrilling style in Sheffield on Monday.
Victory capped a remarkable, and some would say belated, journey to the sport’s summit for Brecel, whose momentum from an astounding junior career had threatened to stall upon his arrival in the professional ranks.
Brecel first clasped a cue during a family holiday in Italy at the age of nine, and upon returning to the family home in Maasmechelen he and his father sought out their closest club to nurture his early enthusiasm.
His interest in the sport sky-rocketed the following year when Brecel switched on his TV to get a taste of World Championship action for the first time – and in the very first frame he watched, Mark Williams proceeded to rifle in a 147 in his 10-1 drubbing of Robert Milkins.
“I thought I would never be able to do that,” recalled Brecel, who actually went on to do just that in a tournament in Belgium two years later, by which time his parents had taken note of his talent and knocked down a wall in order to install a full-size table in their family home.
“From then on he really started training like a man possessed – sometimes up to 15 hours a day on weekends,” his dad Carlo told Humo.
Plaudits and titles were not long in coming. Brecel beat Stephen Hendry in an exhibition in 2010, the same year in which he became Belgian senior champion for the first time at the age of just 15.
He received a wild card for the main tour in 2011, arrowing his way straight into the top 100, and the following year he fought through four qualifying rounds to become the youngest ever Crucible qualifier, acquitting himself well in a 10-5 first-round defeat to Stephen Maguire.
Despite reaching the last eight of the UK Championship the following year, however, Brecel’s early momentum began to stall. He floated on the periphery of the big time and it was not until he triumphed at the China Championship in Guangzhou in 2017 that he finally got his hands on some silverware.
He was having no luck at the Crucible, where four subsequent visits following his debut would yield four straight losses, and only a stirring end to his 2021 campaign, when he followed up a final appearance at the UK Championship with his second ranking title at the Scottish Open, reignited that flicker of promise.
Brecel – resplendent in knuckle tattoos reading “free bird” and “La Vida Loca” – arrived for his sixth crack at the Crucible truly off the radar – and resolutely off the practice table.
“I haven’t really practised for this tournament,” Brecel insisted after a thoroughly underwhelming 10-9 first-round win over Ricky Walden.
“I think I’ve maybe had only 15 minutes of practice in three weeks. Many people ask me why – I don’t know. I’m at home. I’ve got a good life. I do so many things in my life that I almost forget to play snooker.”
From 15-hour sessions to 15-minute fleeting visits, from soft drinks to boozy late-night sessions, Brecel has tried it all. On Monday night at the Crucible he finally alighted on a winning formula that carried him over the line and towards a lucrative and party-loving future.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
