Rory McIlroy saved his best for last to defend his Canadian Open title on Sunday and could not resist a sly dig at LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman afterwards.
At the end of a chaotic week for the sport, with the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series commencing in competition with the PGA Tour, McIlroy posted his best round of the tournament at St. George's with an eight-under 62.
Playing in the final group with Tony Finau and Justin Thomas, the 33-year-old finished on 19-under for the tournament in front of a packed gallery and secured his 21st PGA Tour win, moving him ahead of Norman's 20.
Though evidently happy he secured the win heading into the U.S. Open, as one of the more vocal critics of LIV Golf, the world number eight made sure everyone knew he was aware he had overtaken Norman.
"Twenty-first PGA Tour win. One more than someone else," he told CBS. "That gave me a little bit of extra incentive today. Happy to get it done.
"It's incredible. Playing with Tony [Finau] and JT [Thomas], two of the top players in the world, and all of us playing the way we did, the worst score in the group was six-under par.
"This is a day I'll remember for a long, long time. I've sort of rededicated myself to the game a little bit, sort of realised what made me happy and this makes me happy."
McIlroy led the entire way on Sunday, starting the final round in a share of the lead with Finau.
He started fast, too, making five birdies on the front nine before commencing the back nine with another three on the bounce.
Bogeys on the 13th and 16th holes opened the door for Thomas and Finau but it was promptly shut, with the Northern Irishman closing out the round with another pair of birdies.
Finau and Thomas finished outright second and third on 17- and 15-under respectively, while Justin Rose tied Sam Burns on 14-under after bogeying the 18th to just miss out on a spectacular sub-60 score.
Wales great and former British and Irish Lions captain Phil Bennett has died aged 73.
Bennett is widely regarded as one of the best fly-halves to ever play for Wales, making 29 appearances for his country and helping them to two Five Nations grand slams and three triple crowns.
He was also an integral figure on the unbeaten British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 1974, while he enjoyed 20 outings with the Barbarians.
Bennett, who was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2005, was also just the second Welshman to captain the Lions on their 1977 visit to New Zealand.
Former club Scarlets confirmed the passing of their president on Sunday, with executive chairman Simon Muderack saying: "As a club, region and community, we are devastated by this news.
"Wherever the Scarlets travel around the world, people mention the name Phil Bennett. He was an icon of our sport, a rugby superstar, but someone who always remembered his roots.
"There was no finer ambassador of Scarlets Rugby than Phil, a player respected across the rugby world, both during his career and long after he finished playing.
"Phil was a hero and friend to so many people, not only in Llanelli and west Wales, but throughout the game and I am sure a lot of Scarlets supporters will have their own particular stories of the times they met and chatted to 'Benny'. He loved the club and epitomised the values we hold true – humility and pride in our community.
"On behalf of everyone at the Scarlets, we send our heartfelt condolences to Pat, Steven, James and all of Phil's family and friends at this incredibly sad time."
Linn Grant became the first female winner on the DP World Tour after triumphing at the Scandinavian Mixed in Sweden.
Grant, a two-time winner on the Ladies European Tour this season, went into Sunday at the Halmstad Golf Club with a two-shot lead.
The 22-year-old never let slip of that advantage at the event where 78 women and 78 men from the DP World Tour played over the same course for one prize fund.
Grant opened with five birdies in her first six holes before adding three more on the back nine en route to her eight-under 64.
That took her to 24-under for the tournament, a remarkable nine shots ahead of the second-placed Marc Warren and tournament co-host Henrik Stenson, and she hopes to have left a lasting impact on golf.
"It's huge. Just playing at home and having the crowds here, my family by my side, boyfriend on the bag – it's crazy and I'm proud of myself," she said after victory.
"I just hope that people recognise women's golf, more sponsors go to the Ladies European Tour and hopefully this pumps up the women's game a little bit more.
"It's a nice feeling. All week I just felt like it's the girls against the guys and whoever picks up that trophy represents the field."
Grant also finished 14 shots in front of her nearest female challenger Gabriella Cowley, who ended tied for 15th.
Matteo Berrettini secured his sixth ATP Tour title with a 6-4 5-7 6-3 victory over Andy Murray at the Stuttgart Open.
Berrettini, playing in his first tournament since injury, raced out the blocks to break Murray in just his second service game, before the Scot failed to capitalise on four break points in the following game.
A similar pattern continued for the remainder of the first set, with neither player able to capitalise on break-point opportunities before Berrettini claimed the 1-0 lead with a booming forehand down the line.
That was the first set that Murray had lost in the tournament and he responded by producing a gritty performance in the second.
Berrettini squandered three chances to break at 4-4 before a double fault in the tie-break handed Murray three set points, and the three-time grand slam champion duly obliged to level.
The Italian opened the decider with a break, with Murray requiring a medical timeout for a leg injury, and the world number 10 claimed victory after his opponent had required more treatment.
Berrettini added a second Stuttgart crown to his name, having lifted the title in 2019, while it was his third grass-court success.
The 26-year-old will look to carry that form into Wimbledon, which starts on June 27, while the injury will be of concern to Murray, who was denied his first title since 2019.
Lewis Hamilton says he was "praying" for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to end due to back pain brought on from his bouncing Mercedes car.
The seven-time world champion complained over the team radio and later struggled to get out of his car at the end of Sunday's race.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff apologised to Hamilton for the ongoing porpoising issue, which has been a particular problem in Baku due to the high speeds and bumpy street layout.
"Lewis, we all know this is a bit of a s***box to drive at the moment. I'm sorry for the back also, we will sort ourselves out," Wolff said.
Speaking earlier this week, Hamilton's team-mate George Russell warned Formula One chiefs to expect a "major incident" if action is not taken to address the problem.
Despite the pain, Hamilton finished in fourth, one place behind Russell, and says he got through the race on adrenaline alone.
"Yeah, that's the only thing [that kept me going]," he told Sky Sports. "Biting down on my teeth through pain and just adrenaline.
"I can't express the pain that you experience, particularly on the straight here. At the end, you're just praying for it to end.
"We're in such a good position still, we got third and fourth which is a great result for the team.
"The team did a great job with the strategy. Once we fix this bouncing, we're going to be right there in a race but we're losing over a season just with bouncing, for sure.
"Or at least a second with bouncing… I'll be at the factory tomorrow. We've got to have some good discussions and keep pushing."
McLaren's car has also experienced bouncing problems and Daniel Ricciardo, who finished eighth, compared it to having his head knocked around like a basketball.
"You know when pro basketball players bounce the ball really low? That's what I felt like someone was doing to my helmet," he said.
"I know George has been vocal about it like it's not sustainable. I feel rattled. It's definitely not good. It's not good for our general health and well-being."
Beatriz Haddad Maia won her first ever WTA tour singles title on Sunday with an impressive 6-4 1-6 6-3 win against Alison Riske at the Nottingham Open.
A back-and-forth contest ultimately turned in the Brazilian's favour as she recovered from a dominant second set from her American opponent to claim the decider and the trophy.
Haddad Maia made a strong start, and took the first set 6-4 after winning 90 per cent of points on her first serve (18 of 20).
Sixth seed Riske came out fighting in the second set, though, breaking in the second game before saving three break points on her own serve, and then breaking for a second time, racing out to a 5-0 lead.
Riske made just five unforced errors in the second set to claim it 6-1 and send the final into a decider.
Seventh seed Haddad Maia was being made to work hard at the start of the third and was broken again by Riske in the third game, but this time was able to break straight back.
Haddad Maia was angered by a line call that went against her in the seventh game, but she used it to find another level, breaking Riske again to take a 5-3 lead, before serving out to seal her maiden WTA singles title.
"It was just amazing. I never expected people here [in Nottingham] cheering for me so thanks a lot for making it special for me," Haddad Maia said in her on-court interview after the win.
"[Riske] improved her game so I tried to stay concentrated... I'm very happy that I was fighting with myself so I could get this trophy.
"It's crazy because I never thought my first [singles title] would be on grass.
"I came here to fight and to win this title, and Nottingham for sure will always be in my heart."
Tim van Rijthoven completed an astonishing week at the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships by stunning Daniil Medvedev to claim the title on home soil.
World ranked 205 Van Rijthoven had never won an ATP main draw match before receiving a wild card into this event, in which he has enjoyed a dream week.
The Dutchman beat Felix Auger-Aliassime to progress to a final with Medvedev, who is set to return to world number one on Monday.
But he made light of the gulf in tour experience and ranking by powering to a 6-4 6-1 win.
He dominated the contest on serve, landing 74 per cent of his first serves and winning 84 per cent of his first-serve points. Van Rijthoven also lost just four points on second serve.
By contrast, Medvedev won just 56 per cent of points on his first serve and a paltry 38 per cent on his second, the US Open champion facing 10 break points in the contest.
Van Rijthoven raced into a 5-0 lead in the second set and, though Medvedev saved one match point to avoid a bagel, a fairytale win was sealed in the next game when the Russian could only return a serve into the net to spark jubilation among the home fans.
Max Verstappen accepts he was "a tiny bit lucky" after Charles Leclerc was forced to retire from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but the Red Bull driver was always confident of victory.
Leclerc once again failed to turn pole into victory in Baku due to a second engine-related retirement from the lead in the space of three grands prix.
He was passed into the first corner by Sergio Perez, who eventually finished second to team-mate Verstappen, and after doing well to recover his day soon got a whole lot worse.
Having dived into the pits under the virtual safety car after fellow Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz had retired with a hydraulics issue, Leclerc's engine failed on lap 20.
It was a procession for Red Bull from that point, with Verstappen leading Perez to a Red Bull one-two in the eighth race of the season, five of which the Dutchman has won.
Verstappen has 25 career wins to his name, meanwhile, and leads second-placed Perez in the 2022 drivers' standings by 21 points, with Leclerc 34 points back in third.
Reflecting on his latest triumph, coming on the same circuit where he himself retired when leading last season, Verstappen said: "We were a tiny bit lucky with what happened.
"But nonetheless our car was really quick, so I could have closed that gap, and then you have a race on your hands.
"You can never make up for what we lost last year, but we had incredible pace in the car and we could look after the tyres and chip away at it. Overall, I'm really happy with how the balance of the car was."
Verstappen has now claimed 66 podium finishes, breaking the record of Sebastian Vettel, who finished sixth for Aston Martin, for the most by a Red Bull driver.
With Perez finishing second, Red Bull are 80 points clear of closest challengers Ferrari in the constructors' standings with 14 race weekends remaining.
"To have a one-two as a team, it was a really good day for us," Verstappen added. "I don't know what clicked exactly – maybe tyre behaviour and general grip of the car?
"That's what you need around here so you can look after your tyres."
Perez started strongly in the Azerbaijani capital and claimed a bonus point for setting the fastest lap, though he was ultimately unable to match Verstappen's pace.
The Mexican was instructed by his team not to fight against Verstappen for first place, a decision in which he accepts
"I think it was the right call by the team because at that time Max was a bit further ahead. It’s a good team result," he told Sky Sports.
"In this place anything can happen. At the end of the day we managed to do a one-two so it’s a great team result."
Despite climbing above Leclerc into second in the overall standings, Perez believes lessons can be learned ahead of next week's Canadian Grand Prix.
"Unfortunately we missed the virtual safety car stop," he said. "There was some miscommunication and in the end it was a bit too late.
"We were a bit unlucky there because that would have made our race when we were leading.
"The degradation was extremely high on that medium tyre. It's something we have to understand because certainly Max was a lot stronger on that medium stint.
"There are a lot of things we have to review from today, but it was still a very good team result."
Stuttgart Open organisers are investigating claims made by Nick Kyrgios that he was racially abused at the tournament.
Kyrgios was defeated in the semi-finals by Andy Murray in straight sets on Saturday, with the former given a penalty by the umpire for smashing his racket and arguing with the crowd.
The Australian took to Instagram afterwards to say he was subjected to racial abuse by a spectator and called a "little black sheep".
"When is this going to stop? Dealing with racial slurs from the crowd?" he wrote.
"I understand that my behaviour isn't the best all the time – but 'you little black sheep', 'shut up and play' – little comments like this are not acceptable.
"When I retaliate to the crowd, I get penalised. This is messed up."
The tournament organisers responded on Sunday with a statement that read: "We stand for creating an inclusive environment for all players, staff members and visitors where discrimination of any kind is not tolerated.
"This attitude is lived by all people involved and responsible. These fundamental values are as important as values like fairness, tolerance and team spirit to us. Thus no discriminating actions by the spectators are accepted.
"We have expressed our regret towards Nick Kyrgios and his team and assured that any kind of discrimination is unacceptable. The incident is currently under investigation."
Charles Leclerc was left struggling for words after Ferrari's recent woes continued as he was forced to retire from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Leclerc claimed pole for the street race in Baku but became the first driver since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2001 to start on pole in four successive races and not win any of them.
An engine failure saw him retire on lap 20, ending any hope of what looked to be a looming battle with championship rival Max Verstappen.
His retirement followed that of team-mate Carlos Sainz on lap nine due to a hydraulics issue, with further worries coming as Ferrari customers Alfa Romeo and Haas saw Zhou Guanyu and Kevin Magnussen end their races early, the latter seemingly due to an engine problem.
Verstappen went on to cruise to a victory that puts him 34 points ahead of Leclerc, with his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez leapfrogging the Monegasque in the standings. Perez leads Leclerc by 13 points.
Ferrari are also 80 points behind Red Bull in the constructors' standings and Leclerc could not hide his disappointment after a second retirement in three races.
"It hurts, we really need to look into that for it not to happen again, I don't really find the right words to describe this," Leclerc told Sky Sports.
"It's very, very disappointing. I don't know.
"We really need to look into it. We've been fast and we didn't have big problems in the first part of the season.
"Now it seems we have a bit more compared to the beginning of the season, but we didn't change massive things, if anything we made the thing better.
"It's difficult to understand for now, we will have to analyse, obviously I don't have the full picture of what happened but just personally again it hurts."
Sainz was slightly more upbeat after his third retirement of the year.
He said to Sky Sports: "It's a bad day for the team, but we need to make sure that we stay together, we stay positive, better days will come and so far the 2022 season is definitely not going my way.
"On my side we've just been terribly unlucky the whole season, it's been quite difficult to get any kind of momentum going this season. I cannot do two consecutive races without anything happening.
"I need laps and I need races to keep understanding the car. It's a shame but we are a team, we're going to stay united, we're going to stay positive because better days will come."
Former rugby league winger Suliasi Vunivalu heads a six-man list of uncapped players selected by Australia for the Test series with England.
Australia coach Dave Rennie named his 35-man squad on Sunday for the three-Test series against Eddie Jones' side, which starts in Perth on July 2.
Jed Holloway, Dave Porecki, lock Cadeyrn Neville and Vunivalu, who switched disciplines in 2019 after a league career with Melbourne Storm, have all been named in their first international squad.
Tighthead prop Pone Fa'amausili and second-rower Nick Frost are the other two uncapped players to be called up, while the in-form Fraser McReight was a notable omission.
The experienced Reece Hodge and Kurtley Beale also missed out through injury, with Michael Hooper leading the Wallabies as captain.
Fly-half Quade Cooper and Fiji-born backs Samu Kerevi and Marika Koroibete, who all play in Japan, are the three overseas selections allowed to be picked under Rugby Australia rules.
"The core of this squad is a group who have performed strongly for us over the last two seasons, while strong form in Super Rugby Pacific has been rewarded with a handful of new faces," Rennie said.
"The past two years have allowed us to build strong foundations as a group but there's no doubt that we have a lot more in us.
"We're looking forward to working hard and preparing as a group to put in performances that make our supporters proud against England next month."
The group will assemble on the Sunshine Coast from Thursday in preparation for the Optus Stadium opener, with Tests to follow at Brisbane's Lang Park and the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Australia squad:
Forwards: Dave Porecki, Lachlan Lonergan, Folau Fainga'a, Taniela Tupou, Scott Sio, Allan Alaalatoa, Pone Fa'amausili, James Slipper, Angus Bell, Matt Philip, Jed Holloway, Nick Frost, Cadeyrn Neville, Darcy Swain, Michael Hooper (captain), Pete Samu, Harry Wilson, Rob Valetini, Rob Leota
Backs: Nic White, Tate McDermott, Jake Gordon, Quade Cooper, James O'Connor, Noah Lolesio, Samu Kerevi, Hunter Paisami, Izaia Perese, Len Ikitau, Marika Koroibete, Andrew Kellaway, Tom Banks, Suliasi Vunivalu, Tom Wright, Jordan Petaia
Roger Federer has reiterated his desire to make an ATP tour comeback in 2023, having not played since defeat at Wimbledon in 2021.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion has been forced to the sidelines following knee surgery last year.
At 40, questions have been posed whether the Swiss star might hang up his racquet after one of the most successful careers of the Open era.
But now, Federer says he intends to make a return next year, having committed to partnering Rafael Nadal at the Laver Cup in London before competing at the Swiss Indoors tournament in his home town of Basel.
"Yes, definitely," he told Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger on his hopes for a return to the ATP tour next year. "How and where, I don't know yet. But that would be the idea.
"I haven't planned more than the Laver Cup and Basel yet. After Basel, the season is over anyway. It's important for me to get fit again so that I can train fully.
"Once I've done that, I can choose how many tournaments I play and where. The Laver Cup is a good start, I don't have to play five matches in six days.
"I will have to be able to do that in Basel. But I'm hopeful, I've come a long way. I'm not far away."
Max Verstappen strengthened his grip on the Formula One world championship as Charles Leclerc and Ferrari endured a nightmare Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Leclerc had claimed his fourth successive pole position at the street circuit in Baku but was passed into the first corner by Monaco winner Sergio Perez.
Perez struggled to press home his advantage, though, and eventually ceded the lead to Verstappen on lap 15.
Leclerc had dived into the pits under the virtual safety car after his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz retired due to a hydraulics issue and appeared to be well-placed to challenge Verstappen, only for an engine failure on lap 20 to hand victory to his Red Bull rival, who led a one-two ahead of Perez and Mercedes' George Russell.
Ferrari's dismal day began as Perez reacted quicker than Leclerc at the start to quickly render his pole immaterial and by lap nine they were down a car as Sainz was forced to end his race.
The Scuderia responded by gambling on pitting Leclerc for fresh tyres without the usual time loss and that decision appeared to be paying dividends, a potential battle with Verstappen looming after the Dutchman passed Perez on lap 15, the Mexican having emerged from a slow stop just in front of Russell.
Any prospect of that fight was removed when blue smoke puffed out of the back of Leclerc's Ferrari on lap 20, hugely damaging his title prospects.
Further blows to Ferrari came as the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu and Kevin Magnussen's Haas, both powered by their engines, suffered retirements.
Red Bull, by contrast, cruised home to a fifth successive win and a second one-two in three races. Russell took his third podium ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri rounding off the top five.
Ekaterina Alexandrova beat top seed Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets in The Rosmalen Grass Court Championship final on Sunday to claim her second career title.
The world number 30 prevailed 7-5 6-0 against a below-par Sabalenka in just 77 minutes to add to her Shenzhen Open triumph from January 2020.
Sabalenka was seeking an 11th singles title and looked value to do so after cruising into the final in 's-Hertogenbosch, but she was outclassed by Alexandrova.
The pair had dropped just one set apiece in their four matches en route to the final, which went the way of the serve until the sixth game when Sabalenka broke her opponent.
However, she was unable to build on that advantage as Alexandrova hit back in the following game and broke the Belarusian again in the 11th to serve out the opener.
In the first meeting between the pair on grass, Alexandrova completely dominated the second set as she broke all three of Sabalenka's service games in a ruthless showing.
The 27-year-old, who had lost two of her previous three finals, took her second match point to complete the job in a stress-free manner.
Jiri Prochazka dethroned Glover Teixeira to claim the light-heavyweight title at UFC 275 in a fight the new champion described as "a true war".
The 29-year-old was trailing Teixeira on two of the judges' scorecards, with the other judge having it level, when he won with a rear-naked choke submission in the fifth round.
That brought an end to a gruelling bout in Singapore, with Prochazka coming through nearly five rounds of relentless punishment from his 42-year-old opponent.
"It's amazing and I'm glad. It was a true war. Glover is a true warrior, and I like that," Prochazka, UFC's first Czech champion, said in his post-fight interview.
"I never thought... that's why it's good to not be thinking, you are in the middle of the fight.
"Next time I will be better. I was ready to end the fight whenever today, whether in the first or fifth round, it doesn’t matter, and it doesn't matter which technique."
Teixeira became the oldest first-time champion in UFC history when defeating Jan Blachowicz last October and was 30 seconds away from retaining his title against Prochazka.
Despite turning 43 in four months' time, Teixeira has no intention of calling time on his career following Saturday's loss.
"I gave my all out there, no excuses," he said. "His body shots took my gas away, I was gassed out to be honest. But I'm going to keep going."
Valentina Shevchenko defeated Taila Santos by split decision in the women's flyweight fight, meanwhile, in what was her seventh successful title defence.
"I want to keep going, I want to keep improving," Shevchenko said. "I want to keep fighting no matter who – bantamweight, flyweight, I am here. Bring it on."
Rafael Nadal's latest grand slam triumph at the French Open is "unbelievable", says Roger Federer, who believes his rival "keeps raising the bar".
The Spaniard cruised through to both a record 14th success on clay at Roland Garros and a record-extending 22nd men's grand slam title with a straight sets demolition of Casper Ruud.
That made it two from two in 2022 for the 36-year-old, leaving him clear of both Federer and Novak Djokovic, who remain on 20 grand slam crowns each.
The former – who has enjoyed a strong sporting rivalry and friendship with Nadal throughout their intertwined careers – however has nothing but praise for his latest achievement.
"I didn't watch the final," Federer told Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. "I watched the quarter-final [against Djokovic] a bit before I went to sleep.
"In general, it's just unbelievable what Rafa has achieved. The record of Pete Sampras, which I beat, was 14 grand slam titles.
"Now Rafa won the French Open 14 times. That's unbelievable. I was happy for him that he did it again.
"Hats off to Rafa. After the 10th, 11th time, I already thought: 'This can't be.' He keeps raising the bar. It's gigantic."
Federer has been unable to add to his own haul of grand slams, having missed the tail-end of 2021 and start of 2022 through injury as he continues to recover from knee surgery.
The 40-year-old Swiss star acknowledged he has not yet plotted anything more than competing in the Laver Cup and Basel Open in October, stressing he will focus on achieving full fitness rather than setting a return date.
"After Basel, the season is over anyway," he added. "It's important for me to get fit again so that I can train fully. Once I've done that, I can choose how many tournaments I play and where.
"The Laver Cup is a good start, I don't have to play five matches in six days.
"I will have be able to do that in Basel. That's why I have to prepare for it in practice. I'm curious myself what's still to come.
"But I'm hopeful, I've come a long way. I'm not far away. The next three or four months will be extremely important."
On a return to top-class tennis in 2023, Federer said that such a move remained the aim, adding: "Yes, definitely. How and where, I don't know yet. But that would be the idea. Definitely."
LIV Golf Invitational chief executive Greg Norman says "the evolution of golf" has arrived following the conclusion of the breakaway circuit's first event.
Charl Schwartzel survived a shaky finish on the back nine to hold off South African countryman Hennie du Plessis by one shot at the Centurion Club near London.
He pocketed $4.75million for his triumph – golf's biggest ever prize pot – after his Stinger GC also finished top of the team leaderboard.
The 2011 Masters champion was one of seven major winners taking part in the first leg of the breakaway series, which has attracted controversy due to its Saudi links.
But with Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Pat Perez the latest to defect from the PGA Tour over the past few days, LIV Golf is only gaining more and more momentum.
"All I can say is that the evolution of golf has arrived," Norman, who first tried to set up a world tour in the 1990s, said at Saturday's presentation ceremony.
"For 27 years there have been a lot of obstacles put in our path, a lot of dreams have tried to be squashed but they couldn't squash us.
"Golf was always going to be a force for good. The fans wanted this. We wanted this for you. We wanted this for the players, for the caddies, for the players' families."
Schwartzel led from start to finish to claim a prize equal to the amount it has taken him four years to earn on the PGA Tour.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we could play for that much money in golf," he said.
"As you could see I was taking a bit of heat down the stretch and there was a lot of money involved."
More big names are expected to be unveiled by LIV ahead of its second tournament in Portland at the end of June, before the series moves to New Jersey, Boston and Chicago.
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes know they must "take a beating" in order to recover the lost ground they trail Red Bull and Ferrari by ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion will start seventh on the grid following another disappoint qualifying session in Baku, while team-mate George Russell will start in fifth.
Mercedes have remained dramatically off the pace of their rivals, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc sealing a fourth consecutive pole position in his title race with Max Verstappen.
Hamilton – who won on this track in 2018 – admitted he and his team are continuing to draw the same conclusions from their struggles, in what could be a bad omen for their prospects over the rest of the season.
"I'm not surprised [about the gap], I mean it was the same in Monaco," he told Sky Sports. "It was a really difficult qualifying session, we're constantly pushing.
"We have a very, very small window where we can work this car and everything we try doesn't give us what we want.
"So, we're making lots of changes, but we're always out with the same conclusion, which is most often bouncing, which loses us a lot of performance.
"All the performance is when you get the car low… so we said let's take a beating in our necks and backs to get the car as low as possible for the performance."
Russell, who is out to better his best-ever 15th-place finish at the circuit, posted in 2019, suggested improvements were harder to decipher from within the cockpit.
"The lap felt good, the car felt good but obviously it is pretty shocking when you cross the line and you are one and a bit seconds behind pole position," Russell said.
"We expect so much of ourselves and we are working so hard to bring more performance, but definitely this weekend has brought out the strengths and the weaknesses of all of us.
"To be honest, it truly is just not going fast enough.
"It feels ok from within, except when we are going down the straights because every single bump is the most rigid I have ever felt from any race car before.
"In the breaking zones, it is so bumpy down those straights and feels awful from within but through the corners itself the car feels good.
"So we know it isn't a balance thing getting the car in the right window with the set up, it is more we don't have the downforce and we are balancing a lot of limitations to try and get the downforce.
"We know there is a lot there but we don't know how to extract it."
Clayton Kershaw gave up a go-ahead home run to Thairo Estrada upon his return from injury, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 on Saturday.
Kershaw has been sidelined since May due to an inflamed joint in his back, but his return has also coincided with Walker Buehler being placed on the Dodgers' injured list.
The three-time National League Cy Young Award winner pitched four innings, giving up three hits over 71 pitches, including the two runs that set up the Giants' win in the second inning.
The Dodgers claimed 13 hits in comparison to the five from their NL West rivals, but simply were not able to capitalise at the plate with runners in scoring position.
The Dodgers have now lost eight of their past 12 games, with the San Diego Padres now drawing level atop the NL West.
Judge rules for Yankees
Aaron Judge led the way for the New York Yankees, scoring two home runs in their 8-0 win over the Chicago Cubs.
It was a day to forget for rookie Cubs pitcher Matt Swarmer, who gave up six solo home runs out of a total seven hits over 90 pitches in five innings.
Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, Jose Trevino and former Cub Anthony Rizzo went deep along with Judge as the Pinstripes claimed their 10th win in 11 games, moving to 43-16 for the year.
Trout leads Angels upon return from injury
Mike Trout returned for the Los Angeles Angels as they claimed a morale-boosting 11-6 win over the NL East-leading New York Mets.
The three-time American League MVP returned from a minor groin injury and led the way for the Halos in the win, scoring two home runs and claiming three hits from four at-bats.
Shohei Ohtani also went deep while going three-of-four, claiming their second win in three after snapping a 14-game losing streak on Thursday.
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
