How did the world’s top 10 fare on day one of the US PGA Championship? Not great. For the first time since 1994, not one of them was in the top 10 on the leader board at the end of the opening round. “Rory McIlroy was put through the wringer, Xander Schauffele couldn’t keep up, Justin Thomas was mangled, Brooks Koepka was barbecued,” writes Denis Walsh, McIlroy now in a battle to make the cut. Those mud balls didn’t help lighten the mood.
Pádraig Harrington shot two over par, the same as Shane Lowry and one better than McIlroy, in what was, remarkably, his 86th appearance in a major tournament. His “endurance is peerless,” writes Denis, and backed by a swing that gets stronger with age, Harrington still believes he can beat the best.
One particular bookmakers was so convinced that Cork would prove to be the best this championship season, they paid out on them winning the All-Ireland a few weeks ago. “Madness,” says Joe Canning who previews their meeting with Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds this Sunday, Joe edging towards Limerick making it seven Munster titles in-a-row.
In rugby, Gerry Thornley previews Munster’s must-win URC game against Benetton tonight, and Nathan Johns hears from Harry McNulty, Ireland’s Sevens captain in Paris last summer, who describes the IRFU’s decision to discontinue its men’s Sevens programme as “disrespectful to the Olympic programme”.
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The ‘gimme’ in golf: A short history of the contentious move referenced by Trump this week
Rachael Blackmore cracked glass ceiling but presuming it’s in smithereens for female jockeys is complacent
Hiko Tonosa on regaining his Irish marathon record: ‘I know I can run faster again’
In racing, Brian O’Connor salutes Rachael Blackmore, who announced her retirement earlier this week, describing her as “perhaps the most significant female figure to ever ride a racehorse”. But while it is true that she “cracked the glass ceiling forever”, “presumptions that it is in smithereens smack of complacency”. The jockey’s room, he says, “remains largely a male preserve”.
In athletics, Ian O’Riordan talks to Hiko Tonosa who is hoping to regain his Irish marathon record after it was broken by Peter Lynch last month. Tonosa set his mark at the Dublin Marathon last October, a day that was, he says, “like the start of my life”.
And after Donald Trump likened the gift of a $400 million jet from Qatar to a golf gimme, as only Donald Trump could, Johnny Watterson looks at the often contentious history of the gimme in the sport. At times, it’s been more “psychological warfare” than “a gesture of goodwill”.
TV Watch: Sky Sports Golf continues its coverage of the PGA Championship from 1pm, and there’s athletics action in the form of the Doha Diamond League at 5pm on Virgin Media Two and BBC2.
Aston Villa continue their push for a Champions League spot when they play Spurs in the Premier League (Sky Sports, 7.30pm), and fourth plays sixth in the Premier Division with the meeting of Bohemians and Shelbourne (Virgin Media Two, 7.45pm). And in rugby, Munster will attempt to seal a spot in the URC play-offs when they play Benetton in Cork (TG4 and Premier Sports 1, 8pm).
