Matt Fitzpatrick bested Scottie Scheffler in a playoff at the RBC Heritage this weekend in what became a road game for him.

The Hilton Head, South Carolina, crowd was quickly pulling for Scheffler, a Texan, to complete the comeback over Fitzpatrick, who was born in England.

Chants of “USA” rang out, which irked broadcasting legend Chris “Mad Dog” Russo.

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Matthew Fitzpatrick of England is congratulated by Scottie Scheffler of the United States after winning the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on April 19, 2026. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

“I put on the RBC Classic … and I could not believe the 18th hole when Scottie Scheffler was making a comeback against Matt Fitzpatrick. Did anyone see the crowd?” Russo began for his “What Are You Mad About” segment on Wednesday’s edition of ESPN’s “First Take.

“They were singing ‘USA, USA’ walking down the 18th fairway! This is not the Ryder Cup. We’re not fighting Britain in a war for crying out loud! In a golf tournament? At the RBC? [Fitzpatrick] freaking lives in Miami!.. This is not the ’80 Olympics!

Scheffler and Fitzpatrick both have starred in each of the previous three Ryder Cups, with Fitzpatrick’s European team winning the last two. Fitzpatrick and Scheffler faced off in Friday foursomes in the most recent event.

Scottie Scheffler of Team United States and Matt Fitzpatrick of Team Europe shake hands on the 15th green during the Friday morning foursomes matches of the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage State Park Golf Course in Farmingdale, New York, on Sept. 26, 2025. (Ben Jared/PGA Tour)

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It is hardly the first time USA chants were heard at a regularly-sanctioned golf event. The aforementioned DeChambeau heard USA chants while going for his second U.S. Open against McIlroy. Scheffler went 1-4 in his five matches at Bethpage Black in September, beating Rory McIlroy 1 up in their Sunday singles match. Fitzpatrick squandered a 5 up lead to Bryson DeChambeau to finish all square.

The New York Ryder Cup crowd was blasted by media, and golfers, alike, which had been a concern even before the event. However, that criticism came due to much more than simple USA chants.

McIlroy was hit with the worst of it, whether it was telling him his wife was “a four,” asking about Amanda Balionis amid a previously rumored fling (with his wife mere feet away), dropping F-bombs, or constant reminders of the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo speaks on stage at SiriusXM’s Bar A at The Jersey Shore in Lake Como, N.J., on July 26, 2024. (Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

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Thankfully for Fitzpatrick, he didn’t get hit that hard. But the crowd still made it known who they were backing.

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Rajasthan Royals’ Ravindra Jadeja (PTI Photo)

Ravindra Jadeja produced a match-winning all-round performance as Rajasthan Royals defeated Lucknow Super Giants by 40 runs, and the veteran all-rounder later reflected on his effort with a mix of clarity, humour and gratitude. Named Player of the Match for his unbeaten 43 and impact with the ball, Jadeja began on a heartfelt note. “Yeah, feeling good, you know, getting Man of the Match and winning the team. So, yeah, I’m feeling very good, but before I start, I would like to dedicate this award to Education Minister of Gujarat because she told me yesterday itself said that you’re gonna do wonders tomorrow. So I would like to thank her.” Jadeja’s knock came at a crucial time when Rajasthan’s top order had once again faltered. He revealed that the conditions were far from easy and required patience. “Yeah, wicket was not that easy because ball was seaming and swinging. So I thought, let me play a longer as much as I can. And that is what I was talking to Donovan and whoever is coming next to batting. So I was just talking to him that we’ll play a longer because in T20 cricket, you never know. Last over, as we like we cashed in, like we got 20 odd runs in last over. So that is what the thinking behind.” He also explained his approach against Mayank Yadav in the final over, where Rajasthan managed to finish strongly. “Yeah, I think coming from injury, it’s not that easy bowling with that pace. But I was just backing my strength and I was talking to my partner that let’s back each other and let’s play good cricket shot. Because as I said, on this wicket, ball was seaming a lot and bounce was there. So it’s not that easy that you can play any shot at any given time.” There was also a lighter moment when Jadeja spoke about his celebration after dismissing Nicholas Pooran. “Yeah, he’s in my pocket (chuckles). Nothing, just randomly a thought came into my mind and I did it.” With the ball, Jadeja highlighted how he adjusted to the conditions by varying his pace. “No, because the ball was gripping a little bit. So I was just thinking that should I bowl quicker on this wicket or should I bowl slow? So I thought, okay, I’d bowl a few slow balls. And then I realized that yeah, if I bowl slow, then I might get a little bit hold from the wicket. So that is what I was looking to do.” He also spoke about his specific plans against Mitchell Marsh. “Because the midwicket side and long-in side was a little bit shorter compared to other sides. So I knew that he might play that shot at some stage. So I was just bowling and mixing up with my pace, slow, wide and full ball also. Today I was looked to bowl slow.” Jadeja’s performance proved decisive in a game where Rajasthan’s batting once again struggled for rhythm. His late flourish ensured they reached 159 for 6, and the bowlers, led by Jofra Archer, did the rest as LSG were bowled out for 119. On a night where Rajasthan needed someone to step up, Jadeja delivered with both bat and ball, underlining his value once again.

Offering an insight into her mindset, King says that laziness is “one of my biggest pet peeves”.

King said she did 10-hour days in rehab as she wanted to “control everything I could” in her recovery.

Almost a year to the day from her injury, she made her return in green, this time as captain, against England in front of 77,00 fans at Allianz Stadium.

She admitted she was “really emotional” in the week leading up to the game and it “felt a little surreal”, and she has a “newfound gratefulness” of playing the sport she loves.

“It’s given me this whole new perspective and it can be taken away from you like that,” she said.

“A big part of the way I want to captain this team is the person before the player.

“If you’re happy, enjoying yourself and you feel welcome and happy in your environment, you’re going to play better.”

The ‘Green Wave’ is a name that has been adopted for the Irish support, and King has introduced her own “undercurrent” to help bond the group.

It is her way of recognising “all the little moments that add up to create these amazing moments”.

“I really like placing emphasis on the little bits and pieces and the unseen work,” she said.

“Having this never say die attitude and chasing lost causes, because you don’t know which moment is going to matter and what could create magic.”

Moody, who was diagnosed after noticing a weakness in his shoulder while training in the gym, says the progression of his disease seems gradual.

“I’m good at the moment,” he said.

“The only sort of significant noticeable change is still in my hand. The shoulder strength is diminished, but not significantly reduced since diagnosis.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, the hardest thing is noticing little things every day. The other day I noticed a slight difference in my finger strength – whether it was opening a bottle top, holding a fork, cutting your food.

“Those little things mentally are a challenge when they present themselves, but I think within a day you can move past it and just focus on functional things I can do, rather than things that I’m less able to.”

Moody, who set up his own charitable foundation shortly after he retired and raised millions of pounds to fund research into brain tumours,, external says recruiting for June’s cycle and a new cause was straightforward.

Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall, Martin Corry, Ben Kay, Phil Vickery and Andy Gomarsall – all fellow members of the squad that won England’s only Rugby World Cup – will take part in the ride, along with the ex-Leicester and Bath flanker’s former team-mates Tom Croft, Geordan Murphy, Leon Lloyd, Ben Youngs, Tom Youngs, Lee Mears, Danny Care, Dan Hipkiss and Louis Deacon.

Moody’s teenage sons Dylan and Ethan will also be part of the peloton.

“I have done a challenge every year since retiring, some years more than one,” said Moody.

“I really wanted to make sure that I got another one in. I don’t know how many I have got left to do so that was the reason for it being so soon, to make sure that physically I feel like I can contribute.

“I couldn’t be more grateful of my former colleagues. I chatted to Vicks [Vickery] the other day, he said ‘mate, I absolutely hate cycling, but I am 100% going to do this with you’.

“I’ve never seen Wilko [Wilkinson] on a bike. He’s probably hired a group of people to get him ready for the conditioning side of it. I dread to think how he’s going to turn up looking. He’s in unbelievable nick anyway.”

The college golf rankings are always in flux. But college golf course rankings? Not so much. With all due respect to fine layouts at Stanford, Williams, Ohio State, Oklahoma State and others, one campus course has long been consensus No. 1.

When it’s actually open, that is.

For Yale Golf Course, a celebrated Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor design, that’s been hit or miss in recent years. After shutting down at the end of the 2019 season, the course slumbered on through 2020, beset by maintenance problems that deepened during the pandemic. In late 2023, it shuttered again, this time for a full-scale renovation that rates among the most notable public-access redos in recent memory. That work consumed 2024 and 2025, but it’s now complete, and the scheduling could hardly be better-synced.

On April 28, just ahead of its centennial, Yale GC will be back in business, following a Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner-led renovation aimed at honoring Macdonald and Raynor’s original 1926 vision. Greens, tees, bunkers and fairways have been expanded to their historic dimensions. The iconic double punch bowl on No. 3 has been revived. The rare inverted bunkers on No. 6 are back. New championship tees push the layout past 7,000 yards, and every green has been rebuilt to USGA specs, a first in course history.

Yale once ranked as high as 71st on GOLF’s Top 100 Courses in the World list, but dropped off the last three editions, a rare — and glaring — shift in the college course hierarchy. It’s hard to imagine that the course won’t be in the mix next time ballots are submitted.

But never mind rankings. Let’s talk recreational play. Unlike many elite collegiate layouts, you don’t need a diploma — or an acceptance letter — to book a time at Yale. Green fees for non-affiliates run $350, which isn’t cheap but about what you’d expect for a course of this pedigree. Getting out on Yale, in other words, is much easier than getting in.

3 things I’m thinking

Philadelphia story: Another Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner project — the full restoration of Cobbs Creek in Philadelphia — is still roughly a year from completion. But an important phase crossed the finish line this week with the grand opening of Lincoln Financial Center at Cobbs Creek. A name like that makes the place sound like a baseball stadium. In fact, the center is a three-story building that houses a restaurant, pro shop and double-decker driving range with Toptracer technology, all good to go for the start of the 2026 season. As with other recent marquee muni revivals, including the Patch, the Park and Golden Gate Par 3, work at Cobbs Creek has been propelled by deep-pocketed private investment. And the benefits are already showing, though the big biggest payoff won’t come until 2027, when the updated Olde Course at Cobbs Creek (the original was designed by Hugh Wilson of nearby Merion fame) opens for play.

Whale of a change: The humpbacks will be back in Kapalua, but it’s hard to know what else might change now that the PGA Tour won’t be returning. You probably heard the news. The Tour has done away with its Hawaii Swing — both the Sony Open on Oahu, and The Sentry, the traditional season-opener at the Plantation Course in Kapalua on Maui. It’s no secret that Kapalua has been through the wringer in recent years, ravaged by drought and devastated by deadly wildfires in nearby Lahaina. Now comes the end of a 25-plus-year-old tournament that accounted for an estimated $50 million in annual economic activity for the island. Kapalua’s other course — the Bay Course — remains closed due to water issues. But the Plantation Course, which shuttered for three months last September, is up and running, which makes me wonder how it might be used in January, now that it won’t be hosting an tournament that it first staged in 1999. With the Tour pros absent, will that week revert to everyday resort play? Maybe. Maybe not. A well-placed source tells me that Kapalua is looking into welcoming another event during that same window, though what shape that might take is still TBD. 

Festive fundraiser? Possibly? More muni-related news, though it comes with a caveat. Registration is open for The Whole Hog, a daylong golf outing and barbecue fundraiser at East Potomac Golf Links in Washington D.C. It is scheduled for May 8 in support of National Links Trust — the same National Links Trust that was working to restore East Potomac when the federal government revoked its lease late last year. Though NLT still operates the course, that status is tenuous, a point underscored by the invitation to the event. The cost per player is $375, which includes 36 holes of golf, breakfast, lunch, dinner and tee prizes. But, the invitation notes, there’s “a chance that NLT will no longer be operating the course at the time of the event due to the actions of the Trump administration. If this occurs, we will refund the entry fee.”

Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of Brighton on Tuesday proved the last straw.© AFP

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys are planning for George Pickens to play on the franchise tag this year and won’t negotiate with the star receiver or his agent on a long-term contract, executive vice president of personnel Stephen Jones said Wednesday.

Pickens hasn’t signed the one-year deal worth $27.3 million, which means the 25-year-old would face no financial penalties if he didn’t report to mandatory minicamp in June. The rest of the offseason program, which starts Monday, is voluntary.

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“We’ve made a decision that we’re going to have George play under the franchise tag, which won’t be a first for us,” Stephen Jones said. “So there won’t be negotiations on a long-term deal. But that’s certainly not a first for this organization and certainly won’t be a first in the league in terms of this decision as we move forward.”

Stephen Jones said he hasn’t talked to Pickens recently, but said owner Jerry Jones and coach Brian Schottenheimer met with him recently.

“It was good,” Schottenheimer said during the Cowboys’ news conference leading into the NFL draft, which starts Thursday night. “The thing that George knows about Jerry and myself is we’re very upfront and we’re honest. We had great conversation. We informed him. We think that’s important because that’s the way we handle all of our players and coaches.”

David Mulugheta, Pickens’ agent, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Pickens, acquired last offseason in a trade with Pittsburgh, had career highs in catches (93), yards receiving (1,429) and touchdowns (nine) for one of the best offenses in the NFL last season. Dallas had one of the worst defenses in the league and finished 7-9-1, missing the playoffs for the second year in a row.

The 2022 second-round pick out of Georgia thrived alongside CeeDee Lamb, who is going into the second year of a $136 million, four-year contract that currently ranks him third among NFL receivers with an average annual value of $34 million.

Lamb missed the entire offseason and training camp in 2024 holding out for the deal he signed about two weeks before the season opener.

The Cowboys couldn’t use the tag on Lamb because he was going into the fifth year of his rookie contract. The fifth year is a team option that goes with all deals for first-round picks. Second-rounders have four-year deals, and Pickens earned $6.8 million on his rookie contract.

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Pickens’ talent was on display during three seasons with the Steelers, but so were enough instances of petulant or indifferent behavior for then-coach Mike Tomlin to question his maturity.

Schottenheimer never took issue with Pickens publicly in his first season as a head coach after a quarter-century as an NFL assistant. But Pickens and Lamb were benched for the first series in Las Vegas after missing curfew following a casino visit the night before the game.

“There’s a lot of things that go into that,” Stephen Jones said of the decision not to go forward on a long-term deal this offseason. “Let’s start with the fact that it’s not easy having two receivers being paid top of the market. A quarterback that’s been here, being the highest-paid player in this league for many years now.”

“The other thing is the newness of George being here,” Stephen Jones said. “I think George has just done an amazing job. I mean he’s exceeded all expectations. And a lot of those things, they make their way toward a long-term deal, but that’s the biggest part of it — between the business and newness of it, I think that’s a big part of it.”

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

Hitting the ball long off the tee is not just fun, it’s also good for your score. The closer you can get the ball to the green, the closer you’ll be able to hit the ball to the hole (on average). And the closer your approach shots are hit, the more birdies you’ll make.

There are a variety of avenues you can pursue to add a few extra miles per hour to your clubhead and ball speeds, but for the sake of this column, we are going to cover it from an instruction angle. That way when you’re under the gun and need to fly a hazard on the course, you can lean on your technique.

For more on that, we turn to world long drive champ Kyle Berkshire.

A hack for more distance

The golf swing has many moving parts — and for maximum efficiency, all these components need to work in just the right manner. Berkshire likes to compare the golf swing to a symphony, with each part of the body representing a different instrument.

“When you get to the last part of the symphony, the wrist is what dictates how much of that power is released into the club,” Berkshire says.

The release of the wrists may not seem like a huge power driver, but in reality, these small muscles are crucial. The wrists are the last part of the body that moves energy out toward the clubhead, so releasing them in the correct way is essential for generating power.

“If you have wrists that don’t really rotate, you’re really going to be losing a tremendous amount of power,” Berkshire says. “It’s your last point of multiplication of the force.”

Berkshire explains that when he is swinging the driver, he likes to feel like his wrists are very “soft.” And if you want to add power to your swing, you should strive to feel that softness, too.

“I like to have very loose and relaxed wrists,” Berkshire says. “I feel like that’s a good visual to have.”

So, next time you want to add a little power to your drives, remember to keep your wrists soft. It’s a feel that the one of the longest drivers in the world uses — and it’ll work for you, too.

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