The United States began their bid to win an 11th consecutive Presidents Cup by opening up a 3-2 lead over the International team at the end of Thursday’s fourballs matches at Medinah Country Club in Illinois.

Justin Thomas and rookie Jackson Koivun put the first point on the board for Brandt Snedeker’s American team with a resounding 4&3 win over Canada’s Corey Conners and Colombia’s Nico Echavarria.

World number one Scottie Scheffler, who was partnered with his long-time friend Sam Burns, took the 17th hole and held on to close out their victory over Min Woo Lee and Sungjae Im, who were left to rue several missed putts down the stretch.

And two-time major champions Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa ensured the US would take an advantage into Friday’s five foursome matches.

Clark and Morikawa led from the opening hole against Australia’s Adam Scott and reigning Open champion Ryan Fox before completing their 3&2 success with two holes to spare.

“A session win is a session win; we’re going to take it any way we can get it,” said Snedeker.

However, Geoff Ogilvy’s International side will head into the alternate shot format on Friday with optimism of remaining in contention to claim only their second ever triumph in the biennial contest, some 28 years after their first in 1998.

Japanese duo Hideki Matsuyama and debutant Ryo Hisatsune recorded a 3&1 success over Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele, while Kim Si-woo and Tom Kim always looked comfortable in their 3&2 win over Chris Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay.

The five foursome matches scheduled to take place on Friday will be followed by two sessions on Saturday, split between four four-ball matches in the morning and four foursomes in the afternoon.

All 12 players on each team will then compete in the singles matches on Sunday, with 15½ points required for overall victory.

Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury will finally land in the UK after weeks of uncertainty, but the Friday-night spectacle will not follow standard British boxing hours.

Following today’s official announcement that the two former unified heavyweight champions will collide on December 11 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, the stakes were raised further with confirmation that the vacant WBA ‘Super’ world heavyweight title will be on the line.

Until recently, the bout seemed destined for New York’s Madison Square Garden. While Joshua and promoter Eddie Hearn held firm to ensure the domestic mega-fight returned home, broadcaster Netflix and Saudi organisers Sela have ensured the event remains squarely built around American primetime.

Rather than the traditional 10 PM domestic main event slot, Cardiff fans inside the stadium – and British viewers watching at home – face an early-morning marathon.

Speaking via Matchroom Boxing, Hearn revealed just how late UK fans will have to wait:

“It’s my understanding [the main event] will be around 1-1:30 AM. But, again, if it creeps to 2, I don’t know. It’s quite unique because on a Saturday, boxing would start around 4-5 PM. You’re really looking at boxing probably starting around 8 PM or 9 PM.”

A 2:00 AM BST ringwalk aligns with 9:00 PM on the US East Coast and 6:00 PM on the West Coast.

While the late hour will test ticket holders in the Welsh capital and viewers around the UK, reported talks to stage a co-main event between Manny Pacquiao and Shakur Stevenson help explain why the broadcast is being pushed deep into the night.

What once looked like the worst season for the New York Mets in the last half-century continued morphing into something merely disappointing Wednesday night, when the Mets beat the Texas Rangers 7-2.

The win was the 73rd of the season or the Mets, ensuring they would avoid 90 losses for the ninth straight season and the 20th time in the last 22 seasons.

As we all learned around first grade, you can’t get to 73 wins without first getting to 63 wins. So Wednesday’s “milestone” win came exactly three weeks after the Mets ensured they would not record the franchise’s first 100-loss season since 1993 and just their second since 1967.

The Mets are two games behind the fourth-place Washington Nationals in the NL East with four games to play, so they might still finish last in the division for the first time since 2003.

But a last-place finish with 80-something losses sure beats the alternative for the Mets, who ended April with the worst record in the game and were on a 90-loss pace through May, June and July before dealing seven veterans at the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

Or does it?

The victory Wednesday both continued the encouraging second-half surge for the Mets and served as another reminder it’s hard to know if the recent improvement — on and off the field — is a legitimate sign they can return to contention next year (whenever that happens).

The tie-breaking homer was delivered in the eighth inning by second baseman Marcus Semien, whose .625 OPS is the second-lowest in the majors amongst qualified batters.

The Mets have no shortage of potential replacements for the 36-year-old Semien — Mitch Voit, a 2025 first-round pick, was named the organization’s minor league player of the year while middle infielders Jefferson Rojas, Sammy Stafura and Emilien Petre were all acquired at the deadline. But development for prospects is anything but linear, so there’s no guarantee the keystone will be in younger hands at this time next year.

Speaking of non-linear progressions for prospects…utilityman Brett Baty put the game away in the ninth with a pinch-hit grand slam. Baty’s reached base in 16 straight games, a span in which he has an OPS of 1.284.

But the surge comes at the end of a season in which Baty’s OPS has climbed above .700 overall twice — on Mar. 26, Opening Day, and Mar. 29, following the Mets’ third game. This will be the third time in four full seasons he finishes with an OPS below the league average. Is that who he is as he nears his 27th birthday, or is the recent outburst evidence he can be a Ben Zobrist-type?

Fellow longtime prospect Francisco Alvarez, who is just 24 years old despite nearing the end of his fourth big league season, had his fourth straight two-hit game Wednesday. Yet he will once again fall short of the career-high 25 homers and 63 RBIs he posted in 2023, which is also the only season in which he graded out as a plus performer behind the plate. Is he ever going to be more than a co-no. 1 catcher?

Even the seemingly sure things are tinged with uncertainty for the Mets. Juan Soto hit a two-run homer in the third and has an outside chance at finishing with 30 round-trippers despite missing more than 50 games due to a pair of leg injuries.

But what do the Mets do if those ailments are the start of a Giancarlo Stanton-like run for Soto, who is signed through 2039? And how do they ensure Soto doesn’t get the Barry Bonds treatment he received Wednesday, when he was intentionally walked in his final three plate appearances, for most of the next 13 seasons?

This brings us to the Mets’ biggest question mark of all: President of baseball operations David Stearns, who is the genius who decided it wasn’t worth re-signing Pete Alonso, the perfect no. 3 hitter behind Soto, because Alonso might not be as good in 2030.

Alas, here in 2026, Alonso leads the American League with 41 homers and 110 RBIs and will single-handedly prevent Yordan Alvarez from winning the Triple Crown.

Mets owner Steve Cohen said last weekend he expected to “add certain voices” to the front office around Stearns. Interim manager Andy Green, the club’s former farm director, was signed to a three-year extension Tuesday, one day before news leaked that former Minnesota Twins POBO Derek Falvey is expected to join the organization.

Those moves are good starts. They are also reminders that adding around the highest-paid POBO in baseball history doesn’t change the fact Stearns will remain the head decision-maker even after constructing one of the most disappointing teams the mets have ever fielded — a squad that avoided 90 losses only by playing at a .578 clip over the largely meaningless last seven weeks.

Are the Mets going anywhere if Stearns isn’t going anywhere? That’s the existential crisis awaiting the Mets whenever baseball resumes following this season.

At the finest golf resorts, great courses, first-rate food and comfy accommodations are pretty much given. Beyond that, you might find a spa, a golf academy, a kids’ camp and enough outdoor pursuits, from fly fishing to balcony, to keep you busy from dawn to dusk. And then there are the things you never saw coming: a museum of exotic Americana, a walk through a labyrinth, a tree older than most civilizations, a cave beneath the golf course or a game drive in search of the Big Five. Here are five of our favorite quirky offerings from GOLF’s new Top 100 Resorts list.

Big Cedar Lodge | Ridgedale, Mo.
Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum

Johnny Morris built Big Cedar as an homage to the Ozarks, where he was born and raised. The result is a resort that celebrates the great outdoors. But Morris didn’t forget the indoors, either. Among the musts at Big Cedar is the Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum, Morris’s astounding personal collection, which ranges from arrowheads and dinosaur fossils to Sitting Bull’s war vest. You can even get a look at a lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair. 

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Bandon Dunes Golf Resort | Bandon, Ore.
The Labyrinth

Golf is often likened to life, with its wandering paths, wrong turns and occasional moments of enlightenment. At Bandon Dunes, you can take that comparison literally. Tucked into the woods is a soapstone replica of the labyrinth at France’s Chartres Cathedral, dating to the late 12th or early 13th century. The path winds toward the center, then back out again, a meditative counterpoint to the more traditional loops you’ve been walking around the resort’s courses. 

BROWSE GOLF’S TOP 100 RESORTS IN THE WORLD

Kauri Cliffs | Matauri Bay, New Zealand
The Ancient Kauri

You think golf is an old game until you meet a tree that has been standing for roughly 700 to 900 years. On a native-bush walking trail at Kauri Cliffs, guests can visit an enormous kauri, one of the oldest individual specimens on privately held land in New Zealand. Getting there takes only about 10 minutes on foot, an easy stroll to kick off a journey back in time.

Pronghorn | Bend, Ore.
Lava Tube Tours

The golfing grounds at Pronghorn are rich in character. The landscape underground is compelling, too. Near the 8th hole of the Fazio Course, a 45-foot canyon leads to a network of lava tubes formed roughly 60,000 years ago, when molten rock cooled beneath the surface. The resort offers guided tours into the tubes, including seasonal sunset outings — a subterranean answer to a twilight round.

Sun City Golf Resort | Sun City, South Africa
Big Five Safaris

Golf has its Big Three: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, a South African who designed the Lost City course here. But the real alphas at Sun City are the Big Five. The resort sits at the doorstep of Pilanesberg National Park, which fills an ancient volcanic crater and is home to lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos and buffalo. Game drives run at dawn and dusk, and night drives reveal a different cast of characters after dark. More ambitious travelers can take a short flight east to the Greater Kruger area and spend two or three nights at a private Big Five lodge, with guided 4×4 drives through the bush.

Sep 23, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. (23) is greeted in the dugout after scoring in the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

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When Jadarian Price first stepped onto Notre Dame’s campus, he couldn’t have predicted the impact he would make in South Bend. Even in a shared backfield under head coach Marcus Freeman, Price became half of a dynamic backfield duo alongside Jeremiyah Love.

Fast forward two years, and both Price and Love heard their names called in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Love went third overall to the Arizona Cardinals, while Price closed out Day 1 at Pick 32, landing with the Seattle Seahawks.

Through two weeks of the season, Price is already making his mark in Seattle after taking over following Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker’s free agent departure for the Kansas City Chiefs. Price has rushed for 104 yards and 4.5 yards per carry, taking control of the backfield.

How’s his former coach Marcus Freeman doing? He has the Fighting Irish sitting at 3-0 and ranked No. 3 in the latest AP Poll. Even after losing Love and Price to the NFL Draft, Freeman still has this offense humming.

When Freeman and Price finally got the chance to catch up, the dynamic had shifted. This time, Freeman sat down with Price for an interview to hear about his NFL journey so far and what life has been like since leaving South Bend.

Here is Freeman’s one-on-one interview with Price:

Jadarian Price rushed 13 times for 52 yards against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Price’s Response: “I trucked somebody. It helps to have a good offensive line and the past two games they’ve knocked guys off the ball. They’re getting past the line of scrimmage pretty good and these guys are legit, but I’m trusting my talent.”

Price’s Response: “Seattle in some ways is a lot like South Bend. It’s starting to get a little gloomy now, but that’s football weather. The program values spiritual life and all that stuff here. People have bible study here. A good majority of guys do chapel and mass the night before the game.”

Price’s Response: “I didn’t realize that he was the one who scored until after the game. He was the first person to score in the NFL because that was the first game of the season. Like that’s legit and pretty cool, man. It was good talking to him after the game.”

Price’s Response: “They’re doing great, and I think they’re getting awards every week. We do team awards and Julian Love had a pick in like every game. He’s always around the ball. Riley [Mills] has been getting tackles for loss and things like that. But yeah, they’re a great part of our team, and we did Notre Dame events with them back in the off season in the summer, all three of us.”

Price’s Response: “Montana reached out…Joe Montana. For this like a venture capital thing. So we spoke to this tech company startup. We were just talking to them about connecting football to the life of a CEO or something like that. It was pretty cool.”

Price’s Response: “Yeah. We didn’t get to do the jersey swap this time but luckily we play them [The Cardinals] twice. I think we’ll do a jersey swap next time.”