Grigor Dimitrov has once again found himself at the center of controversy at the 2026 Wimbledon Championships during his second-round clash against Jakub Mensik. The debate began after officials decided to close the Centre Court roof mid-match, a decision that reminded Dimitrov and many fans of a similar incident from last year.
Dimitrov began his Wimbledon campaign with a 7-6(4), 6-3, 7-5 win over Dane Sweeny before taking on Mensik in the second round. The Bulgarian eventually came through 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, but not before play was halted after he had taken a two-sets-to-one lead, as officials closed the roof and delayed the match.
Thanks for the submission!
Advertisement
The interruption visibly frustrated Grigor Dimitrov, who was reminded of his fourth-round meeting with Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon last year. That match was also paused for the roof to be closed before ending in heartbreaking fashion, as Dimitrov was forced to retire while leading after suffering a serious right pectoral muscle injury.
Advertisement
“It’s like Deja vu,” an angry Dimitrov told the umpire. “From last year it was the same thing. When I was on Centre, we knew it was not gonna finish, and we kept on having the court open.”
Fans were quick to take to X (formerly Twitter) to express their frustration over the decision, with many fuming that Grigor Dimitrov had once again been affected by a mid-match roof closure. One user wrote:
“They scammed Dimitrov again wow.”
“And they close the f**king roof to f**k Dimitrov momentum seriously f**k the Wimbledon,” another wrote.
“Grigor Dimitrov just got absolutely hosed. They knew they were going to keep playing and didn’t start to creep the roof in. Instead he gets cold, they wait for 15 minutes and comes out in the fourth and gets broken immediately. Just a joke from Wimbledon officials there,” one account posted.
Molde FK have announced that Nigerian midfielder Daniel Daga has won his appeal after the Frostating Court of Appeal acquitted him of the sexual assault allegations that kept him out of action for 11 months.
In a statement released on Thursday, July 2, 2026, the Norwegian club confirmed that the 19-year-old is now available for selection again as they await the final judgment in the case.
Daga, a former Nigeria U20 international, had been sidelined by Molde since legal proceedings began against him.
Advertisement
The midfielder was previously sentenced to six months in prison by the Romsdal District Court after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman. The court also ordered him to pay NOK 10,000 in legal costs.
The incident was said to have taken place in April 2025, while charges were officially filed on December 19, 2025.
Following the earlier ruling, Daga’s lawyer, Astrid Bolstad, maintained that her client was innocent and insisted that the encounter had been consensual. She immediately announced plans to appeal the verdict.
Advertisement
“He is terribly sorry that the verdict was the way it was,” Bolstad said at the time. “He believes he is innocent and that everything happened with consent.”
After the initial conviction, Molde FK removed Daga from first-team activities, stating that he would not be considered for selection while the legal process continued.
With the Court of Appeal now overturning the conviction and acquitting the Nigerian midfielder, Daga is set to return to action for Molde after nearly a year away from competitive football.
Arccos has become a valuable asset to golfers everywhere to help them learn more about their own game, but the company is actually helping OEMs develop new golf clubs too.
On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped, Arccos CEO Sal Syed explained how the company has relationships with almost every OEM to use their data and explained some of the examples to co-host Jake Morrow.
Syed mentioned Ping has used Arccos data for multiple club development and fitting applications.
“This is something that they have talked about, so I can talk about it. For the last 400 years or so, golf gapping, the iron gapping has been linear,” Syed said. “But what they realized was for the improvement player, for a mid-handicap player, linear gapping doesn’t need linear loft gapping, so the four-degree or four-and-a-half degree, whatever the difference is, doesn’t actually lead to linear differences in distance on the course.
Advertisement
“Now they have a non-linear proprietary gapping algorithm that they have based on Arccos data, so that was a fundamental change that had been based on real-world data.”
Arccos data was also able to show Ping that players were using their wedges more from the rough than the fairway, which encouraged designers to change the grind and bounce options and tailor them more for play out of the long grass.
The G440 hybrids appeal to a variety of skill levels, each engineered to deliver different ball- flight characteristics – from the slightly fade-biased 2 hybrid for off-the-tee performance to the draw-inducing 5, 6 and 7 hybrids that help optimize gapping. They all share a new, shallower and thinner face design, which improves face contact for more ball speed and higher-launching shots that hit and hold the green.
FLIES HIGH LANDS SOFT
Optimized launch and spin ensure distance with stopping power.
FREE-HOSEL DESIGN
Saves weight to lower CG, optimize launch/spin and increase forgiveness.
ROUNDED SOLE
Ensures pleasing face angle in all hosel settings
CARBONFLY WRAP
Lightweight carbon crown saves weight to increase MOI, lower CG.
“They looked into every bag of players that were playing hybrids, or Ping hybrids specifically, and there was basically nobody playing a 2-hybrid and a 5-hybrid,” Morrow said. “So they said, why are we trying to build these the same? This 2-hybrid is for this guy, this 5-hybrid is for this set of players. And I thought that that was just such a unique way to use data.”
Portugal paid a touching tribute to Diogo Jota at the end of their remarkable World Cup victory against Croatia.
It is a year since Jota, while a Liverpool player, died in a car accident in Spain, 11 days after marrying his long-term partner Rute Cardoso.
His brother Andre Silva was also killed in the accident on 3 July 2025.
At the end of Portugal’s drama-filled 2-1 win to set up a last-16 tie against Spain, Cristiano Ronaldo put on a special ’21’ shirt in Jota’s memory before the squad came together with the shirt held aloft.
Advertisement
Before the game, towards the end of Portugal’s national anthem, Jota’s picture appeared on the big screen in Toronto, and was greeted with a loud cheer from the supporters.
Ronaldo also appeared emotional as the cameras focused on him, having played with Jota 32 times for their country.
“Diogo is our sun and our light,” said Portugal manager Roberto Martinez before the match, having named Jota as an honorary ‘plus-one’ player when he announced his squad in May.
“We want to win the World Cup for him.”
Advertisement
Jota, 28, was on his way back to Liverpool for pre-season when the car, a Lamborghini, left the road because of a tyre blowout while overtaking another vehicle.
He was making the journey to England by car and ferry as doctors had advised the forward, who celebrated winning the Premier League title two months earlier, against flying because he had undergone minor surgery.
“I still talk to him,” Ruben Neves said about Jota, his close friend and former Porto, Wolves and Portugal team-mate, in the build-up to the match.
“We have a WhatsApp group with Rute and Diogo, and it’s still there, and we continue to talk there,” he told Portuguese TV show, external Alta Definicao.
Advertisement
“Whenever something special happens, I have the conversations archived on my WhatsApp so I can continue to send him messages.”
Portugal booked their place in the World Cup 2026 round of 16 after a 2-1 win over Luka Modric’s Croatia in Toronto, decided by a stoppage-time goal from Gonçalo Ramos. Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates will face Spain on Monday.
There’s an easy question to ask as a recreational golfer when you’re searching for a quick golf-game fix: “Why don’t I just buy a new driver?” Sometimes it’s said in jest but, as I discovered this season, sometimes it’s the truth.
During the last offseason, I made it my mission to add more power to my game. As analytics have become more prevalent in the modern game, the importance of driving distance has become crystal clear. If you want to shoot lower scores, you have to hit the ball farther.
With that goal in mind, I got to work revamping my game. Part of this process involved hitting the gym and “building my engine” for a faster swing. (You can check out my workout plan here.) Another element involved refining my technique to swing more efficiently. And, finally, there was some good ole fashioned speed training.
Advertisement
“>
After a winter of dedication, the gains were evident. My max swing speed climbed much higher, and my cruising speed had me hitting it further without even feeling like I was straining. Heading into the 2026 season, my confidence was sky high.
But there was one problem I didn’t take into account. With more speed in the bag, my old equipment — particularly my driver — was not optimized. Even though I could swing harder than ever before, I was still leaving plenty of distance (and accuracy) on the table.
You see, when I was fitted for my old driver (a Titleist GT1), my swing speed was in the mid-90s. This lack of speed — combined with some other swing characteristics — meant I needed a driver that gave me more spin to give me more carry distance. But as I added speed and dialed in my swing, that tendency for spin started to hurt me.
Advertisement
During my speed training sessions, I noticed that my spin numbers were way too high. Although I was swinging faster, my efficiency suffered. Even when I was hitting record highs with my swing speed (topping out at 109 mph), my spin was so high that I wasn’t getting the most out of that speed.
That’s when I knew it was time for a new driver.
My new driver
I’ve long been a believer in the idiom “it’s not the arrow, it’s the Indian.” However, as I’ve played more and more golf (and technology has advanced), I’ve come to realize that the saying doesn’t cover all circumstances.
While it’s true that a great golfer can make just about any equipment work for them, when you use equipment that isn’t optimized for your swing, you leave easy gains on the table. Case in point: using a driver that is too spinny for your swing. After I saw how much the excess spin from my old driver was hurting my distance, I scheduled a fitting with Titleist for their new GTS line.
Advertisement
When I arrived for my fitting, I explained to my fitter the issues I was having with the old line and what I was hoping to get out of my new driver. Essentially, it all boiled down to getting less spin while still launching the ball out of my preferred window.
I’m not much of a gear nerd, so I won’t even attempt to break down the different GTS heads and what they are best for (our gear team does a much better job of that). But what I will say is that the difference each head provided to me was noticeable. Some soared through the air with a beautiful shape, while others dived to the ground like wounded ducks. I simply kept swinging my swing and let my fitter do the work configuring a build that would satisfy my needs.
After about 45 minutes of testing different combinations, we settled on the GTS4 — which came as a bit of a shock. I figured I’d be in a GTS2 considering my previous fit of a GT1, but at the end of the day, the GTS4 produced the best numbers for me, keeping my spin down while also launching in a window that maximized my distance.
Now when I hit in the sim, my spin numbers rarely get out of whack and cost me distance. Even my mishits stay in my window of tolerance, and I’m maximizing my distance because of it.
Advertisement
In my previous driver, when I swung hard at it, I knew I needed to catch the ball perfectly to keep my spin numbers down and maximize. But now, I can swing hard and know that even if I don’t hit it perfectly, it won’t spin off the planet.
It may be a joke to suggest to your buddy that he needs a new driver to fix his game — but there are certain scenarios in which that isn’t so far fetched. I can attest to that.
When Johnny Miller started winning as a young pro in the early 1970s and got to see Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus up close and personal, he made an interesting discovery about their lives: The King and Big Jack both had great big appetites. Their literal appetites, for plus-sized steaks and bowls of ice cream and the rest. But Miller could see their hungry nature in other ways, too — in their willingness to fly anywhere in their pursuit of golf or commerce or both. Nobody who knew Arnold Palmer confused him with Mister Rogers, another son of Latrobe. Arnold liked the ladies and the ladies liked him. Still, he went to his maker as American golf’s most popular and charismatic figure. As for Nicklaus, in his mid-80s, he remains golf’s most admired figure, leading an exemplary do-the-right-thing life, in every season of it.
In more recent years, and in this new and connected century, the closest thing golf has had to Arnold and Jack has been Phil and Tiger, or Tiger and Phil. Really, though, in the name of succession, they have proven to be not close at all. After Woods’s win at the 2019 Masters, I wrote a book called “The Second Life of Tiger Woods.”What are we up to now, his third life? Fourth?
There was Tiger in public again late last month, fresh from behavior rehab after another lucky-nobody-died roadside incident. This was at a PGA Tour show-me-the-future press conference near Hartford, Conn. Woods wore a dark suit and a bright tie and looked all shiny as he introduced the Tour’s newish CEO, Brian Rolapp. Out of happenstance and with stunning speed, an athlete for the ages and a sports executive on the rise are all bro-ey, so smiley, so huggy. You could almost smell all that new VC cash right through your preferred screen and platform. Woods and Rolapp are both in line for a nice piece of all that new money. Our money, at the end of the day.
Advertisement
Maybe there’s some kind of playbook for Phil Mickelson in all this, looking at Woods and his rise and fall and rise and fall and rise. It is true that he is the greatest golf talent that has ever lived. Even Jack Nicklaus acknowledges that. Woods’s next court date is Aug. 4. So there’s that, too.
Late in 2009, and late one night, Woods ran over a fire hydrant near his driveway, was rendered unconscious, became the subject of a frantic 911 call from his hysterical mother and rushed to a hospital. Almost overnight Woods’s private life became a public joke. It should be obvious to all that Woods is a reckless and dangerous driver and it seems obvious to me that he has abused his body with his huge appetite for weightlifting and practice but (to borrow a phrase) . . . his body, his choice.
Mickelson won a major at 50, the oldest man ever to do so. To those of us watching from afar, his future was so bright with a seal for shades already in place. Wasn’t hard to imagine Phil in a CBS swivel chair per terms he could dictate; a Ryder Cup captaincy and possibly a second one; Phil’s wife, Amy, to become, in her own way, a leader in various public works in the manner of Barbara Nicklaus and Winnie Palmer; $30 million a year in income for her husband; senior majors when he was in the mood to play in them; the first tee at Augusta as long as he could make a backswing; all that adoration. Phil Mickelson had the capacity to make people feel good. He really did. That gift can come with a massive payday. Taylor Swift, Jerry Seinfeld and Tom Hanks know all about that.
We knew a lot about Mickelson’s risk-reward golf and something about his appetite for gambling, for on-the-edge stock-trading, for good food and expensive wine. The extent of it we did not know. Golf Digest is not in the business of bringing down legends, but there it was, just last month, publishing a carefully worded news story about Mickelson leaving one of his San Diego golf clubs in the wake of a charge by a club employee that he made “inappropriate and nonconsensual physical contact.”
Advertisement
A sort of follow-up story, published by the golf website Skratch, included lurid, vulgar (and now disputed by Mickelson) details about Mickelson’s alleged unwanted personal overtures to Ashley Perez, former wife of the professional golfer Pat Perez. The Skratch story also maintained that Mickelson was required to leave not one but three private California clubs. In a recent public statement, representatives for Mickelson have disputed that claim. “Mr. Mickelson has never been expelled from a golf club,” the statement said. Okay — define expelled.
Alan Shipnuck, the author of a bestselling 2022 biography of Mickelson that celebrates and critiques the lefthander’s never-a-dull-moment life and times, wrote the Skratch piece. Yes, the PGA Tour owns a piece of Skratch, and Phil Mickelson is persona non grata in the Tour’s offices, as he opened the door for other players to leave the Tour for LIV Golf after he bolted first. Would Skratch be willing to publish such a salacious piece about Tiger Woods, chairman of the Tour’s Future Competition Committee? Your real-world educated guess is a likely good one. Yes, Shipnuck and Mickelson have a complicated relationship. If you know Mickelson’s famous “scary motherf-ckers” quote about LIV’s Saudi backers, to Shipnuck and used by Shipnuck, you know that. But those factors, to say nothing of the vulgarity of it all, doesn’t discredit the report or diminish its newsworthiness.
Mickelson is now where Woods was in early 2010. Next up is next up. It’ll be something, as nothing is not an option. The public’s demands are ultimately insatiable, too. Woods wrote a biography that never got published. Someday in the next half-century or so, some form of it will become public, if the lives and times of Ty Cobb and JFK are any example here.
Shipnuck and I are longtime colleagues and friends. About 15 years ago, in the aftermath of Tiger Woods and his sex life appearing on the front page of the New York Post for 20 consecutive days, we wrote a satire called The Swinger. Tree Tremont, the swinger in question, is a notoriously lousy tipper and his serial infidelity, in his view of his life, is a kind of hobby.
Advertisement
The book, from my vantage point, tries to make the case that the rich and famous have a fundamental right to a private life but that the public at large, always on the prowl for blood in the water, has run out of patience for that world view. I know my own thinking was shaped by Nicklaus. After Woods’s sex life became an SNL bit and the rest, Nicklaus maintained that Tiger’s private life was not his business. That carried the day for me, even though a wise late friend of mine, Fay Vincent, the former baseball commissioner, had another view. Vincent felt once you used your good standing to sell Buicks and the rest, you forfeited your broad rights to privacy. In The Swinger, Shipnuck and I invented a newspaper editorwho says, “It’s always the same. [People] want to know what the dude is, quote, really like, right.” Our invented reporter, in the end, can’t give the editor what he wants. It’s not in him. Mickelson gave me a short review of the book without reading it: “Not cool.”
Amy Mickelson and the three grown Mickelson children are innocent bystanders in all this. Tiger and Elin’s children — Sam Woods, now at Stanford, and Charlie Woods, bound for Florida State — are experts in navigating similar terrain. There is no map, not for them, not for anybody. Arnold’s path was not Jack’s and Jack’s was not Arnold’s. We all make decisions about what we do and how we treat people, every day. From such decisions a cast is filled and your life unfolds. It’s complicated and not. AI cannot help here. AI cannot work in the margins, figure out up and down when you’re surrounded by gray.
Woods’s greatness as a golfer has given him his current chapter, his next chapter, the chapter after that. You could say the same for Mickelson. We don’t know what’s coming next because we can’t know. Mickelson is 56. If his parents and grandparents are an example, 66 and 76 and 86 are coming. Life is weirdly long and famously short.
Mickelson is now where Woods was in early 2010. Next up is next up. It’ll be something, as nothing is not an option.
Nicklaus has said more than once that only a fool would bet against Tiger Woods. He was talking about Tiger Woods the golfer. Is there going to be another scary roadside event with Woods at the wheel? Is he ever going to tell us about . . . what it’s like to be Tiger Woods? Was this most recent rehab stint done chiefly to appease a judge who was going to require it anyhow? Has Woods found new and better ways to address the pain in his life, physical and psychic? I certainly have no answers here. I doubt Woods does, either. Because the questions are hard.
Advertisement
In the Golf Digest report, in the Skratch report, Phil Mickelson seems repulsive. Are there other aspects to him? Of course there are, and we’ve all seen peak Phil, either in real-time or via Golf Channel and YouTube highlight clips. Phil the Thrill. Appetites are hard to control, for any of us. Appetites are in our DNA, and then your life takes over.
With stardom comes entitlement. Not always, but often, and more so all the time. It’s the superstar politician, movie star, pantheon athlete. Bill Murray used to say that after somebody makes it there’s going to be a period of public and private boorishness, though he was more colorful. It’s a given. Then there comes a reckoning, or not. That’s when you find out who the person really is.
We wanted Tiger and Phil to be Jack and Arnold. That never happened. Not even close. They’re not even Tiger and Phil, not as they once were. This year, neither played the Masters or even the U.S. Senior Open, which is underway this week in Ohio. Neither has been fitted for a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup captain’s uniform.
Still, Woods found a way to a podium a week or two ago, the pathway lined with bags of legal tender. Another form of everybody loves a winner. Some would say he played his cards right but I would not. Can Tiger’s path be instructive for Phil? That’s up to Phil. It’s hard to imagine him just retreating. The buffet table of life has always been piled high for him. After a while, it will prove to be irresistible. The colors, the smells, the melting ice below. More is a life force for some people, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson among them. It just is. The desire for more is one thing. You can control an appetite. With its cousin, greed, whatever you have is not enough.
Then they trailed and Martinez showed a decisiveness he is often accused of lacking. A quadruple change altered the momentum, the World Cup. One of the arrivals, Goncalo Ramos, was to prove the man who did something many an opponent has failed to accomplish in the last two World Cups and finish off Croatia.
But Martinez’s later, and final, change was his most instructive, perhaps his most influential.
Cristiano Ronaldo paying tribute to late teammate Diogo Jota (Getty)
There was some disbelief when the number went up: seven. The seven of Cristiano Ronaldo, the man who played every minute in the group stage, who survived when Bruno Fernandes and Vitinha went off in the cull of the quartet, who had, 20 years on, finally scored in a World Cup knockout game.
But with a passenger up front, Portugal were being outrun in midfield. And so off went Ronaldo, on came Ruben Neves and Ramos, who had been brought on as a No 10, was relocated to lead the line.
So there he was when Rafael Leao whipped in the most enticing of crosses, meeting it with a superb header. A 94th-minute winner was a goal that may be savoured in San Siro: Ramos has become AC Milan’s record signing and will join Leao there. But this, really, is his stage, the World Cup knockout rounds. He got a hat-trick against Switzerland in the last 16 in 2022, displacing Ronaldo from the starting 11. Now he is back on the bench, but back in the goals.
Advertisement
But this has seemed Croatia’s stage, too, the World Cup knockout rounds. The team who never know when they are beaten thought they weren’t beaten. Josko Gvardiol bundled in what seemed a 103rd-minute equaliser. But Igor Matanovic got the faintest of flick-ons to Mario Pasalic, rendering the latter offside before he found Gvardiol.
And so one legend reached the end of the road in World Cups: not Ronaldo but the magnificent Luka Modric. For him and Croatia alike, it was a valiant way to say goodbye. Never write off the Germans, the saying used to go; never write off these Croatians. They transformed this game, a sterile first half giving way to a stunning second. Toronto bade farewell to the World Cup with epic drama, Croatia with a sense of what might have been.
Ivan Perisic opened the scoring for Croatia (AP)
Ronaldo was neither the first nor the only old-timer on the scoresheet. Ivan Perisic found the net in the 2018 final; at 37, winning his 158th cap, he got forward from left back to add another. Josip Stanisic stood up a cross, which was flicked on to Perisic. Free at the far post, he took two touches. The third was angled past Diogo Costa.
Croatia can wonder how they did not score another. The unusually dynamic Mateo Kovacic kept driving forward; Costa denied him a goal just after the interval, the woodwork repelled a drive after 75 minutes. Petar Sucic had two goals disallowed for offside. There could have been an 89th-minute winner, Pasalic heading just wide.
Portugal’s defence creaked but their goalkeeper, Costa, was defiant. They received a jolt when they went behind. They had sterile domination before the break: Dominik Livakovic made a fine third-minute save from Fernandes, and Renato Veiga headed just wide. Otherwise, they accomplished little.
Advertisement
Going behind galvanised Portugal. Leao curled a shot against the bar. Ronaldo took a delectable touch and lobbed Livakovic, but the reason his 41-year-old legs were behind the Croatia defence was that he was offside. He soon had his goal anyway.
Ronaldo equalised from the penalty spot (Reuters)
When Veiga was rugby-tackled in the box by Nikola Vlasic, the Portugal bench – the substituted quartet included – implored referee Espen Eskas to go to the monitor. He pointed to the spot. Ronaldo’s penalty was terrific; cathartic, too. Perhaps it was vindication for Martinez keeping him on initially. It was nevertheless ridiculous when Fifa named Ronaldo the man of the match.
There were times when the veteran had felt like the footballing answer to the CN Tower: immediately identifiable in the Toronto skyline but unlikely to move. But he had to trudge to the sidelines when substituted.
Yet whereas the accusation is that Ronaldo can behave as if it is all about him, there was an unselfishness at the end. Ronaldo was in tears, the shirt he was brandishing not the number he has worn for most of a career that has now yielded 146 international goals, but the 21 of the late Diogo Jota.
Portugal posed afterwards, the entire squad and staff around the late forward’s shirt. This is a team with a greater cause. And now they can carry their bid to honour Jota into a clash with Martinez’s native Spain in Dallas.
Advertisement
The last the World Cup will see of Ronaldo was not him being substituted in Toronto. For Modric, though, an epic journey is over.
Jul 2, 2026; Silvis, Illinois, USA; Lucas Glover lines up his putt on the 18th hole during the first round of the John Deere Classic golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images
Lucas Glover and Zac Blair share the first-round lead at the John Deere Classic after posting bogey-free, 8-under 63s on Thursday in Silvis, Ill.
Zach Johnson, Lee Hodges and German Stephan Jaeger are one stroke behind the co-leaders after one trip around TPC Deere Run. Davis Riley used a hole-in-one and an eagle on consecutive holes to shoot a 6-under 65, where he’s tied with Ben Kohles and Patrick Fishburn.
Glover, 46, birdied seven of his first 11 holes before cooling down the rest of the way. The 2009 U.S. Open champion won the John Deere in 2021 and has collected three of his six PGA Tour titles in this decade.
Blair, meanwhile, is searching for his first PGA Tour victory. The 35-year-old started his day on the back nine, then went birdie-eagle at Nos. 1-2 for a boost. He led the field in strokes gained on approach.
Advertisement
Johnson’s eagle-birdie finish pushed him near the top of the leaderboard and all but ensured he will make the cut at the John Deere for an incredible 18th year in a row. The native of nearby Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has played the event every year since 2002 and skipped the U.S. Senior Open this week to keep that streak going.
Riley stood at 2 under for his round before sinking the first hole-in-one of his PGA Tour career at the par-3, 150-yard 16th hole. His shot landed just behind the pin and slowly spun back to the cup. He followed that up with an 18 1/2-foot eagle putt at the par-5 17th.
Defending champion Brian Campbell and two-time John Deere winner Jordan Spieth opened with 1-under 70s.
Ronaldo and Modric embrace in the centre circle. One will continue in this tournament, thanks to the man who should have his position. The other will not play another minute of World Cup action at the end of a stunning career.
Advertisement
Many Croatia players are in tears. Kovacic is distraught. Sucic is heartbroken. Modric is now embracing them.
Alan Smith3 July 2026 02:12
An epic tie
Epic tie, from half time anyway. Croatia were magnificent. Martinez and Portugal eventually rescued themselves.
Advertisement
(Getty)
Richard Jolly in Toronto3 July 2026 02:10
Full-time! Portugal 2-1 Croatia
109’ – And Portugal are through after the most dramatic ending to a match you will see for a very, very long time.
Alan Smith3 July 2026 02:09
Advertisement
Portugal 2-1 Croatia
109’ – We’re playing again. For how much longer, I have no idea.
Alan Smith3 July 2026 02:09
Portugal 2-1 Croatia
108’ – Yes, it’s the 108th minute. Bottles continue to be thrown. Perisic is asking for the Croatia fans to stop. They are now showing the offside on the big screen, which does not help matters.
Advertisement
Alan Smith3 July 2026 02:08
GOAL DISALLOWED BY VAR! Portugal 2-1 Croatia
It won’t count. The VAR says that Mantanovic got a touch before Veiga nodded it back. And Portugal are about to go through.
There are some ugly scenes in the crowd with bottles now raining down on to the pitch.
Advertisement
I’m not sure if play will restart or not. It looks like it could.
Alan Smith3 July 2026 02:06
VAR check
Perisic’s cross from the left is headed backwards by Veiga into the path of Pasalic. He is offside and puts the ball across the goalface for Gvardiol to finish. But now there is a VAR check… and they are getting the snicko tools out.
Advertisement
Alan Smith3 July 2026 02:04
GOAL! Portugal 2-2 Croatia (Gvardiol 103)
They are level! Incredible. We’re heading to extra-time.
Alan Smith3 July 2026 02:03
Advertisement
Portugal 2-1 Croatia
102’ – Conceicao dribbles in and has a shot that goes so wide Croatia have a throw-in near the corner flag. Again, we play on.
Jaylen Brown has been at the center of the NBA world since the Boston Celtics traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday. The Celtics received veteran star Paul George, two future first-round draft picks and two future second-round draft picks.
Since the deal, it has also been reported that Brown has “fallen out of favor” with the Celtics organization. On Thursday, there were reports from famed NBA commentator Colin Cowherd that the five-time All-Star believes he’s the smartest person in every room. Cowherd revealed it on “The Colin Cowherd Podcast” and claimed that he had two NBA sources confirm it.
Thanks for the submission!
Advertisement
“I had two NBA sources … two people in the league, one an executive, one a scout, say that Jaylen Brown has — it’s a disease. He suddenly thinks he’s the smartest guy in every room he’s in … You make a lot of money, suddenly you’re absolutely sure, you don’t wanna listen to your bosses, you don’t wanna listen to consultants, you don’t wanna listen to teammates,” Cowherd said.
Advertisement
•
Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell quickly shut down Cowherd’s claims about his on-court rival and off-court friend. Mitchell blasted the report on X about the criticism of Brown.
“Critique basketball all you want… but disease is insane… we gotta stop letting people just say whatever… cmon man!” Mitchell posted.
While Jaylen Brown is one of the most talented players in the league, he’s widely recognized as highly intelligent. Among his many noteworthy academic and intellectual achievements is the fact that, at the age of 22, he was the youngest lecturer at Harvard University. The former Celtics star spoke about leadership and education.
Advertisement
He also took a master’s-level class in Cultural Studies of Sport in Education while a freshman at UC Berkley. He also received a NASA internship offer and collaborations with MIT.
Isaiah Thomas Stood Up for Jaylen Brown Online
Since the deal was announced, there has been considerable criticism regarding Jaylen Brown. Isaiah Thomas, a former teammate, said that anyone may criticize Brown’s style of play. However, he doesn’t tolerate the comments made about his personality.
“It’s so nasty all the NEGATIVE things I’m seeing people say about Jaylen Brown!!! I don’t care how yall talk about bros game, it’s all opinion based anyway! Please stay away from talking about the PERSON and his character!!!! He’s real as they come! Don’t get it twisted people,” Thomas wrote.
Thomas and Brown were teammates with the Celtics for one season, when the latter was still a rookie in the NBA. Although they only spent one year together, they have mutual respect.
Brown also considers Thomas a mentor after his productive years in Boston.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login