A professional wrestler was seriously injured after being attacked by the son of UFC legend Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. The 26-year-old attacker was booked into LA County jail on Thursday in connection with the battery.
Los Angeles County prosecutors appeared to have made a deal with Raja Jackson earlier this year that would send him to jail for 90 days and require him to serve two years of probation. Jackson injured Syko Stu (real name: Stuart Smith) at a KNOK X Pro Wrestling event in 2025, who suffered a serious head injury and a facial fracture after the incident.
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According to a report from the LA Times, Raja Jackson did not contest one count of battery with serious bodily injury and also pled guilty to engaging in violent conduct and inflicting great bodily injury. He will also have to pay restitution to the victim amounting to USD 81,703.38.
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Stu spoke at yesterday’s court hearing and had the following to say:
“What happened affected me deeply, and I do not minimize the seriousness of it. The injuries I suffered led to a long and difficult recovery that I am still trying to recover from, including treatment for a severe traumatic brain injury, a shattered maxilla, and a bone graft procedure.”
The District Attorney said that certain aspects of the nature of pro wrestling were taken into account, but that did not negate the serious harm caused to Stu. The now-retired professional wrestler also said he suffered memory loss and reduced cognitive function as a result of the assault and has been unable to work for nearly a year. However, he appeared to forgive Jackson for the incident.
“I do not stand here with hatred for a desire for revenge. I hold no grudges against Mr. Jackson. People can make terrible decisions in difficult moments,” Stu added. [H/T: LA Times]
What Happened Between Raja Jackson And The Professional Wrestler?
On August 23, 2025, a serious incident took place between Raja Jackson and professional wrestler Syko Stu at a KNOK X Pro Wrestling event.
Stu had smashed a can of beer on Jackson’s head just before the event, which appeared to antagonize the trained MMA fighter. Later during the show, and allegedly egged on by other wrestlers, Raja took matters into his own hands and attacked Syko Stu, who was in the middle of a bout.
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He knocked the wrestler unconscious and kept assaulting him till he was pulled away by other athletes present at the scene. Stu was immediately admitted to the hospital with a serious head injury, including a facial fracture.
The first phase of the tournament is over and the teams will now meet for the round of 32
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2 min read
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It’s the business end of the 2026 World Cup and every team left in the tournament knows what their path to the final is set to be. The 48 teams involved in the tournament were knocked down to 32 at the end of the group stage. The tournament will now move into the knockout phase, and it’s do-or-die single elimination from this point on. The first-of-its kind 12 group group stage sent 12 first-place teams, 12 second-place teams and the eight best third-place teams to this stage of the tournament, and now it’s time to see who will be left standing.
The field has an interesting set of matchups. The United States men’s national team took on Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday July 1, winining despite a red card to take Folarin Balogun to advance and take on Belgium who downed Senegal 3-2 after a stunning comeback, in the round of 16. Elsewhere in the bracket, the round of 32 has a rematch of the 2016 Euro final between Croatia and Portugal, remarkably with stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric still leading their teams. Meanwhile, Erling Haaland’s Norway won 2-1 against Ivory Coast and Kylian Mbappe made history again, scoring a brace during France’s 3-0 win against Sweden.
Canada have also already made history by defeating South Africa, handing them their first knockout stage win in the country’s history.
Here’s all you need to know ahead of the round of 32 and the upcoming round of 16:
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Current World Cup bracket
CBS Sports
Round of 32 results
South Africa 0, Canada 1
Brazil 2, Japan 1
Germany 1, Paraguay 1 (4-3 on pens)
Netherlands 1,Morocco 1 (3-2 on pens)
Ivory Coast 1, Norway 2
France 3, Sweden 0
Mexico 2 vs. Ecuador 0
England 2, DR Congo 1
Belgium 3, Senegal 2
United States 2, Bosnia and Herzegovina 0
Spain 3, Austria 0
Portugal 2, Croatia 1
Switzerland 2, vs. Algeria 0
July 3: Australia (Group D runner-up) vs. Egypt (Group G runner-up) – AT&T Stadium, Arlington
July 3: Argentina (Group J winner) vs. Cabo Verde (Group H runner-up) – Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens
July 3: Colombia (Group K winner) vs. Ghana (Group L third place) – Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City
Round of 16 bracket projection
As of Monday, June 30, 7 p.m. ET. The teams in bold have been confirmed.
July 4 — 1 p.m. ET: Canada vs. Morocco – NRG Stadium, Houston, United States
July 4 — 5 p.m. ET: Paraguay vs. France – Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, United States
July 5 — 4 p.m. ET: Brazil vs. Norway – MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, United States
July 5 — 8 p.m. ET: Mexico vs. England – Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico
July 6 — 3 p.m. ET: Portugal vs. Spain – AT&T Stadium, Dallas, United States
July 6 — 8 p.m. ET: United States vs. Belgium – Lumen Field, Seattle, United States
July 7 — 12 p.m. ET: Argentina/Cabo Verde vs. Australia/Egypt – Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, United States
July 7 — 4 p.m. ET: Switzerland vs. Colombia/Ghana – BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Any time the U.S. men’s national team steps on the pitch, it’s going to draw a lot of eyeballs, but Wednesday’s match against Bosnia and Herzegovina was historic.
Preliminary numbers from Nielsen report that the broadcast on Fox averaged 24.43 million viewers, peaking at 31.88 million late in the game.
That was enough to make it the largest English-language audience for a soccer broadcast in U.S. history.
The knockout stage match between the United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina broke U.S. viewership records.(Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images)
It edged out the previous record holder — the 2015 Women’s World Cup final between the U.S. and Japan — which averaged 22.32 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Telemundo’s Spanish telecast of the game brought in 9.1 million viewers for a combined total of 33.53 million, easily a record for a soccer match broadcast in the United States.
U.S. World Cup matches have been drawing massive ratings.(Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The highly anticipated clash saw the U.S. trying to win its first knockout stage match since 2002 and bounce back from a disappointing loss to Turkey that capped off the group stage.
Meanwhile, Bosnia and Herzegovina looked to play spoiler after advancing from Group B as a third-place team, hoping to eliminate the United States on its home soil.
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U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s controversial red card was one of the biggest moments of the team’s win over Bosnia and Herzegovina.(Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
In the end, the U.S. came out with a 2-0 win, but it came at a cost. Star striker Folarin Balogun was on the receiving end of a wildly controversial red card that not only took him out of the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina — forcing the U.S. to play the last 25 minutes or so a man down — but also ruled him out of Monday’s Round of 16 match against Belgium.
The final World Cup 2026 Round of 32 matchup will pit Colombia against Ghana on Friday night. Colombia won Group K with a 2-1-0 record, while Ghana (1-1-1) was a third-place finisher in Group L. The Ghanaians are 65th in FIFA rankings, making them the lowest-ranked team to make the Round of 32, while Colombia is ranked 11th. Both nations have one all-time victory in a knockout round match at the World Cup. This will be the first competitive matchup between the squads.
Kickoff is 9:30 p.m. ET from Kansas City Stadium. The latest Colombia vs. Ghana odds from FanDuel Sportsbook list the Colombians at -195 on the 90-minute money line (risk $195 to win $100), with Ghana at +650, and a draw at +280. The over/under for total goals is 2.5. Colombia are at -650 to advance to the next round, with Ghana at +410. Before locking in any Ghana vs. Colombia picks or World Cup 2026 predictions, check out the Colombia vs. Ghana predictions from SportsLine’s Martin Green.
After working in the sports betting industry for several years, Green became a professional sports writer and handicapper and has covered the game worldwide. Last year, Green was profitable in multiple areas on his soccer betting picks, including the Champions League (+211.25) and Bundesliga (+100). He’s also been red-hot in 2026, posting an 18-8 record over his last 26 UCL picks, returning nearly $1,000 in profit. He’s also on a 16-6 roll (+833.5) on his 2026 World Cup picks entering Friday. Anyone wanting to follow his World Cup betting advice at sportsbooks and on betting apps could see big returns.
After examining Ghana vs. Colombia from every angle, Green is leaning Under 2.5 total goals (-132). Both squads have played low-scoring contests thus far in the World Cup, with Ghana’s matches averaging 1.67 total goals and Colombia averaging 1.33 combined goals. Overall, four of Colombia’s last five World Cup matches have seen under 2.5 total goals, while four of the Ghanaians last five matches across all competitions have had under 2.5 combined scores.
“It could be a tight, tense game, as Ghana are well-drilled in defense,” Green told SportsLine. “Colombia are likely to dominate possession in this game, but they’ll need to be patient as they try to break down Ghana’s low block.” See Green’s best bets for Colombia vs. Ghana at SportsLine, and you can bet Under 2.5 goals for Ghana vs. Colombia at FanDuel here:
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How to make Ghana vs. Colombia picks
After studying Colombia vs. Ghana from every angle, Green has found a critical x-factor and locked in two best bets, one of which returns plus-money that he calls “a solid play.” You can head to SportsLine to see what they are.
A Minnesota Vikings helmet rests on the turf during minicamp work at the TCO Performance Center in Eagan, Minnesota, with June 2026 capturing a close-up of the team’s purple shell and facemask beside sideline gear as players continued offseason preparation before training camp during the early summer practice window for Kevin O’Connell’s roster in Minnesota. Mandatory Credit: YouTube.
If you ranked the Minnesota Vikings’ top storylines heading into July, the upcoming quarterback battle would probably take the cake — even if Kyler Murray remains the frontrunner to earn the spot. NFL.com came along to size up the competition this week, and according to Nick Shook, the job is Murray’s to lose.
Shook was actually pretty matter-of-fact about his prediction. He doesn’t consider the outcome very suspenseful.
Murray Has the Edge, But McCarthy Still Factors into the Long Game
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray takes off on a scramble at SoFi Stadium, with Dec. 28, 2024 capturing the second-half sequence in Inglewood against the Los Angeles Rams. Murray uses his trademark mobility to escape pressure, extend the drive, and stress the defense across the field during a divisional matchup that afternoon. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images.
Shook: Murray Will Win QB1
Shook analyzed which NFL players could most improve this season, mentioning Murray as a top candidate.
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Along the way, he announced his QB1 prediction for the Vikings: “Murray’s shift from Arizona to Minnesota isn’t quite the discovery of an oasis, but it’s certainly a better situation for the former No. 1 overall pick than the one he inhabited in the desert.”
“After dealing with injuries and logging just five games in 2025, Murray is now playing under quarterback expert Kevin O’Connell and has the privilege of throwing passes to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Jauan Jennings and T.J. Hockenson in a stable offensive scheme that helped Sam Darnold post a career year in 2024.”
If Darnold could explode in the Twin Cities, so can Murray — is the working theory for many.
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“Yes, he’s going to win the job over J.J. McCarthy, and I believe he’ll form a beautiful partnership with O’Connell, the coach of a team that is a reliable quarterback away from a return to the playoffs. Expect Murray to become that quarterback and rebuild his reputation along the way,” Shook concluded.
Most of the World Agrees
By now, most Vikings fans and NFL followers understand that Murray will win the quarterback battle sometime this month or next, and he’ll get a chance to maintain that gig throughout the 2026 campaign. Per sportsbooks, he’s a -770 favorite as the calendar flipped to July, which implies an 88% chance of prevailing.
Murray started 87 games for the Cardinals over seven seasons, compared to McCarthy’s 10 since 2024, and Murray has all the necessary tools of a franchise quarterback. McCarthy may, as well, but there’s a reason Murray was drafted first overall in 2019, and McCarthy was chosen 10th in 2024 — Murray’s skills are just superior.
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Of course, if Shook is incorrect and McCarthy scores the upset, it will have meant that he had seriously turned the corner in his development — even Murray couldn’t stand in his way. Many Vikings fans are secretly hoping for the outcome; it’s just unlikely, given Murray’s track record held up against McCarthy’s.
Cinema at Training Camp Regardless
Minnesota really hasn’t featured a real quarterback battle since 2014 — the dawn of the Mike Zimmer era. That summer, rookie Teddy Bridgewater, veteran Matt Cassel, and the once-promising Christian Ponder vied for the top job, with Cassel prevailing briefly before losing his title due to injury early in the 2014 season.
Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy rushes into the end zone at Soldier Field, with Sept. 8, 2025 marking the second-half touchdown in Chicago against the Bears. McCarthy finishes the play with urgency as Minnesota’s offense leans on his legs during a key divisional road moment while the Vikings search for momentum. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images.
The Vikings, too, started to have a junior quarterback battle in 2024, but two things occurred: 1) Most fans understood that Sam Darnold would be the quarterback while McCarthy watched and learned indefinitely; 2) McCarthy tore his meniscus during the first preseason game, ending the battle on a sorrowful note.
Therefore, many newcomers to Vikings football have never experienced this — two guys battling it out in Eagan heat with the top prize of the QB1 scepter.
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That’s coming to Vikings training camp in four weeks.
Golden Opportunity for a Long-Term QB1
Both combatants have the chance of a lifetime, believe it or not. The Vikings drafted McCarthy for this very task in April 2024 — to be the franchise quarterback for perhaps a decade. A host of injuries have dampened that forecast, and in his first year as a starter, McCarthy looked pretty damn shaky, sans a few clutch moments that generated intense highlights — and memes.
Murray, on the other hand, can be another Baker Mayfield, cast off by his employer in pursuit of something better, with the player landing elsewhere and seizing a QB1 job for the long haul. That happened to Mayfield in 2023, and now in Tampa Bay, he’s just their franchise quarterback. That can occur for Murray in the Twin Cities.
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Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell observes minicamp work from the practice field at TCO Performance Center, with June 2026 placing the offseason scene in Eagan, Minnesota. O’Connell oversees quarterback timing and early installation as Minnesota builds toward training camp, under his staff’s direction during a vital evaluation window before camp. Mandatory Credit: YouTube.
And if all else fails, the Vikings have a new general manager named Nolan Teasley, who would, in theory, have the opportunity to size up the 2027 NFL Draft for a new quarterback, a convenient time for it because the next class of signal-callers already appears to be overflowing with talent.
Jul 2, 2026; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Braves pitcher Dylan Lee (52) throws against the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh inning at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images
The Atlanta Braves’ recent struggles may be spilling into the bullpen, an area of the team that has been solid for most of the season.
Atlanta, which will open a four-game series on Friday night against the visiting New York Mets, saw its relievers melt down on Thursday and allow eight runs in an 11-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Braves have lost 14 of their last 19 games to see their lead in the National League East shrink to 2 1/2 games over the Philadelphia Phillies.
New York, which is in last place in the division, did not play on Thursday. The Mets lost a three-game series at Toronto and have dropped 10 of their last 12 games.
The Atlanta bullpen, which posted a 2.14 ERA in June, finished the final four innings on Wednesday without allowing a hit.
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It was a different story on Thursday.
Dylan Lee, who entered the game with an 0.95 ERA, allowed three runs in one-third of an inning and saw his ERA grow to 1.64. Reliable Tyler Kinley gave up three runs in two-thirds of an inning, and Ian Hamilton and James Karinchak each gave up one run.
“Dylan has pitched a lot, so it’s something we’ve got to keep an eye on,” Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said. “We always talk about trying to keep those guys strong all the way through. (Lee) was good to go, and he’s been virtually untouchable this year.”
Atlanta setup man Robert Suarez is out with right elbow inflammation and won’t return until after the All-Star break.
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This will be the second series between Atlanta and New York this season. The Mets won two of three games from June 12-14 in New York.
The Mets will send Christian Scott (2-0, 3.20 ERA) to the mound on Friday to face fellow right-hander Grant Holmes (4-4, 3.96) of the Braves.
Scott will make his second start since spending two weeks on the injured list with a hip impingement. He returned on Saturday to start against Philadelphia and threw 4 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on three hits while striking out six in New York’s 6-2 victory.
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“I feel great,” Scott said afterward. “Felt like I attacked the zone pretty well for the most part. Just established my off-speed stuff early in the game and then kind of just rode the wave off of that.”
Scott, who made nine starts as a rookie in 2024, missed all of 2025 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Since his return this spring, Scott has been reliable. In 10 starts, he has allowed more than three runs just one time — when he gave up four in 4 2/3 innings against St. Louis on June 11 before going on the injured list.
He has made one career start against the Braves, taking a loss after allowing three runs over six innings in 2024.
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Holmes has made 15 starts, but his inability to pitch past the fifth inning in four of his last five starts caused the Braves to temporarily move him into a long relief role. In his last appearance against San Francisco on Saturday, he allowed just one hit over four scoreless innings in his team’s 5-0 loss.
Holmes has made two career starts against the Mets, going 0-1 with a 2.00 ERA and striking out 13 in nine innings.
Gervonta Davis has revealed the name of a past legend that he would have loved to have shared the ring with.
Davis has competed throughout multiple divisions in his career, claiming world honours at super featherweight, lightweight and super lightweight.
Since first becoming world champion just under a decade ago, ‘Tank’ has beaten the likes of Ryan Garcia, Rolly Romero and Isaac Cruz, winning 30 professional fights, with 28 of those coming by knockout.
While those are options for the future, a resurfaced clip has seen Davis reflect on one big name from history that he would have loved to have tested his skills against.
“In the past? My weight class? Pernell Whitaker.”
Whitaker was a four weight world champion from lightweight to light middleweight, and is widely viewed as one of the greatest defensive boxers of all time, prompting his induction in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2006.
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His final record stood at 40 wins from 46 professional fights, and a clash against Davis would have certainly been an intriguing match-up of styles.
Wimbledon is well underway and the upsets are starting to come thick and fast, with French Open champion and women’s fifth seed Mirra Andreeva the latest top seed to fall.
On the men’s side, fourth seed and title contender Ben Shelton lost in a match tiebreak against Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen on Tuesday in the biggest upset of the tournament so far, while former semi-finalist Elina Svitolina has also made a premature exit.
Reigning champion and third seed Iga Swiatek survived an almighty scare in her first-round match against Taylor Townsend, while top seed Aryna Sabalenka now faces a tough third-round against Jelena Ostapenko.
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Reigning men’s champion and top seed Jannik Sinner survived a scare of his own in the first round as he needed five sets to see off Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, while seventh seed Novak Djokovic remains a possible semi-final opponent for the Italian.
Follow the top players’ progress with our seed tracker here:
Men’s seeds
after second round
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Jannik Sinner (ITA) – ✅ plays Jenson Brooksby (USA) in third round
Alexander Zverev (GER) – ✅ plays Marcos Giron (USA) in third round
Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) – ✅ plays Michael Zheng (USA) in third round
Alex de Minaur (AUS) – ✅ plays Zachary Svajda (USA) in third round
Taylor Fritz (USA) – ✅ plays Lorenzo Sonego (ITA) in third round
Novak Djokovic (SRB) – ✅ plays Arthur Rinderknech [26] (FRA) in third round
Daniil Medvedev – ✅ plays Jan-Lennard Struff in third round
Flavio Cobolli (ITA) ✅ plays Karen Khachanov [19] in third round
Alexander Bublik (KAZ) ✅ – plays Frances Tiafoe [17] (USA) in third round
Casper Ruud (NOR) ❌ – knocked out first round by Hubert Hurkacz 4-6 2-6 6-7(7)
Andrey Rublev ❌ – knocked out first round by Roman Safiullin (Q) 4-6 7-6(6) 6-3 3-6 6-7(12)
Jiri Lehecka (CZE) ✅ – plays Jaume Munar (ESP) in third round
Luciano Darderi (ITA) ❌ – knocked out first round by Ethan Quinn 7-6 7-5 6-2
Jakub Mensik (CZE) ❌ – knocked out second round by Grigor Dimitrov 7-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4
Learner Tien (USA) ❌ – knocked out by second round by Marton Fucsovics 6-7 6-4 7-6 6-3
Frances Tiafoe (USA) – ✅ plays Alexander Bublik [10] (KHZ) in third round
Francisco Cerundolo (ARG)❌ knocked out first round by Jaume Munar 6-1 6-4 6-3
Karen Khachanov – ✅ plays Flavio Cobolli [9] in third round
Arthur Fils (FRA) ❌ – knocked out second round by Matteo Berrettini 6-4 7-5 3-6 6-3
Tommy Paul (USA) – ✅ plays Hubert Hurkacz (POL) in third round
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP) – ✅ plays Marton Fucsovics (HUN) in third round
Rafael Jodar (ESP) – ✅ plays Shintaro Mochizuki (JPN) in third round
Joao Fonseca (BRA) – ❌ knocked out by Roman Safiullin (Q) in third round 6-3 6-3 6-3
Arthur Rinderknech (FRA) – ✅ plays Novak Djokovic [7] (SRB) in third round
Cameron Norrie (GBR) ❌ knocked out first round by Michael Zheng (Q) 6-7 6-2 6-7 6-3 7-6
Ugo Humbert (FRA) ❌ knocked out by Zizou Bergs 6-2 7-5 4-6 3-6 6-3
Brandon Nakashima (USA) ❌ knocked out second round by Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4 6-7(6) 6-7(5) 7-6(6) 6-7(7)
Tomas Martin Etcheverry (ARG) ❌ knocked out first round by Lorenzo Sonego 4-6 4-6 7-6(2) 6-7(4)
Alejandro Tabilo (CHI) ❌ knocked out first round by Kamil Majchrzak 6-3 7-5 7-5
Ignacio Buse (PER) ❌ knocked out second round by Jenson Brooksby 6-2 6-2 6-3
Matteo Arnaldi (ITA) ❌ knocked out first round by Quentin Halys 6-3 1-6 6-7(5) 3-6
Jannik Sinner defeated Carlos Alcaraz in last year’s final (PA Wire)
Iga Swiatek is the defending women’s champion and the third seed (Getty)
Women’s seeds
after second round
Aryna Sabalenka – ✅ plays Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) in third round
Elena Rybakina (KAZ) – ✅ plays Elise Mertens [25] (BEL) in third round
Iga Swiatek (POL) – ✅ plays Alexandra Eala [29] (PHI) in third round
Jessica Pegula (USA) – ✅ plays Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (ESP) in third round
Mirra Andreeva ❌ knocked out second round by Barbora Krejcikova 4-6 7-5 6-4
Amanda Anisimova (USA) – ✅ plays Madison Keys [26] (USA) in third round
Coco Gauff (USA) – ✅ plays Clare Liu (USA) in third round
Elina Svitolina (UKR) ❌ – knocked out first round by Daria Snigur 5-7 2-6
Linda Noskova (CZE) – ✅ plays Sorana Cirstea [17] (ROM) in third round
Karolina Muchova (CZE) – ✅ plays Mananchaya Sawangkaew (THA) in third round
Belinda Bencic (SUI) – ✅ plays Anna Kalinskaya [19] in third round
Marta Kostyuk (UKR) – ✅ plays Emma Navarro [23] (USA) in third round
Jasmine Paolini (ITA) – ✅ plays Maria Sakkari (GRE) in third round
Naomi Osaka (JPN) – ✅ plays Daria Kasatkina (AUS) in third round
Diana Shnaider ❌ – knocked out second round by Liudmila Samsonova 4-6 6-4 2-6
Iva Jovic (USA) – ✅ plays Ekaterina Alexandrova [18] in third round
Sorana Cirstea (ROU) ✅ – plays Linda Noskova [9] (CHZ) in third round
Ekaterina Alexandrova – ✅ plays Iva Jovic [16] (USA) in third round
Anna Kalinskaya – ✅ plays Belina Bencic [11] (SUI) in third round
Maja Chwalinska (POL) ❌ – knocked out first round by Mananchaya Sawangkaew 2-6 7-5 6-2
Marie Bouzkova (CZE) – ✅ plays Liudmila Samsonova in third round
Leylah Fernandez (CAN) ❌ – knocked out first round by Janice Tjen 6-1 7-6
Emma Navarro (USA) – ✅ – plays Marta Kostyuk [12](UKR) in third round
Clara Tauson (DEN) ❌ – knocked out first round by Maria Sakkari 6-3 6-3
Elise Mertens (BEL) – ✅ plays Elena Rybakina [2] (KHZ) in third round
Madison Keys (USA) – ✅ plays Amanda Anisimova [6](USA) in third round
Anastasia Potapova ❌ – knocked out first round by Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-2 6-3
Ann Li (USA) ❌ – knocked out first round by Zeynep Sonmez 5-7 6-1 4-6
Alexandra Eala (PHI) – ✅ plays Iga Swiatek [3] (POL) in third round
Emma Raducanu (GBR) ❌ – withdrew due to injury
Donna Vekic (CRO) ❌ – knocked out first round by Ashlyn Krueger 6-3 6-7(3) 4-6
Katerina Siniakova (CZE) ❌ – knocked out second round by Nikola Bartunkova 6-3 3-6 7-5
A top Athletics outfield prospect still can’t feel his lower half after spinal surgery was needed to repair fractured vertebrae following a scary collision with a teammate in Double-A ball.
Ryan Lasko, a 24-year-old outfielder in the Athletics system, was injured during a game with Double-A Midland RockHounds after diving to catch a ball while playing center field.
The problem was Lasko’s right field teammate was also barreling down to catch the ball. They both gave up their bodies for the potential catch and collided as they hit the turf.
Ryan Lasko of the Athletics makes a jumping throw during a Spring Training game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at HoHoKam Stadium on March 8, 2026, in Mesa, Arizona.(Brandon Sloter/Getty Images)
Lasko’s teammate, Devin Taylor, was able to get up and field the rolling ball that split the two defenders, but Lasko stayed on the ground in what was a pretty ugly crash.
After he was carted off, it was found that Lasko fractured his C6-C7 vertebra, according to MLB.com. He needed spinal decompression and stabilization surgery to repair the injury, and he was in stable condition.
However, due to swelling, Lasko still doesn’t have feeling in his lower half just yet.
Ryan Lasko of the Midland Rockhounds poses for a photo during the Midland Rockhounds photo day at Momentum Bank Ballpark on Monday, March 30, 2026, in Midland, Texas.(John E. Moore III/MLB Photos)
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay discussed Lasko’s injury on Wednesday, saying that “there’s hope the feeling comes back.”
Lasko is one of the Athletics’ top prospects, entering the season as the franchise’s No. 18 prospect, per MLB Pipeline. He was taken by the Athletics’ in the 2023 MLB Draft in the second round.
While he opened the season in Double-A, Lasko made it to Triple-A Las Vegas last season.
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Ryan Lasko of the Athletics bats during the second inning of a spring training game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Hohokam Stadium on March 8, 2026, in Mesa, Arizona.(Diamond Images/Getty Images)
Some years ago, the chief executive officer of a cybersecurity firm, fresh off the biggest deal of his career, resolved to celebrate as avid golfers do: with a round at a course he’d long dreamed of playing. The name of that course was not Augusta National, which would have been an easier get.
After trying and failing to gain access through his tech-world contacts, the CEO turned to his last and best resort. His firm, the sponsor of a PGA Tour event, gave him a direct line to Ponte Vedra, where a top executive had pledged to help arrange an outing on any course he wished. In went the request, and back came the answer.
Sorry, that’s one place we can’t do.
“So, that gives you a sense of how we’ve operated here,” Randy Fry said the other day.
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IT WAS A BLAZING AFTERNOON in June, and Fry was sitting on a shaded patio in the hills about an hour south of San Francisco. Behind him stretched the green folds of a course where he has hosted guests for decades — if only precious few.
Private enclaves are commonplace in golf. But even the stoutest barriers to entry seem quaint compared to those erected around Fry’s home club, The Institute. To call it exclusive leaves a lot unsaid. In the digital age, when even the most sequestered corners of the game eventually surface on a screen, The Institute has remained stubbornly invisible. Until recently, Googling it yielded almost nothing reliable. Images were scarce beyond a few distant drone shots. Unsubstantiated stories filled in for facts. One told of a course so meticulously maintained that fresh sod was laid the instant any divots were taken. Others were old-fashioned tales of woe involving business tycoons and globetrotting list-chasers who’d rapped at the gates and were turned away. Basic course information was elusive. The scorecard showed up nowhere. The architect’s identity was a subject of debate, the guest list a source of speculation.
What most everyone agreed on was that the usual currencies of access held no sway. Neither bloodlines nor bankroll mattered. An invite to play was a lottery-odds long shot. It depended on your having a specific kind of tie to a group of fewer than a dozen people. For everyone else, The Institute was less a private club than a rumor with a zip code, as enigmatic as it was out of reach.
That’s now changed.
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“It’s exciting,” Fry said. “The cat’s out of the bag.”
Partly, anyway.
The Institute has not opened its tee sheet to the public. Far from it. But it has lifted its veil of secrecy, slightly, just enough to let a few more people and prying eyes in. The club is looking to add members — a tiny number, thank you — and exploring the possibility of hosting a professional tour event, potentially as early as next year.
All of this is part of a transition that began just before Covid lockdowns and has proceeded in a quiet, deliberate manner suited to the property’s reputation and the personality of the man spearheading the shift.
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At 68, with white hair crowning a sun-ruddied face, Randy Fry has the tall, sturdy build of the tight end he once was and the self-assured mien of the executive he is. He has, for decades, steered clear of publicity. Before last month, he’d never spoken on the record about The Institute.
“To know me is to know that I don’t walk into a room and tell people who I am,” Fry said. “I just lay low. I listen. People ask me what I do, I say, ‘I’m semi-retired.’”
For much his career, he kept busy with Fry’s Electronics, the retail juggernaut he built with his brothers, John and David, using seed money from the sale of Fry’s Food and Drug, a supermarket chain their father co-founded and ran. From its birth in 1985 with a single store in Sunnyvale, Calif., Fry’s Electronics expanded to 36 locations in nine states, accounting, at their peak, for estimated annual sales of $3.2 billion. In the emergent digital age, the stores were fixtures of the zeitgeist, beloved by computer nerds and garage tinkerers, and promoted through near-ubiquitous radio ads whose tagline — “The best buys are always at Fry’s. Guaranteed!” punctuated by laser-gun fire — became a meme before “meme” entered the mainstream.
Gradually, then suddenly, business cratered. The rise of online shopping signaled trouble. Box-store sales sagged. In 2021, struggling in a retail landscape reshaped by Amazon, Fry’s Electronics folded and its outposts went dark.
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But they left a grassy legacy behind.
The Institute is finally cracking open its gates.
Leo Sens/GOLF
ALONG WITH EARLY LESSONS in Business 101, the three Fry boys had received a childhood introduction to golf. Their father loved the game and sponsored the Tour pro Jackie Cupit, who would stay with the family when competitions brought him to Northern California.
“We grew up with golf all around us,” Randy said.
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During college, at Santa Clara University, he mothballed his sticks, playing one year as a walk-on tight end before turning to crew. He picked up his clubs again after graduation but played only sporadically. Though he enjoyed the challenge and the recreation, he came to see another purpose for the game.
At many of the most exclusive golf clubs, deal-making is discouraged. Randy and his brothers flipped that script, setting out to build a course expressly for that purpose: a luxe retreat whose sole reason for existing was hosting clients. For that, they needed land, which they found in Morgan Hill, near San Jose, on a site once occupied by the Flying Lady, a giant aviation-themed restaurant, museum and resort with a modest nine-hole course beside it. When the Flying Lady went bankrupt in 1994, the Frys bought the property. Two years and $22 million later, The Institute welcomed its first rounds.
There was no ceremony, no ribbon-cutting. In wider industry circles, though, there were whispers. Jeff Sanchez, a Bay Area-born golf professional, first caught wind of them in the late 1990s, while working at a resort in the Carolinas.
“You heard about a handful of people that got to play,” said Sanchez, who now serves as The Institute’s general manager. “Stories about walking the fairways with caddies and these elegant meals after golf. You weren’t sure if they were real stories or if that was really happening.”
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It was — on an extremely limited basis. The club’s policy was simple and restrictive. Aside from Randy, John and David Fry, eight top Fry’s executives were entitled to bring guests, but only if those guests were deemed important clients. Whether a candidate met the threshold was determined by the Frys. Without their sign-off, the answer was no — frequently delivered to people unaccustomed to hearing that word.
“The cat’s out of the bag,” Randy Fry says of his club.
Leo Sens/GOLF
As for those who cleared the bar, they found that “yes” could be disorienting, too. Take the Panasonic CEO. Invited for a round in the years before the iPhone existed, he arrived to find an empty parking lot, a desolate locker room and a host who explained, matter-of-factly, that they would be the only group on the property. For a course that averaged roughly eight rounds a week, that was not unusual. Still, the CEO was gobsmacked. As Randy Fry relays the story, the executive surveyed the silent, immaculate grounds, then announced that he would have to leave immediately. “I have to go buy a camera,” he said. “No one is going to believe this.”
Adding to the mystique was the club’s non-golfy name, which hinted at its intended dual purpose: It was meant to double as the new headquarters of the American Institute of Mathematics, which John Fry established to further research and education in the field. Plans included designs for a 164,000-square-foot clubhouse called the Castle, patterned on the Alhambra in Spain, a 13th-century marvel of Moorish engineering. Work crews went so far as to dig a giant hole for an underground parking garage that would sit below the Castle, where, as the Frys envisioned it, golf operations would share space with brainiacs engaged in high-brow cogitation.
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Construction stalled, though, in the wake of tragedy. In 2010, a pipeline explosion in the South Bay city of San Bruno killed eight people. Due to the nearby location of two major gas lines, PG&E filed a lawsuit to stop the project. The case was settled 12 years later with a mutual walkaway. The giant hole was filled in and The Institute built a par-3 course called the ‘little i’ instead.
That marked a change, but it wasn’t the club’s most significant shift. For years, Fry’s Electronics more than justified the existence of the course and the millions of dollars required to maintain it. Given the business sums at stake, the balance sheet fell heavily in the brothers’ favor.
“If we were doing, say, $400 million with a vendor, and we could shave off three percentage points, and you times that by 40 vendors, next thing you know, you’re way ahead of the game,” Randy said. “And they just can’t wait to come back the next year and make another deal.”
Nothing, however, lasts forever. The Frys weren’t blind to that. As early as 2011, they’d begun to contemplate a different future for The Institute, with functions that extended beyond business. There was talk of morphing into a members club and maybe staging a PGA Tour event, which would not have been a stretch. At the time, Fry’s was the title sponsor of the Frys.com Open, which, after stints in Las Vegas and Arizona, had moved to Cordevalle, a 10-minute drive across the valley from The Institute.
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Ultimately, it was determined that the course wasn’t yet ready for the big stage; its tournament infrastructure needed work. But that was then. If all goes as planned, the club will soon be holding a coming-out party.
“I’m not nervous about exposing The Institute,” Randy said. “I think it’s time.”
Which invites the question: What is there to see?
High points on the course give way to long, unspoiled views.
Channing Benjamin
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THE ENTRANCE TO THE INSTITUTE sits a few miles and several turns off Highway 101 in Morgan Hill, where a narrow road dead ends at a security gate. Affixed to it is the club logo — a curvy lower-case “i” of the kind used in mathematical notations. Enter an access code and you’re in, up a hill and around a corner to a parking lot beside a white building with green trim, a color scheme reminiscent of the one found at the end of Magnolia Lane.
It’s one of multiple Augusta-like touches. The course itself spills across ample shifts in elevation, its layout ornamented with creeks and ponds and outsize alabaster bunkers. Pine trees line many holes — since its inception, the club has planted more than 25,000 trees — their lower branches trimmed to allow for swings, the ground beneath them strewn with pine straw brought in from Georgia. Conditioning, a point of pride from the start, has been taken to Masters-level refinement by Brad Owen, the former longtime Augusta National superintendent, who came aboard as a consultant in 2025, along with former USGA agronomist Adam Moeller.
Alister MacKenzie, who co-created Augusta with Bobby Jones, did not design The Institute. But neither did Robert Muir Graves nor Damian Pascuzzo, as online posts alternately assert. Those architects provided guidance, but, according to Randy Fry, the routing was dreamed up by his brother, John, and an associate, Steve Sorenson. In recent years, Bruce Charlton of Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s design firm, has been brought on to help with modifications.
“There is always something to do,” Randy said. “We will never really be finished.”
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John Fry lived on property during construction and for years after, serving as a driving force behind the operation. But he has since relocated to Florida, closer to a golf project that the Frys are developing in the Bahamas. David Fry is an active Institute member but does not take part in club governance. Of the siblings, Randy is the most involved in the day to day. The head of the club’s three-person board, which includes John and a prominent Silicon Valley member, he drives down most mornings from San Francisco to tend to details large and small. He plays once or twice a week, shooting in the 80s when his form is right.
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ON A RECENT JUNE AFTERNOON, Fry and a guest constituted the lone group on the course, joined by two caddies. Club policy calls for walking and for each golfer to have his own looper. Fry himself has a personal rule, which he cites as a refrain to guests.
“Whoever has the most fun wins,” he said. “That’s the game.”
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At 441 yards, with a yawning fairway bunker on the left, The Institute’s 1st hole is a formidable test and a fitting introduction to a gut-check opening stretch that asks a lot of the driver. The back nine poses a different sort of challenge with what Jeff Sanchez describes as “the television holes” — water-laden and rich in risk and reward. Highlights include a par-5 14th that emulates the 13th at Augusta with its dogleg bend and crossing creek. The par-3 that precedes it so closely resembles the 12th at Augusta that a prominent golf-industry figure requested that the front bunker be removed to keep the hole from looking too much like a clone. The Institute obliged.
The design includes a nod to the 13th at Augusta National.
Leo Sens/GOLF
For all its allusions to other layouts — the green on the downhill, dogleg-right 10th is long and hourglass-shaped like the 4th at Spyglass, though set at a different angle, while the approach to the par-4 15th has steep false front inspired by the 10th at Shinnecock — The Institute is not a replica course. It has a Northern California character of its own, stitched into a live-oak studded canvas along hills that go from emerald to gold as spring gives way to summer. Nor, though, is it of the minimalist style that sets the hearts of today’s architectural tastemakers aflutter, with its celebration of tawny turf and sandy wastes and rustic, jagged edges. It is not a likely candidate for the World Top 100. But it is a stand-alone experience.
Fry, for his part, does not seem overly concerned with rankings. He is, however, consumed with details. He speaks at length of trees the club has planted, drainage work beneath a fairway, bunker edges and green runoffs that took painstaking efforts to perfect, among other projects that occupy his days. He is equally attentive to the course’s stories. Along the left side of the 15th hole sits a ranch house where John Fry lived during the club’s early years and where Tiger Woods stayed when he played the 2011 Frys.com Open at nearby CordeValle. (The club currently has six bedrooms, with eight more to come). Beside the finishing hole, a multi-colored flower bed has been planted in the shape of the club’s “i” logo, an idea Randy borrowed after seeing a similar display at Valderrama.
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As golfers make the turn, the club treats them to another flourish. Staff members set out a linen-covered table with a mid-round snack and drink — on this recent afternoon, tempura asparagus and a beet-and-ginger energy shot — part of a culinary program that the club considers a calling card on par with its conditioning and exclusivity. The cuisine keeps coming after the round with an elegant, multi-course lunch.
The meal is served in a rotunda-shaped clubhouse that, in an earlier life, was a church. The Frys preserved its bones but repurposed the sanctuary into a light-filled space with windows, sliding glass doors, a kitchen and an intimate wood-paneled locker room. There is also a small pro shop — the hats on sale have math formulas scribbled underneath their brims — and an office for the longtime head professional, Greg Fitzgerald, an amiable, bearded redhead who has been likened lightheartedly around the club to the Maytag repairman — the handyman of TV commercial fame whose phone never rang because nothing ever broke. The joke being that Fitzgerald wasn’t exactly running himself ragged at a place that got so little play.
“Early in my career, when I I worked at a resort in South Carolina, our target on a good day was 200 rounds,” Sanchez said. At the same time, he noted, The Institute was hosting 250 rounds a year.
The math has long been different for the maintenance staff. Around 50 groundskeepers help tend to a course that might not see that many loops in a month.
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THE METICULOUS CARE CONTINUED uninterrupted even after Fry’s Electronics shuttered in 2021. The course had lost its original business rationale, but by then it had evolved into something else. Just before the pandemic, the club admitted its first members — a class of 32 who each paid an initiation fee of $1.
“For the members we seem to attract, I don’t think money is that important,” Sanchez said. “It’s the experience they’re interested in.”
The $1 fee was symbolic — a thank-you of sorts to those who had helped shape the culture of the club. There was also an understanding that dues would rise. They have.
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Existing members were able to convert to equity memberships for $150,000, a price that Fry said will climb closer to $200,000 as the club approaches its target of 50 members. Those ranks might eventually grow to 75, and Fry expects dues to rise with them,
Membership isn’t the club’s only ambition. Discussions about hosting a professional tournament have resumed, and the infrastructure that once wasn’t is now in place. Land beside the 4th hole has been graded for what could serve as a television compound. The club owns another 40 acres across the road that could accommodate tournament parking. Modular buildings that housed tournament operations during the Frys.com Open have been moved to the property, where they overlook the 18th green and the gentle waterfall that flanks it. Though they declined to discuss which tour is the leading candidate, Fry and Sanchez said there’s a chance the event will come together as early as next year.
In 2023, the club staged something of a dress rehearsal when it hosted an NCAA regional final. Given The Institute’s cloaked reputation, one might have expected that event to set off a wave of publicity. But it passed with surprisingly little notice.
Now the club is inviting a closer look. There’s a risk in that. For decades, The Institute’s greatest claim to fame was the mystery around it. It existed, for most people, in imagination only. Peel back the veil, and reality is left to compete with myth.
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Fry knows as much. He just doesn’t seem to mind.
He’s not nostalgic for the days when the course sat empty except for the occasional client outing. Adding members — even just a smattering — and staging a big-time tournament might dispel the mystique around The Institute. But that has been replaced by what Fry sees as a different kind of magic.
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