FOR every Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy hitting the high notes in the world of golf there’s a slump dogging some of the sport’s most famous multi-millionaires — and that’s no fun at all.
Truly this game giveth and then taketh away. Once the magic fades and the golf ball no longer obeys the wishes of its owner, it sets up a chain reaction that can result in a seemingly unstoppable meltdown.
All golfers, particularly professionals, are destined to suffer a drop in form at some point.
The big problems arise when what started as a blip, then evolved into a run of bad luck and then a bad year, transmutes into a downward spiral that seems irreversible.
Of course, it’s all relative.
Baseball
Four years after trading Carlos Quentin from Arizona to the Chicago White Sox, new Padres general manager Josh Byrnes is bringing the All-Star outfielder back to San Diego.
Byrnes acquired Quentin from the White Sox for two prospects on Saturday.
The trade is expected to bolster San Diego’s anemic offense. Quentin has four consecutive 20-homer seasons, including 36 in 2008. He will play leftfield.
The White Sox received minor league pitchers Simon Castro, a right-hander, and Pedro Hernandez, a left-hander.
While GM of the Diamondbacks, Byrnes traded Quentin to the White Sox for first baseman Chris Carter in December 2007.
Quentin, 29, hit .254 with 24 home runs, a career-high 31 doubles and 77 RBIs in 118 games in 2011, when he made his second All-Star team.
More baseball: The Blue Jays agreed to a minor league contract with left-hander Aaron Laffey and invited him to spring training.
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Forget the eagle, the real enemy is the bear.
Despite the broadcast world’s best efforts to create a hockey rivalry between Canada and the United States, Canadians know this morning, if they didn’t already, that the rival that matters most in hockey is Russia – just as it was 40 years ago.
Tuesday night, the two hockey powers met in the semi-finals of the world junior hockey championship and the Russians put a crushing end to any hopes Canada had of a gold medal with a hard-fought 6-5 victory.
In a game that at times had all the high drama of the legendary 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, the teenaged Russians bested the Canadian teenagers in a game that held every emotion imaginable in sport.
In the end, however, it was pure despair for the Canadians, unable to complete a valiant third-period comeback that simply ran out of time.
The victorious Russians now move on to play Sweden Thursday, when they will defend the gold medal they won last year in Buffalo, while the Canadians will meet Finland, a team they defeated 8-1 in the preliminary round, for the bronze medal – an award many Canadians take to be the ultimate insult in their national game.
For 10 consecutive years, Canada had played in the gold-medal match of this tournament, at one point winning five championships in a row.
The Russians won on precisely the strategy the Canadians had used successfully in the preliminary round played in Edmonton – a fast start – when speedy Yevgeni Kuznetsov scored off a pass from highly touted 2012 draft prospect Nail Yakupov and then went ahead 2-0 when Nikita Nesterov blasted a shot from the point on a Russian power play.
“It’s important for us to get off to a good start,” Team Canada head coach Don Hay had said earlier in the day. They did not, and
Poulter fired a six-under-par 65 at Victoria Golf Club to gain a one-stroke advantage over local hopeful Ashley Hall.
Peter Lonard, Jarrod Lyle and Matthew Giles were among six players on 67, one shot clear of Rod Pampling and Richard Green and two ahead of Donald.
Australian Greg Chalmers, looking to add another trophy after his recent Australian Open and Australian PGA titles, matched Donald’s 69, while defending champion Stuart Appleby returned a 70 after deciding only at the last minute that he was fit to play.
Nathan Green’s 69 included the shot of the day when he holed his second from the fairway for eagle at the par-four third.
SILVIO Berlusconi believes AC Milan would provide the perfect environment for Carlos Tevez to relaunch his career.
The Rossoneri have made no secret of their admiration for the Argentina striker, who is currently back in South America after a dispute with Manchester City which centres around his conduct during the Champions League loss at Bayern Munich in September.
Paris St Germain have also been linked but Milan owner Berlusconi has urged the 27-year-old to put footballing reasons at the top of his agenda as he seeks a new club.
“If he comes with us, he will win the Golden Ball award,” Berlusconi told the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. “Tevez has two options, one which regards prestige and the other one money.
LONDON (AP) – A top British official says the government has spent 750,000 pounds ($1.26 million) on tickets to entertain dignitaries and business leaders at next summers Olympic games in London.
Jonathan Stephens, the most senior civil servant in Britains department of culture, media and sport, told lawmakers Wednesday that offering possible investors or business leaders a free seat would help “secure maximum benefit for Britain” from the 2012 games.
Lawmaker Margaret Hodge, however, said many members of the public cant afford Olympic tickets and would be appalled by the governments outlay.
Britains government is making sharp public spending cuts, which will amount to about 104 billion pounds ($160 billion) by 2016.