England

Subterms

    More stories

    • 63 Shares99 Views

      in Tennis

      The Changing Grass at Wimbledon

      by

      It starts off lush, but by the second week, a lack of moisture can alter the game. Players must adjust.On the surface, Wimbledon is more steeped in tradition than any other tennis tournament, yet it undergoes more radical changes from day to day than any other Grand Slam because it is the only one played on grass. As its grass courts gradually lose their moisture and then patches of the grass itself, players must continually adjust.Fifty years ago many tournaments, including three of the four Grand Slams, were played on grass. But today, many players play only one or two grass-court tournaments before Wimbledon.“The players are on hard courts almost all year and have no doubts there, but they’re not getting many reps on grass,” said Tracy Austin, a Tennis Channel analyst who reached two semifinals and won a mixed doubles title at Wimbledon. “Players get psyched out by the grass.”As Ian Westermann, the author of “Essential Tennis,” said, “Players have to problem-solve and think on their feet.”Wimbledon used to be even more distinctive, but in a way that many fans found repetitive and boring. Grass courts play fast, and the ball stays low, so matches were once an onslaught of serve-and-volley points, which reduced the drama. In 2001, the tournament switched grasses, replacing a mix that was 70 percent ryegrass and 30 percent creeping red fescue with 100 percent ryegrass.Groundskeepers at work on Wimbledon’s Centre Court during the tournament in 2021.Pool photo by Jed LeicesterThe new lawn made the courts more durable and provided cleaner bounces, while allowing Wimbledon to keep the soil beneath drier and firmer. That yielded higher bounces and slowed the game, which Eddie Seaward, who was then the head groundskeeper, acknowledged was needed for the good of the sport.The serve-and-volley quickly fell from favor. Craig O’Shannessy, the director of the Brain Game Tennis website, said that, in 2002, 33 percent of the men’s points featured that approach, but three years later, that number had dropped to 19 percent. Since 2008, the serve-and-volley has been used 5 to 10 percent of the time.But O’Shannessy cited statistics revealing that even as usage fell, the serve-and-volley remained a winning tactic: Two-thirds of serve-and-volley points were won by men, a figure that has not varied for two decades. O’Shannessy cited a “herd mentality” for abandoning the tactic and said players should attack more frequently.Austin said rallying is now part of Wimbledon. She said that as changes in strings and playing styles gave returners more weapons against the serve-and-volley, players began engaging in baseline rallies on the grass.Serve-and-volley “is successful because it’s not predictable,” she said, adding that players no longer learn or practice the serve-and-volley style, so they’re not comfortable doing it often.Wimbledon still requires a different skill set and mind-set from the other Grand Slams. While there are longer baseline rallies now, Westermann said, “grass places a premium on first-strike tennis. You just have to take your shot.”Patrick McEnroe, an ESPN analyst, said that players in his day had to charge the net immediately because service returns otherwise stayed too low, but that now the ball was more likely to come up high enough for the server to hit an aggressive ground stroke.“It’s easier to hit a first ball from the middle of the court with your forehand than with a volley,” McEnroe said. “And a mediocre volley is likely to bounce higher now, giving your opponent more of a chance to hit a passing shot.”Austin said that “serve-plus-one” style wasn’t always feasible without a big serve, but McEnroe said players should focus on “taking the ball early and moving forward” to win the point in one or two shots.Westermann said big servers still could go further in Wimbledon than on other Grand Slam surfaces, and McEnroe added that the wide slice serve was especially effective because it is harder to reach and harder to recover from on the low, fast court.Additionally, Wimbledon favors players who can hit through the court with hard, flat ground strokes. Topspin, the shot that brought Rafael Nadal endless success on clay, is less effective here because the deadened bounce leaves the ball in an opponent’s comfort zone.To optimize the lower bounce, Austin and McEnroe said the slice backhand — important to Roger Federer’s Wimbledon glory — was an essential weapon. “The slice stays so low and the spin is even more squirrelly on grass, especially because there are still uneven bounces there,” Austin said.More than other surfaces, grass rewards players who can improvise off low or bad bounces, McEnroe said. “Clay requires more point construction, but on grass, the advantage is to the superior technical players who have the best racket skills,” he said.Ashleigh Barty celebrated after winning her Wimbledon singles final last year against Karolina Pliskova. In the second week of the tournament, players must deal with the grass as it turns to dust and dirt.Pool photo by Ben QueenboroughThe bounces are lower and the ball moves slower in the first week, O’Shannessy said, because there is more water in the blades of grass. “Your butt and hamstrings will be way more sore playing on grass from getting down low,” he said.That moisture also causes players to slip on the run, Austin said, adding that “it gets in their head” as they worry about potential injuries.McEnroe said players can’t just explode and run all out. “Your feet have to be light, and while you run, you have to think, ‘How am I going to stop?’” he said.As the second week begins, the grass dries out and the soil hardens — barring rain — producing a higher bounce, making topspin more effective.As second-week regulars, returning players have an edge, O’Shannessy said: They are experienced in dealing with the grass as it turns to dust and dirt. “You’re often moving between two different surfaces, and if you’re not used to it, that can be difficult,” he said.The dirt surrounding the baseline where the players hit many of their shots not only changes the bounce again, but it also becomes slippery. “Complaining about the dirt is another Wimbledon tradition,” Westermann said.While it might be tempting for players to back up for better footwork and time to adjust to the bounces, he said, that tactic just allows opponents to go on the offensive.“Players instead need to double down and take the ball early,” he said. “Players who are confident and aggressive will be rewarded.” More

    • 138 Shares109 Views

      in Soccer

      World Cup 2022: What to Know as Teams Prepare for Qatar

      by

      The World Cup draw is Friday in Qatar, even though the entire field isn’t yet complete. While we don’t know all the teams, we do know quite a bit about how things will play out. Here’s a primer on the world’s greatest sporting spectacle.When is the World Cup?The opening match is Nov. 21 (three days before Thanksgiving in the United States). Over the month that follows, all the games will take place in a tight circle of eight stadiums in and around Qatar’s capital, Doha, making it the most compact World Cup in history.The final is Dec. 18 — a week before Christmas, which means the Doha airport on the morning of Dec. 19 is going to look like the entrance to a Walmart on Black Friday.Wait, don’t they play the World Cup in July?They always had, until Qatar got it.Qatar, like the other bidders, initially proposed holding the tournament in its normal summer window, and brushed aside any suggestion it could not do so with the help of cooling technology that did not, at the time, exist. As The Times wrote on the day of the vote in 2010:“Qatar’s bid overcame concerns about heat that can reach 120 degrees there in the summer. Officials say they will build air-conditioned stadiums, spending $4 billion to upgrade three arenas and build nine new ones in a compact area connected by a subway system.”It took more than four years, but in 2015 FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, eventually concluded that a summer World Cup in 120-degree temperatures might bring unneeded problems (like, say, fans and players dying) and agreed to move the tournament to the relatively cooler months of November and December.The Education City stadium in Al Rayyan, one of eight built or remodeled for the 2022 World Cup.David Ramos/Getty ImagesWhat about the league games that normally take place then?Oh, the leagues grumbled. A lot. But they lost.The switch to winter will disrupt not only league competitions in Europe and elsewhere, but also the lucrative UEFA Champions League, and it will require starting seasons earlier or finishing them later, or both.A winter World Cup also would leave those professionals who do not go to Qatar — less than 800 of the world’s players take part — with a midseason break that could extend to two months, once pretournament camps and friendlies and post-Cup rest is factored in.Fox Sports, which paid hundreds of millions of dollars for the United States broadcast rights, will have to wedge in a month of soccer games around another fall sport that tends to demand attention that time of year. Maybe you’ve heard of the N.F.L.?How many teams get in?A total of 32. They’ll be split into eight groups of four. The top two finishers in each group advance to the round of 16. After that, the World Cup is a straight knockout tournament.Which countries have qualified?Qatar qualified automatically as the host, and 28 other teams so far have joined it. Those include most of the biggest teams from Europe and South America: England and Germany, Brazil and Argentina, France and Spain.Canada is in. The United States and Mexico joined the field on Wednesday night.Ukraine might still go. Russia will not.Three places remain unclaimed. One will come from Europe, where Ukraine’s playoff against Scotland was postponed by war. Those teams will meet in June, with the winner to face Wales for Europe’s final place.The other two entries will come from two intercontinental playoffs that month: Costa Rica will face New Zealand, the Oceania survivor, in one game, and Peru, the fifth-place team from South America, will face an Asian team, either Australia or the United Arab Emirates.Are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo going?Yes and yes.Argentina, and Messi, qualified in November. But Portugal, and Ronaldo, needed to sweat out a European playoff after botching its guaranteed route to the finals in the group stage.Will Qatar be Lionel Messi’s last World Cup?Franklin Jacome/Pool Via ReutersWho won’t be there?Erling Haaland, for one. (Norway didn’t qualify.) Mohamed Salah. (Egypt lost to Senegal on penalty kicks for the second time in a month.)Oh, and Italy. But then that’s not new for them. The Italians missed the 2018 tournament, too. Whoops.When will the games take place?Qatar is in the same time zone as Moscow. So whatever strategy you used to wake up early (or stay up late) for the games in 2018 will work this time, too. But it will mean kickoffs as early as 4 a.m. Eastern, and no later than 2 p.m. Eastern.How can I find out who my team is playing?The World Cup draw is Friday in Qatar. In it, all 29 teams that have qualified and the three still to be determined will be placed in groups. So by the end of the day, you’ll know which three teams your team will face in the group stage, and have a good idea of who might await in the knockout rounds.Harry Kane and England made the semifinals at the last World Cup and the final at last summer’s European Championship. Could 2022 be their year at last?Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWho are the favorites?The usual suspects qualified early, so many of them, in fact, that our soccer columnist, Rory Smith, wrote in November that “the likelihood is that the winner is already there.”Quite what the tournament, riddled with scandal and concern from the day Qatar was announced as the host, will be like cannot yet be known. The identities of the teams who will contest it, though, are — for the most part — extremely familiar.Most, if not quite all, of the traditional contenders are already there: a 10-country-strong European contingent led by France, the defending champion, and Belgium, officially the world’s best team, as well as the likes of Spain and England and Germany. They have been joined by the two great powerhouses of South America, Brazil and Argentina.More than a dozen more teams have joined the party since those sentences were written last year. Which is to say that, in March, it’s still wide open. More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Soccer

      Decades After a Disaster, English Soccer Fans May Stand Again

      by

      A practice banned for decades could return with new safety features.There was a time when thousands of fans at every English soccer game would stand throughout the match in spectator areas without seats. But after fans were crushed to death in the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, standing areas were banned as unsafe.Still, many fans pined nostalgically for the days of standing. And now, after many years, England’s top two soccer leagues will be allowed to add standing areas again, with safeguards, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority, a government advisory board, said Wednesday.In the past, standing fans were put in sloped, concrete areas. Often there were more fans standing than sitting at games.It was a cheaper way to see the game, and the proximity to fellow enthusiasts often made for a great atmosphere. But the areas sometimes grew rowdy, and especially after a goal, surges of fans could knock people over.During the height of hooliganism in the ’70s and ’80s, fighting sometimes broke out between rival sets of fans. This led teams to erect fences to separate standing fans from their rivals, and also sometimes from the field.That fencing contributed mightily to the Hillsborough disaster, when nearly 100 Liverpool fans in a crowded standing terrace at an F.A. Cup semifinal in Sheffield were crushed to death.Although standing was not the direct cause of the disaster — poor policing was, according to inquiries — the government nonetheless banned standing at games and insisted that every spectator have a seat.But for 30 years, many fans have carried a torch for standing at games. They said that they missed the atmosphere and that standing could be organized more safely than it was in its heyday. They also noted that many fans stood by their seats for a good part of games anyway.Although movement on the issue has taken decades, standing advocates have built momentum, and recently approval has seemed imminent. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which opened in 2019, was designed with two areas that could quickly be converted into so-called safe standing areas should it be permitted.Teams in the top two divisions can apply now to start standing areas in January. But those areas will look very different from the open concrete slopes of old.First, there will be seats there that fold up, so that fans can choose to sit if they like. No more than one fan for each seat will be admitted to the area, to avoid the tightly packed throngs that were often seen last century.In addition, metal rails will be placed between each row. Fans can lean on them, and they will also help keep people in their own rows, preventing excited forward surges of humanity that could be dangerous.Safe standing has been implemented elsewhere in the world, with success. German top-flight stadiums include thousands of spots for standers. Orlando City, L.A.F.C. and Minnesota are among the M.L.S. teams with safe standing areas. In Britain, Celtic of Glasgow began allowing a few thousand standees in the 2016-17 season. “We are beyond delighted to finally claim a win for the F.S.A.’s Safe Standing campaign,” Kevin Miles, chief executive of the Football Supporters’ Association, a fan advocacy group, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Today’s announcement is the result of prolonged and sustained campaigning by football fans.”Vinai Venkatesham, Arsenal’s chief executive, said Wednesday that the club would meet with fans next week to talk about adding standing areas. “It is something we are looking at,” he said. “We need to see what any implications will be, such as would it reduce the capacity. But we will listen to what our fans say and explore what can be done.”Tariq Panja More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Tennis

      What Emma Raducanu Means for a More Complex Britain

      by

      Emma Raducanu, 18, galvanized the nation with her triumph in the U.S. Open, drawing congratulations from royalty and inspiring pride in her hometown outside London.LONDON — At long last, Britain got the outpouring of national jubilation it has craved this summer, not from a men’s soccer team that narrowly missed sports immortality but from a young woman with a radiant smile, Emma Raducanu, who stormed from obscurity to win the U.S. Open tennis title on Saturday.The straight-set victory of Ms. Raducanu, 18, over Leylah Fernandez, a 19-year-old Canadian, drew an eruption of cheers from crowds that gathered to watch the match at pubs in her hometown, Bromley, and at the nearby tennis club that set her on an improbable path to Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City.“The atmosphere is buzzing,” said Dave Cooke, manager of The Parklangley Club, where Ms. Raducanu trained for several years, starting when she was 6. The day after her victory, members brimmed with pride, recounting how she returned after competing at Wimbledon for a practice session.“Just to watch her train was phenomenal,” said a member, Julie Slatter, 54. “You just know she’s going to take it all the way.”Queen Elizabeth lost no time in congratulating the new champion for “a remarkable achievement at such a young age,” which she said was a “testament to your hard work and dedication.” Looking slightly dazzled Ms. Raducanu said, “I’m maybe going to frame that letter or something.”Dave Cooke, the club manager at Parklangley. He said Ms. Raducanu ‘‘strived to meet her dreams.’’Andrew Testa for The New York TimesHer victory made history on multiple counts: She became the first player to win a Grand Slam title from the qualifying rounds and the first Briton to win a Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade captured Wimbledon in 1977. Ms. Wade cheered on Ms. Raducanu from the gallery, as did Billie Jean King on the winner’s podium — two champions crowning a new one, and heralding, perhaps, a glittering new era for British tennis.For long-suffering British sports fans, Ms. Raducanu’s victory was also a kind of redemption after the heartbreaking defeat of England’s soccer team in the finals of European championships in July. England snatched defeat from victory in that game when it missed three penalty kicks in the deciding shootout against Italy.But on Saturday, Ms. Raducanu did not let a cut on her leg, from a fall late in the match, stop her from dispatching Ms. Fernandez, 6-4, 6-3, closing things out with an ace before falling to the court in joyous celebration. The timeout she needed to get her leg bandaged was one of the few anxious moments for Ms. Raducanu during a tournament in which she did not drop a single set.Like the national soccer team, Ms. Raducanu embodies the exuberant diversity of British society. Her victory is both a tacit repudiation of the anti-immigration fervor that fueled the Brexit vote in 2016 and a reminder that, whatever its politics, the polyglot Britain of today is a more complicated and interesting place.The daughter of a Romanian father and a Chinese mother, Ms. Raducanu was born in Toronto in 2002. Her family moved to England when she was 2, settling in Bromley, an outer borough of London known for leafy parks and good schools. A serious student, Ms. Raducanu has taken time off from the professional tour to study for exams, crediting her mother for keeping her focused on academics.A shopping street on Sunday in Bromley, Ms. Raducanu’s hometown.Andrew Testa for The New York Times“She’s got where she is because she’s a nice person and put in some hard work and strived to meet her dreams,” Mr. Cooke said.Though he described Ms. Raducanu as part of a generation of younger athletes who have stayed grounded and mentally strong, he said the Grand Slam title would impose new pressures on her.“You achieve something great, you raise your own bar,” he said. “We need to strip back those pressures from her.”Ms. Raducanu first came to national attention in June when she reached the fourth round at Wimbledon before withdrawing, telling coaches she was having trouble breathing.That setback led some commentators, including John McEnroe, to express doubts about her mental fitness, especially at a time when another female star, Naomi Osaka, has spoken openly about her struggles with the pressures of the game. Under the lights in Flushing Meadows, however, Ms. Raducanu silenced her critics. She looked fit, poised, and relentless.Her performance inspired people from all corners of British society. At her old club, girls talked about running into Ms. Raducanu in the school hallways or at local restaurants. Some said they hoped to follow in her footsteps.“We want to go into tennis,” said Yuti Kumar, 14, who attends the same school as Ms. Raducanu, Newstead Wood School, where the graduates include the actress Gemma Chan and Dina Asher-Smith, an Olympic sprinter.The actor Stephen Fry waxed philosophical, saying on Twitter, “Yes, it may be ‘only’ sport, but in that ‘only’ there can be found so much of human joy, despair, glory, disappointment, wonder and hope. A brief flicker of light in a dark world.”The Parklangley Club on Sunday.Andrew Testa for The New York TimesThe Spice Girls kept it simpler. “@EmmaRaducanu that’s Girl Power right there!!” the group tweeted.Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Prince Charles, Prince William and the Manchester United soccer team all sent their congratulations, as did the right-wing Brexit leader, Nigel Farage, who tweeted “a global megastar is born.”David Lammy, a Labour Party member of Parliament who is Black, noted that Mr. Farage once said he would not be comfortable living next to a Romanian (Mr. Farage later expressed regret for the remark). “You have no right to piggyback on her incredible success,” Mr. Lammy posted on Twitter.The dust-up echoed one earlier in the summer when Mr. Lammy faulted Conservative Party members for jumping on the bandwagon of the English soccer team, once it began winning, after having earlier criticized its players for kneeling before games to protest racial and social injustice.In Bromley on Sunday, though, the focus was on a local hero. Many believed her achievement would fuel a surge of interest in tennis playing — and other ambitions — among young people who have struggled to find motivation during the pandemic.“She’s a schoolgirl and she’s from Bromley,” said Jennifer Taylor, 40, sitting outside a pub. “I’m sure if she comes to Bromley, they’ll be a huge welcome for her.”As she prepared to return home, Ms. Raducanu alluded to Britain’s eventful sports summer, in which millions of fans, herself included, took to chanting the theme of the England team, “Football’s coming home.”Posting pictures of herself waving a Union Jack and holding the silver cup of the Open champion, she said, “We are taking her HOMEEE.”“The atmosphere is buzzing,” said the manager of the Parklangley Club, where Ms. Raducanu trained.Andrew Testa for The New York Times More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Golf

      Venerable Golf Clubs Embrace Fun to Draw More Members

      by

      Championship play one day, an easier course with piped-in music the next.Many of the world’s top golfers will be among the about 140 players at the BMW PGA Championship, which begins Thursday and is held annually on the West Course at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England. Like they have done for decades, the players will be hitting shots around one of Europe’s most historically rich golf clubs.But like other storied golf-opolises — those vast golf-focused communities built last century — the club is in the midst of a radical reimaging of what it is. This has not always gone smoothly or been well received by its passionate members.Home to the European PGA Tour’s headquarters, Wentworth is where the idea for the Ryder Cup, to be contested later this month, was hatched. The club also has hosted scores of professional tournaments, stretching from the 1950s.Winners at Wentworth have included some of the game’s best: Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey and Colin Montgomerie, who won three BMW PGA Championships in a row. Last year’s championship was won by Tyrrell Hatton, who has qualified for the European squad’s Ryder Cup team.Tyrrell Hatton of England won last year’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.Paul Childs/Action Images, via ReutersYet, in golf as in life, things do not always stay the same. In 2014, the club was bought by Reignwood Group, which is an investment vehicle of Yan Bin, a Chinese billionaire whose wealth derived from selling Red Bull energy drinks. After paying 135 million pounds (about $187 million), he wanted to make some changes, which set off a furor.He decided to reduce the membership rolls to make the club, which has three 18-hole golf courses, more upscale. Instead of having more than 3,500 members, he increased the annual dues to slash the membership count, said Ruth Scanlan, director of marketing for Wentworth.He reportedly wanted only 888 members, 8 being a lucky number in China. And those members had to buy what are called debentures — essentially a bond held by the club. The fee was 150,000 euros (about $178,000), and at last count the club had about half the number of debenture members he wanted, Scanlan said.How Wentworth, which in the 19th century was owned by a relative of the Duke of Wellington, is changing is emblematic of a broader trend of older, once-unassailable golf centers. What has happened is difficult for longtime members, but anything new or different at an established club often comes with grumbling.The bigger issue is how Wentworth and other golf-opolises have had to face down a starker choice: Change now or go into decline as the world of golf resorts leaves them behind.But what has forced these changes?There is not just one answer. Before the pandemic, rounds of golf were in decline and traditional golf courses were struggling to turn a profit. This could be seen as a reason for Wentworth’s looking to go more upscale. But other clubs chose a different route, by trying to add more fun to their clubs or letting nonmembers stay at a private club as a way to play.Which is what Mike Keiser did. Keiser sold his greeting card company in 2005 and parlayed the proceeds into several golf resorts, including Bandon Dunes in Oregon, Sand Valley in Wisconsin and Cabot Links in Nova Scotia. His courses are all about golf and the post-round golf hangout. And they began siphoning off players from the older golf-opolises.In many ways, PGA National in Florida is Wentworth’s equivalent in the United States. It is home of the Honda Classic, which is played on a tough course, and has been the longtime headquarters of the P.G.A. of America.PGA National used to have five courses that were stout tests of golf and attracted business golfers and vacationers, and it hosted tournaments for elite amateurs and professional golfers. One of its courses — designed by Tom Fazio, an architect who has worked on Augusta National — was sliced and diced into a family-friendly nine-holes and another venue just for match play — where winning and losing a hole matters more than the score.Covid-19 was the impetus for the change, said Jane Broderick, club manager and director of golf at PGA National, who has been there for 35 years. “When you see this resurgence of golf, you think, how do we keep these golfers?” she said. “They may not be the die-hard golfer. What we’re trying to do with these courses is make them a social experience.”Broderick said converting the Fazio course to two, more-relaxed courses was driven by the club’s new owners, Brookfield Asset Management, which paid $233 million for the club in 2018. “We’re unbuttoning the top button of our golf shirt, and we’re relaxing the rules,” she said. “We want people to have fun.”Firestone Country Club in Ohio, a private club that was originally the company club for the tire manufacturer of the same name, has long been known for being a strong test of golf. It has hosted decades worth of PGA Tour events, most recently the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational as well as the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship. Tiger Woods has won eight PGA Tour events at Firestone.Yet, more recently, the club has opened up to limited stay-and-play options.“We always had three really good golf courses,” said Jay Walkinshaw, the club’s general manager. “As the club and the membership has evolved, we realized we had these 86 guest rooms on property and some excess capacity. That was when we started thinking about opening up Firestone.”Opening it for semipublic play has brought in revenue without hurting member play. “It’s a destination for golf enthusiasts, and now we’re accessible to them,” he saidEven venerable Pinehurst in North Carolina, the host of four United States Opens in the next two decades, has loosened up. Its main attraction, Pinehurst No. 2, considered among the best Donald Ross-designed courses, remains a sought-after test of golf just as when Payne Stewart beat Phil Mickelson in the 1999 U.S. Open. But it now has the Cradle, a nine-hole course, with music piped in. What it is missing in history, the Cradle aims to make up in fun.“There’s this theme at Pinehurst of going back to our history and tweaking it for the modern era, and the Cradle is a great example,” said Tom Pashley, president of Pinehurst. “Having music at the Cradle is lauded now, but it was a very difficult decision. It’s added to the relaxed atmosphere we wanted. It’s part of the charm now of playing the Cradle.”Likewise, Pebble Beach Golf Links in California this year converted an underused par-3 course into the Hay, a short course designed by Tiger Woods with lengths that commemorate historical moments at Pebble, including a replica of the course’s seventh hole, the short par-3 surrounded by water.“One of the nice things is it’s challenging for the good golfer and still accessible for the new golfer,” said David Stivers, chief executive of the Pebble Beach Company.Yet the company also recognizes that as golf becomes more accessible it needs easier, not harder options. Stivers said Pebble Beach was introducing a shorter set of tees to allow more players to experience the perennial U.S. Open host site.Similarly, Sea Pines in South Carolina, which is open to the public, operates three courses, including the highly rated Harbour Town Golf Links. John Farrell, director of sports operations at Sea Pines, said his focus was not on adding new things but on speeding up rounds, which can be painfully slow at sought-after courses.“Our focus has been to take care of the core values of the golf experience,” he said. “If you do that, everything else takes care of itself. We check pace of play every single day.” More

    • 63 Shares109 Views

      in Golf

      The Deep History of Wentworth

      by

      The course was designed by Harry Colt 100 years ago, and during World War II a bunker was built for the British government if it had to flee London.Few cathedrals of sport change as much as golf courses. They are subjected not only to nature but also to ownership and the designers they hire to change the course.There is a century of history in the Wentworth Club’s West Course, which opened in Surrey, England, in 1922. This week it will be home to the BMW PGA Championship, but not all of the course originally shaped by Harry S. Colt, one of golf architecture’s most revered names, remains. Since 2005, the course has undergone several redesigns by Ernie Els Design.“It can be argued that Colt is the best and most influential architect of all time,” said Andy Johnson of the Fried Egg, a golf architecture site.Yet some golfers said Wentworth was not one of Colt’s gems. Colt’s roster includes the New Course at the Sunningdale Golf Club in England, Swinley Forest Golf Club in England and the Eden Course at St. Andrews in Scotland.Colt’s talents as an architect were in what is called the routing — or sequence of holes — in his courses. He was able to place holes over the terrain that took advantage of the topography’s natural drama, but he also used hazards that “created alternate lines of play,” Johnson said.“You could go over the bunkers and have a more direct path to the hole or you could go around them, making it harder to score because it pushed out your angle of attack.”Colt’s achievement as an architect was in his ability to make inland courses as interesting as the seaside links courses where the game was invented.The blending of hazards into a course’s natural environment helped create a vitality and interest in such courses that, in some ways, did not previously exist.What makes Wentworth special is nostalgia. It is the site of the European Tour’s headquarters and has hosted the Ryder Cup and was home to the World Match Play ChampionshipYet for all of Wentworth’s history, including building a bunker for the British government if it had to flee London during World War II, as a golf course it does not rank among the world’s most coveted destinations.The course underwent a major renovation in 2009, but the result was not popular and players savaged the changes. Greg Letsche of Ernie Els Design said, “We definitely had a lot of sleepless nights on it,” and in 2017 Els and his team were brought in to redo their redo.Ernie Els at the 2019 BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club. Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWorking alongside the European Tour, Els went back into the course and softened the changes, and Letsche said the course now presented a stern but fair test of golf.“Colt was very good at his initial routing,” he said, “and his balance of par 3s and 4s and 5s speak to his understanding of strategy.”Letsche said that Colt tried hard to ensure a variety of distances for each of those kinds of holes and that he and Els studied old photographs of the course to ensure that they were able to restore the course to its original vision while also modernizing it.One of the challenges for Els and Letsche was to renovate a course that could challenge the world’s best players and not be intimidating to the club’s members.“You have to have the balance,” Letsche said. “You need strategic values for the professional, but then you have to have make it fun and playable, with different angles into the green, so that the aging baby boomer and beginners can feed the ball into the green.”In essence, Letsche said, a designer must build two courses — one for tournament golf and one for everyone else. He said the pros would be tested this week on a course that is meant to play as Colt intended. More

    • 63 Shares169 Views

      in Golf

      Padraig Harrington Faces Hard Choices

      by

      He is captain of the Ryder Cup’s European team, and he has to pick the last three players for his team.Padraig Harrington of Ireland is back in the spotlight — not as a player, but as the captain of Team Europe in this month’s Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.Harrington, 50, a three-time major champion, will be competing in the BMW PGA Championship, which begins on Thursday at the Wentworth Club in England. There, he will be monitoring how potential members of his team perform.After the tournament, he will pick three players to round out the 12-man squad that will face the Americans. The other nine will have qualified on points.The following conversation, which took place in late August, has been edited and condensed.Can you talk about the BMW, the tournament and the course?Wentworth is the traditional home of the European Tour. It is really a great tournament venue. You can score well on it, but when the pressure comes on Sunday, those tree-lined holes and out-of-bounds get a little tight.How are you going to be able to focus on your own game this week?Hopefully, I won’t be able to focus on my play. Maybe being on the course will be a slight respite.How do you think the event will play out because of Covid-19?I’m interested in that, actually. Will the fans be more excited because they waited so long and there’s a certain level of, “Gee, we’re happy to be here?” I suspect, because of Covid, it might be more of a celebration of golf and the Ryder Cup than anything else.I won’t ask you for your three picks, but do you have certain people in mind?There are three weeks to go, and I’m very aware that things can change, especially with the BMW being such a big event. It would be pretty straightforward right now, but three weeks is a long time in golf.And you’re happy with having three picks?I chose three. They were offering me eight picks when it was at the height of the pandemic. The reason I wanted three is anybody who gets picked is under more pressure and stress because the media and public second-guess whether somebody else should be picked.Your thoughts on Whistling Straits, and how it fits your team?It’s very difficult for the Europeans to beat a U.S. team on a stereotypical U.S. golf course. Whistling Straits is a links-style course. They’ve opened it up as much as possible — I’m sure there will be plenty of birdies — but the elements [wind] will come into play.You sound like you’re saying the Americans are the favorites?To beat them in the States, it’s going to require a momentous effort on our behalf, and we are definitely going to have to figure out how to make the collective more confident than the individual. They look like they’re the strongest they’ve ever been.Are you satisfied with your career or do you feel you didn’t achieve as much as you thought you should?I achieved far more than I could have ever possibly dreamed in this game. I studied accountancy. My goal in life when I took that school was to become an accountant and manage a golf course.I was a good player, but I didn’t think I was good enough to be a professional. And even when I turned pro, my goal would have been to survive on tour half a dozen years and retire and get a good country club job.How much more golf will you play?I will try and play where I’m competitive.If I don’t feel like I’m competitive on the regular tour, I’m very happy to try to compete on the Champions Tour [a circuit for golfers 50 and older]. I will continue to play and do whatever I can around golf for years to come. More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in Soccer

      Italy Wins Euro 2020, Leaving England in Stunned Silence

      by

      A Euro 2020 delayed by the pandemic and then extended to a shootout ends, finally, with an Italian celebration on the field and stunned fans in the stands.LONDON — All day, there had been noise. The songs had started early in the morning, as the first few hundred fans appeared on Wembley Way, flags fluttering from their backs. They had echoed through the afternoon, as first tens and then a hundred thousand more had joined them, as shattered glass crunched underfoot.The songs started as soon as the train doors opened at the Wembley Park underground station, the paeans to Gareth Southgate and Harry Maguire, the renditions of “Three Lions” and “Sweet Caroline,” and they grew louder as the stadium appeared on the horizon, until it seemed as if they were emanating from the building itself.Inside, the noise rang around, gathering force as it echoed back and forth when it seemed England was experiencing some sort of exceptionally lucid reverie: when Luke Shaw scored and the hosts led the European Championship final inside two minutes and everything was, after more than half a century, coming home.Tens of thousands of fans, not all of them holding tickets, filled the streets around Wembley.Jane Stockdale for The New York TimesEngland’s Luke Shaw had them roaring when he scored only two minutes into the final.Pool photo by Facundo ArrizabalagaThere was noise as Italy scrapped and clawed its way back, taming England’s abandon and wresting control of the ball, Leonardo Bonucci’s equalizer puncturing the national trance. That is what happens when individual nerves bounce around and collide with tens of thousands more nerves: the energy generated, at some atomic level, is transformed and released as noise.There was noise before extra time, Wembley bouncing and jumping because, well, what else can you do? There was noise before the penalty shootout, the prospect that haunts England more than any other. It was a day of noise. It has been, over the last few weeks, as England has edged closer and closer to ending what it regards as its years of hurt, a month of noise.What all of those inside Wembley will remember, though, the thing that will come back to them whenever they allow — whenever they can allow — their minds to flick back to this day, this moment, is not the noise but the sudden removal of it, the instant absence of it. No sound will echo for as long as that: the oppressive, overwhelming sound of a stadium, of a country, that had been dreaming, and now, started, had been awakened, brutally, into the cold light of day.Many England fans had never seen their team lift a major trophy. Many, now, still haven’t.Jane Stockdale for The New York TimesSolipsism does not fully explain England’s many and varied disappointments over the last 55 years, but it is certainly a contributory factor. Before every tournament, England asserts its belief that it is the team, the nation, that possesses true agency: the sense that, ultimately, whether England succeeds or fails will be down, exclusively, to its own actions. England is not beaten by an opponent; it loses by itself.This, as it happens, may have been the first time that theory had the ring of truth. England hosted more games than any country in Euro 2020. Wembley was home to both the semifinals and the final. More important, Southgate had at his disposal a squad that was — France apart, perhaps — the envy of every other team here, a roster brimming with young talent, nurtured at club teams by the best coaches in the world. This was a tournament for England to win.In that telling of Euro 2020, Italy was somewhere between a subplot and a supporting cast. That is the solipsism talking again, though. Perhaps this tournament was never about England, desperately seeking the moment of redemption it has awaited for so long. Perhaps the central character was Italy all along.Leonardo Bonucci bundled in Italy’s tying goal in the 67th minute.Pool photo by Facundo ArrizabalagaIn the streets of Manhattan and elsewhere, Italy fans found hope in the shifting momentum.Monique Jaques for The New York TimesItaly’s journey does not have the grand historical sweep of England’s, of course — it won the World Cup only 15 years ago, and that is not the only one in its cabinet — but perhaps the story is actually about a country that did not even qualify for the World Cup in 2018, that seemed to have allowed its soccer culture to grow stale, moribund, that appeared to have been left behind. Instead, it has been transformed into a champion, once again, in the space of just three years.Roberto Mancini’s Italy has illuminated this tournament at every turn: through the verve and panache with which it swept through the group stage, and the grit and sinew with which it reached the final. And how, against a team with deeper resources and backed by a partisan crowd, it took control of someone else’s dream.In those first few minutes on Sunday at Wembley, when it felt as if England was in the grip of some mass out-of-body experience, as Leicester Square was descending into chaos and the barriers around Wembley were being stormed, again and again, by ticketless fans who did not want to be standing outside when history was being made, Italy might have been swept away by it all.All day the England fans had sung, their noise filling first the streets and the squares, and then the air inside Wembley.Jane Stockdale for The New York TimesThe noise and the energy made the stadium feel just a little wild, edgy and ferocious, and Mancini’s team seemed to freeze. England, at times, looked as if it might overrun its opponent, as if its story was so compelling as to be irresistible. But slowly, almost imperceptibly, Italy settled. Marco Verratti passed the ball to Jorginho. Jorginho passed it back. Bonucci and his redoubtable partner, Giorgio Chiellini, tackled when things were present and squeezed space when they were not.It felt England was losing the initiative, but really Italy was taking it. Federico Chiesa shot, low and fierce, drawing a save from Jordan Pickford. England sank back a little further. Italy scented blood. Bonucci tied the score, a scrambled sort of a goal, one borne more of determination than of skill, one befitting this Italy’s virtues perfectly.Extra time loomed. Mancini’s team would, whatever happened, make England wait. The clock ticked, and the prospect of penalties appeared on the horizon. For England, one last test, one last ghost to confront, and one last glimmer of hope. Andrea Belotti was the first to miss for Italy in the shootout. Wembley exulted. It roared, the same old combustion, releasing its nerves into the night sky.Andrea Belotti’s early miss opened the door to an England victory in the shootout.Pool photo by Facundo ArrizabalagaAll England had to do was score. It was, after two hours, after a whole month, after 55 years, the master of its destiny. It was, there and then, all about England. Marcus Rashford stepped forward. He had only been on the field for a couple of minutes, introduced specifically to take a penalty.As he approached the ball, he slowed, trying to tempt Gianluigi Donnarumma, the Italian goalkeeper, into revealing his intentions. Donnarumma did not move. Rashford slowed further. Donnarumma stood still, calling his bluff. Rashford got to the ball, and had to hit it. He skewed it left. It struck the foot of the post. And in that moment, the spell, the trance that had consumed a country, was broken.Jadon Sancho missed, too, his shot saved by Donnarumma. But so did Jorginho, Italy’s penalty specialist, when presented with the chance to win the game. For a moment, England had a reprieve. Perhaps its wait might soon be at an end. Perhaps the dream was still alive. Bukayo Saka, the youngest member of Southgate’s squad, walked forward. England had one more chance.But England soon missed, too. And when Gianluigi Donnarumma dove to punch away Bukayo Saka’s final shot, Italy was a champion again.Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAnd then, just like that, it was over. There was still noise inside Wembley, from the massed ranks clad in blue at the opposite end of the field, pouring over each other in delight. But their noise seemed muffled, distant, as if it were coming from a different dimension, or from a future that we were not meant to know.Italy’s players, European champions now, sank to their knees in disbelief, in delight. England’s players stared blankly out into the stadium, desolate and distraught, unable to comprehend that it was over, that the tournament in which everything changed had not changed the most important thing of all, that the wait goes on. And the stadium, after all that noise, after all those songs, after all those dreams, stood silent, dumbstruck, and stared straight back. More