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    Chelsea legend and FA Cup winner swaps football for completely different sport as he’s named tournament director

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    CHELSEA legend Ruud Gullit has swapped football for fairways – by taking charge of a top golf tournament.The Euro 1988 winner had three seasons as Chelsea player-boss, lifting the 1997 FA Cup.Ruud Gullit has taken up a shock new job in golfCredit: GettyGullit won the FA Cup as Chelsea player-manager in 1997Credit: News Group Newspapers LtdHe went on to manage Newcastle for a year, and has also played for AC Milan, Sampdoria, Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven.Gullit, 62, has recently taken part in a number of golf events.And he has now been appointed tournament director of the KLM Open, which will take place at The International near Amsterdam from June 5-8.The versatile ex-footballer hails from the Dutch capital city. READ MORE IN FOOTBALLThe KLM Open is part of the DP World Tour, with over £2million in prize money.Gullit declared: “Golf is a sport that brings me connections and pleasure. “The KLM Open is a great event, which brings together top-level sport and experiences.”For me to be able to take on this role in the year my home city turns 750, and at my home course, makes it extra special.Most read in FootballBEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS”I am crazy about the game and find it a huge honour to have been given the job.”Leading players including Guido Migliozzi, the 2024 winner, plus Jimmy Walker and Pablo Larrazabal, will compete at The International.Enzo Maresca is concerned with Chelsea’s missed ‘easy chances’ after limping into the Conference League semi-final Fellow tournament director Daan Slooter added: “The KLM Open has a very good name, and is a leading event for both players and fans on the DP World Tour calendar.”When Gullit tees-off in his spare time, he plays off a seven handicap. More

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      The Masters: The Legacy of the Black Caddies at Augusta National

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      They would often form special bonds with the golfers that lasted decades. Carl Jackson caddied for Ben Crenshaw dozens of times, including for his two wins at Augusta.Thirty years ago this week, on the 18th green of the Augusta National Golf Club, a caddie comforted his weeping player, hugging him tight and supporting him. It was their second Masters victory together — 11 years after the first one. The player’s tears were of joy, but also of relief after a week where emotion off the course had been running through the tournament.Ben Crenshaw, the 19-time PGA Tour champion, and Carl Jackson, among the most famous Augusta National caddies, were that pair. Jackson had been on Crenshaw’s bag at the Masters since 1976, and the pair had been in contention several times since their first victory in 1984.But that week was different. The tournament started just days after Crenshaw’s mentor and teacher, Harvey Penick, had died, adding an emotional weight to what Crenshaw called his favorite tournament.The image of a tall Black caddie supporting a bent-over white golfer showed more than victory and relief. It captured the bond between two men who had become friends.“Ben was hovered over,” Jackson said in an interview last month. “I said to him, ‘It’s going to be OK. You just won the Masters.’ He had a lot to carry on his mind during the tournament that week, thinking about Harvey Penick.”Crenshaw said that the two were in sync at the 1995 Masters.“We’ve been in the heat many, many times,” he said in an interview last month, referring to that feeling of being close to victory. “It’s just so much fun. It’s what you strive for. To have pulled off winning the Masters twice, and with Carl, is one of my warmest memories.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Masters: Bernhard Langer Returns to Say Goodbye

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      A pickleball injury sidelined him last year, but he is returning to a course he loves.Bernhard Langer, barring a miracle, won’t win the Masters Tournament this year, which gets underway on Thursday.Langer, 67, who was born in Germany and now lives in the United States, hasn’t made the cut at Augusta National Golf Club since 2020.But he’ll receive his share of attention as he plays for the last time on the course that has meant so much to him. Langer, who made his first appearance in 1982, won the tournament in 1985 and 1993. He planned to say farewell last year but couldn’t participate after tearing his Achilles’ tendon playing pickleball.Langer, who has won a record 47 tournaments on PGA Tour Champions, spoke recently about his affection for the Masters. The following conversation has been edited and condensed.Are you playing any pickleball these days?No. I haven’t played since my injury, and I was told not to but maybe when I’m retired I’ll try it again. I don’t know yet. I’ll see how my leg feels.What would be a successful week for your last time at Augusta?From a professional standpoint, if I could make the cut, that would be unbelievable, but it’s very unlikely. I’ve gotten shorter [with his drives off the tee], and the injury didn’t help. This golf course, it’s meant to be hit with short to medium irons into the greens, and I’m coming in with 3-irons and 3-woods [clubs that hit the ball much farther]. It’s extremely difficult to hit these small targets, and I can’t do that with long clubs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Masters Helped Turn Ely Callaway Into a Golf Club Maker

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      He invented the Big Bertha driver, which changed the game of golf. Bobby Jones, a creator of the tournament, was a Callaway cousin.Ely Callaway, founder of the namesake golf club company, did something few golf enthusiasts could imagine doing. He declined an invitation from Bobby Jones to join the Augusta National Golf Club in 1957.Jones, a revered amateur golfer who won the Grand Slam in 1930 and was a co-founder of Augusta National with Clifford Roberts, was Callaway’s distant cousin and hero. Over the family’s mantel, long before the Masters achieved the major status it has today, hung a lithograph of Jones winning the Amateur Championship, also known as the British Amateur, and completing the Grand Slam. Across it was a personal handwritten inscription from Jones to Callaway and his first wife, Jeanne.Bobby Jones teeing off at St. Andrews in Scotland in 1928. Jones was Callaway’s distant cousin and hero.Getty ImagesNicholas Callaway said his father had practical reasons to turn down Jones.“Ely’s rationale later in life when he became the Callaway of Callaway Golf was that since Augusta was only open for a portion of the year, most of the year he would spend fielding calls from friends angling to get an invitation to play,” he said. His father’s posthumous memoir, “The Unconquerable Game: My Life in Golf & Business,” is being released this month.It worked out fine for him. “In the 1990s, he attended the Masters for many years and would get invited to play often in the days following the tournament,” his son said.The decision had to have been difficult. Something that comes across in Callaway’s memoir was the impact Jones had on him.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Dave Pelz, Scientist Turned Golf Instructor, Is Dead at 85

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      After working at NASA, he became a renowned expert on putting and shots close to the green through his coaching, books, television appearances and training aids.Dave Pelz, who left his job as a scientist at NASA to study the short game of golf, a detour that would make him a celebrated guru of putts and wedge shots, died on March 23 at his home in Dripping Springs, Texas, near Austin. He was 85.David Pelly, Pelz’s stepson and the chief executive of his company, Dave Pelz Golf, said the cause was prostate cancer.While most golfers focus more on how to drive long distances, Pelz concentrated on the short game — shots from within 100 yards, including putting and chipping and blasting out of bunkers with a wedge. In his early statistical research, he found that 80 percent of shots lost to par occur within that distance, and that putting makes up 43 percent of the game.“Golfers think that their first two shots are the game,” he said on the PBS talk show “Charlie Rose” in 2010. “They drive almost every hole. They hit to the green almost every hole. But what they don’t think about is that after you hit those first two shots, and you don’t hit the green, there are two, three or four more shots.”As a golf instructor, Pelz demonstrated putting techniques in 1999. He found that putting makes up 43 percent of the game.Bill Kennedy/The New York TimesPelz, recognizable in his trademark broad-brimmed sun hat, became a major influence on the short game. He developed training aids and created clubs (he had about 20 patents); wrote instruction books; had his own Golf Channel show; opened schools for amateurs at golf resorts; and coached professional golfers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Man Utd’s history means nothing – thinking they can win the league in three years is arrogant and delusional

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      IT was an FA Cup weekend which showed just how far Manchester United have fallen.Which showed how little their history means, how shockingly bad their recruitment has been — and how many clubs have overtaken them.Man Utd boss Ruben Amorim is underestimating the size of his taskCredit: GettyWayne Rooney was correct to warn the Red DevilsCredit: X formerly Twitter / @BBCMOTDRooney was also spot-on to say United could do with Danny WelbeckCredit: GettyAnd it showed how correct Wayne Rooney was to criticise the naivety of United’s hierarchy for targeting the Premier League title within three years.In a fascinating quarter-final line-up, there are four clubs — Bournemouth, Brighton,  Fulham and Crystal Palace — who have never won the Cup but who have realistic ambitions of doing so on May 17.All four are infinitely smaller than United but sit above Ruben Amorim’s men in the  Premier League table.So when Rooney doubts United’s stated ambition of winning the title in their 150th anniversary year of 2028 — chief executive Omar Berrada’s so-called ‘Project 21’ — he is absolutely right.READ MORE IN FOOTBALLRooney called it ‘naive’. He might have added ‘arrogant’ and ‘delusional’.United haven’t won it in 12 years and are now further away from doing so than at any point during that time.Portuguese Amorim is a searingly honest press-conference operator but he was wrong to sneer at Rooney with his ‘that is why I’m manager of Manchester United at 40’ jibe.That Rooney’s managerial career has stalled after four underwhelming jobs by the age of 39 does not mean his comments lack credibility.Most read in FootballUnited face more high-pressure games this monthBEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERSAre only successful football managers allowed to assess football managers?Sir David Attenborough has never been a Rwandan mountain gorilla but he made a decent fist of talking about them.Man United fan The United Strand vows to not cut his hair until Red Devils win FIVE games in a rowAmorim claims being a pundit is easy — which doesn’t explain why so many ex-players are so bad at it.Rooney, meanwhile, is far more articulate and insightful than he’s often given credit for.He’s United’s record goalscorer and he understands that the club’s fame, its history, means little to current footballers — especially those from overseas.“If I’m a player and United try to sign me, I’m thinking, ‘I’m not sure’,” said Rooney. “The top players want Champions League.”United’s 13 titles under Sir Alex Ferguson are an irrelevance to the elite young players they want to recruit.Those potential transfer targets will instead regard a shell of a football club, stuck in the bottom half of the table.The idea of United targeting the title in 2028 is nonsense.Before they can even think about challenging Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester City, they must get past that little lot of FA Cup quarter-finalists — Brighton, Bournemouth, Fulham and Palace.Joshua Zirkzee was gutted after a shootout miss as Fulham KO’d UnitedCredit: GettyMarcus Rashford is flourishing on loan for Aston Villa from UnitedCredit: GettyAll are well-run clubs benefiting from the ‘levelling up’ effect of Premier League TV revenue and Profit and Sustainability Rules.United are not experiencing a one-season blip. They are suffering from a dozen years of rank boardroom mismanagement.Would you bet on them finishing above Brighton, Bournemouth, Fulham or Palace next  season?When Fulham won at Old Trafford on Sunday, United cast-off Andreas Pereira shone, as did Sander Berge, the holding midfielder United tried and failed to sign from Burnley last summer.Fulham manager Marco Silva was one of several bosses United sounded out before they offered a new contract to Erik ten Hag.Silva is a gifted coach, who prioritised the Cup by resting several first-choice players for last Tuesday’s visit to Wolves, a match which Fulham won after their manager changed his favoured formation — showing an admirable flexibility which seems alien to Amorim.Fulham beat United without playing well. Despite three key injuries of their own, they had a far stronger bench than United.They are nine points clear of United because they are simply better.United would love a forward as good as Bournemouth’s Justin Kluivert, Evanilson or Dango Ouattara, or a winger anywhere near the standard of Brighton’s Kaoru MitomaThis is the Premier League’s new order. Smaller clubs have strong squads, well-scouted, recruited, assembled and coached. They don’t often need to sell their best players either.They can work without the white noise that  surrounds United, because of a history which only serves to drag the club further down.Earlier on Sunday, United old boy Danny Welbeck scored an excellent winner for Brighton at Newcastle.And at 34 Welbeck would still be a huge improvement on what Amorim has at his disposal — as Rooney pointed out.On Friday night, Marcus Rashford was enjoying his freedom at Aston Villa — who haven’t won the Cup since 1957 but also have a decent chance of doing so.And how United would love a forward as good as Bournemouth’s Justin Kluivert, Evanilson or Dango Ouattara, or a winger anywhere near the standard of Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma.Bournemouth and Brighton are diamond miners in the global transfer market, Fulham are more adept at recycling unwanted Premier League players and at Palace it’s a mix of the two approaches.But all have succeeded while United have continually failed.And these are the clubs United must surpass before they even think about challenging to be champions of England again.Champions by 2028? Naive isn’t the half of it.Mocking was sickWHO says FA Cup romance is dead, when Saturday brought us a kung-fu kick at Crystal Palace v Millwall, a headbutt at Bournemouth v Wolves and a racism row at Preston v Burnley?If the assault by Millwall keeper Liam Roberts on Palace striker Jean- Philippe Mateta wasn’t bad enough then the sick mocking songs of Lions fans were even more reprehensible.Amazingly this challenge on Palace attacker Jean-Philippe Mateta by Liam Roberts wasn’t the worst aspect of the FA Cup derbyCredit: GettyPalace supporters did retaliate sarcastically with a similar ‘let him die’ chant when a Millwall player was receiving treatment for a far less serious injury.The FA say Millwall chants, which gloried in Mateta’s trip to hospital, cannot be punished because they do not breach their rulebook.Well, either update your rulebook or use some common sense.Millwall can have all the community initiatives they like but while they  continue to be followed by such a high percentage of moronic lowlife, they will continue to be the pariahs of English football.Mint’s missed momentBRIGHTON’S Yankuba Minteh really should have celebrated his goal against former club Newcastle on Sunday.It’s not just that Minteh, 20, was flogged in the summer without having ever played a minute of first-team football for the Magpies.Yankuba Minteh had extra reasons to enjoy his goal at NewcastleCredit: AFPIt’s that the talented Gambian winger refused a move to Lyon after realising Newcastle merely regarded him as a saleable commodity to help them comply with Profit and Sustainability Rules.Even though a £40million fee had been agreed, Minteh held out for the Premier League move he wanted and proved his worth with a goal which helped knock Toon out of the FA Cup.He should have fully enjoyed his moment because he owed his opponents nothing.Stat’s it, big AngeIF Ange Postecoglou does not last as Tottenham boss, can we please beg all major broadcasters to offer him a blank cheque to head into punditry?Because nobody cuts through football’s mountain of bulls**t quite like Big Ange.Postecoglou’s disdain for VAR already earned the Aussie immense credit from this column — and now he has weighed in on the myth of ‘assist’ stats.Ange Postecoglou is rightfully disdainful of statistics for assistsCredit: Alamy“The assist is the most useless statistic in world football,”  said the Spurs chief. “It could come off your backside, fall to somebody on the halfway line, he scores, and it’s an assist. So it doesn’t impress me.”As usual, the big man is bang on.Now blame the robo-flopTHE problem with VAR is the personnel, not the system, they lied.Just wait until robot linesmen come in, with 30  high-speed cameras tracking 10,000 data points on every player — that will speed up checks, they promised.READ MORE SUN STORIESYeah, because that’s the thing you find with technology in your everyday life — it never fails, does it?And then the robot linesmen arrived — and malfunctioned — and we waited for EIGHT minutes to find out whether a Bournemouth ‘goal’ against Wolves had been offside. More

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      Harry Kane moves into new sport as England captain makes investment to be part of ‘exciting journey’ with Tiger Woods

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      HARRY KANE has teamed up with Tiger Woods by investing in a new golf team.The England captain has been officially announced as a limited partner of TGL side Jupiter Links.Harry Kane has become a limited partner of a TGL sideCredit: GettyTiger Woods is co-owner and player of the Jupiter LinksCredit: GettyThe Florida-based outfit feature in the new TGL (Tomorrow’s Golf League) event.TGL is an indoor technology-infused competition that is said to be the “brainchild” of Woods and Rory McIlroy.It launched in January and it aims to combine “traditional play with elements of simulated indoor golf”.PGA Tour stars make up the players – with Woods, Max Homa, Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner forming the Jupiter Links line-up.READ MORE IN FOOTBALLThe 15-time major winner co-owns the team alongside billionaire David Blitzer.Blitzer is on the board of Premier League club Crystal Palace, he is managing partner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL side the New Jersey Devils.Several celebs and sporting greats have also invested in TGL – with pop star Justin Timberlake a limited partner of the Jupiter Links alongside Kane.Meanwhile, tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams, F1 icon Lewis Hamilton and basketball heroes Steph Curry and Shaquille O’Neal are all involved.Most read in FootballJOIN SUN VEGAS: GET £50 BONUSOn joining the Jupiter Links, Kane said: “I’ve always loved golf and TGL’s new format is something special. “I can’t wait to be part of this exciting journey.”‘It felt like the beginning of the end for Harry Kane’ says Man Utd legend as he admits fears for England captain The Bayern Munich striker is a talented golfer himself, reportedly playing off a handicap of 3.7.He has played in pro-am tournament in the past and had a round of golf with Woods while holidaying in the Bahamas. Kane is a passionate golfer in his spare timeCredit: Getty More

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      PGA Tour and LIV Golf Look for Merger Deal Under Trump

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      A tie-up involving the tour and LIV Golf was stalled under President Biden. They’re aiming to forge a new agreement under President Trump.The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund are racing to reshape their plans to combine their rival golf circuits, emboldened by President Donald J. Trump’s eagerness to play peacemaker for a fractured sport, according to four people familiar with the matter.Since the start of secret talks in April 2023, PGA Tour executives and their Saudi counterparts have been weighing how they could somehow blend the premier American golf circuit with the Saudis’ LIV Golf operation. But negotiators have struggled to design a deal that would satisfy regulators along with players, investors and executives.Mr. Trump’s return to Washington has offered a new opening: After an Oval Office meeting this month that ethics experts have said tested the bounds of propriety, the two sides are considering options that might have stalled during Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidency but that the Trump administration’s antitrust enforcers could offer a friendlier glance.The details of any prospective agreement, including LIV’s fate, remain in flux. In general, regulators would see any transaction that led to the dissolution of one of the leagues as anticompetitive; under Mr. Trump, though, antitrust regulators could take a more relaxed view.The two sides are looking beyond a simple cash transaction, though it is unclear how exactly the deal would be structured. The PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, has said they are looking at a “reunification,” but there are many complicating factors, including how to value both ventures.There is also the matter of how to handle any deal alongside a separate $1.5 billion investment in the PGA Tour by a band of American sports magnates.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Golf’s Highs and Lows in 2024

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      There were a lot of exciting tournaments, but LIV still looms over the sport.Winning streaks — illustrious and quirky — defined professional golf for the best male and female players in 2024. They came amid pressure on the business models of both the men’s and women’s professional tours.The PGA Tour continues to struggle with how it’s going to make its tournaments more attractive to sponsors (who are asked to pay more in prize money) and fans who have been tuning out the weekly tournaments. It’s been over two years since its first star players joined LIV Golf and a year since the PGA Tour and its commissioner, Jay Monahan, announced a tentative agreement with LIV to coexist, and the PGA Tour still hasn’t worked out a way to unify the men’s game.For the L.P.G.A. Tour, prize money has continued to rise, but the tour itself continues to struggle to get attention for its roster of top-flight players.Nelly Korda lining up a putt at the CME Group Tour Championship last month in Naples, Fla. She began the year by winning five straight tournaments, tying the L.P.G.A. record.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesNelly Korda, the No. 1 ranked women’s golfer, began the year by winning five straight tournaments. She tied the L.P.G.A. record, held by Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez.“If I’m being honest, I have not thought about it at all,” Korda said in a press conference after the fifth consecutive victory.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More