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      in Motorsport

      Who is Alexander Albon’s pro golfer girlfriend Lily Muni and how long have they been dating?

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      ALEXANDER ALBON F1 star is in a public relationship with Chinese professional golfer Lily Muni. Albon made his professional F1 debut for Torro Rosso in 2019 at the age of 23.
      Alex Albon and Lily both competing in their respective sports
      During the 2019 F1 campaign, Redbull called up Albon to replace Pierre Gasly who was struggling in the car.
      Albon impressed the F1 scene and secured a seat for Williams who he now races for.
      Who is Alexander Albon’s girlfriend Lily Muni?

      Lily Muni is a professional golfer who plays on the U.S – based LPGA Tour. She was born in Chengdu, China
      Lily has previously won the 2018 Prasco Charity Championship as well as the 2019 Ladies Golf Professional Association
      Lily and Alex met through social media after she watched “drive to survive” which Alex stars in, and Albon was also experimenting with golf at the time.
      The two of them started talking and eventually formed a relationship.

      Who has Alex Albon previously dated?
      Albon has no previous public relationships as Lily Muni seems to be his first girlfriend.
      Read more F1
      Does Alex Albons have any kids?
      Alex Albon currently has no kids, however, he has never been openly against the idea. More

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      in Golf

      Postcard From Phoenix: A Day Inside Sport’s Party Vortex

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      SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The wind was whipping like a blender working overtime on a margarita Thursday morning, and the more than 17,000 people bellied up to the 16th hole at the Phoenix Open acted as if it were last call.If you want cemetery-like quiet, kneel politely before the golf gods at the Masters’ “Amen Corner.”This is the People’s Open, and the 16th is the loudest hole on the rowdiest stop on the PGA Tour. Jon Rahm, a U.S. Open champion, says the decibels have risen exponentially from year to year.The 16th hole at the Phoenix Open is the loudest hole on the rowdiest stop on the PGA Tour.“Very few sporting events in the world can comfortably happen in the same week as the Super Bowl and still have the impact that they have like this one,” Rahm said. “With that said, I don’t think it’s everybody’s favorite — I think either you love it or hate it. There’s no in between. With my case, I love it.”The tournament is an annual destination for fans who refuse to bow to stuffy golf etiquette and, for that reason, the fairways at the T.P.C. Scottsdale course are lined with younger and rowdier attendees than anywhere else in golf. With the Super Bowl in town, golf’s party capital was not only supercharged, but it also helped the 91-year-old tournament sell out its second- and third-round tickets for the first time.Nate Orr, a lawyer, traveled from Kansas City with his friends Jared Kenealy and Micheal Lawrence. They’re Chiefs season-ticket holders who sprung for Super Bowl seats on Sunday, but found themselves in a box on the edge of the 16th green, where they watched golf balls ricochet off the panels beneath them and trickle into sand traps.Dive Deeper Into Super Bowl LVIIThe God of Sod: George Toma, 94, has been a groundskeeper for all 57 Super Bowls. On Sunday, his perfectionism will be on display for millions of people who will have no idea who he is or how he suffers for his work.Philadelphia Swagger: After surviving a disastrous introductory news conference, an ill-chosen flower analogy and his “Beat Dallas” motivational shirt, Nick Sirianni has transformed the Eagles, and maybe himself.Inside a Kansas City Oasis: Big Charlie’s Saloon is a South Philadelphia bar with a bit of a conundrum: how to celebrate Kansas City’s Super Bowl berth without drawing the ire of locals.Halftime Show: The nearly four-year gap between Rihanna’s live performances will close when she takes the stage at the Super Bowl. During her hiatus, the stakes for her return have only grown.“Bucket list stuff,” said Lawrence, an executive at a nonprofit.From left: Jared Kenealy, Nate Orr, Stephanie Orr and Micheal Lawrence inside their suite on the 16th green.Doug Mills/The New York TimesThe crowd was just as rough on the celebrities who competed in the Pro-Am on Wednesday, including the Olympic great Michael Phelps.Tony Finau, the world No. 13, was greeted like a gladiator at the so-called coliseum hole after knocking his tee-shot 16 inches from the flag. When he sunk the gimme for a birdie, the crowd roared as exuberantly as they had in Arrowhead Stadium last month when Harrison Butker booted the game-winning field goal that landed Kansas City in Sunday’s Super Bowl.Rory McIlroy was booed for merely backing off his ball as the wind gusted.When Jordan Spieth, ranked No. 17, yanked his five-or-so-foot birdie putt, however, the boos reached a crescendo. How to describe the crowd’s ardor? Imagine Eagles fans greeting Chip Kelly’s return. It was that venomous.The Phoenix Open sold out tickets for the tournament’s second and third rounds this year, a first.Autograph-seekers waited on the 16th tee box during the hole-in-one competition on Wednesday.The crowd skews younger than at any other PGA Tour event, in part because of the access to pros.Chants of “Go Chiefs” and “Fly Eagles Fly” were part of the tournament’s already-booming soundtrack as football fans were among those in the long lines of people waiting to secure seats in the Coliseum’s general-admission grandstand.The crowd was just as rough on the celebrities who competed in the Pro-Am on Wednesday. The Olympic great Michael Phelps, the retired Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald and Carli Lloyd, a former soccer star of the United States Women’s National Team, were announced at the tee box with D.J. music, but they were razzed and roared at as they made their way to the green.The pro golfer’s bags in the “bag room.”Hideki Matsuyama dove to the ground to catch a scorecard that was blown out of his hand on the 12th green.Name another hole where it can rain suds and thunder beer cans as it did last year when Sam Ryder aced the 16th in the third-round to set off a delirious celebration that halted play for 15 minutes so volunteers could pick up the cans.Alas, aluminum cans inside the Coliseum were banned this week and replaced with plastic cups.Where else are gallery members enlisted to remove a boulder as they were in 1999 so Tiger Woods could get a clear shot at the green. It took a dozen of them, and the blessing of a rules official, but after a few heave-hos Woods got his birdie.Enclosed from tee to green by a grandstand that reaches three stories, an army of aggressive and clever beer vendors helped lubricate the crowd on Thursday.“I got a Coors with your name on it — What’s your name?” went one’s singsong mantra.Unlike the golfers they came to watch, patrons of the People’s Open do not even have to make it through all 18 holes. The Birds Nest, a party tent near the course’s entrance, starts throbbing in late afternoon as tournament goers get ready to dance into the night to performances by Machine Gun Kelly and the Chainsmokers.Yes, the Phoenix Open has its charms. Ask McIlroy.“If I wasn’t a player and I wanted to come to one PGA Tour event,” he said after shooting 2-over in his opening round, “this would probably be the one that I’d want to come to.”The 16th green from the top level of the grandstands. More

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      in Golf

      PGA Tour Payouts Soar as Saudi-Backed LIV Golf Rains Down Riches

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      A $20 million purse is on the line in Arizona this week — matching, for about a month, a PGA Tour regular-season record.SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — After all these years — and given the ritualized rowdiness, it is impossible to say for certain — the money at the Phoenix Open might be flowing as freely as the drinks and the jeers around the 16th hole.A decade ago, PGA Tour players came to the desert to jockey for a share of $6.2 million in prize money. Last year, they competed for a cut of $8.2 million. This time around? The pool is $20 million.In a decidedly turbulent era of men’s golf, even the tournament that calls itself the People’s Open is a front in the sport’s transcontinental, multibillion-dollar arms race. Classified by the PGA Tour as a “designated event” for this year, the Phoenix Open is one of 10 tournaments on the circuit’s regular-season calendar that have promised purses of at least $15 million; all but one have offered $20 million or more.A central question for the PGA Tour is whether those payouts, and promises of more like them, will help create enough of a counterweight to the riches of LIV Golf, the circuit that has the financial backing of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and, after only a season of play, a track record of eye-popping contracts and guaranteed prize money.Asked in an interview at T.P.C. Scottsdale, the site of this week’s tournament, whether he believed the tour’s increased purses had helped curb an exodus of players to LIV, Commissioner Jay Monahan noted that many tour members were involved in designing the overhaul. Under the revamped system, the tour’s most elite and popular players are usually required to play the biggest events on the regular-season calendar, ensuring sterling fields and, presumably, far stiffer competition than a particular tournament might draw otherwise.“The players were so engaged and involved in the changes that we were making,” Monahan said. “Their involvement, their belief in this model and this model preparing them to achieve at the highest level, that’s what they’re committed to.”But he also raised his hands and shrugged because at a time when LIV golfers have earned far more at shorter tournaments with no cuts, he can have only so much certainty.Dustin Johnson, who recorded about $75 million in tour earnings over 15 PGA Tour seasons, collected more than $35 million at LIV competitions last year. At one event last year, Charl Schwartzel earned $4.75 million because of his individual and team results. Adjusted for inflation, that lone payday was still a seven-figure advantage over his best tour season.The winner in Arizona on Sunday will earn $3.6 million and tie a tour record that will be eclipsed four weeks later, when the Players Championship’s victor will collect $4.5 million. (As usual, the Tour Championship, which will be held at the end of the season in Atlanta, will award far more, but the money there is considered part of a bonus pool, not a standard tournament purse.)The tour’s pivot toward greater payouts, executives insisted, was in the making long before LIV overtly upended the golf marketplace, with the bigger purses traceable to a new television-rights deal announced in early 2020. They acknowledge, though, that LIV’s emergence prompted them to accelerate and adjust some of their plans, which are being helped along by tour reserves and increased payments from tournament sponsors.The tour, like all professional sports organizations, relies on a gumbo of moneymaking ventures, including television contracts, sponsorship deals and licensing arrangements, which are often becoming much more lucrative. But the tour’s most stalwart supporters, such as Tiger Woods, concede that it will struggle to keep pace with LIV Golf as long as wealth-fund leaders in Riyadh sustain their investment in the new circuit.“We’re running a business here, and the money that our players are playing for are monies that we’re generating,” Monahan said.“You have to operate prudently in the short- and long-term,” he added. “But there are ways to grow within each year, to create more opportunity, and that’s what we’re going to do.”The heightened purses, including one next week at the Genesis Invitational in California, are among the less-disputed strategies the tour has embraced in its quest to preserve its power. Others are entangled in an antitrust lawsuit that will not be tried until at least next year, but LIV has acknowledged that some of the tour’s tactics are having significant effects, even as it has questioned their propriety or legality.In a court filing on Monday, when LIV renewed its objections to the PGA Tour’s indefinite suspensions of players who defected, lawyers for the Saudi-backed league wrote that the tour’s “anticompetitive conduct” had “damaged LIV’s brand, driven up its costs by hundreds of millions of dollars and driven down revenues to virtually zero.”Jon Rahm, who won the PGA Tour’s first designated event last month in Hawaii, during the Phoenix Open Pro-Am on Wednesday.Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesTour officials are expected to announce future plans for the high-roller events in the coming weeks, but a principal subject of internal debate has been whether the elevated status should rotate among tournaments. In addition to the tournament in Arizona, where the Thursday morning start was delayed because of frost (yes, really), this year’s designated events include the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head Island, S.C.; the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn.; and the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C.Tour officials, though, have made no public commitments that those events will keep their lofty status beyond 2023, and some players have suggested that they want to see an array of tournaments hosting the sport’s headliners.“What I do hope is that some other tournaments that want to put up the resources to become elevated events might get the chance,” Jon Rahm said this week, despite his standing as one of the Phoenix Open’s pre-eminent cheerleaders. “That would be epic. I would love to see this rotating, not always being the same ones every year.”Some players have also worried that tournaments regularly left out of any system, and potentially deprived of many tour stars, will struggle to draw the crowds and sponsorships that make them possible. And there is some anxiety that the PGA Tour is effectively becoming a tale of two circuits — one consistently loaded with A-list players and one routinely populated with everyone else — that periodically overlap.Players said they would approach the elevated tournaments like any other. Rahm, who won the first designated event last month in Hawaii and entered this week’s tournament at No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking, suggested “nothing” had changed in his preparations.“I want to perform well in every single tournament I go to,” he said, “no matter what it is.”It is, after all, becoming a much bigger business — especially during Super Bowl week in Arizona, where, as Patrick Cantlay put it, it is “a party for everyone except us.” More

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      in Golf

      On Second Thought, St. Andrews Steps Back From Remodel by Swilcan Bridge

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      Want a patio-like surface by a bridge that’s perhaps more than 700 years old? St. Andrews did, but many others most definitely did not.St. Andrews Links — the stately sporting refuge in Scotland that has outlasted major champions, monarchs and well-to-do duffers — caved Monday and abandoned plans for a patio-like surface by the Swilcan Bridge.Few locales in golf invite quite so many pilgrimages as the stone bridge, which crosses a burn on the Old Course’s 18th hole and is the centerpiece of photographs that surface in Scottish pubs, man-caves all over suburban America and Tiger Woods’s office in Florida. So, perhaps it was predictable that even some well-intentioned remodeling of the area around it, worn down by the footwear of many thousands of players and visitors, would lead to fury, confusion and more than a few memes.Golf, you might have heard, is not always keen on change, and the resulting kerfuffle will amount to a brief, if breathtakingly effective, chapter in the very long history — like, maybe more than 700 years — of a 30-foot bridge. The whole spat, of course, could have been avoided had the bridge stuck to its long-ago mission of catering to livestock.But since that did not happen and because many people cannot mimic Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus or Woods on their scorecards, they merely congregate at the bridge, wave like a British Open champion, memorialize the moment for Facebook or Instagram and march on their way, leaving tattered turf behind.The idea that set off the scorn, course officials said over the weekend, was to replicate a past stone pathway and guard against repeated bouts of “disrepair” after a handful of other strategies, including artificial turf, proved insufficient. They added that they could “categorically state that no works have been undertaken to the bridge itself.”As if that would calm down, say, the denizens of Twitter. By Monday night, the Old Course was seeking another solution, new, old or at least not that one.“The stonework at the approach and exit of the bridge was identified as one possible long term solution,” the course’s administrators said in a statement that conceded that “while this installation would have provided some protection, in this instance we believe we are unable to create a look which is in keeping with its iconic setting and have taken the decision to remove it.”The statement noted “feedback from many partners and stakeholders as well as the golfing public,” which was a most proper way to characterize social media-fueled disdain and mockery.“What in the world were those idiots thinking building this?” Hank Haney, who once coached Woods, wrote on Twitter on Sunday. Nick Faldo, whose six major tournament titles included the 1990 Open at St. Andrews, was also aghast.“If you’ve travelled halfway around the world for your bucket list round at St Andrews, would you rather leave with a bit of historic dirt on your shoes or a few cement mix scraps?” he asked. Perhaps, he mused, the approach was a “strategically placed sundial (for slow play).”St. Andrews officials said Monday that turf would be restored “in the coming days.” Even though the internet never seems to forget, there is plenty of time for recovery between now and the next Open at St. Andrews. This year’s tournament will be at Royal Liverpool, the 2024 festivities will be at Royal Troon and 2025 will see the competition return to Royal Portrush.The R&A, which organizes the Open, has not announced its plans for other years. More

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      in Soccer

      What is Gareth Bale’s golf handicap?

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      NEWLY retired football star Gareth bale is turning heads on the golf course. The former Tottenham and Real Madrid star had a glittering career winning 22 trophies the last of which was the MLS Cup with Los Angeles FC.
      Gareth Bale in action at last weekends AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.Credit: Getty
      Gareth Bale celebrates scoring for Wales at the 2022 World Cup in QatarCredit: AP
      Bale announced his retirement on January 9, but he left nobody in any doubt how he would fill his spare time.
      During his time at Real Madrid the Welshman earned the nickname ‘The Golfer’ and was even mocked by his own supporters for his golf obsession.
      The recently retired five-time Champions League winner has not taken long to get back into the limelight, making his PGA Tour debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
      He played against the likes of Hollywood star Bill Murray and NFL superstar Aaron Rodgers.

      The Welsh ace was paired with professional golfer Joseph Bramlett and finished the tournament at 16 under par.
      Bale and Bramlett narrowly missed making the final round of the competition that resumes today after high winds postponed Sunday’s action as they finished joint-16th overall.
      What is Gareth Bale’s golf handicap?
      As of late 2022 Bale was playing off a handicap of two which means he is an above-average amateur golfer and is almost playing off scratch (0).
      The Welsh ace isn’t quite as good as the professionals but has impressed recently at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
      Most read in Football
      He will have plenty of time to improve his game now he’s retired.
      Bale has a three-hole golf course at his home in Wales which was built in 2018.
      The par three holes are modelled on a selection from three high profile venues.
      The holes at Bale’s mini course are the 17th at Sawgrass, the Postage Stamp at Royal Troon and the 12th at Augusta. More

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      in Soccer

      Gareth Bale braves the elements to finish on 16-under-par on PGA tournament debut just weeks after football retirement

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      GARETH BALE lived up to the hype over his golf – three weeks after quitting football when he could no longer do the same in that sport.The Wales and Real Madrid legend, 33, finished an impressive 16-under par on a PGA Tour debut hit by rain and fierce winds.
      You might not recognise him as instantly as usual but the beige-jacketed fella with a ‘brella is footballer-turned-golfer Gareth BaleCredit: Reuters
      Bale arguably made more impact in the US with the golf ball in three days than he did with a football in seven months as he quit LA FC after injuriesCredit: Rex
      Ex-Wales skipper Bale struggled with his caddy’s bib at Pebble Beach Links during his third and final roundCredit: Rex
      The former Tottenham winger shot two 65s and then a 69 in the third and final round at Pebble Beach.
      Highlights included a comeback from the bunker and a stunning shot from the cart path when he rescued two pars on day one.
      Bale’s total of 199 left him 11th in the amateurs’ section as he thrived alongside USA pro American Joseph Bramlett.
      The professionals still face playing a fourth round on Monday after windy conditions put paid to Saturday’s golf.
      READ MORE TOP STORIES
      Bale and Bramlett’s score of minus 16 was 10 adrift of NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was paired with Canadian Ben Silverman.
      Ex-Dragons skipper Bale, who won 111 caps, had joked before the tournament how praise from pros turned up the heat on his game.
      World No3 John Rahm said: “I told Gareth, you can’t be so good at professional football and golf at the same time, it just doesn’t seem fair’.”
      Bale responded by saying: “People giving me compliments on my game is incredible.
      Most read in Football
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      “They have a put a bit too much pressure on my shoulders!'”
      “It is great to play with them, interact and watch what they do. Just watching him [Bramlett] strike a ball is just something else.
      “The power, the touch. He has been incredible and he is an even better guy, which is more important. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.”
      Bale measures up a putt on the 15th on his way to a last-round 69Credit: Reuters More

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      Gareth Bale makes PGA debut 23 days after retiring from professional football

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      GARETH BALE is making a dramatic PGA Tour debut – just 23 days after quitting football.The Wales and Real Madrid legend, 33, recovered from the bunker to par the first hole of the Pebble Beach pro-am.

      Footballer-turned-golfer Gareth Bale shows his focus on day one of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Spyglass Hill Golf CourseCredit: Getty
      Top professionals have gushed praise on ex-Spurs hero Bale for his golfing ability as the retired footballer now takes his ‘hobby’ seriouslyCredit: Getty
      Smiling Bale looked a world away from the stressful injuries and World Cup disappointment that marred his final months in the beautiful game.
      Wales exited Qatar at the group stage and he barely played for his last club Los Angeles FC amid fitness concerns.
      Now, though, the two-handicapper is looking relaxed as he takes on world class golfers in the USA.
      The Pebble Beach event is held on three separate courses – starting on Thursday at Spyglass Hill.
      READ MORE ON GARETH BALE
      And Bale shared a joke as he walked out to cheers before going through practice swings in a manner suggesting he was playing for fun.
      But the ex-Tottenham attacker also proved he has the focus of an elite sportsman as he kept his cool after getting into trouble on the opening hole.
      Bale not only got out of a bunker in style, he even had a decent shot at a birdie that he sent inches by.
      Then, taking just a couple of seconds to compose himself, he tapped in for par as if he was a seasoned pro.
      Most read in Football
      Bale is partnering Californian Joseph Bramlett, 34, who has a Fedex Cup ranking of 64.
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      Their group includes Yahoo Founder Jerry Lang and Swedish pro David Lingmerth, 35.
      The tournament switches to the Monterey Peninsula course on Friday and Pebble Beach the following day.
      Leading professionals have praised Bale’s game over the past month.
      US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick and World No3 Jon Rahm have led praise for Bale’s talent in the past month.
      Rahm said: “I told Gareth, you can’t be so good at professional football and golf at the same time, it just doesn’t seem fair.” 
      Bale jokes with playing partner Joseph Bramlett at the PGA Tour eventCredit: Getty More

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      in Golf

      Power to Punish LIV Golfers Faces a Legal Test in Europe

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      An arbitration panel will meet next week to weigh whether the European Tour may penalize the men who played on the Saudi-backed circuit.DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Many of the golfers had wandered away one afternoon last week, seeking lunch or refuge from the Emirati sun or something besides the monotony of a driving range.Ian Poulter, though, kept swinging, the consistency nearly enough to disguise that there is almost no professional golfer in greater limbo.Poulter, who has competed on the European Tour for more than two decades, is among the players who defiantly joined LIV Golf, the breakaway circuit bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, and faced punishment from the tour. Next week, almost eight months after the first rebel tournament, arbitrators in London will weigh the tour’s choice to discipline defectors.The case is a test for the golf establishment’s response to LIV, which has guaranteed certain players tens of millions of dollars to compete in a league that insists it is looking to revive golf but that skeptics view as a front to rehabilitate Saudi Arabia’s reputation. Executives and legal experts say, though, that the arbitrators’ decision could also ripple more broadly across global sports as athletes increasingly resist longstanding restrictions on where they compete and as wealthy Persian Gulf states look to use the world’s courses, fields and racetracks as avenues for their political and public-relations ambitions.“The impacts of this case are potentially tremendous across all of international sport,” said Jeffrey G. Benz, a sports arbitrator in London who is not involved in the golf case and noted how other leagues and federations have faced opposition to their efforts to stymie potential rivals.Although the issue that next week’s panel will consider is formally a narrow one, dealing only with the European Tour’s conflicting event policy, a ruling in favor of the players could embolden like-minded but wary athletes to plunge into the universe of cash-flush start-ups. A victory for the tour, marketed as the DP World Tour, would reinforce the kind of rules that marquee sports organizers have harnessed for decades to preserve market power. And whichever side prevails will assuredly tout victory as vindication for its approach to professional sports.“There’s the public opinion part, there’s the influence it might have on other athletes, there’s the influence it might have on other rich people who might think, ‘Hey, I’d really love to get into sports. Let’s put a group together and go attack name-the-sport,’” said Jill Pilgrim, a former general counsel for the L.P.G.A. who now teaches sports arbitration at Columbia Law School.“They’re watching all of this,” she added.Poulter has argued that playing with the new circuit was not all that different from the rest of a storied career dotted with appearances across tours.Lynne Sladky/Associated PressThe golf case began last June, when Poulter was among the European Tour players who played in a LIV Golf tournament without the tour’s permission. The tour, wary of undermining the rules that fortify its sponsorship and television-rights deals, responded with short suspensions and fines, modest penalties compared to the indefinite suspensions that the United States-based PGA Tour meted out.The players insist, though, that they are independent contractors and should have greater freedom to pick when, where and for whom they compete. An arbitrator paused the tour’s punishments last summer but did not rule on the substantive arguments that will go before this month’s panel. The arbitrators could announce their decision within weeks of the five-day, closed-door hearing, which will begin Monday.A Guide to the LIV Golf SeriesCard 1 of 7A new series. More