12/07/2025

SPORTS SATURDAY | JULY 12, 2025

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Healy pulls off solo win Irish rider escapes from eight-man breakaway to earn biggest career win I RELAND’S Ben Healy won stage six of the Tour de France in Normandy yesterday with a long solo break, as Mathieu van der Poel reclaimed the overall leader’s yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard is fifth at 1min 14sec. The 24-year-old Healy became the first Irish stage winner since sprinter Sam Bennett won on the Champs Elysees in 2020.

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Reed’s ‘uphill battle’ to make Ryder Cup team EVEN with the nickname “Captain America,” Patrick Reed knows he’s a longshot to make the US Ryder Cup team as a competitor on the LIV Golf circuit. “I think it all comes down to next week at The Open,” Reed said yesterday ahead of the LIV Golf Andalucia event at Real Club Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain. Reed, 34, currently sits No. 36 in the US Ryder Cup points standings, which only count LIV golfers’ performances in the majors. The former Masters champion finished third at Augusta this year and T23 at the US Open but missed the cut at the PGA Championship. In three previous Ryder Cup appearances in 2016, 2018 and 2021, Reed posted a stellar 7-3-2 record. “It’s a hard one to answer,” Reed said when asked about his shot at making US captain Keegan Bradley’s 12-man team for the September showdown at New York’s Bethpage Black. “… Really the next couple weeks I have to play some solid golf, go out and contend on Sundays, have a chance to win golf tournaments, and if I do that “Hopefully Keegan picks me. But at the end of the day, because we only get the majors that have points for the Ryder Cup, it’s an uphill battle.” Hull collapses on tee CHARLEY HULL withdrew from the Evian Championship in France yesterday after collapsing at the No. 4 tee due to illness. Hull, ranked No. 19 in the world, was playing with partners world No. 4 Ruoning Yin and Haeran Ryu. She received medical attention after going down to the grass before her tee shot and officials permitted the trailing group to play through while tending to the Englishwoman. Following a delay of about 15 minutes for treatment, the two-time LPGA Tour winner recovered to hit the tee shot but again went to the ground after completing her swing. She was helped onto a motorized cart fitted with a flatbed stretcher. Hull reportedly has been battling a virus. A few hours later, Golf Channel reported Hull was feeling better and sitting upright in the player’s dining area at Evian Resort Golf Club. Hull, 29, was at even par. She has not yet won a major and finished T12 in both the Women’s PGA Championship and US Women’s Open in 2025.

Healy and Van der Poel were part of a nine man mid-race escape who set a relentless pace. The Irishman broke solo knowing that if he waited for the hilly finale he had little chance of beating the proven experts in the breakaway. He made his move suddenly on a flat section, 32km out. As he pulled to the left and accelerated, the eight others dithered as the distance widened. For Pogacar, allowing the Dutch powerhouse to sneak into the escape meant he got rid of the overall lead and relieved himself of media duties and the draining hullabaloo that comes with wearing the yellow jersey. Once Healy had broken away, even Van der Poel sat up, saving energy, possibly for the run up the Mur de Bretagne, scene of his 2020 triumph to seize the Tour lead he kept for eight days. – AFP Kupcho is level at the top of the leaderboard with compatriot Andrea Lee, Australian duo and Gabriela Ruffels, and Ireland’s Leona Maguire. “I think it’s just made me relax a little bit, just to not have to worry about anything,”Kupcho said of her recent win in New Jersey. “I can play whatever events I want. Other than that (it) hasn’t changed a whole lot. “I’m still not playing my best I would say so I’m just kind of sticking with it, knowing I can still win even if I may not be at my best.” Maguire, chasing her first major title, enjoyed a spectacular moment in her 65 with a hole in-one on the par-three second hole, her 11th of the day. “Looked good in the air. You’re never sure on that hole until the ball actually lands,” said the European Solheim Cup star. There are some threatening challengers already lining up just behind the leading quintet, with world No. 1 Korda only two shots behind after a 67. The American is targeting a third major title and first since last year’s Chevron. She made six birdies and two bogeys in her opening round to put herself firmly in the mix. “A couple of parts of my game helped me and rescued me, and the other parts let me down,” she said. “That’s golf. Just going to try and figure it out on the range.”

“That was so enjoyable, and once we had all got away I discussed it with the team car and we chose that unlikely place to attack,” said Healy. “I’m very proud to be presenting Ireland, I’m from an Irish family and though I wasn’t born there it was an option I chose as a youngster,” he said. Stage six was intense from the off over a series of hills between Bayeux and Vire as temperatures rose above 26.5°C with the peloton putting the hammer down at 47kph average over the first three hours.

by one second. Sixth at the start of the day, Van der Poel climbed above overnight leader Tadej Pogacar. Van der Poel was billed at the start of the Tour as a potential winner of stage seven to Mur de Bretagne, where he first took the yellow in 2021. “It would be a great finale to a great week,” said an exhausted Van der Poel yesterday. “If I get the win or not it’ll be great anyway just to wear the yellow jersey again.” Belgian Evenepoel is third at 49sec with Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin fourth at 1min.

Kupcho in tie for Evian lead, Korda makes strong start AMERICAN Jennifer Kupcho took part of a five way tie for the Evian Championship lead with a 6 under first round of 65 yesterday, with Nelly Korda and Minjee Lee among the big names in contention.

Kupcho, a former runner-up in the Evian, has struggled for form in recent years but claimed her first LPGA Tour title since 2022 last month. She has not finished in the top 10 at a major since winning the 2022 Chevron Championship, but rounded off an excellent opening day with a birdie on the 17th hole and an eagle on the par five 18th.

Australia’s Minjee Lee is alone in sixth place on 5-under after making four birdies in her last seven holes to card a 65. The world No. 6 is among the title favourites in France this week after

Nelly Korda (left) and Jennifer Kupcho. – REUTERSPIC

sealing her third major crown last month in the women’s PGA Championship. – AFP

Straka, Knapp part of tie atop Scottish Open

BY Sepp Straka’s math, two out of three equals 64 and a share of the lead at the Scottish Open. Straka polished off a round of 6-under-par to finish the first round at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick in a four-way tie atop the leaderboard yesterday. “My iron play was pretty good,” said Straka. “Driver not so much but the chipping was really nice, and I also made a lot of putts. “Any time those two are working, the scores usually are going to be pretty good.” The 64 was Straka’s personal-best on the course and tied the Austrian with Victor Perez

keep it out of all the bunkers out there for the most part,” Knapp said. “That’s been our main focus. I’ve been driving it well over the last month. Drove it well in Detroit, so trying to keep that trend going. Just use my length when I can.” Germany’s Marcel Siem and Matti Schmid shot 65, along with Scotland’s Calum Hill and England’s Marco Penge, one shot behind the leaders. At 4-under are Viktor Hovland (Norway), Ryan Fox (New Zealand), Americans Wyndham Clark and Keith Mitchell and Tom Kim (Korea).

(France), Nico Echavarria (Colombia) and American Jake Knapp, who has one career win on the PGA Tour (2024, Mexico Open). A big hitter off the tee, Knapp’s bogey-free round was his first competitive tournament round on the course. He posted six birdies and made an improbable 35-foot birdie at the par-4 4th. Knapp was first in strokes gained off the tee at the time his round wrapped up, shooting 32 on the front and back nines. “It’s huge. Downwind holes, try to take advantage of my length and obviously try to

Echavarria birdied three consecutive holes – 14 through 16 – and accomplished his top priority of keeping his ball out of the bunker off the tee. Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was 2-under and in a massive logjam with a group that includes Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, Xander Schauffele, Nicolai Højgaard, Collin Morikawa and Daniel Berger. Perez played in the later wave yesterday, closing with seven birdies and four on his final five holes. US Open champion JJ Spaun was at even par and tied for 68th. – Field Level Media