25/07/2025

SPORTS FRIDAY | JULY 25, 2025

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High stakes game Players angle for FedEx Cup points at 3M Open

Rebels slam ‘mockery’ of world rankings system LEE WESTWOOD’S tie for 34th at The Open Championship vaulted him 3,759 spots in the Official World Golf Ranking. Now at No. 930, Westwood is now back ahead of his son, Sam, a mini-tour player who currently sits 2,759th. That served as Exhibit 1 for the Englishman’s rant against the world rankings system. “I think that just proves that without world ranking points it makes a bit of a mockery of the system,” Westwood said yesterday ahead of this week’s LIV Golf UK event. The comments came after the league re-applied for submission to the OWGR last month. That submission currently is under review. LIV originally applied for accreditation in July of 2022, shortly after the league launched, but was denied. LIV golfers currently can only earn ranking points by competing in major championships and international tour events. With limited ability to amass points via the DP World Tour and other tours, LIV players like Westwood have continued to plummet down the OWGR. Dustin Johnson, who spent 135 weeks at No. 1, dropped as low as 907th before a T23 last week vaulted him back up to 571st. The current Top 50 includes only two LIV players: No. 16 Bryson DeChambeau and No. 21 Tyrrell Hatton of England. Westwood applauds LIV’s recent second submission and believes that without earning OWGR, the four major championships will have to alter their processes to include more LIV players in the future. “I think mainly it relates back to wanting the best players in the major championships, not wanting this conversation where there’s a few people missing out because we don’t get world ranking points on LIV,” he said. “We either start to get world ranking points on LIV or the major championships have to revise their qualification system, which they seem – some of them seem to want to do but some seem reluctant to do, and they’d have to have a separate qualification system for LIV players, which I don’t think anybody particularly wants. You want it all to be based off the same system.” That he was able to jump more than 3,000 spots based off a tie for 34th at one event speaks to the core issues Westwood has with the system. – Field Level Media SHORTS Gotterup doesn’t know about ‘heaters’ THE past two weeks for Chris Gotterup have been nothing short of incredible. And everyone wants to know why. After winning the Genesis Scottish Open and following that up with a third- place finish at The Open, Gotterup – set to compete at the 3M Open in Minnesota this weekend – doesn’t have much of an explanation. “I wish I knew what it was,” Gotterup said. “I feel like I’ve been in a good rhythm and flow over the last couple months. “I feel like the Scottish was a big step in the right direction, and then to follow it up (at the Open). “Someone asked me last week, media, they were like, have you ever like been on a heater? I was like, I don’t think so. Like when I won, I missed the cut the week after. “I feel like I’ve gotten better at just knowing my body and how to react after like, you know, important weeks like that. And yeah, I’m going to try to ride it out as long as I can.” Rahm supports Garcia as future captain THERE are still two months until the next Ryder Cup, but Jon Rahm already has thoughts on which golfer should captain Team Europe six years hence. With Ryder Cup officials revealing on Tuesday that Spain’s Camiral Golf Resort will host the 2031 competition, Rahm believes countryman Sergio Garcia makes sense as Team Europe’s captain. The only other time Spain was the site for the Ryder Cup, Spain’s Seve Ballesteros captained his side to victory in 1997 at Valderrama. “I think there’s something to say about possibly having, obviously, a local captain,” Rahm said yesterday while previewing this week’s LIV Golf United Kingdom tournament. “I think it would do wonders for the crowd. If history shows us anything, and it’s very hard to compare anybody to Seve, but I’ve only heard stories about what that Ryder Cup was like. I would say, if possible, I think that’s a very obvious good choice to have Sergio be a part of that one.”

M OST of the world’s elite golfers are taking the week off after the Open Championship, but for the second tier of PGA Tour players, it’s time to lock in and bolster their resumes. With two weeks to go in the regular season, players will be all business at the 3M Open, beginning today at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota. There’s no shortage of recognisable names in the field – Sam Burns, Wyndham Clark, South Korea’s Sungjae Im and

tour since 2017. “To be honest, it’s been kind of nice to see a pretty solid field this week,” Vegas said. “And I mean, these tournaments are so important right now. “I was talking to some other players early on where it doesn’t matter where you are in the standings right now, you’re always fighting for something, and with so many little tournaments before the playoffs now, especially this kind of few tournaments at the end of the season mean a lot.” Something else the American players are fighting for right now: Ryder Cup points. The top six Americans in qualification points as of Aug. 17 will automatically make the team, and Keegan Bradley’s six captain’s picks are such a mystery that he’s widely expected to choose himself. Finau, at No. 21 in those standings, has work to do to prove he belongs on the team. One spot below him is a recent surprise, Chris Gotterup. The 26-year-old Gotterup won his second PGA Tour event two weeks ago at the Genesis Scottish Open, then contended at the Open Championship on the weekend before finishing a distant third to Scottie Scheffler. Still, it boosted him to No. 27 in the Official World Golf Ranking and No. 23 in the FedEx Cup race. “Going over (to Europe) ranked 80th or whatever I was and coming back 20 whatever, I feel like I have a different set of circumstances in front of me,” Gotterup said. “I would like to get to (the Tour Championship at) East Lake and then, obviously, see what happens from there.” – Field Level Media edge before the ball deflected onto his right foot. Pant, who had made 37 off 48 balls, eventually limped into a buggy before being driven off the field, with India then 212-3. An India statement issued after close of play said Pant had been taken from the ground for scans, with the squad’s medical team “monitoring his progress”. Soon after Pant’s departure, Sudharsan fell for a well-made 61 when a top-edged swivel pull off a short ball from Stokes flew straight to Carse at long leg before bad light ended play for the day. Jaiswal and fellow opener KL Rahul had previously defied difficult conditions and testing bowling from Woakes and Archer to take India to 78-0 at lunch. But Rahul had added just six more runs to his interval score of 40 when, trying to force Woakes off the back foot, he edged to Zak Crawley at third slip, leaving India 94-1. Jaiswal late-cut Carse for four to go to 49 before completing a 96-ball fifty. Dawson, playing his first Test since 2017, needed just seven balls to strike when Jaiswal pushed forward defensively to a good-length delivery and edged to Harry Brook at first slip. New batsman and India captain Shubman Gill’s brief stay ended when he was lbw for 12 playing no shot to opposing captain Stokes following a vociferous appeal from the all rounder. He reviewed, but to no avail, with India now 140-3. – AFP India’s Rishabh Pant is hit on the foot by the ball before retiring hurt. – REUTERSPIC

important that top-50 number is,” Finau said yesterday. “So it’s definitely something in the back of my mind, but that’s really where it is, it’s back. “At the forefront of my mind this week is playing good golf… If you play good golf, it always – things always take care of themselves.” Finau has played all six editions of the 3M Open and never finished worse than T28. Of his 24 rounds at the par-71, 7,431-yard TPC Twin Cities, he’s only shot worse than 70 once. Finau followed his breakthrough victory in 2022 with T7 and T12 finishes the past two years.

Australia’s Adam Scott among them – as they try to stack up FedEx Cup points before the regular season concludes next week at the Wyndham Championship. For Tony Finau, a former 3M Open champion, the stakes are certainly higher than usual. At No. 59 in the points race, he’s inside the top 70

“Winning in ‘22 is a highlight, but I’ve had some nice finishes,” Finau said. “It’s a golf course that I enjoy playing,

usually yields some birdies and I always look forward to being back here in Minnesota.” Lee Hodges set the

who will qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs, but only the top 50 after the first playoff leg

tournament scoring record of 24-under 260 when he won in 2023, and Venezuela’s Jhonattan

will advance. Finishing inside the top 50 also means access to next year’s signature events.

V e g a s prevailed last year for his first victory o n

“Yeah, it’s definitely in the back of my mind because I know how

Notices

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IN THE MATTER OF THE COMPANIES ACT, 2016 AND IN THE MATTER OF LONGROW CORPORATION SDN. BHD. Company Registration No. 199101014828 (225140-K) (In Members’ Voluntary Liquidation) At an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Members of Longrow Corporation Sdn. Bhd., duly convened and held on Wednesday, 23 July 2025, the following resolutions were duly passed: 1. That the Company be wound up voluntarily by way of Members’ Voluntary Winding Up pursuant to Section 439(1)(b) of the Companies Act, 2016. 2. That in accordance with Section 445(1) of the Companies Act, 2016,Lim Boon Hooi,AMP of No. 42, Jalan Thomson, 34000 Taiping, Perak, be and is hereby appointed as the liquidator for the purposes of the winding up. Lim Boon Hooi,AMP Director Dated this: 25/07/2025 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT the creditors of the abovenamed Company which is being voluntarily wound-up are required on or before the 23 August 2025 to send in their names and addresses with particulars of their debts and claims and the names and addresses of their solicitors (if any) to the abovementioned Liquidator and if so required by notice in writing from the said Liquidator, by their solicitors or personally, to come in and prove their debts and claims at such time and place as shall be specified in such notice, or in default thereof they will be excluded from the benefit of any distribution made before such debts and claims are proved. Lim Boon Hooi,AMP Liquidator Dated this: 25/07/2025

India suffer Pant blow

INDIA were left facing a nervous wait after Rishabh Pant retired hurt during yesterday’s first day of the fourth cricket Test against England at Old Trafford before they reached stumps on 264-4. Left-arm spinner Liam Dawson had earlier marked his first Test in eight years with the key wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal after England captain Ben Stokes went against history by opting to bowl first. No team winning the toss and bowling first has ever won a Test at Old Trafford. But lively paceman Stokes led from the front with 2-47 in 14 overs as he again proved the pick of England’s attack this series. India, 2-1 down after three Tests, must win in Manchester if they are to keep alive their hopes of winning the five-match campaign. The tourists, however, will have to make history of their own as they have never managed to win in nine previous Tests at Old Trafford. India got through the first session without losing a wicket only for three batsmen to be dismissed before tea. The recalled Sai Sudharsan, dropped on 20, twice hooked fast bowler Jofra Archer for four in the evening session before Pant launched Brydon Carse for a superb straight six. But the aggressive Pant was hurt when attempting an audacious reverse sweep off a yorker-length delivery from paceman Chris Woakes. England appealed for lbw but a review revealed wicketkeeper Pant had got an inside