Golf

Tiger Woods looks east for earning opportunities [UPDATED]

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[UPDATE: Fresh off his Hainan payday and his visit to the Venetian Macao, Tiger spent Friday at the Marina Bay Sands casino-hotel in Singapore, where he held a clinic for young golfers and dyslexic children. Again, call me cynical, but the kids + special needs combo is fooling no one: clearly it’s easier to bank a large, guaranteed sum for a couple of hours of work than fight it out over four rounds with the other pros, even if the $8.5 million on offer this week in Shanghai means there’s plenty to go around. These promotional appearances, by the way, have apparently been in the pipeline for “well over a year”, meaning they would have been on his calendar before any golf tournaments were added].

Tiger Woods flew into Hainan in his private jet on Sunday night, picked up a reported $2+ million for swearing his way around a golf course on Monday, and then made the short flight to Macau on Tuesday, where he visited the Venetian resort. Continue reading Tiger Woods looks east for earning opportunities [UPDATED] →

Golf

DJ goes nuts in Shanghai [UPDATED]

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Apologies if you read the headline and were expecting a story about a dance producer on the rampage in a glitzy club. Marginally less rock and roll – but only by a whisker – was Dustin Johnson’s 9-under-par round of 63 on Friday at the HSBC Champions that took him to 12-under, five shots clear of Bubba Watson, Boo Weekley and first round leader Rory McIlroy. DJ’s round was four shots better than anyone else and included ten birdies and a lone bogey on the 10th.

Continue reading DJ goes nuts in Shanghai [UPDATED] →

Motorsport, Video

China Sports Insider Ep. 1 – Motor racing in China

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Welcome to the first of what will be a series of videocasts with the people who matter in the Chinese sports industry, everyone from athletes and officials to executives and agents.

We kick things off with a discussion with top Chinese motor racing drivers Franky Cheng Congfu and Adderly Fong about the state of motorsports in China today, how soon China can expect to see a team or driver in F1, and which drivers are better – those from Hong Kong or the mainland!

Golf

HSBC Champions Day 1: Rory rolls, Phil implodes

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It turns that hollow one-shot victory against a sick, rusty and disinterested Tiger Woods in Hainan may just have done enough to get Rory McIlroy’s season back on track. Paired with Jason Dufner and Luke Donald in the opening round of the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, McIlroy opened birdie-bogey. But six birdies in nine holes took him to -6, and another birdie on the 8th hole (his 17th) put him at -7, two shots ahead of last week’s winner Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and chopsticks maestro Jamie Donaldson. McIlroy rated it as his best round of the year.

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Golf

Jimenez ties Liang in chopsticks challenge, Daly withdraws

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Check out this recent European Tour video from Shanghai where the players have to transfer as many golf balls as they can from one bucket to another in 60 seconds – using chopsticks.

Miguel-Angel Jimenez, cigar in hand of course, was a surprise winner with 22, tying China’s Liang Wenchong. The results:

Continue reading Jimenez ties Liang in chopsticks challenge, Daly withdraws →

Golf

Shock horror: PGA caddies, players CAN access Twitter in China!

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Many of the world’s top golfers are in Shanghai right now for the HSBC Champions – an official event of both the European and PGA Tours – so the world’s golfing media are paying attention. And golfers like to tweet: Jason Dufner starting the whole #dufnering meme earlier this year, Ian Poulter likes to talk about his car collection, Rory McIlroy writes messages to his (possibly now ex-) girlfriend tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, Tiger Woods announced he was seeing Lindsay Vonn on social media and so on.

But China, as we know, has these rules about silly matters like Facebook and Twitter. It is also, as we know, not exactly hard to bypass those rules using a VPN. But apparently that is still news to many in the west, judging by this article from Golf Digest, titled “PGA Tour golfer D.A. Points and caddie Kip Henley are defying the Chinese government”.

Continue reading Shock horror: PGA caddies, players CAN access Twitter in China! →

Golf

Rory beats Tiger by 1 in China

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Rory McIlroy needed the win – any win – more than he needed the money, and he got it….just. One shot ahead going down the 18th hole, McIlroy watched as Tiger Woods missed a chance to tie things up with an eagle, and then sank his own birdie putt to match Woods’s birdie, as McIlroy’s 67 edged a 68 from Woods.

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Football, Golf, Tennis

Weekend round-up: Li Na, Guan, Rory all fall, Tiger’s in town, and Evergrande sitting pretty

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ImageDespite taking the first set 6-2, Li Na lost the final of the WTA Championships in Istanbul (the last before the end-of-season showpiece moves to Singapore next year), as world number one Serena Williams won the next two sets 6-3, 6-0. It was Serena’s 11th title of the year, and her 10th win in 11 games against Li Na, but after going into the game as a massive underdog, Li can be happy she at least forced a third set. Crucially, she now moves up to 3rd in the world rankings – a career high – by leapfrogging both Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska.

Remember the Taiwan-China controversy at Wimbledon a few months ago? Continue reading Weekend round-up: Li Na, Guan, Rory all fall, Tiger’s in town, and Evergrande sitting pretty →

Golf

BMW Masters Day 2 round-up

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American Luke Guthrie takes a four-shot lead into the weekend at the BMW Masters in Shanghai, after an up-and-down 1-under par 71 took him to -8, while Paul Casey headlines a group of six players in second place on 4-under par. My prediction that John Daly would start brightly fade and then fade badly was largely right: two bogeys and a double bogey in the last five holes gave him a 2-over-par 74, to put him tied for 9th on 2-under par. But Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are among those lurking on 1-under-par and it should be a good weekend.

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Photo credit: Getty Images

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Golf

Daly gets helping hand (or foot) at BMW Masters in Shanghai

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John Daly is the Mike Tyson of golf: you never know what’s coming next, but you can’t look away. During a brief visit to the BMW Masters at Lake Malaren Golf Club in Shanghai on Thursday, I watched as Daly – at that time leading the tournament at 4-under-par – hit his drive on the 18th hole straight into the rough, just a few yards from where I was standing. As the trio of Daly, England’s Simon Khan and home favorite Wu Ashun prepared to play their shots, Daly looked on incredulously as one of the walking marshals stood on his ball, pushing it further into the grass.

“Oh man! You just stood on my ball! You just stood on my ball, didn’t you?”

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Daly and the hapless walking marshal

Continue reading Daly gets helping hand (or foot) at BMW Masters in Shanghai →

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