Brooks Koepka feels he is finally back to full health following a serious knee injury that had crippled him over the past two years, claiming a share of the lead after Thursday's opening round at the Masters.
Koepka, a four-time major champion, shot four birdies on his front-nine and four more on his back-nine to go with a solitary bogey in an impressive seven-under 65.
There were warning signs that the 32-year-old may be in for a good week, coming off a victory at LIV Golf Orlando where Koepka became the new tour's first ever two-time winner.
His performance this time was in stark contrast to his efforts at the last two editions of the Masters, where Koepka missed the cut both times, but he told the media after his round that his health made those years complete write-offs.
He shared details of the darkest moments from his recovery, where he could barely get out of bed, and would be in tears while biting down on a towel as his physical therapist tried to bend his knee.
"I just wrote the last two years [at the Masters] off," he said. "I came here three weeks after surgery [in 2021], and last year I wasn't anywhere near it, but I'm healthy now, I've put that behind me, and I'm not too worried about the last two years.
"It's all injury-based. Any athlete, anybody that's going through something where you can't even bend your knee.
"I'll spare everybody the details of what actually happened – it was pretty gruesome, right – and they told me I could have a surgery that would be pretty much a year and a half [recovery time].
"Then you create bad habits, and there's frustration, and you just feel like you're never going to be healthy.
"I wish I had celebrated the kind of little milestones along the way, instead of thinking I could just power through it… so yeah, it was definitely frustrating, but once you feel good, everything changes."
He said he realised early that he was in for a great day after making a sharp start on a course that was "quite gettable".
"Honestly I think it was just the start," he said. "I got off to a good start – any time you're two under through three it's a good start – so I felt good, and I just kind of piggybacked off that momentum.
"I'm very happy with the way I played. I drove the ball nicely, left it in some good spots, and even missed quite a few putts… it could've been really low, but I'll take it. Seven's pretty good."
Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and Viktor Hovland are tied for lead at seven under after Thursday's opening round at the Masters.
It was a shaky start for world number three Rahm as he stumbled to a double-bogey on the first hole, but he birdied the next two to quickly even out his card, before rattling off another five birdies and an eagle the rest of the way.
Koepka, a four-time major champion, is riding high after emerging victorious in last week's LIV Golf Orlando to become the breakaway tour's first ever two-time winner, and he looked terrific with eight birdies and one bogey.
Hovland was the only of the trio to go bogey-free, with the 25-year-old Norwegian now in a great position to make a run at his first major title.
They have a two-stroke lead on the chasing pack, with Australia's former world number one Jason Day shooting a bogey-free, five-under 67, and he is joined in a tie for fourth by Cameron Young.
Tiger Woods carded back-to-back birdies on the 15th and 16th holes to salvage a disappointing two-over 74, leaving him with work to do on Friday if he is to make the cut.
World number one Scottie Scheffler is part of a loaded logjam tied for sixth at four under, which also includes world number seven Xander Schauffele, former Masters champion Adam Scott, WGC Match Play winner Sam Burns, and surprising rookie Sam Bennett.
Three-time major champion Jordan Spieth is at three under with two-time major champion Collin Morikawa, reigning British Open champion Cameron Smith is at two under with reigning PGA Championship victor Justin Thomas, and Phil Mickelson is joined at one under by fellow Masters champions Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson.
Shot of the day
While Bennett's eagle chip-in, or Rahm's long iron setting up a five-foot eagle putt were worthy contenders, neither had the degree of difficulty of Hovland's par save on the 10th hole.
Landing in a horrible spot in the rough behind a bunker, with almost no green to work with, Hovland played a feathery flop into the fringe and allowed it to trickle next to the hole for an unlikely par.
A little birdie told me…
It was a memorable day for Bennett, as the 23-year-old amateur began his first round at the Masters with a birdie on the first, an eagle on the second and another birdie on the sixth to tie the best front-nine score by an amateur at Augusta (32).
Meanwhile, after his best major finish last season with a T4 at The Open, Hovland tied his best round at a major, and set a new personal best around Augusta with his seven-under 65.
Joining him at the top of the leaderboard, Rahm will be trying to make history as the first player to ever win the Masters after double-bogeying their opening hole.
Tiger Woods was in "constant" pain during a first round of the Masters that left him facing a battle to make the cut.
Woods has won a third of his 15 major titles at Augusta National, but the legendary American may not be in Georgia for the weekend after a disappointing start.
The 47-year-old signed for a two-over 74 after a fifth bogey of the day at the 18th in Georgia, where Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka capitalised on great conditions to lead at seven under.
Woods defied the odds to resume his career after suffering serious leg injuries in a car accident two years ago.
One of the all-time great revealed he felt "sore" and was troubled throughout his opening round of the first major of 2023 on Thursday.
Reflecting on his round, he said: "Most of the guys are going low today. This was the day to do it.
"Hopefully tomorrow I'll be a little bit better, a little bit sharper, and kind of inch my way through it.
"This is going to be an interesting finish to the tournament with the weather coming in. If I can just kind of hang in there, maybe kind of inch my way back, hopefully it will be positive towards the end."
Cameron Young and Jason Day were two shots behind the leading trio, while defending champion Scottie Scheffler was three under through 14 holes.
Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott and amateur Sam Bennett are among a host of players well poised on four under, while Rory McIlroy has work to do at one over through 14.
Dominic Thiem continued to impress at the Estoril Open as he reached the quarter-finals, but second seed Hubert Hurkacz is out in Portugal.
The Austrian backed up his first round win against compatriot Sebastian Ofner with a 6-2 6-2 straight sets triumph against American Ben Shelton.
It takes the 2020 US Open winner into the last-eight where he will face Quentin Halys after the Frenchman beat fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut in a 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 triumph.
There will be no Hurkacz however, after the Pole fell to 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-2 loss against the unseeded Bernabe Zapata Miralles.
Elsewhere, top seeds Lorenzo Musetti and Dan Evans are both through to the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix Hassan II.
The pair saw straight sets victories see them through the last-16, with the Italian winning 6-2 6-3 against France's Hugo Gaston and the Briton pulling out a 6-1 6-3 victory against Australia's Alexei Popyrin.
Fares Chaibi struck late to help Toulouse past second-tier Annecy and into a first Coupe de France final for 66 years with a 2-1 win at Parc des Sports.
The Ligue 1 visitors had looked destined for penalties heading into the final stages against their Ligue 2 hosts, before the substitute rode to the rescue.
A horrendous defensive misread by Annecy allowed him to head past goalkeeper Thomas Callens into an open net and send his side to a first final since 1957.
Toulouse had originally seized the lead in the first half through Zakaria Aboukhlal, with the winger's low header drifted home off a Branco van den Boomen cross.
But their opponents had equalised on the stroke of half-time through a penalty for Alexy Bosetti, after Gabriel Suazo was deemed to have fouled him inside the area.
The result means Philippe Montanier's side can look forward to a clash with defending champions Nantes at the Stade de France next month.
Jon Rahm birdied the last hole of his first round to join Viktor Hovland in a share of the Masters lead.
Hovland held a three-shot advantage at one stage as he started the first major of the year with a magnificent seven-under 65 on Thursday.
Rahm matched the Norwegian's round to become the co-leader at Augusta National after starting with a double bogey.
The 2021 U.S. Open champion eagled the par-five eighth to go three under and fire a warning to the rest of the field.
Rahm birdied the 13th, 15th and 16th before rolling in a short putt for another gain at 18 following a brilliant approach shot.
Hovland had earlier signed for his lowest Masters round and his joint-best in a major, ending his day without a solitary bogey in great conditions.
Cameron Young and Brooks Koepka are just two shots behind the leading duo, with fellow American Sam Burns also five under through only eight holes.
Jordan Spieth, Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott, Joaquin Niemann and Sam Bennett are well poised on four under.
Bennett matched the record for the best front nine by an amateur in the Masters, hitting the turn in 32.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler was two under approaching the turn, while Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are one over and two over respectively in Georgia.
Will Zalatoris withdrew from the prestigious event due to injury.
The NBA announced Thursday it has denied a protest issued by the Dallas Mavericks over a disputed basket that occurred during the team's two-point loss to the Golden State Warriors on March 22.
The league said in a statement that game officials incorrectly handled a confusing sequence that led to a Warriors' basket late in the third quarter of Golden State’s eventual 127-125 victory, but determined the Mavericks were not denied a fair chance to win the game.
The incident in question occurred following a timeout called by the Mavericks in which they believed they had possession when play was to resume. Official Andy Nagy at first pointed in the Warriors' direction to indicate Golden State would have possession, then pointed to the Mavericks' bench to award the timeout.
Dallas lined up on its offensive end following the timeout, which led to the Warriors’ inbounding the ball to Kevon Looney for an uncontested dunk that gave Golden State a 90-87 lead.
The game's public address announcer also erroneously stated that the Mavericks would have possession after the timeout.
Dallas did regain the lead twice in the fourth quarter and held a 119-118 advantage with under 3 1/2 minutes left in the game, which factored into the NBA's decision to deny the protest.
"The incident occurred with nearly 14 minutes remaining in the game, and Dallas thereafter took the lead twice in the final four minutes," the league said. "Under these circumstances, Dallas was not able to show – as required under the standard for NBA game protests – that it was deprived of a fair opportunity to win the game, and the protest failed on that basis alone.
"Although the game officials could have taken steps to better manage this particular situation, that did not provide a basis for the extraordinary remedy of upholding a game protest."
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban announced shortly after the game he planned to issue a protest while also heavily criticising the officials in a social media post.
"Worst officiating non call mistake possibly in the history of the NBA," Cuban tweeted. "All they had to do was tell us (it was the Warriors' ball) and they didn’t."
The NBA said Dallas acknowledged that the officials signalled Golden State possession in its formal filing of the protest.
The decision to uphold the final result could have a major impact on the Western Conference playoff race. The Warriors currently are one game ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 6 seed, which would allow Golden State to avoid the play-in tournament.
Dallas is presently tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 10th and final spot for the play-in tournament with two games remaining in the regular season.
Will Zalatoris has withdrawn from the Masters ahead of his first round with a reported back injury, ruling the 2021 runner-up out at Augusta National.
The 26-year-old had been due to take to the tee with Matt Fitzpatrick and Collin Morikawa on Thursday's opening day in Georgia.
A one-time PGA Tour winner, having claimed his maiden crown at the FedEx St. Jude Championship last August, Zalatoris would have been chasing a first major.
He previously finished second in 2021 at the Masters, and was the runner-up at last year's PGA Championship and US Open.
Kolkata Knight Riders picked up their first win of the Indian Premier League season with a crushing 81-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday.
After falling to defeat to Punjab Kings in their opening fixture, the Knight Riders hit back in style at Eden Gardens against an RCB side that beat Mumbai Indians in their opener.
The hosts recovered from a slow start that saw them 89-5 at one point thanks to half-centuries from Shardul Thakur (68 runs off 29 balls) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (57 off 44).
Rinku Singh's 46 off 33 balls saw KKR reach 204-7 from their 20 overs, which RCB did not come close to chasing down after losing Virat Kohli (21) off the bowling of Sunil Narine.
Varun Chakravarthy took the big wicket of top-scoring Faf du Plessis (23) a few balls later en route to finishing with 4-15, while Suyash Sharma (3-30) also impressed for Kolkata.
KKR are back in action against Gujarat Titans on Sunday, while RCB are up against Lucknow Super Giants the following day.
Winning feeling returns
KKR needed a response and they got it, with this their 17th IPL win against RCB – only against Punjab Kings (20) have they won more times against in the competition.
Bangalore were left with too much to do and struggled to find any momentum thanks in large to the bowling of Chakravarthy, with the visiting side restricted to 123 runs in 17.4 overs.
Sunil shines on milestone occasion
Narine was playing his 150th game for KKR in the competition, becoming the first player to do so for the franchise and the seventh overall for a single team.
He marked the occasion with a couple of wickets at the expense of 16 runs, including that of Kohli in what was a big breakthrough for KKR.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup™ Trophy Tour 2023 makes a stop in Jamaica on April 17. \
The prestigious trophy will be on display at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston and later that day, it will be taken on a road tour of Montego Bay and then make it’s final stop at the Holiday Inn hotel before continuing on its journey to another of the countries that have qualified for the tournament. The FIFA Women’s World Cup™ Trophy Tour 2023 is on its journey to each of the 32 qualified countries – the largest FIFA Women’s World Cup™ Trophy Tour to date!
Guests will be supporting this Trophy Tour’s campaign, Going Beyond: with a mission to inspire, coach and spotlight future female football talent of all levels and backgrounds, building unprecedented global excitement and support ahead of the tournament’s kick-off in July.
Juventus have been given a one-match partial stadium ban after their supporters racially abused Inter striker Romelu Lukaku.
Lukaku was targeted by opposition fans before and after scoring a penalty in the fifth minute of added time to earn Inter a 1-1 draw in Tuesday's Coppa Italia semi-final first leg.
The Belgium international was issued a second yellow card for putting his fingers to his lips to silence the Allianz Stadium crowd.
Serie A announced on Thursday that Juve must close the lower tier of the South Stand for their next home league game, which is against Napoli on April 23.
The judge overseeing the case stated that "the majority of the 5,034" spectators in that stand were guilty of racially abusing Lukaku.
Lukaku will still serve a one-match ban in the return fixture with Juve on April 26 for his sending off, which sparked a mass melee near full-time.
Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic and Juve midfielder Juan Cuadrado were both dismissed for their parts in the scuffle, and will serve one and three-game bans respectively.
Lukaku, who is on loan at San Siro from Chelsea, has been subjected to racism on numerous occasions in Italy and this week called for more serious action to be taken.
"History repeats. [I've] been through it in 2019 and [now in] 2023 again," he posted on his official social media channels.
"I hope the league really take actions for real this time because this beautiful game should be enjoyed by everyone.
"Thank you for the supportive messages. F*** racism."
Juve intend to work closely with authorities to identify the fans responsible and issue bans.
Viktor Hovland surged into a three-shot lead as Tiger Woods struggled early in his first round of the Masters on Thursday.
Hovland has five top-20 finishes in seven starts this year and the Norwegian hit the ground running at Augusta National.
The 25-year-old made an eagle at the par-five second hole following a mammoth tee shot and held a two-shot advantage at the turn on five under.
Birdies at sixth, eighth and ninth holes put Hovland at the top of the leaderboard, with a long putt at 11 giving him further breathing space.
Jon Rahm moved into second place following a nightmare start to the first major of the year.
Rahm recovered from a double-bogey at the first by making a birdie at the second and an eagle at the eighth moved the Spaniard to three under.
Scott Stallings, the world number 66, signed for a two-under 70, while the veteran Fred Couples was also flying high on two under.
Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott, Cameron Young and Brooks Koepka were also three shots off the lead.
Woods was two over at the turn, having dropped shots at the third, fifth and seventh hole before making his first birdie at hole number eight.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are among the late starters in Georgia, where the weather is forecast to deteriorate.
Australia national selector George Bailey says there are no guarantees David Warner will face England in the Ashes.
Warner's place at the top of the order in the Test side is under threat after he failed in all four innings against India in February before his tour was cut short due to injury.
Head coach Andrew McDonald stated that Warner is fully in Australia's plans for the World Test Championship final at The Oval early in June, which is followed by the battle for the urn with Ben Stokes' side.
Yet Bailey stressed that the 36-year-old is not a certainty for the five-match series against England.
He said: "We're three formats across all of those contracts. Trying to fit that in is first and foremost, the job. But I think Dave, like any player is, is at the mercy of selection.
"The Ashes is a huge series. And we'll be looking to pick our best team. We're going to have to have our best team playing incredibly well too, to challenge England over there the way they're playing."
Australia could make changes to their squad after the second Test against England.
Bailey added: "We'll have more information on how the team's going, the results of the first couple of Ashes Tests, what the brand of cricket looks like and an opportunity to review any changes that will need to be made.
Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Matt Renshaw are alternative options to open along with Usman Khawaja.
Bailey said: "I agree with [Western Australia coach] Adam Voges, he said post the [Sheffield Shield] final that he thinks Cam Bancroft is batting as well as he's ever seen.
"I think we'd agree with that as a panel as well, so really excited by the form that he's in and really glad he's over in England playing.
"Matt was putting a really compelling case at the top of the order as well early on in the year for Queensland then by virtue of being away in India didn't get much of an opportunity in the back half of the year.
"Not being rude to Usman or Dave, but there's no doubt those two are probably closer to the end than start of their careers, so we are going to need some depth and needing all three of those guys performing really well for us. Hopefully they make our decisions incredibly challenging over next little while."
Tottenham's acting head coach Cristian Stellini has accused former players of having no respect for the club after Harry Kane received criticism for his part in Abdoulaye Doucoure's red card in the 1-1 draw at Everton.
The England captain was targeted by some for his reaction to Doucoure putting his hand into Kane's face during the Premier League clash at Goodison Park on Monday.
Kane fell to the floor holding his face as Doucoure was given his marching orders.
At a press conference on Thursday, Stellini said: "I think it's strange that some ex-players said something wrong about Harry. They are ex-players and they know the difference between seeing something in slow motion and living it in real motion.
"Also the Everton manager [Sean Dyche] said it was a clear red card. Perhaps they respect Harry but they don't respect Tottenham."
Spurs host rivals for the top four spots Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday, and Stellini confirmed he is not expecting any of his injured players to return, though did indicate that Richarlison could be back to face Bournemouth the following weekend.
"No good news about players that come back for the next game," he said. "We are getting closer with Richarlison. He trained on the pitch but he trained alone. We are going well with Ben Davies with the plan but we have to wait a bit for him.
"[Richarlison] trained on the pitch. He is going well and for the next game he could be available."
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