(Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)The Zurich Classic of New Orleans has done a great job in the past two years of changing up its format to attract a solid field (17 of the top 30 in the world are teeing it up this week) and more eyeballs to its event, which is now the only team event on the PGA Tour. And for the 2018 Zurich Classic, each team that makes the cut gets to play their own personalized “walk-up” song to before they hit their opening tee shots on Saturday and Sunday.
It's clear a bunch of these teams had fun making their song selections: Justin Thomas and Bud Cauley are coming out to “Circle of Life” from The Lion King. Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera Bello went with Tina Turner, which is hilarious, and Cody Gribble and John Peterson selected a George Michael song—both of which should elicit some laughs on the first tee. Same as Tony Finau and Daniel Summerhays going with “Doo Wa Ditty.”
RELATED: Our nine favorite teams at the 2018 Zurich Classic
There are some repea..

After a 13-4, dream start to the season for the New York Mets that included 12 games at Citi Field, it was time to hit the road for 10-game trip. First a four-game set in Atlanta, then three-game series in St. Louis and San Diego. You can't win a pennant in April, but if these Metropolitans are for real, fans would probably have liked to see them win at least six on the road, or, at worst, go 5-5.
THE GRIND: Yoenis Cespedes and the Mets have a golf problem
So far they're on the right track, starting 2-2 and winning in impressive, comeback fashion on Tuesday night against Cardinals, who lead the game 4-1 in the top of the fifth. That's when the slumping Yoenis Cespedes hit an absolutely TOWERING shot to deep left to tie the game:
https://twitter.com/SNYtv/status/988961682130112512
Hmmm… looks like someone had an early morning tee time before heading to Busch Stadium. After going down again, the Mets tied it at 5 and eventually won it 6-5 in the 10th on a solo shot from ..

The New York Yankees have made the most errors of any MLB team this season (Not that it matters much when you have a juggernaut offense). Their biggest gaffe, however, came just off the field on Tuesday night when the team managed to spell one of its player's names wrong for an upcoming promotion. And not just any player, but Didi Gregorius. You know, the guy who is an MVP front-runner (His OPS at an absurd 1.229 right now), their current best player, and the best shortstop to ever put on the Pinstripes. . . (* Ducks *)
RELATED: Yoenis Cespedes and the Mets have a golf problem
OK, so he needs to continue what he's doing for juuuust a few more years to knock Derek Jeter from his pedestal, but just look at this stat!
https://twitter.com/ktsharp/status/988936886197608449
Back to the point of this post. Despite Didi's historic start, laser arm, and infectious smile (seriously, I love this guy), the Yankees spelled his last name wrong on a sign behind home plate:
https://twit..

Brian Babineau (Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)Remember that ridiculous, totally unnecessary but somehow justified and possibly abstract art pump-up video Kevin Garnett pieced together for his TV segment on TNT?
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It may have single-handedly altered the fate of an NBA playoff series.
At least, that's if you believe Thon Maker's explanation for his recent surge. Maker, a center for the Milwaukee Bucks, saw a total of one minute of action in the Bucks' opening two losses against the Boston Celtics in their first-round Eastern Conference matchup. But the second-year big man exploded in Games 3 and 4, posting a combined 22 points, 10 blocks and 7 rebounds in back-to-back Milwaukee victories. All thanks to Garnett's Tony Robbins turn:
“The biggest thing is having that attack mindset on both ends of the floor,” Maker said. “With him, he doesn’t care who you are in front of him if you’re playing against him. On the defensive end, [defe..

Ah, the joys of second grade. A simpler age when doing “research projects” just involved reading a youth-level biography on your favorite athlete and giving a quick talk to your class about it because you hadn't developed a fear of public speaking yet. Man, I really nailed that Bo Jackson presentation. Good times.
Anyway, one youngster named Champ recently picked Jordan Spieth as his project topic. And he pulled it off perfectly, right down to a sharp — but not too flashy — Under Armour ensemble. Have a look and listen at what will undoubtedly be the cutest thing you see all day:
https://twitter.com/RikkiKemp1/status/986673919586381825
And here's a better look at Champ's presentation:
https://twitter.com/RikkiKemp1/status/986672367752695808
Jordan didn't reply (he's not a big Twitter guy), but his mom did:
https://twitter.com/jsekiddos/status/986731361242361856
We love it, too, Champ. We just feel bad for the kid who had to follow your act by talking about Ge..

QAI PublishingBig news for fans of the vast reaches of the galaxy and those who appreciate a good poop joke, two groups that probably contain the exact same people, honestly: Actual science research has proven that Uranus is a huge ball of gas that reeks of flatulence. And people say writing humor can be hard.
This all comes from the world of flatulence-based astrophysics, which is a field not often mentioned by Neil deGrasse Tyson and also very likely my son’s future major: Uranus actually smells like farts. We’ll pause to let that sentence sit there while appreciate the beautiful crystalline structure of the year’s best science-related actual news joke. It may actually be a perfect joke? It’s a perfect diamond of a joke, it’s the Beyonce’s Coachella performance of a joke, it’s the Kate Middleton’s appearance seven hours after producing an infant of a joke. How lucky we are to be alive right now.
Uranus jokes, as you already know if you are or have ever been 9, are the most reliable s..

Bernhard Langer has compiled 36 victories and just over $25 million in earnings on the PGA Tour Champions, and he is a seven-time player of the year. It might help the others if the 60-year-old German takes a week off every now and then.

”Sometimes they say, `Why don’t you take a week off?’ I joke back and say, `If you pay me some disappearance fee, I might.’ But I haven’t received any yet,” Langer said Monday while previewing the Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Leave it to Langer’s son to arrange that.

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Langer revealed that he won’t be able to defend his title on May 24-27 because his youngest son, 18-year-old Jason, is graduating from high school that weekend.

”Family always comes first in my life, so I’ve got to be there to support him, to celebrate him moving on to college,” Langer said.

He said his son will attend Penn’s Wharton School of Business and plans to play golf.

”I wouldn’t want to miss that,” Langer said. ”I’m going t..

On the eve of National Golf Day, the World Golf Foundation's new U.S. Golf Economy Report cites the game directly driving $84.1 billion in economic activity

YORK, Pa. (AP) Black people have long complained about getting pulled over by police for ”driving while black,” or being eyed suspiciously by store security guards for ”shopping while black.” Now a group of women says it got into trouble for golfing while black.

Officials at the Grandview Golf Club in York called police on the group, accusing them of playing too slowly and holding up others behind them.

No charges were filed, but the confrontation Saturday touched a raw nerve after two other somewhat similar incidents. Two black men in Philadelphia were handcuffed and arrested on April 12 after a Starbucks employee called police because they hadn’t bought anything in the store. And employees of an LA Fitness in New Jersey wrongly accused a black member and his guest of not paying to work out and called police, prompting an apology from the company.

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One of the black women golfers, Sandra Harrison, said they were at the second hole when representatives of ..

The PGA Tour began the second half of the season at the Texas Open, with Andrew Landry becoming the seventh first-time winner.

Never mind that it feels as though the season is just getting started.

Still to come are three majors and The Players Championship. Not to be overlooked are the FedEx Cup playoffs. Quibble about points and prestige, but they deliver four tournaments over five weeks of the top available players.

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Most sports prefer to become more relevant the closer they get to the finish line, so that’s one benefit of the PGA Tour’s wraparound season.

The opening 22 weeks featured one major and three World Golf Championships, one of them in Shanghai last October, the other two in March separated by two weeks. Justin Thomas, Bubba Watson and Patton Kizzire are multiple winners. Dustin Johnson should be. Jordan Spieth would settle for one victory at this point.

The first half did a good job setting the table for what should be a compelling five mo..