NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) Tournaments in two countries last week might have gone a long way toward who finishes in the top 50 of the world ranking at the end of the year and gets into the Masters.

Dylan Frittelli, the South African who holed the winning putt for Texas when it won the NCAA title in 2012, defeated Arjun Atwal in a playoff in the Mauritius Open and moved to No. 55 in the world. Frittelli is playing the Joburg Open this week, the final event of the calendar year on the European Tour. He also is entered in the Indonesia Masters next week on the Asian Tour.

In the final event on the Japan Golf Tour, Sotoshi Kodaira closed with a 67 to tie for 21st. Only the top 22 received world ranking points, so it was a big finish for Kodaira because that allowed him to move up four spots to No. 49. Yusaki Miyazato won the tournament and moved up 16 spots to No. 58. Both Japanese players are entered in the Indonesia Masters next week.

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And they will have compa..

NEW YORK (AP) PGA Tour player Morgan Hoffmann says he has been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and that his right pectoral muscle is nearly gone.

In a story Hoffmann wrote for The Players’ Tribune website, he says he started to notice his right pectoral deteriorating about five years ago. He saw more than 25 doctors as his weakness progressed and his swing speed decreased.

He says he was diagnosed in November 2016.

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”Even though the type of muscular dystrophy that I have doesn’t pose an immediate threat to my life, there is a good chance that it will shorten it,” Hoffman wrote. ”I don’t know when that will happen, because there’s no way to gauge the speed at which the disease will spread. But please know this: This disease won’t keep me from achieving my dream of winning on the PGA Tour – and it shouldn’t keep anyone else from chasing their dreams either.”

Hoffmann kept his PGA Tour card and made it through two rounds of the FedEx Cup playoffs last..

Golf Digest's Best New Courses in America for 2017

For the third straight time, the event — which pits 28 national teams of two against each other — is returning to Melbourne

Remember in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back when Han gets trapped in a Hoth blizzard mid-Skywalker rescue mission and has to cut open his Tauntaun and burrow inside in order to survive the storm? Of course you do. It’s a traumatic film experience for any kid who forms immediate attachments to expendable intergalactic pack animals and names them Jeff only to watch in horror as they're disemboweled by a lightsaber moments later. But take heart, emotionally scarred children of America, because while Columbia may not be able to save Jeff, their new line of Hoth-approved Star Wars winter jackets may be able to spare his descendants from a similarly gruesome fate. Bundle up:
https://twitter.com/Columbia1938/status/937713133984022529?
Named after the Rebel’s Hoth HQ, the Echo Base collection, while boasting sci-fi styling, is actually serious winter gear, featuring water resistant fabrics and Columbia’s Omni-Heat technology—which reflects the wearer’s body heat while retaini..

Billy Bush has been back in the news after writing an op-ed for the New York Times about that infamous “Access Hollywood” tape with President Donald Trump. Turns out, a recent scare on the golf course nearly kept any of it from happening.
RELATED: Why Ed Sheeran once smashed Justin Bieber in the face with a golf club
Bush appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Monday night to discuss the serious piece, but Colbert's last question concerned this Instagram Bush posted from a hospital bed the week before:
LoadingView on Instagram
We'll let Billy tell the story (Starts at the 11:40 mark):
Obviously, Bush took quite a shot — a sliced 3-wood from another hole — to end up in the hospital, but apparently, it could have been much, much worse.
“But the doctor told me if it was half an inch higher you might have died,” Bush told Colbert.
Glad to hear you're OK, Billy, and good story. Also, good job pretending that you didn't know you were going to be asked about t..

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) The latest comeback by Tiger Woods, this one following a 10-month absence from a fourth back surgery in three years, was sure to cause some disruption in the workforce with the weekday television coverage.

That included the commissioner’s office at the PGA Tour.

”I would consider myself to be among the highly distracted as Tiger played his first round,” Jay Monahan said Tuesday.

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Monahan was at the Hero World Challenge the day before it began and stayed for the pro-am dinner, where he said Woods spoke from the heart about his foundation, thanked the other 17 players for coming and reminded them they had a chance to compete against a player at No. 1,199 in the world ranking.

”That broke up the room,” Monahan said with a laugh.

Indeed, it’s rare for a player to tie for ninth and move up 531 spots in the world ranking – Woods now is all the way up to No. 668 – but such were the circumstances. The field featured eight of the top 10..

We know you already know, but…Tiger's back. If his performance in the Bahamas spiked your Tiger fever to an all-time high (and no, you're not alone), consider expressing your excitement in a t-shirt.
FacebookPinterestBuy this t-shirt now ($25)

BreakingT, a social-driven e-commerce brand that memorializes popular trending topics in sports and news, has designed a “He's Back” t-shirt in just one colorway: red and black.
FacebookPinterestA close-up look at the t-shirt

And BreakingT also goes to great measures to ensure you buy a t-shirt that fits perfectly: “Men should size up; women should size down,” the website says. And it offers the following size chart for fit:
FacebookPinterestChances are, you'll want to buy this t-shirt for yourself. But you can also be generous and buy one for every Tiger fan you know…of all the holiday gifts we've recommended, this one just might offer the best bang for your buck by a wide margin.
Shop for the “He's Back” t-sh..

Jed Jacobsohn(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)Football is modern gladiatorial combat. The gridiron may lack booby traps, lions, chariots and spears, but most would rather face that aforementioned quartet than Von Miller or J.J. Watt attacking at full steam. To even step on the field requires a gumption and craziness many lack. Which makes this pre-game ritual between Clinton Portis, Santana Moss and the departed Sean Taylor totally understandable.
Speaking with Washington NBC on the anniversary of Taylor's death, Portis and Moss relayed their practice of throwing back a shot of Hennessy. According to Portis, he had a career game despite a hangover, so the following week, the trio tried to replicate Portis' condition.
“Prior to the game, on our way, we would take a little shot,” Portis said. “Not like going out and getting sloppy wasted; just adrenaline. You know, you take a shot and you were done with it. Me, Santana and Sean, we did this for a year and a half before anyb..

First, let it be known that we at The Loop have nothing against Christmas, despite what the following article might suggest, and what you’ll possibly be hearing soon from Tucker Carlson. But generally speaking, the annual arrival of Christmas music in early- to mid-September elicits one of two reactions in humans. Group A pauses, sighs reflectively and enjoys a soft flashback to Christmases spent on bear-fur rugs in front of roaring fires in the cabins on Yule Mountain. Group B does things like steal Salvation Army buckets and throw them at elves, usually a bad decision since the Salvation Army people really need their buckets, and those are probably not elves.
FacebookPinterestThis is because almost all Christmas music is hot garbage, stuffed full of synthetic joy and deployed with dull precision to a populace that, it is assumed, could not dream of getting into the spirit without the assistance of Gwen Stefani’s pitch correction machine. There is only one Christmas song that can be p..