Ernie Els is two shots behind Maybank Championship leader Thomas Pieters on a crowded leaderboard after the second round in Kuala Lumpur

We know Steph Curry is a huge golfer. In fact, he's one of the best golfer-athletes out there and has competed in the Web.com Tour's Ellie Mae Classic two years in a row, missing the cut both times.
On Thursday, the Golden State Warriors star spent some time with a couple Augusta National Women's Amateur competitors, Lucy Li and Andrea Lee at the Warriors facility. Li and Lee, both California natives, got to check out a Warriors practice, and they took on Curry in a little putting challenge, ahead of the inaugural Augusta National Women's Amateur, which will take place the weekend before the Masters.
Being the first-ever tournament for women at golf's most famous venue, the event should garner quite a bit of attention in the lead-up to the Masters, before the Drive, Chip & Putt. But the event already has an early highlight in this putt-off with Li, Lee and Curry. Curry's reaction at the end is pretty awesome—here's the video:
https://twitter.com/espn/..

Na Yeon Choi had an unexpected share of the Founders Cup lead halfway through the first round in her return from a back injury

Na Yeon Choi shot a 7-under 65 in the Founders Cup in her return from a back injury, leaving her a stroke behind first-round leader Celine Boutier

The University of Oklahoma men’s golf team is two years removed from winning an NCAA title and currently ranked No. 2 in the latest Golfweek Bushnell Coaches’ poll. But coach Ryan Hybl’s bunch isn’t all business, all the time. They can enjoy a good golf prank, too.
Case in point: the Sooners were playing earlier this week at the National Invitational Tournament in Tucson. During a practice round at Omni Tucson National, Hybl’s squad decided to have a little fun with freshman Patrick Welch. As the team was playing one of the Catalina Course’s par 3s, Welch took his turn on the tee and had the moment every college golfer longs for—a hole in one.
Or so he thought.
https://twitter.com/OUgolfHYBL/status/1108550000231874561
What makes this such a dagger so good is how his teammates celebrate with Welch, jumping up and down, dog-piling the naïve young man who is about to learn he is the punchline of one of the great pranks in recent college golf history.
https://twitter.com/OUgolfHYBL/status/..

Joel Dahmen, the 'Leaping Cougar,' shares early lead in action-filled day at Valspar Championship

Ex-President George W. Bush gets ace at Dallas course

Last month, the Valspar Championship announced that the tournament would be introducing fan-friendly “Spring Break” initiatives at Innisbrook. Among those initiatives included player superlatives, music during the pro-am and player-selected honorary observers to walk with pros during tournament rounds. Also, in a page straight out of the MLB's “Players Weekend” book, the tour would allow pros to use nicknames on the back of their caddie's bibs.
RELATED: Read the email Joel Dahmen's caddie sent to him that landed him the job
It's not everybody's cup of tea, especially the old schoolers, but a few naysayers may change their minds when they see the nickname that Joel Dahmen slapped on caddie Geno Bonnalie's back for the week:
https://twitter.com/PGATOURComms/status/1108772028830633985
Dahmen's “Leaping Cougar” nickname was apparently given to him as a kid while he was in the boy scouts. Little did he know he'd go on to play in college for the Washin..

Hope springs eternal, folks. No matter what's going on in the world—no matter how many times we've been railroaded or hosed—people will continue to believe that things will get better, that they're just one little win away from turning it all around. This, in a nutshell, is both humanity's greatest strength and biggest folly, as evidenced by the labyrinthian line at Las Vegas sportsbook SuperBook about an hour before tipoff of Louisville and Minnesota—the inaugural game of March Madness 2019—on Thursday afternoon.
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1108754009291018240
A veritable ouroboros of misplaced optimism, this queue makes a TSA security check on Thanksgiving eve look like a walk in the park. From dudes in Jordan shirseys and basketball shorts to tucked-in jeans dads and the quarter-zip investment-bro squad, the serpentine mass of humanity touches upon every vibrant hue of the Vegas cultural rainbow. One in five of these jabronies will manage NOT to dent ..

We, like the rest of the internet, are guilty of ragging on Kevin Durant quite often, usually with good reason (though if he comes to the Knicks, I take back everything I said). Whether he's spitting up perfectly good Bud Lattes or trolling his former team from his own Twitter account thinking it was his snake-y burner account, the guy often leaves everybody no choice but to drag him.
But this move, this is one we can only praise. On Tuesday night, Durant's Golden State Warriors were in Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center. After a road loss on Monday to the San Antonio Spurs, the Warriors bounced back with a 10-point win over the T-Wolves. Durant, who had a relatively tame night by his standards with 17 points and nine assists, was still in high spirits back at the team hotel after the win. Such high spirits, in fact, that after meeting a random dad on the elevator, Durant later showed up at said random's dad hotel room with a couple of..