Summer is here and with it the urge to be literally anywhere other than where you currently are (chained to a desk deep within the bowels of some office dungeon, if we had to guess). Thus arrives the siren song of the theme park, an American vacation staple that, like most other inherently American things—hot dogs, baseball, the 2nd amendment—is always a little better on paper than in practice.
But long lines, lobster boil temps, and feral packs of leashed children be damned, sometimes you just have to scratch that coaster itch and get a picture with Minnie Mouse, come hell, high water, or United Airlines. In these most desperate and dire of times, The Loop are here to help, ranking the finest, funnest, freakiest theme parks in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. From Coney Island to California, something tells us we have just the cotton candy binge you're looking for.
10.) Luna Park
FacebookPinterestLocation: Coney Island, NY
Best Ride: The Coney Island Cyclone
Where ..

VIRGINIA WATER, England (AP) Rory McIlroy walked off the 18th green in disgruntled fashion, shaking his head and looking down at the ground.

Shooting a 5-under 67 at Wentworth can rarely have felt so unsatisfactory.

The four-time major winner pushed his approach shot from the middle of the fairway into the overhanging trees at the par-5 last, saw his chip clip the flag pole, then missed a 3-foot putt for birdie for a disappointing end to his first round at the BMW PGA Championship on Thursday.

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McIlroy also missed out on a birdie on the par-5 17th, too. Hence his unhappiness immediately after his round, although he was only two shots off the lead held by Lucas Bjerregaard (65).

”Walking off the 16th green and going to No. 17 at 5 over par, it was good after being 1 over after three (holes),” McIlroy said, before diverting away from revisiting the end of his round.

”I played really well, gave myself plenty of chances, drove it well, for the most part hit..

Adding match play to decide the team winner has turned college golf's biggest tournament into the rare great event that is made even greater by history

Even after a poor game by his standards (Imagine 26 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 turnovers on 50 percent shooting being a poor game?), LeBron James wowed anyone who watched his press conference by showing off his freakish photographic memory again. LeBron last showed off his neat parlor trick when perfectly recalling a sequence of events on Boston's parquet floor in Game 1. But an answer he gave following a Game 5 loss was even more impressive.
When the man who has almost single-handedly carried a Knicks-esque roster to the NBA Finals was asked to assess his six turnovers (Oh, the horror!), LeBron decided to go through each one. Have a look and listen:
To recap, LeBron, more than an hour after the game ended, perfectly recounted six plays that happened all throughout the game. Amazing. CBS Boston transcribed James' detailed response:
“I had two turnovers where I felt like they were just really bad,” James said, before getting into detail. “My first turnover, I tried t..

Sean GardnerAs we've seen with many great NBA players, specifically Kevin Durant, even guys who are the best in the world at what they do can still be insecure. Constantly scouring social media is part of the problem, as it's full of takes from couch analysts who really don't know what they're talking about. Why NBA players, or any star athlete for that matter, feel the need to respond to these trolls is difficult to comprehend.
RELATED: Ranking the (very few) good moments of Carmelo Anthony's time as a New York Knick
Carmelo Anthony is no stranger to responding to these people on social media either, and with the direction his career is going in, the criticisms are only going to get worse. The latest random dagger came from the @all.nba.riddles account, in which it posted a screenshot of a tweet (INCEPTION) that was clearly sarcastically comparing the career of Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard Kyle Korver to Melo's:
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The tweet is..

Haley Moore rolled in a birdie to win her match in extra holes and give Arizona the needed third point to beat Alabama and win the 2018 NCAA Women's title

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) The LPGA Tour and BMW Group Korea have reached an agreement for a South Korean tournament that will start next year.

LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan and BMW Group Korea Chairman Hyo Joon Kim announced Wednesday that the first event will be played in October 2019 at LPGA International Busan, the tour’s first golf facility outside the United States.

BMW also sponsors the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship and two European Tour events.

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STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) Haley Moore beat Lakareber Abe with a birdie on the first extra hole Wednesday to give Arizona a 3-2 victory over Alabama in the NCAA women’s golf championship.

Three days after the Wildcats were one putt away from being eliminated, Moore made a 4-foot putt on the par-5 18th to finally finish off Abe in the last match at Karsten Creek. Abe putted first and missed from about the same distance, with her ball going by on the left.

”It means so much. It is actually like a dream,” Moore said. ”I never would have thought that it would be like this. I’m just so happy right now and for my team, and I did this for them.”

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Abe birdied the 18th in regulation to force overtime.

”I kind of screwed up on 17 and then came to 18 and I knew I was going to have to make a birdie or eagle because Hayley had been outdriving me all day,” Abe said. ”Just to hit a good drive and a good 3-wood and to have a chance to play 19 holes is the best feeling.”

Ar..

TEQUESTA, Fla. (AP) High school seniors Cole Hammer and Garrett Barber won the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship on Wednesday, beating Marc Dull and Chip Brooke 4 and 3 at Jupiter Hills.

The 18-year-old Hammer, from Houston, is set to play at Texas next fall. Barber, from Stuart, Florida, also is 18. He’s headed to LSU.

”Growing up watching U.S. Opens and U.S. Amateurs on TV, I just knew being a USGA champion is something that I desperately wanted,” said Hammer, who qualified for a U.S. Open three years ago at 15. ”And to finally do it, it feels incredible. It feels as good, if not better, than I thought it would. And especially being able to do it with Garrett. It’s really cool to share this moment.”

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Hammer and Cole won the par-4 eighth with a birdie to take a 2-up lead. They took the par-4 10th with a par, won the par-5 13th with an eagle – Barber hit a 4-iron from 235 yards to 3 feet – and havled the next two holes to end the match.

”Cole didn’t wa..

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) Jordan Spieth has always considered Colonial a hometown tournament as well. He also has had much more success at Hogan’s Alley than at the Byron Nelson, where he played his first PGA Tour event as a 16-year-old high school junior.

”I’ve been coming out here since I was 6, 7 years old, too. It was always a fun couple of weeks,” Spieth said Wednesday. ”School was letting out into summertime and the PGA rolled through Dallas and Fort Worth way back when I was just falling in love with the game. … Both places have the extra aura, too.”

Now 24 and with three majors among his 11 PGA Tour wins, Spieth has won only once in his home state of Texas. That was two years ago at Colonial, where he has four top-10 finishes in five starts. He was the runner-up in 2015 and last year.

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Webb Simpson, a top-five finisher in the last two Colonials, was off last week after winning The Players Championship earlier this month. He was the 54-hole leader at ..