AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) Rory McIlroy’s fourth bid for the career Grand Slam was his best chance. He played in the final group with Patrick Reed and pulled to within one shot early until his putter failed him. He tied for fifth, and would seem to have time on his side.

”Come back again next year and try,” McIlroy said. ”I’ve played in two final groups in the last seven years. I’ve had five top 10s. I play this golf course well. I just haven’t played it well enough at the right time.”

McIlroy has five straight top 10s, though he has yet to finish closer than six shots to the winner.

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From purely a historical perspective, it might not get any easier the longer he goes.

While five players have completed the career Grand Slam, only three of them knew what they were winning. The modern version of the Grand Slam didn’t really start until Arnold Palmer raised the notion of winning all four professional majors in 1960. No one asked Gene Sarazen about the career Grand S..

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where the loudest roar for Patrick Reed on Sunday may have come from a potential new match-play teammate. Don’t get too jealous, Jordan Spieth:
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In case you don't know, that's NBA star J.R. Smith, who is also arguably the biggest golf fan on the planet. Patrick’s timing in winning the Masters was perfect, because his NYC media tour overlapped with Smith’s Cavs visiting the Knicks. So THE KING was in the building at MSG on Monday night. But even LeBron takes a backseat to CAPTAIN AMERICA (Patrick, please wear golf shoes that say that on the back at your next tournament):
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Wow, J.R. is really itching to play that member-member. We can only hope this entertaining duo teams up on the links — and that someone documents it. In the meantime, there’s plenty to document from a fun-filled week at Augusta National.
WE'RE BUYING
Patrick Reed: Golf is a weird sport, huh? After watching up close R..

Tom Williams(Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)The notification button on Twitter tends to light up regularly for local sportswriters. Fans want to know why their favorite team keeps putting the .230 hitter in leadoff spot or what's up with their star's body language. Or worse, a writer is bombarded with hate for something they wrote, keyboard warriors wishing the worst upon said journalist for having the audacity to suggest their 3-11 team might miss the playoffs.
Or, if you're Green Bay Packers beat writer Michael Cohen, your Twitter blows up for a slightly different reason.
Cohen works for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covering the Lambeau faithful, a job that's listed in his Twitter bio, but one many users have apparently ignored, instead sending him ridicule and taunts in regards to the FBI raiding the office of the other Michael Cohen.
Which sheds a bit of light on Packers' Cohen's Tweet on Monday:
https://twitter.com/Michael_Cohen13/status/9834923..

Golf fans may notice something different when they turn into this week's PGA Tour action at the RBC Heritage.

As the first major of the golf season, the Masters is one of the biggest stages in golf played on one of the most beautiful backdrops

Las Vegas has hockey fever. Following the single best expansion season in American sports history, Sin City is gearing up for the Golden Knights' first-ever playoff appearance and, in typical Vegas fashion, it's gotten a little out control. For example, there's currently a five-foot-tall, 120-pound chocolate sculpture of Knights' tender Marc-Andre Fleury greeting guests in the lobby of the iconic Bellagio Resort & Casino. No, we're not making this up:
https://twitter.com/GoldenKnights/status/983484081278103552
RELATED: Las Vegas strip club to celebrate Golden Knights' inaugural season
The passion project of Bellagio Patisserie executive pastry chefs Yamilet Hillers and Jerome Jacob, this ridiculously excessive, ostentatious, totally Vegas tribute is crafted from a mixture of milk, dark, and white chocolate carefully laid over a skeleton of styrofoam, wire, and Rice Krispie treats (yes, really). It isn't meant to be eaten, though surely more than a few..

I have eaten the tortilla chip birthed from the fiery dust of the Carolina Reaper pepper. I have placed into my mouth the fury of a thousand stars, felt the burn on my tongue and the pyroclastic flow in my throat, spent considerable time wondering if it’s possible to voluntarily shut down one’s own mucus production system. (Short answer: It is not. You just have to sit there and leak for 20 minutes.) It was ghastly and unpleasant and fun and strangely addictive; after we were done, some part of us wanted more.
But I only ate part of the Carolina Reaper Madness Chip, because 1. Two other people in my house also wanted a sample and 2. I’m a fluffy buttercup. And it should be noted that I ate the nacho-chip version that’s coated in pepper dust—not the actual pepper itself. While eating a hot chip sounds like something worth trying, consuming an object that scientifically ranks four million of something seems, on some instinctive level, like a questionable decision for your intestinal regi..

Correct golf posture will give you a much better chance of making a good swing. David Leadbetter goes over the essentials.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) The Latest on an Arizona small plane crash (all times local):

1:50 p.m.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigator is at the scene of the deadly crash of a small plane on a golf course near Phoenix.

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Authorities are working to identify the six people killed when the Piper PA-24 Comanche went down Monday night shortly after takeoff from the Scottsdale Airport.

NTSB investigator Eliott Simpson says the goal is to collect as much evidence as possible and not try to jump to conclusions about the cause of the fiery crash.

He says investigators will document how the plane hit the ground and determine if it hit any trees on the golf course and examine the burned area of terrain.

Scottsdale police say they’ll release the identities of the six victims once they’re determined by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office, but it’s unknown when that process will be completed.

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1 p.m.

Police in Scottsdale, Arizona, say autho..

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) The Latest on an Arizona small plane crash (all times local):

6:44 a.m.

Police in suburban Phoenix say all six people aboard a small plane were killed when it crashed on a golf course shortly after taking off from a nearby airport.

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The identities of those killed in the Monday night crash in Scottsdale haven’t been released. Nobody on the ground was hurt.

The plane went down on the TPC Scottsdale Champions Golf Course.

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the cause of the crash.

Investigators were at the site Tuesday morning, examining the burned wreckage next to a tree on a dirt area, with seven vehicles parked on nearby turf and others nearby.

TPC Scottsdale Champions is the sister course to the Stadium Course where the Waste Management Phoenix Open is held each February.

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11:35 p.m.

Authorities say no one survived a fiery plane crash Monday night on a suburban Phoenix golf course adja..