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The Hague (AFP) – Dutch winger Arjen Robben is preparing to come out of retirement at his formative club Groningen, he announced on Saturday.
After leaving Groningen in 2002, Robben won league titles with PSV Eindhoven, Chelsea and Real Madrid before a hugely successful decade with Bayern Munich.
He retired from Bayern a year ago at the age of 35, having helped the club to eight Bundesliga titles as well as the 2013 Champions League.
The 2010 World Cup finalist said he was fully motivated to return but that he had to get fit first.
“I want to make my comeback at FC Groningen. At this time I’m not sure it will happen,” Robben said in a video on the Groningen website.
“What I am sure of is that my motivation will be at 100 percent. I’m going to go for it and I will be at the first training session for the new season.
“Because my dream is to play in an FC Groningen jersey, we’re not there yet, but you can always dream.
“I was 12 when I joined the Groningen youth academy, and made my debut for them at 16 against PSV,” said Robben, who explained that a banner he saw at Groningen’s stadium had resonated strongly with him.
“‘Arjen follow your heart’, it said, so after a wonderful adventure of 18 years, I’m coming home.”
Cueto’s first hit was a fly ball caught literally 99 percent of the time, per Statcast.
Phil Mickelson’s credentials were well-established by the time he settled into the broadcast booth during the third round of the PGA Championship. The five-time major champion joined Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo in the CBS booth on Saturday after the third round at TPC Harding Park. Barely making Friday’s cut at 1 over, Mickelson teed off early Saturday and was off the course – even par for the day – before leader Li Haotong teed off.
Padraig Harrington won the PGA Championship in 2008 to become the first European-born winner since Tommy Armour of Scotland in 1930. As for England, that goes back more than a century, when Jim Barnes won the Wanamaker Trophy for the second straight time in 1919. Three Englishmen have a chance to end that drought. It starts with Paul Casey, at 43 with his best chance to win a major. He was four behind at the 2008 Masters until closing with a 79. Casey birdied the eighth and ninth holes, two of the toughest at Harding Park, and then closed with all pars on the back nine for a 68. He was two shots behind Dustin Johnson. “I feel really, really good about the golf game, so yeah, I’ve played really well and I think that reflects in the clean scorecards I’ve been keeping, and I feel really positive going into tomorrow,” Casey said. “I feel like I can continue that good play. We’ll see what it yields.” Another shot back were Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood, who each had to settle for a 70 but still were very much in the mix. Rose already has a U.S. Open title. His victory in 2013 at Merion was a first for England since Tony Jacklin in 1970. He is trying to climb out of a mini-slump, but this is the third straight major he has been teeing off late in the final round, including the final group with U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland last summer at Pebble Beach. “You have to keep knocking on the door. If you are knocking on the door, more often than not, you do find that round that you need on a Sunday,” Rose said. “That’s when the door opens. You never quite know when that’s going to happen.” Fleetwood was a runner-up at the British Open last summer, and he was runner-up to Brooks Koepka at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills by closing with a 63. Follow the fourth round here:
Whatever else Rory McIlroy gets to take away from the 102nd USPGA Championship there is no doubt that his reputation will only be enhanced among the golfing purists. You can say what you like about the Northern Irishman’s competitive attitude — and many do and will — but there surely cannot be any questioning his approach to what he regards as proper sportsmanship in the game he adores. McIlroy is in the Bobby Jones school of thought when it comes to the rulebook. The greatest amateur of all time famously declared at the 1925 US Open “you may as well praise me for not robbing a bank” after he was hailed for calling a penalty on himself that only he knew about. It cost Jones the title to Scotland’s Willie Macfarlane. Round two report: Fleetwood’s 64 takes him to touching distance of lead When quizzed about his own moment of honour during Friday’s second round at Harding Park, San Francisco, McIlroy seemed similarly nonplussed. Except, his actions could even be classed as more principled than those of Jones. Because here was a golfer who deliberately gave himself a worse lie to the one chosen by a referee. The incident occurred on the par-three third, after the world No 3 had sliced his tee shot into the thick rough. A search ensued, during which an on-course ESPN reporter unwittingly stepped on McIlroy’s ball. Under the recently introduced Rule 7.4, McIlroy was allowed to re-place it, without penalty, based on an “estimate” of where it was initially. The rules official pointed to an appropriate area where McIlroy duly placed his ball. McIlroy was free to go and try to save par. Except he was not comfortable and said to the referee: “It would not have been as visible as that.” So he bent down and buried it a little further in the cabbage. The best he could manage from that lie was a pitch to within 22 feet, from where he two-putted for a bogey. Suddenly, the clapping emoji appeared all over social media and four hours later, when he could eventually explain his thought process, he was still being congratulated. “I just wouldn’t have felt comfortable,” McIlroy said after signing for a 69. “I placed it, and the rule is try to replicate the lie. No one really knew what the lie was, but if everyone is going around looking for it, it obviously wasn’t too good. So I placed it, I was like, that just doesn’t look right to me. So I just placed it down a little bit. “You know, at the end of the day, golf is a game of integrity and I never try to get away with anything out there. I’d rather be on the wrong end of the rules rather than on the right end.” The proceedings were reminiscent of Darren Clarke at the 2006 Irish Open. Leading by two when play was called for bad weather on the Sunday evening, Clarke returned the next morning to the spot on the ninth where his ball had finished after a wayward drive moments before the hooter had sounded. Lo and behold, the leprechauns had been at work overnight and what was a poor lie was now so decent that the crowd favourite could reach the green. But Clarke refused to accept his good fortune electing to chip it out into the fairway instead. “That’s part and parcel of the game,” he later said after finishing third being his great friend Thomas Bjorn. “It was a much better lie than when I left it. I had the opportunity to hit it on to the green, but my conscience wouldn’t allow that.” Of course, Clarke was something of a mentor to McIlroy and the protege will certainly recall the episode. Like now, the sanctity of the rulebook was under the spotlight at the time with a few high-profile affairs, including Colin Montgomerie’s notorious drop in Jakarta the previous year. McIlroy’s rectitude occurred a week after Bryson DeChambeau shamelessly tried to bend the rulebook in his favour by claiming that his ball was near an anthill and as they were red ants, it was a “dangerous situation” and he was entitled to relief under Rule 16: “Relief from Abnormal Course Conditions (Including Immovable Obstructions), Dangerous Animal Condition, Embedded Ball.” Two weeks before that, at The Memorial, DeChambeau was heard criticising “another garbage ruling” when insisting to a referee — who, as, fate would have it was the same official as in the fire-ant farce — that he was entitled to play a shot that was resting against an out-of-bounds fence. He obviously was not and annoyed the locker room, by calling for a second ruling. The next referee summarily dismissed DeChambeau’s argument. There have also been mutterings on the range concerning DeChambeau’s dropping “technique” on his way to that almost comical 10 at Muirfield Village. In the new rules, designed in part to quicken up the pace of play, golfers are required to come as close as possible to the original spot within a club length. That can be up to four feet and advantages can inevitably be found in such an area, if the player is willing to exploit this loophole. Was all this on McIlroy’s mind? We might never know, for sure, but we can hazard an accurate guess. As it was, McIlroy goes out in the third round on Saturday on one-under, seven behind the leader China’s Haotong Li, with England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose in a group in second, two off the pace. DeChambeau was on two-under.
“I was waiting to hit off of him, one of the hitters there was like, ‘Dude, you know he throws like 100, right?’ I was like ‘What?'”
Here’s a look at final-round tee times on Sunday for the 102nd PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park.
The Lakers, the West’s top seed, lost 116-111 to the Pacers amid talk that other teams are trying to set L.A. up with a playoff matchup vs. Portland.
Former 49ers first-round draft pick Josh Garnett was among the players released for the Lions to get down to 80 players on the roster. The 49ers traded up to select Garnett with the 28th overall pick in the 2016 first round. Although he was given a starting job as a rookie, he barely played and [more]
The starting lineup for Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway (4:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is set. The top-20 finishers from Saturday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan were inverted for Sunday, with the rest of Sunday’s lineup based exactly off of Saturday’s finish. RELATED: Results from first Michigan race Chris […]
Rory McIlroy said playing with Tiger Woods without fans around is “100 percent” better than playing with Woods in front of fans.
Harvick and Denny Hamlin each have five wins apiece in 2020.
Erriyon Knighton already has an offer to play football at Florida State University.
Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas as the softer tyres and hot temperatures at Silverstone led to Red Bull defeating Mercedes in Formula 1’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix
The Stanley Cup Qualifiers are under way in the hub cities of Edmonton and Toronto.
Rickie Fowler likely learned a valuable lesson Friday at the PGA Championship.
Seth Trachtman looks at the implications of Giancarlo Stanton’s latest injury and this week’s two-start pitchers in Sunday’s Daily Dose. (Getty Images)
* * *Former Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler entered free agency with a stunning knockout of former UFC champ Benson Henderson at Bellator 243 on Friday, August, 7, 2020, at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.(Subscribe to MMAWeekly.com on YouTube)* * *TRENDING > Bellator 244: Bader vs. Nemkov fight card announced* * * Full Bellator 243 Results * Michael Chandler def. Benson Henderson by KO at 2:09, R1 * Tim Johnson def. Matt Mitrione by TKO (strikes) at 3:14, R1 * Myles Jury def. Georgi Karakhanyan by split decision (27-30, 30-27, 29-28) * Sabah Homasi def. Curtis Millender by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) * Adam Borics def. Mike Hamel by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) * Cris Lencioni def. AJ Agazarm by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 29-28) * Valerie Loureda def. Tara Graff by TKO (punches) at 5:00, R2 * Grant Neal def. Hamza Salim by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-24) * Charlie Campbell def. Nainoa Dung by TKO (leg kicks) at 1:42, R2 * Dalton Rosta def. Mark Gardner by TKO (doctor stoppage) at 5:00, R1
It’s a doubleheader weekend for the Cup Series. Erik Jones has something to prove, and Brad Keselowski is still seeking his first win at his home track.
Alex Verdugo made the best play of his young Red Sox career Friday night, and everyone within earshot knew it.
The round-robin portion of the NHL’s Return to Play wraps up on Sunday and will complete the First Round playoff picture.