Ronnie O'Sullivan chalk incident being investigated

An investigation is under way after Ronnie O'Sullivan placed his chalk on the table in the World Championship.

O'Sullivan, 39, broke snooker rules by lining up a shot with the chalk but was not reprimanded by the referee during his match against Stuart Bingham.

A World Snooker spokesman told BBC Sport it will look into the incident.

"The referee is unaware, Ronnie is too but for me, that is a foul. You are not allowed to do that," said BBC Sport pundit Ken Doherty.

Andy Murray falls to Novak Djokovic again in Miami Open final

Andy Murray was unable to end his losing run against Novak Djokovic, as the world No 1 walked off with a second successive Miami Open title after a fierce tussle on Sunday.
The Briton had lost his last six matches against Djokovic and it looked to be going against him again when he dropped the opening set at Crandon Park on a tie-break. Third seed Murray battled back valiantly to snatch the second set and take the match into a decider, only for his game to desert him as Djokovic claimed a 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-0 victory after almost three hours on court.
Murray was looking to wrestle back the title he won in 2013 and applied pressure from the start, earning his first break point in the opening game but he wasted it with a forehand into the net. However, another opportunity came along on Djokovic’s next service game and this time Murray moved up a gear, forcing his opponent out wide before finishing him off with an overhead smash.
The advantage was wiped out immediately, though, with Murray firing long to gift the Serb a break back.
Murray refused to give in and his persistence, helped by some well-struck balls, paid off in the seventh game when an error from Djokovic once more put Murray a break up. Yet again he was unable to defend his advantage as Djokovic snatched the break back, and the pair continued to slog it out to eventually usher in the tie-break. This time Murray’s game let him down badly, as two poor forehands and a pair of sloppy shots into the net allowed Djokovic to wrap up the set with remarkable ease.
It had taken well over an hour to decide the opener and it was no surprise energy levels dropped in the second as the heat began to take its toll.
Murray nevertheless found something in reserve to fight off two break points in the third game before squandering one of his own on Djokovic’s serve as the set threatened to reach an impasse.
Frustration crept in for both players at times as they fought to gain the upper hand but there was still plenty to keep the crowd entertained despite the obvious fatigue on court. And it was Murray who seized the chance as the match passed the two-hour mark.
With Djokovic serving to stay in the set, two errors from the Serbian followed by a lovely forehand down the line from his opponent set Murray up with three set points. And he hammered home his advantage with a fierce backhand return to take the match into a final set.
It looked like Murray held the edge but his momentum quickly went at the start of the third, with Djokovic breaking twice to drain the last dregs of energy from his opponent. It proved a disappointing climax to an enthralling match, with Murray broken again before Djokovic served out successfully for his fifth Miami title.

Dustin Johnson rides pressure to mark his comeback with Doral title

It is debatable whether this is the biggest win of Dustin Johnson’s career. He already had a WGC title to his name before adding the first such event of 2015. It is, though, unquestionably the most significant and by quite some distance.
In only his fifth tournament since returning from a six-month absence to address what he called “personal challenges”, Johnson found himself back on the podium. The 30-year-old’s golfing talent has never been in question; an ability to develop that, rather than succumb to the distractions of life, more so.
Perhaps fatherhood – Johnson became a dad in mid-January – will bring a fresh sense of maturity. Upon his return to competitive golf Johnson had admitted to a damaging relationship with alcohol; now the headlines around him are suddenly more endearing. For the eighth season in succession Johnson will have at least one victory to his name. That is the best streak on the PGA Tour.
He has catapulted himself into the top six in the world rankings and, if not already, is a live candidate for the Masters in April. The ease with which Johnson handled pressure over the closing stretch at Doral is not particularly common in professional golf. Should Johnson harness that more often he will win multiple major championships.
Johnson prevailed by one shot, a success secured with a closing round of 69. Given the ferocious set-up of the Blue Monster course there should be no shock at all attached to the fact some of the biggest hitters on tour made up the numbers. That said, Johnson led greens in regulation as well as driving distance over the four tournament days.
Bubba Watson, seeking to become the only player other than Tiger Woods to claim back-to-back WGC titles, raced into a two-shot lead at the turn but frittered away three strokes on the inward nine. The two-times Masters champion finished third.
Watson had briefly been the one to upstage JB Holmes, who had led by five with 18 holes to play. Holmes, who partnered Johnson, had to hole from 43ft on the final green to force a play-off. As the putt slid right of the cup Johnson knew he had two to win and made no mistake with a lag from the fringe of the green. “Welcome back” was the general message to Johnson from golfing insiders thereafter.
“It has been a tough road but a lot of really good things came out of it,” said Johnson of his recent absence. “It feels awesome to get that win. I knew I was really good, I just knew there was something missing that could make me great. I started working hard on that and it is showing now. This might be the best win.”
Johnson’s fiancee, Paulina Gretzky, and baby Tatum were on hand to celebrate the triumph. Adam Scott will rue what might have been, the Australian’s 75 on day three ultimately costing him a proper tilt at glory. He finished fourth, five adrift of Johnson, after shooting a Sunday 71.
“I’m very happy with what I saw out there,” said Scott. “It felt like I started off the year on the right foot. Hopefully I can build on this and just get better.”
Rory McIlroy’s week was rather summed up on the 72nd hole. The Northern Irishman had produced his finest golf of the tournament to get to two under par for his closing round before dumping the same number of balls into a water hazard from the tee.
Fittingly the second of them came from the face of the three-iron which he had tossed into a lake on Friday. A double bogey was the consequence. Before exiting Miami, McIlroy was to return the infamous club to Donald Trump, Doral’s proprietor, who had earlier presented it to the world No1 on the driving range. His tie for ninth seemed somewhat inconsequential by close of play; this is a work in progress with Augusta National in mind.
“My game is just not quite there,” McIlroy admitted. “I’ve got a week off now to try and work on it a little bit. I am pretty disappointed with how I played overall. I felt it was a little better again today for the most part but that was a bit of a disappointing finish. It is just not quite 100%.”
Johnson has no such concerns. If this is an indicator of things to come, very interesting times await.

Can You Play Golf Very Well?

As golf clubs could be the single most expensive equipment that a player would end up buying for golf, it would not come as a surprise that a lot of the golf instruction online recommend that the person should ensure that the club would perfectly match the person to get his money's worth. Exclusive golf stores offer such treatment. This helps give a powerful and smooth swing with less effort and strength needed. It would also help the person keep his balance while swinging.

To start, a player should know that each club is numbered and that each number corresponds to how far it can make the ball fly at the given type of club. The larger the number, the shorter is the resulting flight distance. His calm and peaceful persona was soon replaced with a highly competitive spirit as he immediately started giving unsolicited golf tips. By the time we'd reached the 17th green he was barking commands at me.

Usually a decent golfer but whatever they do they're not happy with it. If they'll do a superb 150 yard pitch onto the green, just yards from the flag, they'll complain they've left themselves a downhill putt. Don't expect many compliments from these hard task masters. They believe golf's all about power and speed and frequently let rip, consequently spending a fair bit of time digging out balls in places most golfers have never ventured before. Great fun if you're up for an adventure but don't expect a quiet life.

Whenever we go to play there is at least in most areas never a shortage of options, as there are golf deals all around. Many municipalities around the country got in on it, thinking that it would not only help their communities aesthetically but financially as well. As long as people kept coming to the courses and paying their green fees, the money kept rolling in. But it is leading to fewer golf courses to play. In Minnesota for instance, the golf course building craze led to 147 new courses in the years between 1990 and 2009. Now that trend is reversing as more courses are closing down, which is to be expected because many are losing thousands of dollars each year to stay open.

We just have to remember that it's still a business, and though we might feel frustrated when we go to the course for a round of golf and find that there's a tournament or golf outing going on, that those are the types of events that paid a lot of the bills for a golf course. Plus the driver and woods can also have tolerances in center of gravity, face angle, and construction of the head. Remember this, the cheaper the driver, wood, or irons you buy, the greater the tolerances.

The sad part of this whole thing is, if you buy irons that can't be bent for loft and lie because the steel is too hard to bend, you are stuck with what you have and you and your game suffer and you get awfully frustrated. That makes it necessary to not only get the proper shaft for you, but to make sure of the shaft bend profiles are sorted to best suit you. Your clubs also have to be matched for you. If the weight of the club head are +/- 2 grams, that means that the clubs you just bought are probably not even swing weight matched.

How Much Do You Understand Tennis?

To learn more about the common mistakes and some of the remedies, I interviewed Rick Macci. Macci, who runs a tennis facility in Boca Raton, Florida, is regarded as one of the best tennis coaches in the country. He has coached many top junior and a lot of top tennis professionals. Players tend to not use their legs enough on their strokes. They play primarily with their arms. Macci suggests that players bend their knees as if they are about to sit in a chair and then push down and drive. Weekend warriors abbreviate their follow through because they are afraid of hitting the ball out. They decelerate and stop the racket. Make a fluid full swing.

Macci feels that players ought to use the backhand slice more often. This shot is reliable and accurate and can be be a real weapon in matches. For most young novice and intermediate competitor, it's good to pick and choose shorter tennis racquet to acquire overall flexibility in your moves. Heavy racquet will usually give you the steadiness of your strike. The lighter weight racket can sway faster than the heavier racquet. Moreover, with regard to the stiffness; the more stiffly the racquet is, the greater jolt is generated in your fingers. Let's take a look at the type of material used to produce best rackets.

In the market, we can purchase good tennis racquet which is formulated from black lead coupled with boron and titanium to form a lighter and more solid lawn tennis racquet. When involved in tasks they need to perform, they take on identities which are quite remarkable and have little to do with mundane lines of thinking. The process of creating a mentality that would foster high performance may be stimulated by emulation of top performers' patterns of thinking and behaviour. More specifically, it may rely on the integration of concepts, strategies and perspectives which are most frequently employed and prioritized by elite professional tennis players. Such a selection, amongst others, comprises the growth mindset, task mastery and powerful self-presentation.