Sports
Aaron Rai on top, Rory McIlroy 1 back at rain-delayed Genesis
Aug 3, 2025; Greensboro, North Carolina, USA; Aaron Rai drives off the 9th tee box during the final round of the Wyndham Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Allison Lawhon-Imagn Images PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Aaron Rai of England held a one-shot lead at the Genesis Invitational on Thursday at Riviera Country Club despite being unable to complete his round during a rainy and windy day.
Rai was at 6 under par through 16 holes before the rain-delayed opening round was halted by darkness. He can still pad his opening-round advantage Friday morning when play resumes at 7 a.m. local time.
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy shot a 5-under-par 66 and was tied with Jacob Bridgeman for second place. Ryan Fox of New Zealand was alone in fourth place at 4 under as the tournament, hosted by Tiger Woods, returned to the Los Angeles area.
The signature event was relocated south to Torrey Pines last year following a devastating wildfire in Pacific Palisades in January 2025.
A morning rain shower delayed play three hours, with many in the field unable to finish their opening rounds. Windy conditions proved to be a challenge the remainder of the day.
McIlroy, a 29-time winner on the PGA Tour, opened his round at 3 under through four holes before the rain delay. He moved to 5 under with a birdie at No. 11, lost a shot with a bogey at No. 16 and moved back to 5 under with a birdie at the par-5 17th.
“I’ve started to just really enjoy this style of golf,” McIlroy said about the wet, windy and cool conditions. “If you had asked me 10 years ago, I didn’t enjoy these conditions, but it’s been a shift in mindset and maybe just a continuation of trying to build upon the skill set that I have. Then when it does get to conditions like this, I’m a lot more prepared.”
Bridgeman, who is in his third season on the PGA Tour without a victory, had an erratic start to his round with an eagle 3 at No. 1 and a double bogey at the long par-3 fourth hole. He then went 5 under through a stretch of 10 holes starting at No. 8.
“I’ve never really had any success on the West Coast in my career, but I think I’m starting to understand more of how to play out here and be a little more confident with it,” said Bridgeman, a South Carolina native. “We never played out here in college, I never played in junior golf out here. So really my (first time) coming out for the West Coast was as a pro. I’m starting to get a little more comfortable.”
Collin Morikawa, a Los Angeles-area native who won last week at Pebble Beach, opened in a seven-way tie for fifth place at 3 under.
“Nice to get off to a good start and kind of be around the lead,” Morikawa said. “This course is going to play very different, I think, the next three days, not quite with the softness and speed of the greens but just score-ability with the wind being down.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler struggled in the opening round for the third consecutive week and was at 5 over par through 10 holes.
Defending champion Ludvig Aberg of Sweden opened tied for 44th place at 1 over par, while Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama was tied for 12th place at 2 under. Matsuyama won the tournament the last time it was played at Riviera in 2024.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Will we see Mikaela Shiffrin at 2030 Games? 'I don't know'
Feb 18, 2026; Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy; Gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States celebrates during the medal ceremony for the women’s slalom during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre. Mandatory Credit: Michael Madrid-Imagn Images CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin has more records to break, more wins to celebrate and surely more medals to drape around her neck.
But the most successful Alpine skier in World Cup history, and one of the greatest of all time, struggled on Thursday to see far beyond the Milan Cortina Olympics when asked about her sporting future.
“I don’t know if I have an answer for that,” the American told Reuters.
“I’m so in it right now. There’s actually so much left of this season. It’s a big goal for me to be competing for this overall title. And there’s potentially four to six races left in the season for me.
“There’s so many things to look forward to.
“I feel that there’s some kind of transition in my career coming closer, but I don’t know what that looks like and I don’t know how to say it.”
MOST GOLDS BY A U.S. ALPINE SKIER
The 30-year-old now has the most Olympic gold medals ever won by a U.S. skier, along with a record 108 World Cup wins.
Wednesday’s slalom title was her third Olympic gold since the first in 2014 and she now has a total of four Olympic medals.
At world championships, Shiffrin has 15 medals, eight of them gold.
The American, who is engaged to Norwegian skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, is also heading for her sixth overall World Cup crystal globe, having already secured the smaller slalom one for a record ninth time.
“Every day I go out for training and I love it,” she said. “I love skiing and I love training and I love practicing.
“So I don’t know how it looks for the next four years. Four years feels like a really long time, but also it goes by so fast. So I could tell you something now and then we’d be four years from now, like, ‘Oh. Oopsie.'”
Shiffrin spoke emotionally on Wednesday about the struggle of competing without the presence of her father, who died in 2020, the silent connection she felt after crossing the finish line and a new reality.
“I have wanted to and I have really been angry and resentful of people who talk about feeling their loved one with them after passing,” she said on Thursday.
“And I’ve wanted to talk to my dad so many times and I’ve tried talking to him and he doesn’t respond. And that makes me mad.
“In this race, maybe it was the first time where I thought that I can just talk to him and he doesn’t have to respond. And maybe that was a key thing to accept — the reality that I can win a medal and he’s not here to see it.”
–Reuters, Special to Field Level Media
Sports
Without biggest star, Bucks look to keep rolling against Pelicans
Feb 6, 2026; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) warms up before game against the Indiana Pacers at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images The Milwaukee Bucks are attempting to limit the noise surrounding the health and cloudy future of their superstar by taking care of matters on the court.
Playing without two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks will bid for their sixth win in seven games on Friday when they return from the All-Star break to face the host New Orleans Pelicans.
Sidelined since Jan. 23, Antetokounmpo was expected to miss four-to-six weeks with a strained right calf. It will be exactly four weeks on Friday.
“I’m healthy today, I just got to check the boxes,” Antetokounmpo said on NBA Today earlier in the week. “I gotta play 1-on-1, 3-on-3, 5-on-5. The moment I do that, that can be the next game.”
The Bucks lost their first three games without Antetokounmpo before picking up mostly positive results over their last six games, including a 141-137 overtime decision versus New Orleans on Feb. 4 in Milwaukee
Ryan Rollins erupted for 27 points and AJ Green had 20 in that game to help the Bucks overcome a sizzling display by the Pelicans’ Trey Murphy III, who highlighted his career-high 44-point performance with a franchise-best 12 3-pointers.
Milwaukee spread the wealth in its last game before the break, with seven players scoring in double digits in a 110-93 victory over the host Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 12.
Ousmane Dieng recorded his first career double-double after collecting a season-high 19 points and 11 rebounds against his former team in the Thunder. Green had 17 points and Bobby Portis added 15 to go along with 12 boards for the Bucks.
“We’re playing for Milwaukee,” Portis told Sirius XM NBA Radio. “I’m playing for Milwaukee. I take pride in being a Buck. I love the city of Milwaukee. They call me the mayor of Milwaukee.”
The Pelicans rebounded from their overtime loss to the Bucks by winning two of their final three games before the All-Star break.
Murphy scored 19 points in New Orleans’ 123-111 home loss to the Miami Heat on Feb. 11 before exiting the contest with soreness in his right shoulder. Murphy, who averages a team-best 22.1 points and 1.5 steals per game, is expected to return to the court for Friday’s game.
Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen have fared well during their rookie seasons, with the former averaging 13.2 points while the latter is contributing 12.2 points to go along with team-best averages in rebounds (7.2) and assists (4.1).
Queen, however, got the last laugh in the NBA Rising Stars competition as he helped Team Vince defeat Fears’ Team Melo in the title game.
Both players are ready to take the experience of playing in that spotlight into the second half of the Pelicans’ season.
“We’re gonna come back a lot more confident,” Fears said on the Pelicans podcast. “We’re gonna be around (our teammates). We’re just gonna continue to keep working and it’s going to open our eyes for sure.”
Said Queen: “I’m excited to come back. We’ve got three home games. Win those three and get back on the right track.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
FIFA president: All 104 World Cup matches will be 'sold out'
[US, Mexico & Canada customers only] Dec 5, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; FIFA President Gianni Infantino arrives on the red carpet ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Draw at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Mandatory Credit: Brian Snyder-Reuters via Imagn Images FIFA president Gianni Infantino said all 104 matches of the 2026 World Cup will be “sold out” despite tickets available for the tournament running from June 11 to July 19.
“The demand is there. Every match is sold out,” Infantino told CNBC in an interview Wednesday from U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
Infantino said there had been 508 million ticket requests in four weeks from more than 200 countries for about seven million available tickets.
“(We’ve) never see anything like that — incredible,” he said.
The 48-team World Cup is taking place across 16 host cities in the United States, Mexico and Canada, with MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., as the site of the World Cup final.
The head of the sport’s governing body said that tournament locations contribute to what soccer supporters’ associations have complained are exorbitant ticket prices.
“I think it is because it’s in America, Canada and Mexico,” he said. “Everybody wants to be part of something special.”
Also affecting prices are resale websites, which take the official ticket that has a fixed price and use “dynamic pricing” leading to the cost to fluctuate.
“You are able as well to resell your tickets on official platforms, secondary markets, so the prices as well will go up,” Infantino said. “That’s part of the market we are in.”
A report in the Straits Times said that a Category 3 seat — the highest section in the stadium — for Mexico’s match against South Africa in the tournament opener on June 11 in Mexico City was listed at $5,324 in the secondary market. The original price was $895.
The same seat category for the World Cup final on July 19, originally priced at $3,450, was advertised for $143,750 on Feb. 11, per the report.
In December, FIFA designated “supporter entry tier” tickets with a $60 price to be allocated to the national federations whose teams are playing. Those federations are expected to make those tickets available “to loyal fans who are closely connected to their national teams,” FIFA said in a press release.
The last time the U.S. served as a World Cup host in 1994, tickets ranged from $25 to $475. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, prices ranged from $70 to $1,600 after the matches were announced.
Infantino in his comments this week estimated that the 2026 World Cup will raise $11 billion in revenue for FIFA, with “every dollar” to be reinvested in the sport in the 211 member countries.
He said the economic impact for the United States would be around $30 billion “in terms of tourism, catering, security investments and so on.” Infantino also estimated the tournament will attract 20 million to 30 million tourists and create 185,000 full-time jobs.
–Field Level Media
Will we see Mikaela Shiffrin at 2030 Games? 'I don't know'
Without biggest star, Bucks look to keep rolling against Pelicans
