Dark clouds gathered. Thunder rumbled. Lightning flashed on the horizon. Just as unsettling was seeing Dustin Johnson in complete control of his game with a performance worthy of his return to No. 1 in the world. He was as close to unbeatable as he has ever been. Johnson capped off his dominant week at The Northern Trust with an 8-under 63, finishing with a tap-in birdie in the dark following a storm delay for an 11-shot victory at the TPC Boston.
Despite efforts from parents and other inquiries, the NIAA will not allow fall sports to be played until the spring of 2021. Emergency Directive 021 issued May 28, 2020, provides for the resumption of sporting events but requires that such events remain closed for public attendance. In allowing for the opening of school athletic facilities, the Governor’s office communicated clearly to the NIAA that this restriction applies to high school sports events.
The Humboldt Softball League closed out its summer season this past Friday night, with its end of the year tournament. Schmueser picked up four wins on the night and claimed the title with a victory over Mucc Town. Backdoor Sliders finished third. Shorleine and FCGM also took part in the tournament.
Ice Bucket Crew out of Idaho won the 2020 Winners Inn Shootout held Aug. 8-9 at Spare Time Bowl. The Winners Inn provided $3,800. Nearly 110 bowlers, with 94 of them from out of town. Over $10,000 in prize money was awarded as 36 teams competed.
Gail Piquet shot a two-day total of 187 to win the 2020 Winnemuca Ladies Golf Club Championship, held Aug. 4 and 11 at Winnemucca Municipal Golf Course.
Piper Nichols shot a round of 107 to win the girls 15-17-year-old division at the 25th Jeff Wade Memorial Junior Golf tournament held last Thursday at Winnemucca Municipal Golf Course.
Marco Andretti was 2 months old the last time his venerable racing family led the field to green at the Indianapolis 500. In this strange pandemic-plagued season, he ended a 33-year Andretti drought by winning the pole. That darned “Andretti Curse” has haunted three generations of racers at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1969, when Mario Andretti won his only Indy 500. Now his grandson, with a lightning-fast and fearful four laps around the speedway, has cleared the first hurdle toward an elusive victory. Mario Andretti was 1 for 29 in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” with just three career poles, his last in 1987. His son, Michael, never won a pole and his best finish in 16 tries was second in 1991. Jeff Andretti went 0 for 3. John Andretti was 0 for 12 and Marco currently is 0 for 14. In his 15th attempt, he will attempt to end that stupid family curse once and for all.
Chase Elliott was already NASCAR royalty. Now he’s also the sport’s road king. Elliott won the Cup Series’ first road course race at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, holding off hard-charging Denny Hamlin following a late restart and notching his third consecutive victory away from ovals.
There seem to be fewer players fishing at Walt Disney World these days. Getting a tee time or streaming video games might not be as much of a priority as it was a few weeks ago, either. Summer vacation is over. The restart gets real now.
As heat waves rose from the crackling grass next to a cotton field that stretched far into the distance, Rick Porter watched his young football players struggle through a preseason practice.
The youth version of the 44-Hour tournament hit the Winnemucca Sports Complex this past weekend. The Winnemucca Gold Rush hosted the Covid-Chaos tournament that featured teams from northern Nevada and California. The action began Friday evening and went throughout the night. Play resumed Saturday night and concluded early Sunday morning. The Winnemucca 14U team finished second in the tournament. The 10U dropped its opening game in bracket play on Saturday night.
Cal Peters shot a round of 98 to win the annual Doc Verner Memorial Junior Golf Tournament held at Winnemucca Municipal Golf Course last week. Trenton Mullis finish second in the boys 15-17-year-old division with a score of 106, Landon Esquivel (108) was third and Coda Nichols (123) placed fourth.
The best shot of his life, the shot that made Collin Morikawa a major champion, was never supposed to happen. He knew the tee on the 16th at Harding Park would be moved forward at the PGA Championship. He said during practice rounds that wouldn’t tempt him to go for the green. But this was Sunday afternoon, right after Morikawa had chipped in for birdie to break out of a seven-way tie, and at this moment was tied again with Paul Casey. “I knew I had to hit a good one,” he said. The shot will be remembered as one of the best in a major that hardly anyone witnessed, not with spectators banned during the COVID-19 era for majors.
Zion Williamson’s rookie season is ending without a playoff berth. It’s not an uncommon stop on the NBA learning curve. Even for No. 1 draft picks, like Williamson was a year ago, winning takes time. The last player to go from being the top overall selection one year to a playoff-game starter the very next season was Derrick Rose -- more than a decade ago. LeBron James needed three years to make the playoffs. John Wall needed four seasons. So did Kyrie Irving, his wait ending in large part because James returned to Cleveland.
