CNN
 — 

Hands clasped to his head, knees pinned to the emerald turf, chest convulsing in frenetic, ragged breaths, Rory McIlroy looked like a man subjugated by the weight of the world. Then, he propped himself upright, lifted his head skyward and unleashed a primal, fist-pumping roar that reverberated with the release of a seemingly indomitable burden.

The images of McIlroy winning The Masters, finally capturing his white whale after a 17-year pursuit fraught with heartbreak, and the unbridled celebrations that followed will likely live long in the memory of anyone who followed that near-cinematic Sunday afternoon at Augusta National in April.

Eyes welling up with tears as he discussed the prospect of celebrating with his parents back home in Northern Ireland, the raw intensity of McIlroy’s body language was a fitting reflection of the summit he had just scaled. Victory had stamped his ticket for entry into the sport’s most illustrious member’s club as just the sixth men’s golfer to complete the career grand slam of all four majors.

Yet McIlroy isn’t done soul stirring. Far from it, the green jacket’s newest recipient believes that winning the Open Championship on home turf at Royal Portrush come Sunday could well top the realization of that “lifelong dream” three months ago.

“I think it would be just as emotional, if not more emotional, to do that than what I did in Augusta … and everyone saw the mess I was after that,” the 36-year-old told BBC Sport on Monday.

‘A win has the chance to resonate louder and longer’

Born and raised some 60 miles (96 kilometers) away in Holywood, a small town of little over 10,000 people just a 15-minute drive from the hubbub of the capital Belfast, McIlroy was always guaranteed to receive a hero’s welcome at the 153rd edition of the major this week.

Yet the magnitude of his spring success has only ratcheted up the fervor on Antrim’s north coast, with as many as 290,000 spectators expected to brave rain and biting coastal winds to watch the game’s best take on the testing Dunluce Links course.

Even as the world No. 2 – barely 12 hours after finishing joint runner-up at the Scottish Open in North Berwick on Sunday – shrugged off four hours of sleep to be one of the first golfers out for Monday’s practice round, fans followed in droves.

Many were repaid for their dedication when the five-time major champion closed his session by penning autographs, with Masters merchandise among the items thrust over the barriers to be signed.

“I’m so grateful and appreciative of the support that I get from home, and they really make me feel that out there,” added McIlroy.

“That’s an amazing feeling to play in front of that and to experience that, and I want to embrace that this week.”

The depth of national pride for a 29-time PGA Tour winner who, long before his crowning at Augusta, had assembled a strong case to claim the title of Northern Ireland’s greatest ever sportsperson goes some way to explaining why a victory at Royal Portrush could be more emotional than his Masters title.

Because while he might have already lifted a Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool in 2014 and completed the set 11 years later, a home major has the potential to top it all, believes Golf Digest senior writer Joel Beall.

“For what it means to him as a player, the Masters was always going to be more important,” Beall told CNN Sports.

“He had so many disappointments there, and it was standing in the way of the grand slam. But on a personal level, to do this in his childhood backyard, a win has the chance to resonate louder and longer than Augusta.”

The emotional stakes are also raised by the fact that McIlroy, as he did at Augusta, has psychological scar tissue from Royal Portrush.

It had started so well. Aged just 16, McIlroy had consolidated his reputation as a burgeoning golf phenom when he tore round Dunluce Links in a course record 11-under 61 at the 2005 North of Ireland Championship.

Though Ireland’s Shane Lowry holds the current all-time low-score after shooting 63 en route to Open triumph in 2019 following extensive renovations to the course earlier that year, McIlroy’s teenage achievement endures as a seminal chapter of his fabled career.

Yet as long-time friend Lowry powered to glory, McIlroy didn’t even make the weekend on the major’s long-awaited return to the venue. After decades of sectarian violence known as “the Troubles” had seen The Open kept away from Northern Ireland, McIlroy had been the center of attention as Royal Portrush played host for the first time since 1951, only to see his tournament instantly derailed by an opening quadruple-bogey eight.

After a closing triple-bogey saw the home star sign off with an eight-over 79, even a superb six-under 65 was not enough to make the cut, with McIlroy left fighting tears having missed out on the weekend by a single stroke.

Caught off guard by the ovation he received on the first tee six years ago, the five-time major champion believes he is now better prepared to not just deal with, but embrace, the adoration from behind the ropes.

“I was still a little surprised and a little taken aback like, ‘Geez, these people really want me to win,’” McIlroy recalled to reporters on Monday.

“I think that brought its own sort of pressure and more internally from myself and not really wanting to let people down. I learned pretty quickly that one of my challenges, especially in a week like this, is controlling myself and controlling that battle.

“I probably tried to isolate, and I think it’s better for everyone if I embrace it,” McIlroy added later. “It’s nice to be able to accept adulation, even though I struggle with it at times, but it’s also nice for the person that is seeing you for the first time in a few years. It just makes for a better interaction.”

Just how much inspiration McIlroy can extract from those interactions could hold the key to his hopes this week, Beall says.

“Rory now realizes what he does is a communal experience,” he told CNN Sports. “Harnessing that energy, letting it be an asset instead of a weight, will go a ways in determining how he does.”

McIlroy’s second place finish in Scotland on Sunday, two shots behind American Chris Gotterup, hinted at a timely return to his best play after what had been – by his golden standards – a slump in form.

The slam capture had sparked some predictions that a “shackles-off” McIlroy, who had already won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship in a surging start to the year, could pave the way for a multiple-major season.

Yet a tied-47th finish at the PGA Championship was followed by a tied-19th outing at the US Open, and sandwiched by a missed cut at the Canadian Open. Resetting goals after the euphoria of The Masters had been a struggle, McIlroy admitted Monday.

“Talk about the pressure being off, yes, but anyone that sits up here at this table, we’re all competitors. We all want to do better. We all think we can just get a little bit extra out of what we have,” he said.

“I probably just didn’t give myself enough time to let it all sink in. But that’s the nature of professional golf. They do a very good job of keeping you on the hamster wheel, and you feel like it’s hard to get off at times, but it’s been an amazing year.”

With the small matter of a Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York still to come in late September, there is ample opportunity for McIlroy to pen yet more history in 2025.

“I still feel like there’s a lot left in there,” he said. “The story certainly isn’t over.”

Atlanta
CNN
 — 

The hottest topic in Atlanta ahead Tuesday’s Major League Baseball isn’t a player, a coach or a manager.

It’s not even human.

For the first time, the midsummer classic is going to be using automated technology to allow pitchers, catchers and batters to challenge balls and strikes – a system that’s been in use in the minor leagues and in spring training but had never been put in place before at a major league park.

It’s a technology that has the potential to revolutionize the game, a system that might forever change one of the ficklest parts of an incredibly fickle game: The ever-changing, unpredictable strike zone put in place by all-too-human home plate umpires.

Pitchers are largely unfazed – at least before the game gets going.

“I don’t plan on using them. I’m probably not going to use them in the future. I’m gonna let the catcher do that,” said Tarik Skubal, the Detroit Tigers star who will start the game for the American League. “I have this thing where I think everything’s a strike until the umpire calls it a ball.”

Paul Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates fireballer who will start for the National League, felt much the same way.

“Pitchers think that everything’s a strike, then you go back and look at it and it’s two, three balls off,” he said Monday. “So, we should not be the ones that are challenging it. I really do like the human element of the game. I think this is one of those things that you kind of think that umpires are great until they’re not, and so I could kind of care less either way, to be honest.”

According to MLB, the challenge system will have the same rules as were used in spring training: Each team starts the game with two challenges and they keep their challenge if they are deemed correct. Only the pitcher, catcher and hitter can challenge a call and the system is put into place when one of those players taps the top of his cap or helmet twice.

The system was in place during the Futures Game at Truist Park on Saturday between some of the game’s top minor league prospect. When a player would challenge a call, the game would pause, and attention would turn to the stadium’s massive screen beyond right center field.

A virtual simulation of the pitch would be shown along with a strike zone and the technology would rule if the ball fell within or outside the box. Play would then resume after the short break.

It’s unclear exactly how the league will determine the size of those strike zones for each batter, and that’s something Los Angeles Dodgers veteran Clayton Kershaw wants to know.

“I did a few rehab starts with it. I’m OK with it, you know, I think, I mean, it works,” he told reporters on Monday. “I just don’t really understand how they’re doing the box for the hitter, because I think every different TV or national streaming service has their own box. I think I just hope that they figure out, because Aaron Judge and Jose Altuve should have different sized boxes, so … know they’ve obviously thought about that. I haven’t talked to MLB about it, but as long as that gets figured out, I think it’d be fun.”

The phrase used most on Monday when discussing the technology was an iconic one in baseball lore: The “human element.”

It’s one of the things that can make baseball so perfectly imperfect – the ability of umpires to simply get it wrong and make a massive impact on the game. From Jim Joyce ruling a batter safe to ruin Armando Galarraga’s perfect game bid to Don Dekinger’s World Series-changing call in 1985, ruling Kansas City Royals player Jorge Orta was safe at first base even though replays showed he was out by a step. Instead of being the last out of a St. Louis Cardinals World Series championship, the moment became the spark for the Royals to charge back and win the title.

The “human element” is one of baseball’s quirks that give the nation’s pastime its identity. But it’s also something that many fans would rather see cast off into obscurity.

Chris Sale, the Atlanta Braves pitcher and reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, said he still wants it to be part of the game.

“Honestly, for me, I kind of like the human element, right? Like I understand why they want to use ABS. And I don’t think it’s a perfect system yet,” he said. “I kind of like the old feel, the old way of doing it.”

CNN
 — 

While Chelsea stole the show on the pitch in a masterful showing against Paris Saint-Germain, President Donald Trump was arguably the center of attention at the FIFA Club World Cup final on Sunday.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump were at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to witness the Blues’ dominant performance against PSG, as two goals from Cole Palmer and one from new addition João Pedro gave Chelsea a 3-0 victory to become the inaugural winners of the newly formatted competition.

But for Trump, it was an eventful afternoon from his very first appearance in front of fans.

He and the first lady were cheered upon their arrival at MetLife Stadium, but when he was shown on the video screens during the pre-game national anthem, Trump received a scattering of boos. He was booed again later on after the game, when he was presenting medals on the field to players alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

But a hostile reception from some in attendance wasn’t the end of things for the 79-year-old, who was routinely shown on the TV coverage of the game sitting alongside Infantino.

CNN reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi attended as she is under pressure over the release of a memo about accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was also spotted in the suite by the pool camera following the president and the Associated Press reported Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, NFL legend Tom Brady and media mogul Rupert Murdoch all joined the president as well.

Having handed the winner’s trophy to Chelsea captain Reece James with Infantino, Trump remained on stage while the FIFA boss departed. There appeared to be some confusion among the Chelsea players as to whether they should wait for Trump to leave before proceeding with the ceremonial trophy lift.

But after a few moments, Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez – standing on the other side of Trump – motioned for James to go ahead with Trump standing center stage.

It led to the unusual image of the Chelsea squad celebrating its tournament victory with the US president squarely in the middle of it all.

Afterward, the Chelsea players expressed their bewilderment about Trump’s presence on stage. Typically in soccer, the trophy lift is for the players and staff of the winning team.

“I knew he was going to be here, but I didn’t know he was going to be on the stand when we lifted the trophy, so I was a bit confused,” said Palmer, who was named the player of the tournament.

James added: “Before they told me that he was going to present the trophy and exit the stage. I thought he was going to exit the stage, but he wanted to stay.”

There was confusion on social media as well as videos appeared to show Infantino giving Trump a winner’s medal.

CNN Sports has contacted FIFA to ask whether Trump was specifically given a medal by the body and to whether he was meant to be on stage during the trophy lift.

“It was an upset today, I guess,” Trump told reporters after flying back to Washington following Chelsea’s victory, per AP. “But it was a great match.”

It was a unique ending to a unique tournament, one that saw games played in scorching heat, matches delayed for thunderstorms and teams from across the globe congregate to compete against one another.

The final – contrary to other big soccer matches – had the customary razzle-dazzle that comes with an American sporting event through a halftime performance, with British rock band Coldplay making a surprise cameo performance alongside J Balvin, Doja Cat, Tems, and Emmanuel Kelly.

With the World Cup being played in the US, Canada and Mexico in less than 12 months, things could get even bigger and more unusual than normal.