The Open
Rory McIlroy showed tremendous spirit to fight back from a horror start in yesterday's opening round of the British Open.
“JP gave me a talking to. He reminded me of who I was, basically. He said, ‘You’re Rory McIlroy, what are you doing?’”
McIlroy was five-over-par after six holes, but recovered excellently on the back nine - which he covered in 31 - at Royal Birkdale.
American trio of Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar - who compiled opening rounds of 65, five-under-par - are locked together atop the leader board.
You can follow day two of the Open live, right here.
Europa League
Cork City and Shamrock Rovers were both knocked out of the Europa League last night after second-leg losses in Cyprus and the Czech Republic respectively.
AEK Larnaca proved too strong for the League of Ireland tabletoppers, Cork, with another 1-0 win that gave them a two goal aggregate victory.
While Shamrock Rovers lost 2-0, 5-2 on aggregate, to FK Mladá Boleslav.
GAA
In his column this morning, Jackie Tyrrell says that Tipperary need to rediscover their defensive mean streak if they want to retain their All-Ireland title. Starting with Saturday's quarter-final against Clare.
“Dinking lovely passes here and there, crossfield balls to their forwards. That’s great but defence is measured on what you did to stop the other team’s forwards.”
Tour de France
Meanwhile Chris Froome is now within an ace of winning a fourth Tour de France after the final mountains stage, while Ireland's Dan Martin was once again one of the most aggressive riders on a mountain stage.
Martin’s attacks were ultimately reeled in and he finished eighth on the stage, 39 seconds behind the winner Warren Barguil; he remains sixth overall and has increased the gap over the rider behind him.
