Sports Digest: GOLF Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, the spectacular venue for Vijay Singh's play-off victory in the US PGA championship last August, is to host the 2020 Ryder Cup.
The Pete Dye-designed course was, at 7,536 yards, the longest lay-out in major championship history and has already been selected to stage the 2010 and 2015 US PGAs. Darren Clarke and Miguel Angel Jimenez hold the course record of 65.
The sites for seven of the next eight Ryder Cup matches are now known. Kildare's K Club hosts the event next year, then comes Valhalla in Kentucky (2008), Celtic Manor in Wales (2010), Medinah in Chicago (2012), Gleneagles in Scotland (2014) and Hazeltine (2016).
BOXING: Former undisputed world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis confirmed yesterday that he will resist any temptation to take one last big pay day in the ring.
A British newspaper last Sunday quoted the 39-year-old Briton as saying he planned to fight World Boxing Council (WBC) champion Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko this year for up to €30 million.
"I boxed professionally for many years and there will always be an attraction to the sport but I am not returning to the ring," Lewis said in a statement.
Lewis retired last year after his final fight with Klitschko in June 2003 was stopped after six rounds because of severe cuts to the Ukrainian.
MOTOR SPORT: Kimi Raikkonen (25) has reassured McLaren he is fully focused on the Formula One team despite lurid media reports about his alleged indiscretions in a lap-dancing club.
Newspapers in Britain and Finland alleged at the weekend that the Finn was thrown out of the London club after a night of heavy drinking and the reports clouded the test debut of McLaren's 2005 car yesterday.
"I know where you are trying to go now but it doesn't make me any slower," said the Finn when asked about his attitude at the Circuit de Catalunya. "It's my private life so what I do in the car is completely different because I am for sure giving everything that I can to the team."
McLaren chief Martin Whitmarsh commented: "I'm aware of the media coverage that Kimi received over the course of the weekend. Certainly that's not a welcome thing, either for Kimi or the team."
Whitmarsh said the team had spoken to Raikkonen but the new car was their main concern.
"Once we've taken ourselves away from that focus, we'll look at the information that we've got and if we need we believe to enforce some discipline then we'll do so," he said.
SWIMMING: The National Aquatic Centre in Abbotstown has said the venue will be closed "until further notice" following storm damage last month, reports Pat Roche.
Competition and training schedules have been thrown into disarray by the closure with the Irish Schools' championships and the Leinster championships being the first of the major fixtures to be affected.
The schools championships have had to be relocated to Limerick on Saturday week but the Leinster tests are still without a venue.
Better news comes from Luxembourg's international meet where Ireland's young team was ranked 13th out of 73 competing nations and clubs.
SAILING: Ellen MacArthur yesterday lost her lead in the race to become the fastest person to sail solo non-stop round the world. Light winds over the weekend have slowed down the Englishwoman's 75-foot trimaran B&Q and MacArthur was 11 miles behind current record-holder Frenchman Francis Joyon's time yesterday morning.
The slow conditions were also set to continue with MacArthur expected to fall further behind today and tomorrow as she sails 650 miles south-east of Salvador, Brazil, in the South Atlantic.
OLYMPICS: The Alpine city of Salzburg is Austria's candidate to host the 2014 winter Olympics, the Austrian Olympic Committee said yesterday. Other host candidates include Munich, Sweden's Ostersund, China's Harbin and Bulgaria capital Sofia.
Meanwhile, adidas-Salomon was named the official sportswear partner of the 2008 Beijing Olympics yesterday.
