That’s how he feels in the Augusta National clubhouse, at least, even though this week marks his 18th start in the historic golf tournament.
“I always felt like I knew the week of the tournament that the clubhouse is for participants and their families,” he said, “but I still felt like I had to earn the right to be there a little more often.”
A year ago, McIlroy beat Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff to become the sixth man to complete a career grand slam, winning all four major championships.
In the last 12 months, McIlroy has discovered that was more of a memorable mile marker than a monumental, life-changing milestone.
“I think the story as it relates to me is what do I do from now onwards?” he said Tuesday. “What motivates me? What do I still want to achieve in the game? I think that’s the story.
“And there’s still a lot I want to do. You think every time you achieve something or have success that you’ll be happy, but then the goalposts move. And they just keep nudging a little bit further and further out of reach.”
It’s a reminder, McIlroy said, to find enjoyment in the journey rather than finally achieving a specific goal.
“Honestly, I felt like the career grand slam was my destination,” he said. “I got there and realized it wasn’t the destination.”
The 36-year-old from Holywood, Northern Ireland, had gone 11 years between major championships and joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only playerswith a career grand slam.
What’s more, McIlroy was the first Masters winner to have four double bogeys over four rounds — two on Thursday, two on Sunday.
“I think panic is the wrong word, but I didn’t overreact on Thursday …” he said. “I didn’t overreact when I was only one-under through nine on Friday. I think not overreacting and not pressing too hard, I stayed patient or as patient as I could be, and I feel like that patience was rewarded.
Scottie Scheffler puts the green jacket on Master winner Rory McIlroy last year.
(David J. Phillip / Associated Press)
“I played a 14-hole stretch at 10-under par after that, and that was literally the stretch of golf that won me the tournament. So I think in years past I would have went for a pin I shouldn’t have went at, missed in the wrong spot, made another bogey, and then all of a sudden the round starts to get away from you, especially around here.
“Last year, I didn’t let that happen to me, and that was a big difference.”
As is tradition, he wore his green jacket as he spoke to reporters from the dais in the media auditorium. He has brought that sports coat around the world in the last year, but was too protective of it to have it dry cleaned or have a tailor change a stitch of it.
“I think for the past 17 years I could not wait for the tournament to start,” he said, adding with a laugh: “This year, I wouldn’t care if the tournament never started.”
Her players, though, were as excited for their coach as they were for themselves after defeating South Carolina 79-51 to claim the first NCAA national title in program history.
“I’m super proud of her as well, the way she responded as a leader last year,” UCLA senior guard Gabriela Jaquez said. “We responded well. Obviously we’re here now. I think it started with Coach Cori and the way she wanted to make a change in our program and get us back here, get this result.”
Close, who has been with the Bruins since 2011, got UCLA close last season, when the Bruins reached the Final Four and were blown out by Connecticut in the semifinal.
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But they turned the tables on South Carolina on Sunday, and Close said the best feeling was knowing that her process could work.
“This has been a calling, not a job,” Close said. “I’ve been saying it all day, but I don’t even know how else to say it, it’s immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine. I’m really grateful.”
UCLA coach Cori Close points across the court and talks with guard Kiki Rice during a win over South Carolina in the NCAA national title game Sunday in Phoenix.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
At times during her career, Close was viewed as an excellent recruiter and strong motivational speaker, but her tactical decisions were easy to question every time her team faltered during big moments. During the course of UCLA’s win over South Carolina, Close demonstrated every weakness her team showed during the past four years had been corrected. The result, was a lopsided victory that announced her arrival as one of women’s college basketball’s top coaches.
WNBA star Caitlin Clark on posted on X, “Not many care about the game as much as Coach Close … couldn’t be happier for her!!”
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said Close and her Bruins deserved all the praise.
“Cori is one of those people who really works at making our game better. Not just UCLA, but our entire game,” Staley said. “She’s always speaking out, uplifting our game in so many areas that it’s hard to continue to do that while maintaining the job that you have to do every day. But she finds the time.
UCLA coach Cori Close hugs South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley before their teams faced off for a national title Sunday in Phoenix.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
“Although we didn’t win, I can swallow it because we lost to a really good human being and a good team that represent women’s basketball well.”
Close will have to face a rebuild and likely have to work the transfer portal hard in the coming weeks to replace her six seniors and graduate students. But now, it might be a little bit easier since she’s proven her players bought in and she can win.
“Coach Cori really stayed patient with me,” said senior Lauren Betts, who was named the tournament’s most outstanding player. “She wanted to see me accomplish everything that I’d ever dreamed of. They just continued to remind me, they want me to see myself the way they all see me. I feel like now at this point I can finally truly do that. I think that’s what I’m most proud of.”
Not only win, either, but in such joyous fashion that it kept many of the players committed to the program and each other. Close’s approach ultimately carried them to a national championship.
UCLA forward Gabriela Jaquez dribbles under pressure from South Carolina forward Joyce Edwards Sunday in Phoenix.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
“It’s about their work and their habits yielding,” Close said while tearing up. “We say this, we want to recruit courageous. There were a lot of times we wondered if it could be true. I said I wanted to find uncommon, courageous women that were willing to make uncommon choices that maybe possibly could yield an uncommon result, and today it did.”
More love for the national champions
The UCLA women’s basketball team’s win sparked celebrations throughout the country.
UCLA two-sport star Megan Grant, who spent part of the fall practicing and playing on the Bruins’ basketball team, helped the softball team sweep Indiana before catching a flight to Phoenix. She greeted the basketball team at its hotel and joined the celebration, getting decked in UCLA national championship gear and receiving a piece of the title net from Close.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, a proud UCLA alum, recorded a video congratulating the team on its title win from one champion to another. “You guys made the entire Bruin nation so proud,” he said.
Lakers legend Magic Johnson, former U.S. Soccer star Abby Wambach, former President Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Karen Bass and many others congratulated the Bruins on social media. The state capital was lit in UCLA colors Sunday night in honor of the Bruins’ win. Fans greeted the team when the Bruins’ bus from the airport arrived on campus Sunday night.
UCLA is inviting fans to a national title celebration at Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday night. The official start time has not yet been announced.
Gymnastics advances to NCAA championships
The UCLA gymnastics team was locked in a tight battle Sunday in Corvallis, Ore., for a spot in the national championship meet.
The Bruins, however, were confident their super-power event — the floor exercise, their final rotation — would keep alive their goal of winning a national title.
Ciena Alipio scored a 9.875; Mika Webster-Longin, Sydney Barros and Ashlee Sullivan all scored a 9.900; and Tiana Sumanasekera added a 9.925.
Then it was time for senior Jordan Chiles to close out the meet for the Bruins.
Chiles delivered the same dynamic floor routine that has earned high scores all season, bursting into tears as soon as she stuck the final landing. She was rewarded with her eighth perfect 10 of the season and clinched the regional victory for the Bruins.
It was UCLA’s 25th NCAA regional title and the program’s first since 2019.
UCLA’s final team score was 197.725. Minnesota was next in line with 197.625 and will join the Bruins as the teams advancing to the national title meet.
Longtime UCLA rival Utah placed third with 197.500 and Alabama was fourth with 197.175.
Louisiana State, Stanford, Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma and Arkansas are the other six teams that advanced to the national championships, which will be held April 16 and 18 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.
No. 1 UCLA baseball sweeps No. 12 USC
The No. 1 UCLA baseball team completed a three-game sweep of No. 12 USC at Jackie Robinson Field, rolling to a 10-4 victory.
With the score tied 3-3 in the fifth inning, Will Gasparino hit a two-run homer. Mulivai Levu added a two-run homer in the sixth, and Roch Cholowsky tacked on a three-run blast in the eighth.
UCLA earned a 12-4 win over USC on Friday, then had to rally for a 9-8 win Saturday.
The Bruins (29-2, 15-0 Big Ten) are riding a 23-game win streak. The Trojans (27-6, 10-5) started the season on a 19-game win streak but have been challenged by Big Ten competition.
The UCLA football team kicked off spring workouts this past week. We’ll get our first chance to talk with players this week and promise to have more football coverage in the newsletters to come.
Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email newsletters editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
World championship boxing returned to the historic Kensington venue for the first time in decades. The Olympia had previously staged headline fights involving stars such as Chris Eubank Jr and Prince Naseem Hamed.
Harper strode towards the centre of the 19th-Century grand hall, buoyed by her travelling Yorkshire faithful.
Dubois, who once pretended to be a boy named Colin so she could be allowed to box, also received a warm reception as she entered to “I’m Every Woman” by Whitney Houston.
The fight had been a long time coming, and the rivalry had grown increasingly tense in the build-up. Dubois repeatedly questioned Harper’s achievements and credentials, while Harper shoved Dubois during a fiery media face-off earlier in the week.
By the halfway stage, however, the contest had not quite lived up to the hype, with Dubois edging the rounds through steady work to the body.
Then, suddenly, the fight came alive. Dubois set up a knockdown with a sharp double jab followed by a left hook, sending Harper to the canvas.
Harper rose to her feet as Dubois leapt in celebration, prompting the referee to warn her for failing to return to her corner.
Dubois increased the pressure. She landed thudding southpaw left hands in the seventh and eighth as blood began to drip from a cut on the inside of ‘Belter’ Harper’s left eye.
Watching from ringside was pound-for-pound star Claressa Shields, shouting encouragement for Dubois.
A strong combination from Dubois in the ninth suggested a stoppage might be imminent, but Harper rallied to land shots to Dubois’ head in the 10th and final round.
“Terri is very tricky; she navigated herself very well and it was up to me to push the pace,” Dubois told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“She is a champion and she doesn’t like to lose, but neither do I.
“The better woman won tonight and I hope she can give me my respect.”
World boxing champion Lauren Price says the structure in her life is what gives her the “confidence” to win.
Price splits her time between her home in Wales and her training camp in Sheffield, living away from her family and partner in the build-up to a fight.
On Saturday she will fight in front of a home crowd in Cardiff to defend her titles against Stephanie Pineiro.
The greatest legacy from the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles continues to be the LA84 Foundation, which has invested more than $250 million supporting youth sports organizations in Southern California through cash grants. It was created by receiving $93 million in profits from the 1984 Olympic Games under the vision of lead organizer Peter Ueberroth.
On Thursday, the LA84 Foundation sponsored its eighth Play Equity Summit, which is designed to find solutions to the challenges of access to youth sports activities. The theme was, “Play Because it Matters.”
Renata Simril, CEO of the LA84 Foundation, said, “The most powerful stadiums in America are the school yard and the block on your street.”
LA84 Foundation CEO Renata Simile.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
She said youth sports at the grassroots level are failing. The pay-to-play model is rising, making youth sports a $40-billion industry while leaving many behind.
“The only P.E. that belongs in youth sports is play equity,” Simril said.
She told those attending, “The task is to act and think differently.”
She remembers learning tennis on her neighborhood street and “the cracked court” at Carson High.
Simril said with the World Cup, Super Bowl and Olympic Games coming to Los Angeles over the next two years, “We have a generational opportunity to align the biggest moment in sports.”
She wants others to create legacy programs that last for youth sports through “more partnerships, more sponsorships, more access.”
“Purpose and profit can grow higher,” she said. “It should grow. It can lead to a legacy of investment in young people forever.”
She made it clear why participation in sports is so important for boys and girls.
“Play is how they become ready for life,” she said.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Korir tested positive for a drug that stimulates red blood cell production during out-of-competition tests.
Published On 30 Mar 202630 Mar 2026
Kenya’s 2021 New York marathon champion Albert Korir has been banned for five years after he admitted using a banned performance-enhancing drug, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said.
The AIU said on Monday that Korir had received a one-year reduction from the original six-year suspension “based on an early admission and acceptance of the sanction”.
Korir, 32, tested positive for the synthetic form of erythropoietin (EPO) that stimulates red blood cell production during out-of-competition tests in Kenya in October 2025.
His five-year ban will run from January 8, 2026, the date he was provisionally suspended, until January 7, 2031.
Korir won the 2021 New York marathon in a time of 2hr 08min 22sec and came third in 2023 with a personal best time of 2:06:57.
He won the Ottawa marathon in 2019 and 2025.
Korir’s sanction comes nearly six months after compatriot Ruth Chepngetich, the current world marathon record holder was banned for three years after admitting the use of Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), a banned diuretic used as a masking agent.
Kenya worked to clean up its image after a string of doping scandals around the 2016 Rio Olympics led to it being declared non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
More than 140 Kenyan runners, mainly long-distance athletes, have been sanctioned for drugs offences since then.
In June 2024, Kenya handed out its first lifetime ban to marathon runner Beatrice Toroitich and a six-year ban to 10km record-holder Rhonex Kipruto.
Coaching high school basketball since the 1979-80 season and being the second-winningest coach in state history with 1,127 victories, Mike LeDuc is one of those old-school coaches who likes to push his players forward and fade into the background when team success comes.
This season at Damien, LeDuc can take a bow for guiding the Spartans to the state Division I championship with little size but a group of players who loved to shoot threes, never stopped hustling on defense and executed close to perfection on the biggest stage at Golden 1 Center and during his team’s playoff run.
For turning a group of players he fondly called “overachievers” into champions, LeDuc is The Times’ boys’ basketball coach of the year.
Through his many years of coaching at Damien and previously at Glendora, he’s mentored such outstanding players as Tracy Murray, Casey Jacobsen and Cameron Murray. Now Cameron’s sophomore son, CJ, plays for Damien. It’s a full circle moment for LeDuc, who was holding his granddaughter at the awards ceremony in Sacramento.
As the years go by and the game keeps changing, LeDuc continues to adapt, adjust and power on.
LeDuc‘s answer is, “Basketball is a real simple game. It’s a game of repetition and if you do it over and over, you expect it to be done perfectly.”
Belfast’s IBF world welterweight champion Lewis Crocker says he hopes that a victory over Australian Liam Paro in his next fight can open the door to a unification bout with another belt holder in the division.
Crocker is set to defend his title in Australia, with May the likely month for the contest and the Queensland city of Townsville seeming like the probable venue.
The 29-year-old won the title with a split decision verdict over Paddy Donovan at Belfast’s Windsor Park in September and his team had hoped to stage the defence against mandatory challenger Paro back in his home city.
However, with no agreement reached between both parties, the matter was resolved by a purse bid with No Limit outbidding Crocker’s promoter Matchroom by $27,000 (£20,000).
When asked by BBC Sport NI’s Thomas Kane where he hoped a potential win over Paro could lead, Crocker replied: “The biggest fight possible. Unification, which is something I feel I deserve if I get through Paro.
“You look at the names in the division as well, everything’s massive. You have Garcia [Ryan, WBC champion], Haney [Devin, WBO holder], Rolly [Rolando Romero, WBA champion] and Benn [currently ranked number one challenger by the WBC] there so there’s so much to gain from this fight for the winner.
“Any of the big boys because it will be easy to make. We all want a unification in the division, we all want to become undisputed.”
South Korea’s Ministry of Intellectual Property has appointed former Go champion Lee Sedol as its first ambassador. Photo by Ministry of Intellectual Property
SEOUL, March 16 (UPI) — South Korea’s Ministry of Intellectual Property has appointed former Go champion Lee Sedol as its first ambassador, 10 years after his landmark competition with AlphaGo.
The ministry said Friday that the appointment would help it communicate its policy direction to the public in a more symbolic and accessible way.
A few years after the 2016 contest against AlphaGo, Lee retired from the strategic board game that is popular in Korea, Japan, and China. He is now a special professor at the country’s Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology.
Back then, AlphaGo ultimately beat Lee in the five-game series. However, Lee managed to secure a historic victory in the fourth game.
“Professor Lee is recorded as the first and also the last human to defeat AI,” Intellectual Property Minister Kim Young-sun said at the event.
“Regardless of the outcome of his match against AI, I believe that he demonstrated a desirable model for the AI era — not viewing AI merely as something to overcome or challenge, but as a partner with which we can cooperate and coexist,” he said.
Lee promised to support the ministry, the country’s government organization responsible for policies related to patents trademarks, and other intellectual property rights.
“Ten years ago, there was the match against AlphaGo. I think that may have been the starting point of AI. Now it has become difficult to imagine a world without AI,” Lee said.
“In line with these changes, I believe that an important task for the MOIP is how well it collaborates and adapts to this environment to continue developing and advancing,”
Duplantis, widely known by his nickname ‘Mondo’, has already won every major gold available to him, and became the first man in 68 years to retain the Olympic pole vault title at Paris 2024.
The US-born Swede, who chose to represent his mother’s homeland, has not lost a major final since the World Athletics Championship in Doha in 2019, where as a teenager he missed out to American Sam Kendricks on countback.
World record talk has largely replaced any discussion of the destination of men’s pole vault gold medals since he took the record off Lavillenie in February 2020.
How has he done it? A potent combination of lightning runway speed, technical precision in the take-off, explosive power and the bravery to embrace it as he travels far beyond the average height of a giraffe (5.5m).
It is his sprinting prowess in particular that his rivals pinpoint as a defining factor, with the higher approach speed generating greater kinetic energy and creating the foundation for greater heights.
That is something he has enhanced through specially-developed sprinting spikes which he wears for his world record attempts, which feature an unusual hooked spike in the forefoot.
His incremental centimetre-by-centimetre approach to improving the world record is by no means revolutionary; since Sergey Bubka became the first person to clear six metres 40 years ago, the record has been nudged no more than two centimetres higher at a time.
It helped that Duplantis grew up with a pole vault pit in the back garden of his childhood home in Louisiana, with his father a former elite competitor in the discipline.
The record-breaking dominance he has gone on to achieve has transcended the sport and established Duplantis – coached by his parents Greg and Helena – as the sport’s biggest star.
Adicoff, from Sun Valley, Idaho, has been skiing since childhood – dabbling in both alpine and Nordic skiing before alpine was deemed too dangerous.
He competed against sighted rivals at junior level. After being selected for the US Para-Nordic team in 2013, he went to the 2014 Games in Sochi while still a high school student.
A first Paralympic medal came four years later in Pyeongchang when he finished second behind Canadian Paralympic legend Brian McKeever in the 10km classic event, but he retired after the Games before returning for the 2022 Beijing Games.
Despite high hopes of gold, Adicoff achieved two more individual silvers behind McKeever before anchoring the US team to relay gold for his first Paralympic title.
But it left Adicoff wanting more and with the retirement of 16-time Paralympic champion McKeever the division was wide open.
The American seized his chance to dominate, with World Cup and World Championship success ahead of the Games.
Unlike at Beijing, where supporters did not travel because of the pandemic, athletes at these Games have benefited from being able to be watched by friends and family and Adicoff’s entourage have been enjoying the experience.
Whether they are waving giant faces of Adicoff and his guides Reid Goble and Peter Wolter or wearing hats with his name on it, their presence has been felt at the Tesero Cross-Country Centre
Adicoff, who has another medal chance in Sunday’s 20km event and is also set to go in Saturday’s 4×2.5km mixed relay, may not be able to fully see them while he competes, but he has taken it all in and joined in the post-race celebrations.
“To have so many people that came out and supported us and are going to continue to support us throughout the week. It’s so nice having friends and family here,” he said.
“You see all those white hats up there? It’s so fun to have.
“I love skiing, love ski racing, so it makes finding the motivation kind of easy.”
Il Etait Temps powered over the line in the Queen Mother Champion Chase to earn trainer Willie Mullins his third win of day two at Cheltenham Festival.
Majborough was the odds-on favourite to claim victory in the big race of the day but a poor jumping display made it an impossible victory.
A mistake at the final fence almost cost Il Etait Temps the win, but jockey Paul Townend steered him over the line at the Festival’s first Ladies Day in five years.
“There was a lot of work put into this horse after Ascot so I have a lot of people to thank,” Townend told ITV Racing. “It shows how tough this lad is. He’s such a courageous horse again today. He was flat as a pan everywhere.
“I wasn’t going to force him but he just found his rhythm.”
Mullins told BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra: “Out of the corner of my eye I could see Paul Townend thinking ‘now we have a horse race’.
“He started to get confident and he planned his move around the last bend.”
Libberty Hunter, priced at 50-1, and Sir Alex Ferguson’s horse, L’eau Du Sud, finished third.
The first winner of the day for Mullins came in the opening race with 11-1 shot King Rasko Grey powering over the finish line.
Act of Innocence, ridden by Nico de Boinville, followed up in second.
Mullins was “disappointed” with his horses in Tuesday’s Supreme Hurdle, but King Rasko Grey’s “form worked out”.
He told BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra: “We were all disappointed with our horses in the Supreme, but his form worked out. The day we bought him from the sales, he looked like a really smooth mover.
“I am very happy. When I saw them here on Monday, my worry was they looked too well.
“I don’t think I have seen my team on the gallop look so well, but they are racing well.”
It was a Mullins one-two in the Novices’ Chase with a brilliant jumping display from 11-1 chance Kitzbuhel allowing him to hold off the challenge of 7-2 shot Final Demand.
Jockey Harry Cobden labelled Kitzbuhel a “phenomenal little horse”.
He told ITV: “He’s braver than I am, this little chap. He’s a phenomenal horse.
“He was brilliant today, looking right the whole way, so that’s why I kept him in the middle. Everywhere I asked him, he delivered. He’s very tough.”
If there is a lesson to be found in keeping the faith when faced with setbacks, look no further than the career of Anthony Cacace.
On Saturday in Dublin’s 3 Arena, the 37-year-old bids to become a two-time super-featherweight world champion when taking on WBA holder James ‘Jazza’ Dickens.
However, for much of his professional career, Cacace was something of a forgotten man.
His talent was never in question, but breaks were measured in x-rays rather than opportunities with injuries, opponent withdrawals and cancellations all too common.
Nonetheless, he kept grinding and grafting, pads by day and pizza delivery by night; waiting, hoping and believing his time would come.
The big chance arrived in May 2024 against IBF champion Joe Cordina on the undercard of Oleksandr Usyk v Tyson Fury in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Back with his old amateur team headed by Michael Hawkins, Cacace – born to a Belfast mother and Italian father – grabbed the opportunity with both hands, returning home to a hero’s welcome and given the ultimate honour of a mural painted close to his parents’ Andersonstown home in the west of the city to mark the occasion.
He hasn’t looked back, defeating Josh Warrington at Wembley Stadium later that year and after vacating the IBF title, beating Leigh Wood in Nottingham in May 2025, improving his record to 24 wins with one defeat.
“Fighting for my second world title, things can’t get better than that,” Cacace told BBC Sport NI as he prepared for another training day at Holy Trinity Boxing Club.
“I’ve had my fair share of letdowns and pull-outs at the last minute, but I can’t complain because it’s been all in God’s plan. I really do genuinely believe everything that’s happened has happened for a reason to set me up for times like these.
“To be up here with the boys [coaching team]: Ruairi [Dalton], Michael [Hawkins Jr], Barry [O’Neill], Micky [Hawkins] Sr – it’s been set for me, I genuinely believe.
“It’s like a dream come true, and I’m just really enjoying where I’m at at the moment.”
