Championship

The Lakers will open NBA Cup play against the same team they open the season with.

The Lakers start the in-season tournament on Oct. 30 on the road against the Golden State Warriors at 7 p.m. PDT on Prime Video, the NBA announced Wednesday during another stage of the schedule release that will wrap up Thursday. The NBA Cup opener is a second matchup in the first weeks of the season between the Lakers and the Warriors, who begin their regular-season schedules on Oct. 21 at Crypto.com Arena.

The Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs are also in the Lakers’ five-team Group C. The Lakers have Cup home games against the Trail Blazers (Nov. 6, 7 p.m.) and Kings (Nov. 20, 7 p.m.) and play their last group-stage Cup game at San Antonio at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 27.

With 30 teams split into six groups for the NBA Cup, teams play a round-robin group stage before the top team in each group and the best second-place team in each conference advance to the eight-team quarterfinal stage.

The quarterfinals (Dec. 4 and Dec. 5) and semifinals (Dec. 8 and/or Dec. 9) will be hosted in NBA team markets, a departure from the previous formats that placed only the quarterfinals in team arenas before playing the semifinal and championship in Las Vegas. The championship game, scheduled for Dec. 11, will be played at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

The in-season tournament, now in its third season, was launched to increase the stakes during a long NBA regular season. It incentivized competition in part by dangling more than $500,000 in prize money for each player on the winning team.

The NBA Cup just produced its first NBA champion, with the New York Knicks becoming the first team to win the regular-season tournament and the NBA title in the same season.

Great Britain’s Max Burgin and Ben Pattison finish first and second in their semi-final races to qualify for the 800m final, while Ireland’s Mark English also qualifies for the final after breaking the European Athletics Championship record time for the event.

FOLLOW LIVE: European Athletics Championships – day three

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Great Britain’s Romell Glave and Jeremiah Azu say a medal sweep in the men’s 100m was a goal they had discussed amongst their teams earlier in the year, as the two take home the gold and silver medals at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.

READ MORE: GB’s Glave and Azu claim European 100m one-two

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The PIL had been the third tier of NIFL since 2016 and is now set to be replaced by the Conference League, which will be run by NAFL.

As a result, NIFL will only control the top two leagues of Northern Irish football and has now expanded the Championship from 12 to 16 teams.

The top four teams from last season’s PIL – Moy­ola Park, Stra­bane Ath­letic, Rath­fri­land and Newry City – were promoted to the Championship.

But the 10 teams who finished between fifth and bottom of last year’s PIL- Dollingstown, Ballymacash Rangers, Portstewart, Oxford Sunnyside, Dergview, Ballyclare Comrades, Knockbreda, Coagh United, Lisburn Distillery and Banbridge Town – are all set to feature in the inaugural Conference league.

Ballymena & Provincial League champions St. James’ Swifts and Rosario, who came fifth in NAFL’s Premier Division last season, are also due to complete the new 12-team league.

But Banbridge, who finished bottom of the PIL, believed the decision to remove the side from the NIFL structures was “unlawful” and appealed to the Irish Football Association [IFA].

Banbridge argued that NIFL had not followed its own regulations by not previously securing approval from member clubs at an annual general meeting [AGM] or EGM to bring its annual regulations into operation, and their appeal was upheld by the IFA’s appeals committee.

Ben Earl has called for a change to the Nations Championship format after England’s “brutal” schedule in the summer leg of the inaugural competition.

England had to play three Tests in three different continents on successive weekends and accumulated 25,000 miles of travel.

Victory over Argentina on Saturday keeps Steve Borthwick’s team in the hunt for a place in the final on 29 November at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.

However, four long haul and four short haul flights in the past four weeks have contributed to players losing sleep and a reduced training schedule.

“It’s been brutal, there’s no two ways about it,” England number 8 Earl said.

“We’ve been speaking about it – why would we not all be playing in one country? So you just don’t travel, you go to one nation and have that festival feel.

“I’m not paid to make those decisions but it has been tough. It’s been tough coming at the end of what’s been quite a long season anyway for most of us.

“It’s been back and forth, coming back to England, seeing your families and then going away again.

“It has seemed a bit weird but it’s just something we’re going to have to get used to because I think it’s just the beginning.”

The competition resumes later in the year for the autumn leg with England next in action against Australia on 8 November.

Wales finished a first season under Tandy with a record of three wins, against Japan, Italy and Fiji, from 12 Tests.

They are 11th in the world rankings – bizarrely moving up a place courtesy of the Azzurri’s heavy loss in Australia – as they count down to next year’s World Cup, when they face England, Tonga and Zimbabwe in the group stages.

“The squad has developed, particularly with our performances against Scotland and Ireland during the Six Nations, and then the win over Italy,” said Morgan.

“We were pleased with the victory over Fiji at the start of the summer as well because we know how difficult they are to beat.

“We just have to keep developing and we’ve been doing that as a squad. There are still plenty of lessons to learn, but the more we play together, the more experience we gain and the more we can improve.”

Morgan, who is now officially a Gloucester player after his summer move from Ospreys, missed eight Tests after suffering a shoulder injury against Argentina in Tandy’s first game.

The British and Irish Lions flanker says that Wales are leaving no stone unturned in their bid to close the gap as quickly as possible.

“We’re a very close group and everyone wants to get better,” said Morgan, who was captain for Tandy’s first game.

“I’m proud of the effort they’ve put in, not just over these last three weeks but throughout the whole season.

“It’s clear that everyone wants to learn, improve and continue developing together as a squad.”

Wales play four Nations Championship fixtures in November against Japan, New Zealand and Australia in Cardiff before facing another southern hemisphere opponent at finals weekend in Twickenham.

Mercedes driver won his sixth GP of 2026 as championship rival and teammate George Russell crashes out on first lap.

Kimi Antonelli won the Belgian Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday to stretch his Formula One lead to 45 points over Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton on a bleak day for teammate George Russell, his closest title rival heading into the race.

Russell had been the 19-year-old Italian’s closest rival before the start at Spa-Francorchamps, but the Briton spun off into the gravel on the opening lap after a collision with Hamilton while trying to make up places lost at lights out.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was second in the 44-lap race, 1.952 seconds behind after leading, thanks to a pit stop while a virtual safety car was deployed, with Max Verstappen third to give Red Bull their 300th Formula One podium.

Hamilton finished fourth, despite serving a five-second penalty for the collision with Russell, but remained under investigation for an unsafe release from a pit stop that could drop him to fifth and further stretch Antonelli’s lead.

It was Antonelli’s sixth win in 10 rounds this season, leaving him 50 points clear of Russell. Antonelli was first in qualifying, continuing Mercedes’ clean sweep of pole positions this season.

“It’s great to be back on the top step after a few difficult rounds,” said Antonelli, who had drawn a blank in two of the past three rounds.

“It was a hard-fought race. We lost first place with the VSC but then we managed to make our way back.

“The momentum was always there. It was just about getting the results,” he added. “Today we were a bit lucky with what happened in terms of the championship but you have to take every opportunity because we saw how much it can swing.”

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished fifth, with Isack Hadjar sixth for Red Bull from last on the grid. Reigning champion Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren after starting 13th due to a 10-place grid drop.

Gabriel Bortoleto brought more points for Audi in eighth place, with Arvid Lindblad ninth for Racing Bulls and Argentine Franco Colapinto completing the scoring in 10th place for Renault-owned Alpine.

After the South Africa game, Rassie Erasmus said Scotland were a top-three nation in the world, presumably behind his own side and France.

With Rassie you never know what sort of agenda might lie behind his public comments – there’s usually something – but it was an eyebrow-raiser nonetheless.

In the wake of Fiji, Schoeman – two tries this summer – went down a similar road when asked if he felt Scotland were closing the gap on the world’s best sides.

“No, I don’t feel we’re closing the gap,” he added. “I feel we are a top-three, top-five team in the world. We’ve proven that – Argentina away, France, England, we play [and beat] the top dogs.

“South Africa, Ireland, All Blacks, we haven’t had too much love there. That’s maybe the games we want to target, to go against the best. Just to go full toe-to-toe with them for a full 80-minute performance.”

Top three is a big stretch, but there are moments in games when you think Scotland have it within them to lay the ghosts of Ireland and New Zealand to rest.

They’ll get a crack at the Kiwis in the autumn and will play Ireland in the spring, both at Murrayfield.

As much as the Nations Championship has been a try-laden fun-fest, the real battle and barometer of progress remains the Six Nations.

Scotland are trending in the right direction but summer and autumn have always been an unreliable guide to their true worth.

Enjoy the quality of some of their rugby over the last three weeks, but put it in context, too. The Six Nations and World Cup remain where it’s at.

Argentina wore replicas of the country’s 1986 Fifa World Cup kit for their match against England at rugby union’s Nations Championship.

Argentina wore the dark blue kit during their 2-1 quarter-final victory over England at the tournament – which they later won – in a match made famous by Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal, before he scored a brilliant second.

Argentina’s rugby side, known as the Pumas, usually wear the country’s traditional white and light blue striped sporting kit.

“Memories that span generations and remain alive in the collective memory. Today that legacy dresses up again,” Los Pumas posted on X.

The sporting rivalry between the two countries was fuelled last week as Argentina came from behind in dramatic fashion to beat the Three Lions 2-1 and reach the 2026 World Cup final.

Following the match, Argentina players held up a banner reading ‘Las Malvinas son Argentinas’, which translates as ‘The Falklands are Argentine’.

Fifa is deciding whether to punish Argentina for the banner that references the Falkland Islands – a British overseas territory in the south west Atlantic Ocean that remains the subject of a sovereignty dispute between the UK and Argentina.

Before the Nations Championship match against Argentina, England switched hotels in Buenos Aires to avoid their return home being wrecked by World Cup celebrations should Argentina’s football team beat Spain in Sunday’s final.

The Nations Championship match is taking place at the Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades in Santiago del Estero, with Steve Borthwick’s side aiming for their sixth successive win over Argentina.

Last weekend, England thrashed Fiji 73-8 to end a five-match losing run while Argentina beat Wales 35-21 last weekend after losing 47-38 to Scotland in their Nations opener.

South Africa: Fassi; Williams, Kriel, de Allende, Arendse; Moyo, Reinach; Steenekamp, Marx, Sadie, C Wiese, van Heerden, de Villiers, PS du Toit (capt), J Wiese

Replacements: Venter, Wessels, Louw, Dixon, van Staden, Jantjies, Libbok, Willemse.

Wales: Murray; Rees-Zammit, Llewellyn, B Thomas, Mee; Edwards, Tomos Williams; Carre, Lake (capt), D Lewis, Teddy Williams, Beard, Mann, J Morgan, Wainwright

Replacements: Elias, N Smith, Warren, F Thomas, Reffell, Botham, Morgan-Williams, Hawkins.

Yellow card: Warren 65

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)

Assistant Referees: Pierre Brousset (FFR) & James Doleman (NZRFU)

TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)

FPRO: Richard Kelly (NZRFU)

Fit-again wing Robert Baloucoune returns to the Ireland line-up for Saturday’s much-anticipated Nations Championship game against New Zealand in Auckland.

Baloucoune, who won the Six Nations Rising Player award after starring in Ireland’s Triple Crown campaign earlier this year, missed the wins over Australia and Japan with a hamstring issue.

Head coach Andy Farrell recalls a host of key players after fielding a heavily rotated in last week’s 36-20 victory over Japan, with the return of captain Dan Sheehan, prop Tadhg Furlong and fly-half Sam Prendergast among nine changes.

Tom O’Toole, Tadhg Beirne, James Ryan, Jack Conan, Stuart McCloskey and Jimmy O’Brien are the six players retained in the line-up.

Having beaten the Wallabies and Brave Blossoms, Ireland aim to round out the southern hemisphere leg of their Nations Championship campaign with a statement win at Eden Park (08:10 BST).

The All Blacks, who beat France and Italy in their first two games, have not lost at the Auckland venue since 1994, a run of 52 Tests.

Beard will complete a long season after the final two Wales matches against Argentina and South Africa in Durban next weekend.

The former Ospreys lock had only just linked up with the Wales squad a couple of days before the Fiji game, following a mammoth first season with French club Montpellier, which included a Challenge Cup success and losing the Top 14 final to Toulouse.

“I have personally loved it and it was probably the best decision I’ve made rugby wise so far for myself and my family,” said Beard.

“It was a tough decision at first, leaving the Ospreys after being there since I was 14.

“But it was probably something, if I didn’t join Montpellier, I might have regretted at the end of my career.”

While playing in France is a tough challenge, it is also a rewarding one said Beard.

“It’s a physical league and you’ve got to play 30 games a season,” he added.

“But just the support and passion, everything they do out in the Top 14 is a different level to what I’ve experienced before.

“So it’s been an amazing move for myself and my family.”

Argentina 9-5 Wales, Buenos Aires, 14 September 1968

Argentina 9-9, Wales, Buenos Aires, 28 September 1968

Wales 16-7 Argentina, Cardiff, 9 October, 1991

Wales 43-30 Argentina, Llanelli, 21 November, 1998

Argentina 26-36 Wales, Buenos Aires, 5 June, 1999

Argentina 16-23 Wales, Buenos Aires, 12 June, 1999

Wales 23-18 Argentina, Cardiff, 1 October, 1999

Wales 16-30 Argentina, Cardiff, 10 Nov, 2001

Argentina 50-44 Wales, Tucuman, 12 June, 2004

Argentina 20-35 Wales, Buenos Aires, 19 June, 2004

Argentina 27-25 Wales, Puerto Madryn, 11 June, 2006

Argentina 45-27 Wales, Buenos Aires, 17 June, 2006

Wales 27-20 Argentina, Cardiff, 18 August, 2007

Wales 33-16 Argentina, Cardiff, 21 November, 2009

Wales 28-13 Argentina, Cardiff, 20 August, 2011

Wales 12-26 Argentina, Cardiff, 10 November 2012

Wales 40-6 Argentina, Cardiff, 16 November 2013

Wales 24-20 Argentina, Cardiff, 12 November 2016

Argentina 10-23 Wales, San Juan, 9 June 2018

Argentina 12-30 Wales, Santa Fe, 16 June 2018

Wales 20-20 Argentina, Cardiff, 10 July 2021

Wales 11-33 Argentina, Cardiff, 17 July 2021

Wales 20-13 Argentina, Cardiff, 12 November 2022

Argentina 29-17 Wales, Marseille, 14 October 2023

Wales 28-52 Argentina, Cardiff, 9 November 2025.

There’s no time off this summer for Loyola volleyball coach Michael Boehle, who owns the Manhattan Beach Volleyball Club. He was celebrating Monday after his two sons, Davis and Parker, coached the 18U club team to the AAU Open Junior National Championship in Orlando, Fla.

The tournament MVP was Loyola graduate Blake Fahlbusch, a USC commit. Wyatt Davis and Jack Newman, Mira Costa grads, were All-Americans. JP Wardy, another Loyola graduate, was also instrumental in the team’s success.

“I’m so proud,” Boehle said of his sons coaching the team.

Australia: Jock Campbell; Max Jorgensen, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Len Ikitau, Dylan Pietsch, Carter Gordon, Ryan Lonergan; Angus Bell, Josh Nasser, Allan Alaalatoa, Jeremy Williams, Josh Canham, Rob Valetini, Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson (capt).

Replacements: Brandon Paenga-Amosa, James Slipper, Taniela Tupou, Lachlan Shaw, Tom Hooper, Tate McDermott, Ben Donaldson, Tom Wright.

Sin-bin: Shaw (76)

Ireland: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey, Jamie Osborne; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Tom O’Toole, Dan Sheehan (capt), Tadhg Furlong, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan, Cian Prendergast, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan.

Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Jeremy Loughman, Thomas Clarkson, Tadhg Beirne, Nick Timoney, Craig Casey, Ciaran Frawley, Bundee Aki.

Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (NZR)

Finn Russell will not feature in Scotland’s opening Nations Championship match of the summer series but could feature against South Africa, says head coach Gregor Townsend, who welcomes back Jonny Gray.

Fly-half Russell, 33, has not fully recovered from the calf injury that kept him out of the latter part of Bath’s domestic campaign and was not considered for the match at Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes in Cordoba on Saturday (20:10 BST). The Scots face the Springboks in Pretoria on 11 July then Fiji at Murrayfield on 18 July.

Tom Jordan starts at 10 in Russell’s absence, with Fergus Burke among the replacements.

Gray returns against the Pumas, having missed this year’s Six Nations, while fellow lock Scott Cummings, 29, and prop Pierre Schoeman, 32, will win their 50th caps.

“Great for [Jonny Gray] to be back in the squad,” said Townsend. “Since his move to Perpignan, he’s played very well so his form’s been rewarded with this opportunity. It’s nice obviously nice that him and Scott Cummings are playing together.

“Jonny was at Glasgow when Scott came through as an 18-year-old. It will be great to see them both back int he second row again.”

Overall, the XV in Cordoba shows eight personnel changes to the team that finished the Six Nations with defeat to Ireland in Dublin in mid-March.

Full-back Kyle Rowe, centre Rory Hutchinson, wing Jamie Dobie, fly-half Tom Jordan, hooker George Turner, prop Elliot Millar-Mills and Cummings are the players joining Gray in coming in to the side.

Kyle Steyn moves from left to right wing to accommodate Dobie. Prop Zander Fagerson and wing Darcy Graham, who started in Dublin, drop to the bench.

Gregor Hiddleston could make his Scotland debut off the bench.

“We’ll have to gel quickly,” Townsend said.

“It’s our first game since we played in Dublin. We’ve got a lot of evidence in the Six Nations and November that when we get our game in place in attack and defence, we can cause problems to any team in world rugby and do more than that, convert opportunities.

“I believe that our squad now is much deeper and we use that bench to continue what the starters are doing or actually raise the energy.”

Scotland: Rowe, Steyn, Hutchinson, Tuipulotu (capt), Dobie, Jordan, White; Schoeman, Ashman, Millar-Mills, Gray, Cummings, M Fagerson, Darge, Dempsey.

Replacements: Hiddleston, Sutherland, Z Fagerson, Samuel, Brown, Horne, Burke, Graham.

In-play, in-picture adverts will not be part of ITV’s coverage of the Nations Championship in July, but the 20-second slots, shown before a scrum, are set to return for the November Tests and next year’s Six Nations.

The abundance of opportunities in ITV’s schedule in July, with an expanded 48-team football World Cup dominating the airwaves, means advertisers’ spending has been directed elsewhere.

During their debut at this year’s Six Nations, the scrum slots, one of which was available per half, were bought up by blue-chip companies such as Samsung and Virgin Atlantic.

During the segments, audio from the stadium dipped, the screen was split in half and an advert was played in the right-hand part of the screen. Some viewers criticised the concept as intrusive.

Six Nations chief executive Tom Harrison said the adverts may be “a little bit uncomfortable” for viewers in the UK who, unlike those in the US and Australia, are only used to adverts appearing around, rather than during, play.

The Nations Championship pits the northern hemisphere teams who compete in the Six Nations – England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy – against southern hemisphere sides South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina, plus invited sides Fiji and Japan.

It starts on Saturday with six games, with a further six on 11 July and 18 July before concluding in November.

Cardiff loose-head prop Rhys Barratt and Dragons back-row forwards Harri Keddie and Ryan Woodman all made their international debuts in Twickenham, but miss out on the squad for the three Tests.

Wings Gabriel Hamer-Webb and Tom Rogers, centres Bryn Bradley and Joe Roberts, fly-half Jarrod Evans, scrum-half Ellis Bevan, lock or flanker Freddie Thomas and back-row forward Olly Cracknell also miss out.

Leicester open-side flanker Tommy Reffell makes the cut after being overlooked by Tandy for the autumn internationals and Six Nations.

“We have selected a squad of 33 players for the Nations Championship to mirror what will be required for the World Cup in 2027,” said the head coach, who cut 11 players and lost Jenkins.

“We are building a lot of competition among our group of players, which is what we want to have, and there were some tough calls to make.

“We have an exciting opportunity over the next three weeks in a brand-new competition and can’t wait to get our campaign started against Fiji on Saturday.”

Louis Rees-Zammit, Max Llewellyn, Tomos Williams, Rhys Carre, Nicky Smith, James and Reffell could not face the Baa-Baas because they play for English clubs, but all return for the Nations Championship fixtures.

The loss of Jenkins means that Tandy is down to three specialist locks – Ben Carter, Teddy Williams and Adam Beard, who is included fresh from playing for Montpellier in their Top 14 final defeat by Toulouse on Saturday.

The former Ospreys second-row forward, who lost his starting spot to Carter during the Six Nations, came on in the final quarter in Paris.

“He has been with us for two campaigns, is battle-hardened and is really experienced,” said Tandy about Beard.

Wales had already lost centre Louie Hennessey, tight-head prop Keiron Assiratti and hooker Liam Belcher to injury before cutting down their squad.

Reasons for the Clippers to trade Kawhi Leonard are apparent. So are reasons to keep the seven-time All-Pro forward who turned 35 on Monday.

For now, the team is engaged in discussions and entertaining offers for Leonard, who is highly regarded despite being central to a league investigation into allegations of salary-cap intervention.

Representatives for Leonard, who has one year remaining on a three-year, $152.4 million contract, have informed other teams he prefers to remain with the Clippers and would only sign an extension with the Toronto Raptors or San Antonio Spurs if the Clippers trade him, ESPN reported. Leonard helped both of those teams to NBA titles, the Raptors in 2019 and the Spurs in 2014. He was Finals MVP both years.

However, the Athletic reported that the Dallas Mavericks offered to trade power forward P.J. Washington, shooting guard Klay Thompson and draft picks for Leonard. Mavericks president Masai Ujiri held the same position with the Raptors when they won the 2019 championship.

If Leonard doesn’t agree to a contract extension with Dallas, he essentially would be a one-year rental and not worth as much in trade capital. Ujiri engineered the trade in 2018 that brought Leonard to the Raptors without the player agreeing to an extension, and the result was a championship followed by Leonard bolting to the Clippers.

Another factor in assessing Leonard’s trade value and the Clippers’ motivation to move him is the ongoing NBA investigation involving team owner Steve Ballmer, Leonard and the now-bankrupt sustainable financial technology firm Aspiration.

Triggered in October when the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast detailed a $28 million endorsement contract Leonard received from Aspiration, the NBA hired a prominent law firm to conduct the probe. Findings could be announced soon because NBA commissioner Adam Silver said June 2 that it was time to “wrap it up.”

Aspiration had a $300 million, 23-year endorsement deal with the Clippers and Ballmer personally invested $60 million into the company, whose co-founder Joseph Sanberg was convicted of two counts of wire fraud and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. Ballmer admits introducing Leonard to Aspiration executives but has denied that he knew details of the endorsement deal that Leonard never fulfilled.

Silver has not stated that the NBA would hold up any trade involving Leonard because of the investigation. Still, the Clippers expressed at the end of the regular season that keeping the 14-year veteran was a priority.

“Our plan is to win with Kawhi,” Clippers president Lawrence Frank said.

Leonard is coming off his best season of six with the Clippers, averaging a career-high 27.9 points over 65 games. He has averaged 20.7 points a game during his career.

The Raptors are rumored to be dangling former Lakers forward Brandon Ingram and first-round draft picks

Women’s PGA Championship final round

-13 H Ryu (Kor); -11 I Yoon (Kor); -10 B Henderson (Can), D Weber (Ned); -7 A Corpuz (US), A Kim (US), A Lee (US); -6 SY Kim (Kor), J Thitikul (Tha), N Korda (US), AL Kim (Kor)

Selected others: +5 L Maguire (Ire); +6 G Dryburgh (Sco)

Full leaderboard

South Korea’s Haeran Ryu landed a maiden major with a two-shot victory at the Women’s PGA Championship.

The 25-year-old went into the day with a one-shot lead and relinquished her place at the top of the leaderboard in a fluctuating final round, with three bogeys in the first five holes.

But she got back on track with five birdies in a two-under-par round to finish on -13 and take the $1.95m (£1.48m) winner’s cheque.

The tournament purse of $13m (£9.8m) is the largest in women’s golf history.

“It feels like a dream has come true because I tried a couple times to be a major champion and I didn’t get it,” Ryu said.

“Today I did it and I’m so happy right now.”

It was an incredible comeback for a player who was tied for 70th and 10 shots off the lead after the opening round at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota.

Canada’s Brooke Henderson and Dewi Weber of the Netherlands each held the lead following a weather-delayed start to the round but both finished on -10, tied for third – a career-best finish in a major for Weber.

Ryu’s compatriot Ina Yoon had fallen away on the third day after leading by five, but fought back to finish second on -11.

America’s Nelly Korda – chasing a historic third straight major championship win – was four shots off the lead at the start of play but could not kick on, ending tied for eighth on six under.

Travelers Championship second round

-16 S Scheffler (US); -14 V Hovland (Nor); -12 E Cole (US), A Bhatia (US); -10 M Fitzpatrick (Eng), B Griffin (US), B Cauley (US)

Selected others: -9 J Rose (Eng), T Fleetwood (Eng); -8 R MacIntyre (Sco), W Clark (US); -7 A Rai (Eng), S Lowry (Ire)

Full leaderboard

Scottie Scheffler fired a 10-under-par 60 to hold the lead after the second round of the PGA Tour Travelers Championship.

The world number one made 11 birdies and a lone bogey on Friday to move to 16 under at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.

That put him two shots clear of Norway’s Viktor Hovland, who also threatened a rare round of 59 as he fired a bogey-free 61 which included seven birdies and an eagle.

Jim Furyk holds the tour-record lowest round at 58, but Scheffler is one of 14 players to have made a 59, which for him came during the 2020 Northern Trust at TPC Boston.

The 30-year-old American had the chance to repeat the feat with a birdie at the 18th hole but missed from just outside 26 feet.

“It was a little tricky,” Scheffler said. “It actually went right to start, and there was a tonne of break right to left at the end.

“It was a tough read, but overall it was a really solid day. I was pretty happy with my execution.”

On his plans for the weekend, the four-time major winner added: “Hard to keep up that pace, but continue to execute, continue to give myself looks.”

Compatriot Akshay Bhatia sat four shots off the lead in a share of third place having matched his career-low round with a bogey-free 62, with fellow American Eric Cole alongside him after a 65.

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick lurked two strokes back on 10 under, having had to settle for a four-under 66 after two bogeys on his final three holes, with Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood a single shot further behind and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre at eight under.