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Alfred Dunhill Links Championship – round two

-11 C Jarvis (RSA); -10 M Jordan (Eng), M. J. Daffue (RSA), R Repetto Taylor (Esp)

Selected others: -9 S Bairstow (Eng); -8 R MacIntyre (Sco), M Stewart (Sco), B Koepka (US), T Detry (Bel) -7 S Jamieson (Sco), C Syme (Sco) -6 M Fitzpatrick (Eng), T Fleetwood (Eng); – 5 L Donald (Eng) S Straka (Aus); -4 L Westwood (Eng), T Hatton (Eng), J Rose (Eng) +4 I Poulter (Eng)

Full leaderboard

Defending champion Robert MacIntyre took advantage of calm conditions at Kingsbarns to shoot 65 and charge into contention at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The Scot’s round of seven under left him in a tie for ninth place, three strokes behind halfway leader Casey Jarvis of South Africa.

England’s Matthew Jordan matched MacIntyre’s score of 72 with six birdies and an eagle at Carnoustie to sit on 10 under for the tournament.

Spaniard Rocco Repetto Taylor is on the same mark, with his 64 at Kingsbarns the best round of the day.

“I was cleaning up the holes where I felt like you need to clean up, just kept it simple,” MacIntyre told BBC Scotland.

“We got really got lucky with the weather, the last hole was the only one we had with the wind blowing up.”

MacIntyre, who began the day on one under after his opening day at Carnoustie, reeled off four birdies on the front nine.

The Ryder Cup star was frustrated to drop a shot on the 11th but responded with four gains over the next five holes.

“I got wild with the bogey, but it spurs me on, three birdies in a row,” added MacIntyre as he prepares to tee off at St Andrews on Saturday.

“[I’ll] Just keep doing what I’m doing, shooting at pins, trusting the instincts.”

Michael Stewart, the surprise first-round leader, was level with his compatriot after a 71 at Kingsbarns.

“Hopefully he can get that bit of luck over the weekend to get on here [DP World Tour] full-time,” MacIntyre said of the world 979.

“I know the bits of luck I’ve had in my career that have got me to the position I’m in.

“His chipping and putting, I’m not sure there’s many better on the whole planet.”

American Brooks Koepka shot a 67 to join the Scottish pair on eight under, while English duo Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick sit two shots behind the five-time Major champion.

In their first DP World Tour appearances in nearly four years, Lee Westwood got to four under after a 69 at Kingsbarns, but fellow LIV golfer Ian Poulter went out in 41 at Carnoustie on his way to 76 which left him four over.

JEDDAH: The first Syrian Industries Exhibition recently concluded in Jeddah, bringing together more than 160 Syrian companies and factories, and attracting business figures, importers and distributors seeking commercial and investment opportunities in the Saudi market.

Held over four days at the Jeddah Center for Exhibitions and Events under the patronage of the Jeddah Chamber, the expo focused on business-to-business opportunities in supply, distribution, investment and partnerships.

The event facilitated meetings between Syrian manufacturers and Saudi businesses to establish partnerships, sign supply and distribution contracts, and conclude memoranda of understanding to support the entry of Syrian products into the Saudi market.

Agreements covered four main sectors: food, textile, chemical and engineering industries. The expo also highlighted investment incentives, facilities and regulatory procedures for establishing joint ventures between the two countries.

A knowledge program featured seminars and panel discussions on legal procedures, trade incentives, partnership mechanisms, and the shift from traditional trade to industrial investment and joint production.

Pavilions showcased food, textile, engineering and chemical industries, along with agriculture, tourism, culture and labor, highlighting opportunities for economic cooperation between Saudi and Syrian businesses.

The expo provided a platform to strengthen economic and trade ties, explore investment opportunities and build partnerships supporting economic development and shared interests.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump vowed Friday that the United States would never forget the September 11, 2001 attacks and suggested the country was continuing the “war on terror” 25 years later by fighting Iran.

Speaking at the Pentagon after skipping the main 9/11 commemorations in New York, Republican Trump also hit out at domestic “fanatics” in an apparent swipe at Democrats.

“Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago. We will never, ever forget. That’s why we fight today,” Trump said in a speech.

“We don’t have a choice. There can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win,” added the president, who was accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump.

One of the jets hijacked on 9/11 hit the Pentagon in Washington, killing 184 people who were remembered by a single bell tolling as their names were read out.

But presidents have previously marked major anniversaries by attending several sites including New York, where the majority of the 2,977 victims were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Trump went on to link the fight against Al-Qaeda launched by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush to the US-Israeli war on Iran which is now in its seventh month.

“Today we salute every member of the United States military who served in the ‘War on Terror.’ It is a war on sick, horrible terror,” Trump said.

“And we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon.”

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also lashed out at Iran in his remarks to the Pentagon ceremony.

“Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism. Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century,” Hegseth said.

The Iran war has slid into a stalemate with Iran largely maintaining its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, and keeping oil prices high, despite sporadic exchanges of fire with the United States.

Trump also turned to the domestic front, a day after a Republican convention for the US midterm elections in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Democrats of sympathizing with the 9/11 attackers.

“A generation after 9/11, we also know that the final response to those atrocities and the ultimate victory over the perpetrators will not be found on a foreign battlefield,” Trump said.

Telling the story of a firefighter killed in the attacks whose son went on to become a US Navy veteran, Trump said it showed that “we can be a nation whose heroes are not fanatics for an abstract cause.”

In his speech to the Republican convention on Wednesday, Trump had used the same term: “With your vote in this election, you can tell these far-left lunatics and fanatics that America is not for sale to them or to anybody else.”

Republicans at the convention repeatedly trained their fire on left-wing Democratic senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed over his previous social media posts about 9/11.