PGA Tour Golf:Going for the Red Plaid in South Carolina

It's hard to follow The Masters and its green jacket for the winner last week,who was England's Danny Willett,28- only the second Englishman to have won that major tournament,following Sir Nick Faldo.Yet the RBC Heritage is underway at its traditional venue,the Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island,South Carolina,with a jacket of its own.The winner gets a red plaid jacket and 1,062,000 dollars.*
Sharing the lead at six under par after two rounds are Americans Kevin Chappell and Charley Hoffman,along with Jason Day of Australia.Following them in fourth place at five under par are Russell Knox of Scotland;Luke Donald of England;and American Patton Kizzire.
The tournament is sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada.*
Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY)

Golfer Jason Day Collapses at the US Open;The Band

Australian golfer Jason Day collapsed from a dizzy spell at the eighteenth hole,casting a pall on the second round of the US Open Championship at Chambers Bay in University Place,Washington on the Puget Sound.Day fell to the ground and was reached by medical personnel in about five minutes,who helped him get to his feet and complete his round with a two under par 70,in a good position for the two remaining rounds,should his health permit.
For the past month or so,Day has been complaining of intermittent vertigo,but a battery of medical tests revealed nothing out of the ordinary.Supported by medics on either side,Day was able to sign his scorecard to officially register his round,then retreated to his mobile home parked on site.Tiger Woods said he will call Day to see how he is.
As of time of publication,Americans Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth topped the leaderboard along with Henrik Stenson of Sweden at five under par.*
Tonight is featured another track by the Canadian-American group The Band,"Across The Great Divide." The Band originated as the backing group for American singer Ronnie Hawkins,who took his drummer Levon Helms with him up to Toronto from Arkansas because the pay was better there.He recruited Canadian musicians guitarist Robbie Robertson,organist Garth Hudson,bassist Richard Danko and pianist Richard Manuel.All of them played other instruments as well ranging from string bass to trombone.Eventually,the musicians tired of Hawkins and his restrictions,at the same time growing closer into an independent act,what with four of them being Canadians and all five having distinctive musical personalities.
Ironically,though most of the members were Canadians,The Band's music was often obsessed with Americana and American historical themes such as the Civil War and the Old West.
Before starting The Band,however,they were recruited again in 1964 to serve as Bob Dylan's backing band when they did some recording with Dylan's producer Bob Johnston in New York.In 1968,they released their first LP "Music From Big Pink" as The Band.The Band continued to work with Bob Dylan off and on,recording "The Basement Tapes" with him in 1967,which was illegally released as a bootleg recording and admired by college students.They also toured with him and backed him again on his "Planet Waves" album,in between their own projects.In 1976,lead guitarist and principal songwriter Robbie Robertson left The Band to pursue a solo career as recording artist,film score composer and music supervisor in Hollywood.He worked closely with his good friend the eminent director Martin Scorsese on several film projects.
Robertson,whose real name is Jaime Royal Robertson,will be 72 on 5 July.He is an aboriginal Canadian on his mother's side,who was a Mohawk from the Six Nations Reservation.He became increasingly involved with his aboriginal roots as time passed,absorbing aboriginal musical influences and culture.
Robertson purchased the rights to The Band's material from the other members and became the group's curator.
The other members of The Band continued on with new personnel until Richard Danko's death in 1999.Richard Manuel committed suicide in 1986;Rick Danko died of heart failure in 1999;and Levon Helms died of throat cancer in 2012.Hudson and Robertson remained active in their solo careers.

Day Leads at The Masters;Mountain Lion Roams LA Suburb

At The Masters,the first of the four major golf tournaments of the year,Australian Jason Day topped the leader board with his second round six under par 68.Day,25,is twenty first on the PGA money list.He has three top ten finishes so far this year and came in second at the 2011 Masters.
Also of note on the venerable Augusta National course in Georgia,53-year old Fred Couples was tied for second place with another Aussie,Marc Leishman,and German Bernhard Langer,55,was in contention as well,leading the field in driving accuracy at 89.3%.Couples and Langer mostly play on the Champions Tour these days,the PGA's tour for older pros.
The top twelve:
Jason Day AUS -6
Marc Leishman AUS -5
Fred Couples USA -5
Jim Furyk USA -4
Brandt Snedeker USA -4
Angel Cabrera ARG -4
David Lynn ENG -3
Lee Westwood ENG -3
Justin Rose ENG -3
KJ Choi KOR -3
Tiger Woods USA -3
Bernhard Langer GER -2
A mountain lion prowled the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale,California Friday for several hours.The 120 pound big wildcat explored several residences,leaping over fences.No one was injured in the city of 191,719,which lies east of LA,adjacent to the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest.
Resident John Yankosky said he observed the mountain lion looking at him and his dog Max through his sliding glass door.
The same neighbourhood was recently visited by a black bear.
The mountain lion was subdued by Fish and Wildlife officers with three tranquilizer darts.It fell asleep on a patio,but they had to remove portions of decking to extract the healthy,tawny male.The neighbours watched as he was taken back to the mountains,where he was released.The lion was uninjured during the incident.
In rare instances,mountain lions have attacked and killed or injured people and pets in California.

Accenture Match Play Championship Underway at Dove Mountain,Arizona

Australian Jason Day and Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell are among the leaders after two rounds at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana,Arizona.It is being played on the Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course of The Golf Club at Dove Mountain.
Dove Mountain is a master planned resort community with a hotel,spa and golf club.It is located in the Tortolita Mountains just south of Tucson in the high Sonoran Desert.With more than 3,000 homes in distinctive neighbourhoods,the community was dusted with snow on Wednesday.Temperatures are running from the thirties to the fifties Fahrenheit at this time.The Golf Club is a Ritz-Carlton property.Saguaro cactus and other native vegetation surrounds the greens in the foothill which range in elevation from 2300-3000 feet.
Besides Day and McDowell,other winners of the second round included Bubba Watson(USA),Nicolas Colsaerts(Belgium),Fredrik Jacobson(Sweden),Martin Kaymer(Germany) and Ian Poulter(England).The match play one-on-one scoring is being used,not the customary system.Few Americans are familiar with this aspect of professional golf.It's the scoring system which is used at the Ryder Cup and a handful of other tournaments.
In NBA basketball,the Golden State Warriors defeated the San Antonio Spurs 107-101 in overtime Friday night at Oracle Arena in Oakland,California.
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Pebble Beach Golf;Knicks Win;Northeast Blizzard

At the AT and T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am,celebrities and PGA Tour members played rounds together Thursday and Friday.Notables ranging from Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren and comedian Bill Murray,to NFL star quarterback Aaron Rodgers and actor Josh Duhamel,navigated three different Monterey Peninsula golf courses on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
Bill Murray joked with armed forces personnel attending the tournament.
At the end of the second round along the sweeping Pacific vistas,the leader board was as follows:
Ted Potter,Jr. USA -8
Brandt Snedeker USA -8
Patrick Reed USA -7
Frederick Jacobsen SWE -7
John Merrick USA -7
Hunter Mahan USA -7
Jason Day AUS -6
Patrick Cantlay AUS -6
Nick O'Hern AUS -6
James Hahn USA -6
In NBA action,the New York Knicks edged the Minnesota Timberwolves 100-94 at Target Center in Minneapolis.Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 36 points and 9 rebounds,while Ricky Rubio contributed 18 points and 2 rebounds to the Wolves' effort.The Knicks are now 32-16,in second place behind the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference;the Wolves are well back in 12th place in the Western Conference at 18-29.
A major winter storm lashed the Northeast with snow and hurricane force winds Friday.Topping snow totals as of midnight were:
Mt.Sinai,NY 19.0 inches
Manchester,CT 18.5
Boston,MA 14.0
Blizzard warnings were posted from coastal Maine to New York City.
On the Maryland-Pennsylvania border,there were just a trace of snow,some light rain and blustery winds-the fringes of the storm.

Tiger's Good Round,Western Weather

Tiger Woods is showing consistency at The Masters,a tradition-steeped tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.Woods played intently on Friday,finishing with a strong 2nd round seven under par 66.He was tied for 3rd place with South Korean K.J. Choi.Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy was dominant at -10,while Australian Jason Day tied a tournament record for the lowest 2nd round score for a first-timer at Augusta,shooting an eight under 64.Also of note,Fred Couples,51,is in contention with his 2nd round five under 68.
Weather conditions will be hot and humid for the remainder of the tournament.To the west,storms are taking many forms,from apple-sized hail in Butler County,Kansas to a heavy snow forecast in Flagstaff,Arizona.There may be wind gusts up to 75 mph in the Southern Plains,and a 50,000 acre brush fire raged in North Texas.
Stocks did not rage this week,with the S&P down slightly for the week,pressured by soaring oil prices.Gold closed at a record high 1474.10 an ounce Friday.The S&P futures were down a modest 4.70 Friday evening,and bond interest rate futures also dropped.Shaping trading next week will be the start of earnings season as Alcoa reports on Monday,JP Morgan Chase on Wednesday,Google on Thursday and Bank of America on Friday.
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Update:Rory McIlroy continues to decisively top the leader board with a four stroke lead heading into Sunday's final round.Tiger Woods and Fred Couples are still in contention,along with Jason Day and former Masters champion Angel Cabrera of Argentina.Phil Mickelson is a mathematical long shot for his fourth green jacket at the tournament.

Hurricane Earl Leaves Off

Hurricane Earl was moving Northeast at 23 mph tonight,not impressing many people very much.It's really little more than a few inches of rain and some gales-at worst.Unfortunately,a number of other tropical systems are forming off West Africa,so the next few weeks could be replete with worries for the East and Gulf coasts.The Labor Day weekend is proceeding pretty normally,although Amtrak train service was cancelled between New York and Boston and the White Sox/Red Sox baseball matchup was canceled in Boston.
The second leg of the PGA Tour Playoffs,the Deutcshe Bank Championship,began in Norton,Massachusetts as scheduled,though Hurricane Earl poured on the afternoon starters.Australian Jason Day and American Zach Johnson shared the first round lead,shooting -8 63s.Eight players were tied for second at -7 64.Tiger Woods was well back with his +1 72.Phil Mickelson did slightly better with his two under par.
The market was substantially up this week,with the Dow gaining 2.9,the S&P 3.8 and the NASDAQ 3.7%.There will be little economic data next week for the market to react to,but a lot of traders will be back from vacation,perhaps lending more volume to any reactions to developments that may occur in mergers and acquisitions,politics or other news.Stock futures continued the optimism this evening,all rising between one and two percent.Bond futures also gained.

Mickelson Out,Woods Survives

Phil Mickelson,the number two golfer in the world,missed the cut Friday at The Barclays,the first leg of the PGA Tour Playoffs,at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus,New Jersey.Mickelson shot a poor 74 for a +4,his second missed cut of the season.Tiger Woods,ranked number one,shot a slightly better 73,but relied on Thursday's score of 65 to make the cut with a -4.Australian Jason Day,22,leads the tournament at -8,while Americans Vaughn Taylor and Kevin Streelman are second at -7.At the LPGA'S Canadian Open in Winnipeg,Manitoba,American Michelle Wie tops the leaderboard,shooting a 69 for a -10.
In baseball,the St.Louis Cardinals handed the Washington Nationals a 4-2 loss at Nationals Park,with Albert Pujols launching a solo home run,his 401st career homer.The market staged a ridiculous rally,based on thin air such as a GDP revision for Q2 of 1.6 instead of the 1.3 estimated revision-as if 0.3 is going to help the economy significantly.Such an irrational move is very suspect,to say the least.Stocks were still down modestly for the week,with the Dow and S&P stepping back 0.6,and the NASDAQ falling 1.2.Stock futures continued the surge this evening,and bond futures gained altitude as well-another reason for caution.