Ian Poulter is an unabashed fan of the sandbelt courses of southeast Melbourne. So it came as no surprise that he gave England's highest-ranked player at the World Cup of Golf, Tyrrell Hatton, a gentle nudge that he'd like to be on the England team.
Poulter and Hatton are among the favorites when the tournament starts Thursday at Metropolitan, one of famed sandbelt courses that includes Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath, which hosted the World Cup in 2016. Royal Melbourne was the venue in 2013.
The highest-ranked player is responsible for choosing his partner in the 28-team, two-man tournament, and Poulter wanted to make sure he was at the top of Hatton's wish-list.
Matt Kuchar of the U.S.A. plays from a fairway bunker on the 6th during the Australian Open Golf tournament in Sydney, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. (AP PhotoRick Rycroft)
"We had a chat at one of the events and I managed to persuade him that it would be a good choice to pick me," Poulter said. The sandbelt "is pretty big lure; I love it down here and I knew I wanted to make the team. Unless you've traveled to the sandbelt, you really haven't experienced golf."
CRICKET AND GOLF
India team members Anirban Lahiri and Gaganjeet Bhullar were having a bit of fun Wednesday comparing their sport with the most popular in their country, cricket.
After joking they might sledge — or taunt — their Japanese playing partners in Thursday's first round — only because they were talking about cricket, where on-field banter is an accepted part of the sport — they said they'd be going to the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday to watch India play Australia in a Twenty20 match.
"Cricket is so big in India," Bhullar said. "There are a lot of cricketers on the team who actually play golf. Yeah, we both are really excited, and looking at the current form, I think India's got a better chance than Australia."
Lahiri has been to the 100,000-capacity MCG once, but Bhullar has never watched a cricket match there.
"I've watched a lot of cricket on television. I've never been inside one, but yeah, I've seen a lot of interviews in and around MCG. It looks really cool. We've always driven past it, so it will be really nice to actually go inside and witness India's victory."
And they both wonder what effect a win in the World Cup of Golf would have on the sport in India.
"Golf in India right now is picking up and right now we need a few guys to go out there on the PGA Tour, we need more faces on the European Tour," Bullar said. "We need a guy like Anirban, Shubhankar (Sharma), myself to win on the PGA Tour."
Lahiri adds: "Well, the good thing is that the cricket match finishes on Friday, we finish on Sunday, so we'll be relevant for the Monday morning papers."
Unfortunately for Lahiri's thought process, India also plays Australia in a cricket match in Sydney on Sunday night.
TENNIS ANYONE?
Matt Kuchar and Kyle Stanley are playing for the United States this week. Kuchar was coming off a poor final round of 75 at the Australian Open last week, so he put away his golf clubs and picked up a tennis racket at the home of the Australian Open.
"Had a day off yesterday, played some tennis with the family at Melbourne Park," Kuchar said Wednesday. "I got on the Australian Open tennis courts, it was a real thrill. Then kind of had a lazy afternoon with my wife. We walked a bit of the city, got a massage ..."
Kuchar arrived in Sydney last week from Mexico, where he ended a four-year title drought on the PGA Tour with a win at the Mayakoba Classic.
"Winning a tournament on the PGA Tour is hard to do and when you do it, you've got a great buzz going and a great sense of confidence and I'm hoping to keep it going," Kuchar said.
THERE'S A METHOD
Australian team members Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith play with different golf balls — Leishman with a Callaway and Smith with a Titlelist.
During the foursomes (alternate shot) portion of the tournament on Friday and Sunday, each will tee off with the other's golf ball so they are hitting their approaches to greens with their own ball.
"Except on the par-3s, when I'll hit my golf ball," Leishman said. "So I'll be teeing off the even holes, which is all the par-3s. I mean, it was a pretty easy decision, to be honest."
The Australians were asked what their strategy would be in the fourballs on Thursday and Saturday, when each team has two balls in play and the best score counts toward to the stroke total. The forecast is for rain on all four days of the tournament.
"It's looking at the weather conditions," Leishman said. "Par is going to be a pretty good score, to be honest. I think it's pretty easy to get too aggressive in fourball. You don't want to put yourself in a bad position and then put extra pressure on your partner to have to hit a good shot. It'd be nice to, even if you both have 20, 30 foot for birdie, that's better than having one guy out of the hole."
More AP golf: https://apnews.com/apf-Golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
LONDON (AP) — European basketball often is a hot mess of passionate fandom, heated rivalries and financial problems.
Holding some powerful fiefdoms together is the EuroLeague. It’s not thrilled about the NBA’s plans to create a new competition on the continent.
It’s not concerned, either.
"We've only heard the plan or the fireworks of how amazing it will be, how much potential there is,” EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejunas said of the NBA’s proposed league. “But having a theory is one — and making it work is two.”
“We’ve been here for 26 years. We know how Europe functions."
With clubs like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, the EuroLeague is considered the best men's professional competition outside the NBA. The 20-team league is comprised of 13 “shareholder” clubs immune from relegation. The rest either qualify through their domestic leagues or through invitation.
The NBA, in partnership with FIBA, is eying a 16-team model with 12 permanent members — with a target start of October 2027. It has identified Athens, Istanbul, Paris, Lyon, Munich, Berlin, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, London and Manchester as potential host cities.
Attention is currently on three EuroLeague shareholder clubs that haven’t renewed their 10-year licenses — Real Madrid, Fenerbahce in Istanbul and the Tony Parker -owned ASVEL near Lyon. Parker has signaled his support for the NBA, and Spanish sports daily Diario AS reported that Real Madrid favors the NBA project.
Recent holdout Barcelona has indicated it will extend for another 10 years beyond this season.
"It’s a big deal, of course. It’s an important brand, and we’re happy that they committed,” Motiejunas said of Barcelona, which hasn’t commented publicly.
Motiejunas, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he’s confident all 13 clubs will stay.
“The NBA has been announcing and announcing things for a year but still it’s nothing that you can grasp on,” Motiejunas said. “As businessmen, these are team owners, they also begin to see it’s a little bit of a broken record of ‘we will announce later,’ ... The ’27 start is already around the corner.”
EuroLeague clubs reportedly have a 10 million euro ($11.6 million) exit clause, but Motiejunas would only say that through “consequences and legal teams” contracts can be broken. There's no NBA opt-out, he added.
The EuroLeague claims to still be open to some type of relationship with the NBA, whose executives have expressed similar sentiments. But in the meantime, the EuroLeague sent a letter to the NBA warning of legal action should talks with EuroLeague shareholders continue.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver shrugged off the threat Thursday in Berlin ahead of the Orlando Magic's 118-111 win over the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA’s first regular-season game in Germany.
He also shrugged off the EuroLeague more generally.
“If I thought that the ceiling was the existing EuroLeague and their fan interest," Silver said, "we wouldn’t be spending the kind of time and attention we are on this project.”
Media reports indicate the NBA is looking for at least a $500 million franchise fee. Silver noted that any investors will have to be patient because “it will take a while, I think, before it is a viable commercial enterprise.” He added it will be "multi-decades in the making.”
Silver cautioned that “potentially” starting a new league is an “enormous undertaking” and described talks with Real Madrid and other Spanish clubs as “more in the category of fact finding.”
The European basketball landscape is similar to soccer in that domestic leagues feed the continental competitions. EuroLeague is like UEFA's Champions League. Basketball also has several other international leagues — but they're lesser known than their soccer counterparts, so fans get confused. FIBA, for example, has its own Basketball Champions League, which would be a potential feeder to an NBA league.
Silver sees potential because basketball is the No. 2 sport in Europe after soccer.
“Rather than think of us as taking share from (soccer), I look at the commercial side of basketball as it exists now in Europe, and it probably represents about 1 percent of the commercial sports marketplace,” he said.
Many European basketball teams, including some in the EuroLeague, have struggled financially. The system has often relied on wealthy owners to cover team debts each year. EuroLeague has implemented spending restrictions to promote financial sustainability.
In a revenue boost, the EuroLeague last season took its “Final Four” championship outside Europe — to Abu Dhabi — for the first time. It brought a flavor of Euro hoops chaos, too, as Panathinaikos majority owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos was handed a 5-game ban for his "threatening actions” against referees.
EuroLeague also granted a multi-year license to a newly created Dubai team and recently extended its partnership with global sports marketing agency IMG.
“We focus on ourselves,” Motiejunas said. “We will be able to adapt, there’s no question about it, and we will continue to fight.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA
Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner (22) and Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (8) challenge for the ball during an NBA basketball game between Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Orlando Magic guard Desmond Bane (3) reacts during an NBA basketball game between Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Fenerbahce players celebrate winning the Euroleague final basketball match between Monaco and Fenerbahce in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Anadolu Efes' Shane Larkin in action by Real Madrid's Guerschon Yabusele during Final Four Euroleague finall basketball match between Anadolu Efes and Real Madrid, in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, May 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Barcelona's head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius gives instructions to his players during their Final Four Euroleague bronze medal basketball match between Barcelona and Olympiacos, in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, May 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
