PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa took one practice swing and knew his week was over right after it started. He withdrew Thursday from The Players Championship after one hole with pain in his lower back.
Morikawa, the No. 4 player in the world, took a practice swing on the par-5 11th hole and reached for his lower back. He tried to stretch, consulted his trainer and minutes later took a cart ride from an official to the clubhouse.
“I felt fine in warm-up. Nothing’s been any signs of back problems,” Morikawa told a PGA Tour official. “Teed it up on 11, and took one practice swing, and I just knew it was gone. I just had the feeling before when it’s happened. And I just, I can’t swing through it. Trust me, I would play if I could. It’s just the worst thing in the world.”
Morikawa won at Pebble Beach earlier this year, ending a 28-month drought. He was looked upon as among golf's best performers early in the season, following that Pebble Beach win with a tie for seventh at Riviera and a tie for fifth last week at Bay Hill.
Morikawa, who spent the offseason primarily working on getting his body stronger, said he has had similar back issues, just not recently. It gave him an idea what was coming.
“Before I even took my practice swing, it’s like a weird, like deja vu thing,” he said. “I took the practice swing and immediately knew. I just couldn’t get through impact.”
He said his back felt tender but he could still move around, as long as he wasn't doing any heavy lifting or swing a golf club.
“I kind of know the protocols of what to do and kind of dance around it,” he said. “But it’s going to take a little bit of time.”
He was the second player to withdraw from The Players. Ryan Fox withdrew with an illness before his afternoon tee time. Morikawa was not replaced because he had already started the tournament.
This story corrects that Morikawa had gone 28 months without a win until Pebble Beach.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Collin Morikawa reacts after putting on the first hole during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill golf tournament Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The shooter who opened fire in a classroom at Virginia’s Old Dominion University on Thursday in an attack being investigated as an act of terrorism had a gun with an obliterated serial number, potentially complicating investigators’ efforts to determine how the man with a previous felony conviction obtained a firearm, according to a law enforcement official.
Investigators will have to try to re-surface the number in order to trace the gun, according to the official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
The FBI identified the shooter as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Army National Guard member who pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to aid the Islamic State extremist group.
Jalloh, who yelled “Allahu akbar” before opening fire, was subdued and killed by ROTC students, according to FBI officials who praised the students' bravery for preventing further harm. The shooting killed an ROTC leader who was a professor of military science at ODU, and left two others hurt.
One of them, who was hospitalized in critical condition, has been upgraded to fair condition, according to Sentara Health. The other was treated and released.
Jalloh, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in the Islamic State group case, was released from federal custody in December 2024. He was on supervised release, which is comparable to probation.
It wasn’t immediately clear why his release from prison was moved up. Inmates can get time off their sentences for a variety of reasons, but it wasn’t immediately clear if that happened in his case.
At a news conference Thursday, a reporter asked the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, Dominique Evans, if there was a mention of the ongoing war in Iran. “None whatsoever,” she replied. The U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran with missile strikes on Feb. 28.
The FBI has warned that Iranian operatives may be planning drone attacks on targets in California. Two men brought explosives to a far-right protest outside the New York mayoral mansion on Saturday. Investigators allege they were inspired by the Islamic State group. And on Thursday, a man of Lebanese origin was fatally shot after driving his vehicle into a Detroit-area synagogue in what the FBI called a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
Old Dominion University Police Chief Garrett Shelton said less than 10 minutes passed between when officers were called about a shooting in the university’s business school building and when responders determined the shooter was dead.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Delongchamp, public information officer for the U.S. Army Cadet Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, told The Associated Press that two of the people who were shot were part of the Army ROTC at ODU. ROTC is a program where students receive a scholarship to attend college while training to become commissioned officers in the U.S. military.
The victim who died was Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, a 42-year-old from Chesapeake who leaves behind a spouse and a child, the U.S. Army Cadet Command at Old Dominion said in a social media post.
Shah attended ODU as an ROTC student, according to his biography on the university’s website, and had returned in 2022 as a leader for the program. In the Army, Shah piloted helicopters over Iraq, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe.
On Friday morning, in honor of his close friend Shah, Eddie Flack poured out a bottle of Wild Turkey on a lawn where flagpoles stand on campus across from Constant Hall. Flack, also of Chesapeake, said the two became firm friends while enrolled at ODU.
“I love you Brandon. Rest well with the creator. I love you,” Flack said as he poured out the whiskey and looked up at the sky.
“Sorry Brandon. The world needs more love,” Flack said, weeping. “We need to spread more love and not this hatred."
The shooter also had a background in military service. Jalloh, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone, served as a specialist with the Virginia Army National Guard from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged.
Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Michael Biesecker in Washington; Michael R. Sisak in New York City; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; John Raby in Cross Lanes, West Virginia; and Olivia Diaz in Richmond, Virginia, contributed.
This story has been corrected to show the AP reporter in the byline is Allen G. Breed, not Alan.
A person sits at the front door of Constant Hall, where yesterday shooting occurred on Friday, March 13, 2026 at Old Dominion Universiy in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed).
Police are present at Constant Hall, where yesterday shooting occurred on Friday, March 13, 2026 at Old Dominion Universiy in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed).
This photo provided by the U.S. Army shows Maj. Brandon Shah, Friday, Jan. 14, 2020, in Illesheim, Germany. (Pfc. Savannah Roy/U.S. Army/DVIDS via AP)
