L.P.G.A. Shifts Schedule Once Again

The L.P.G.A. Tour rearranged its preliminary events until July of June on Wednesday due to the coronavirus pandemic and the P.G.A. of America announced that the Women's P.G.A. Championship, a major, moved from June to October. Five other L.P.G.A. events were canceled.

The first event of a resumed L.P.G.A. The tour schedule, the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, is scheduled for July 15-18 in Midland, Michigan. The next two events are in Sylvania, Ohio and Galloway, NJ, with a revised tournament schedule that continues through the third week of December, a week after the recently delayed United States Women's Open in Houston from December 10-13.

Nine LPGA tournaments have now been canceled, although the reduced LPGA tournament schedule for various events will result in an increase in prize money, with an average grant amount to $ 2.7 million per league.

Tour officials admit that the schedule can be changed again in the coming weeks.

"Although July seems a long way off, we are sure that restarting our season in Michigan, Ohio and New Jersey requires continuous improvement in the situation in each of those states," Mike Whan, the LPGA Commissioner, said in a statement. "We've put together a schedule that we think is as safe as possible, given what we know about travel bans, testing availability and organizing events that our sponsors and athletes will be excited about."

The Women's P.G.A. Championship, originally scheduled for June 25-28 at the Aronimink Golf Club outside of Philadelphia, has been postponed to October 8-11 at the same venue.

Suzy Whaley, the P.G.A. President of America, who called the four-month extension, & # 39; a wise choice & # 39 ;.

About Spitting on the Ball…

If you're more of a baseball fan, you may be surprised to learn that cricket makes spitball absolutely legal. But that may now change in the aftermath of the coronavirus.

The cricket authorities consider preventing players from spitting on the ball, Cricinfo reported, considering the potential health risks of multiple players handling a ball that others have coughed up on

Prohibiting complete ball tampering would allow the new rules to allow players to use artificial substances instead of saliva, such as shoe polish or wax. The change is significant: the use of foreign substances on the ball has long been banned in the game.

At the start of cricket matches, the new ball is clean and shiny and tends to help bowlers move as it approaches the hitters. But as the game progresses and the ball overheats, it gets harder and players can get the edge.

So bowlers do what they can to keep the ball nice and shiny: rub it over their jerseys, dampen it with sweat and, yes, spit on it.

Without bowlers being able to keep the ball shiny in some way, batters may have too great an advantage. "Bowlers rely on any sideways movement in the air," Australian bowler Josh Hazlewood told Cricinfo. "It would be pretty easy to braid after that first shine is gone." VICTOR MATHER

The Pole Vaulting Pit Next Door

Sandi Morris, an Olympic silver medalist, needed a way to practice pole vault during the coronavirus outbreak. So she and her father built their own airstrip and pit.

Morris, who trains in Arkansas, returned to Greenville, S.C. to be with her family. She and her father started building the well on a field near their neighborhood's tennis courts in early April. They completed it last week and Morris can now train on it. The runway and pit, which she calls the Pink Panther, meets competitive standards.

Morris said her father had talked about building a well for the past three years, but since she didn't live at home, it didn't seem worth it. She said they also hope to organize clinics in the future. DANIELLE ALLENTUCK