Ryder Cup hostilities broke out a week early at the Tour Championship on Friday with Tiger Woods and world No 1 Justin Rose sharing the halfway lead after a pulsating second round in Atlanta.
American Woods and England's Rose, who will face off on opposite sides next week in the biennial team event in Paris, at one stage built a three-shot lead over their closest rivals in the 30-man field.
They both butchered the 16th hole, however, and eventually signed for seven-under-par 133, a two-stroke advantage over Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy at East Lake.
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Read more:
The Ryder Cup - all you need to know about Europe v United States
Tiger Woods and Justin Rose spice up Ryder Cup showdown in France
Ryder Cup: Europe and United States to start on even keel
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Woods took pride in shooting two-under 68 and earning his first halfway lead since the 2015 Wyndham Championship, despite not quite firing on all cylinders.
"I didn't hit it very good overall today, didn't quite have the sharpness I had yesterday and it was pretty evident," Woods told reporters.
"This is a grinder's golf course. You've got to keep hanging in there and make a lot of pars and I did that today ... I ground out a round and shot something under par."
Rose was also pleased with his score, a 67, on a day when he was unable to replicate his first round driving.
"It's just hard to hit a ton of fairways," he told Golf Channel. "Yesterday I hit a ton of fairways, and I felt like it was an easy course, but today was much more of a struggle."
Woods, a 14-time major champion who has not won this year in an otherwise impressive comeback following spinal fusion surgery in 2017, delighted his overflowing gallery when he ran in consecutive birdies at the 14th and 15th holes.
But he yanked his drive into punishing rough at the par-four 16th and could only advance his second shot into a bunker, where his ball plugged, forcing him to blast out sideways and leading to a double-bogey.
"The rough's brutal," Woods said. "Every ball sits right down the bottom. There are no good lies. You've just got to hit and hope."
While Woods could win on Sunday and still not necessarily claim the season-long FedExCup points race and the $10 million (Dh36.73m) bonus that goes with it, Rose's fate is in his own hands.
He started the week second in the standings behind Bryson DeChambeau, who appears to be out of contention after a 75 that left him equal second-last.
"It's all very well winning tournaments," Rose said. "There's just something extra about winning a season-long thing.
"I was able to do that in Europe in '07 and it gave me a tremendous amount of pride but to do it against the best players in the world on this tour would be incredible."
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
Tickets
Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Normcore explained
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
