Back in bloom, 2026 Masters Tournament preview

Sports

Nate Tramdaks, Staff Writer

The flowers are in full bloom on the most hallowed grounds in golf. Every year, we head down to Georgia the first week of April to celebrate the champions of the past and to find out who will don the Green Jacket next.

The 2025 Masters Tournament was about as close to perfection as you can possibly imagine. Rory McIlroy got his masterpiece, completing the career grand slam after a 14-year journey, defeating Justin Rose in a thrilling playoff.

The bar is set high for 2026, and for the first time in a while, there is no clear favorite. World No.1 Scottie Scheffler looks completely out of sorts, McIlroy is battling through a post-Masters hangover, and it seems the rest of the field is chomping at the bit. Here are three players to keep an eye on for the week.

Ludvig Åberg

Åberg is starting to become a regular contender at Augusta. In his first Masters start back in 2024, he finished solo second, four shots beyond the champion, Scheffler. In 2025, Åberg was in contention all week and was even tied for the lead with Rose and McIlroy late on Sunday, but ultimately faded in the final three holes and finished seventh. After Åberg’s poor play on Sunday at the Players Championship this year, concerns are starting to be raised about his play under pressure. Despite these concerns, Åberg is still one of the best ball strikers on tour, and on a course like Augusta, this is key. Under pressure, he starts to become wild off the tee, but for the most part, you can get away with it on Augusta. In his last two starts in 2026, Åberg finished T3 and T5. This Masters marks another opportunity for Åberg to attain his welcome to the moment win.

Akshay Bhatia

Bhatia is off to a blazing start to 2026. In his last five PGAT starts he has finished T16 or better, including a win at Arnie’s place. Bhatia’s game fits Augusta perfectly. He is not a dominant off-the-tee player, but he is an exceptional approach player and putter. This is where players win this tournament–115 yards and in. Bhatia has hit 84.2% of greens in regulation from the fairway under 150 yards, and although he has struggled from the rough, this is no concern at Augusta. Bhatia is making his third trip to Augusta this year. In 2024 he finished T35, and last year he finished T42. He is rolling right now, and there is no time like the present to earn your first major victory.

Xander Schauffele

As the current world No. 6, Schauffele is undoubtedly in his prime. After winning the PGA Championship and The Open Championship in 2024, he backed it up in 2025 with Top-12 finishes in The Open and U.S. Open, as well as appearing on the USA Ryder Cup team. Schauffele’s time to win the Green Jacket is now. The top is wide open, and of the guys vying to claim their share, he has the most experience in Major conditions, especially at Augusta. In his last seven starts at Augusta, he has finished top 10 five times. In 2025 he finished T8, and in 2024 was solo 8th. Xander’s game lends itself to Augusta, a solid driver of the golf ball, but more importantly, one of the best approach players in the sport. He is the best player in the world in strokes gained via approach at 2.2. A win at Augusta would catapult Schauffele into some serious all-time conversations and would put him a U.S. Open win away from completing the career grand slam.

Positives of the legalization of sports gambling

Commentary, Sports

Kelsey McGovern, Staff Writer

In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), ruling for the legalization of sports gambling in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association. Throughout the years following the legalization of sports gambling, controversy emerged regarding its effect within society. Some citizens saw it as detrimental to the integrity of the game, while other citizens viewed the legalization as beneficial because it is now monitored more closely.

Those who are against legalization raise concerns about the practice becoming more prominent in people’s everyday lives by making it easier for fans to participate. However, whether a practice is legal or illegal does not prevent people from taking part in the activity. The legalization of sports betting allows viewers to engage in the sports community, enhancing entertainment, creates a safer environment for both individuals and teams through monitoring, and improves economic growth through increasing jobs.

Critics condemn sports gambling’s effect on the integrity of the game. They believe that legalization only makes it easier for people to involve themselves in sports gambling, increasing addictive habits. People can make bets online at any time, making the practice more convenient. On the other hand, supporters of the legalization of sports betting emphasize that there are more regulations in place monitoring actions, which not only limit money and time, but also increases the emphasis on the integrity of the game. Although sports gambling may be easier to access by just going online, there are more rules to protect secure payments and to ensure that only eligible participants are able to partake. Teams and players have stricter rules that uphold the integrity of the game.

Sports betting being a legal practice allows the sports community to pursue their favorite teams. Those who are interested in sports can follow scores through sports gambling. Those who do not know much about sports but are intrigued in some way or another are able to gain interest through sports betting. Engaging in sports betting increases viewership and entertainment. It allows people to gain knowledge on how different sports work, as well as the statistics behind it. People are free to do what they want with the money they earn and are only hurting themselves if they indulge too much. The legalization of sports gambling puts limits on interaction through regulations. It decreases the possibility of players getting involved or suspicious payments being made to ensure one conclusion or not. The legalization not only allows more regulations to be in place to prevent the bad habits that may result from sports gambling, but also enforces identity verifications. Because there is a more secure environment, jobs are created in the sports gambling industry.

Opponents argue that the legalization only makes the presence of sports gambling more normalized in society. These habits trickle down to children, which makes them pick up the same interest in gambling. Legalization enhances bad habits instead of stopping them. Pursuers are concerned that gambling addictions may increase, leading to financial instability for many people. However, no matter if something is legal or illegal, people who enjoy the practice will find a way to continue their habit. In making sports gambling legal, people are monitored to control addictive measures and the integrity of the game. Fraud and unsecure payments decrease with legalization, with the protection around the individual and the sports teams. The regulations on sports betting allow the integrity of the game to be upheld due to monitoring patterns. It decreases the possibility of players getting involved or suspicious payments being made to ensure one conclusion or not. It enforces identity verifications to permit eligible individuals to participate. Ultimately, the legalization creates more jobs, increasing economic growth, which generates local taxes. It creates hundreds of thousands of jobs like casino employers, app designers, advertisers, data analysts and many more. Revenues can go to education or infrastructure initiatives, benefiting the whole country.

The legalization of various practices within the United States is seen as a positive aspect. When activities or substances become legal, it reduces the possibility of harm. In the example of sports betting, people entering the practice can do so in a safe manner. When people pursue illegal hobbies, they are at higher risk for charges, fines or danger. The legalization of sports betting allows regulations to be in place, letting those who contribute to sports gambling be protected under the law. It increases the entertainment of fans and increases the number of sports fans through their interest in sports betting. On top of these factors, it increases gross domestic product (GDP), which allows the US to grow economically. The unemployed can receive work and wages because of the legalization of sports gambling.

A Solution to Tanking in the NBA Created in La Salle’s Math Department

Sports

Nate Tramdaks, Staff Writer

The NBA relies on competition, yet its draft system has long rewarded teams for doing poorly. Popularized by Sam Hinkie and the Philadelphia 76ers in the mid-2010s, tanking is a strategy where teams intentionally lose to increase their chances of receiving a higher draft pick.

The NBA draft lottery is designed to distribute top prospects to the league’s worst teams. Each year, the 14 teams that miss the playoffs are entered into a lottery where those with poorer records are given better odds at landing the No. 1 overall pick. Through this system, losing is rewarded, prompting teams to lose on purpose to ensure they have a good draft pick.

The problem with most proposals to reform the lottery is they neglect the real change that needs to be made: losing cannot benefit your draft position. Dr. Highley, along with the help of Tannah Duncan, ‘27 and Ilia Volkov, ‘27, set out to change that. Their proposed system, Carry-Over Lottery Allocation (COLA) removes tanking incentives while still favoring weaker teams. This method is specifically aimed at shifting the value focus among teams. This involves balancing championship equity and pick equity.

What sets COLA apart from other lottery-reform proposals is that it does not rely on a single-season result– rather, it incorporates multi-year performance into draft positioning. COLA has many different variations, or flavors. In its simplest form, the COLA system assigns each team a running total of “lottery tickets” that carries over from year to year. Every season, all non-playoff teams receive the same increase in tickets, regardless of their exact record.

Instead of rewarding the worst team in a single season, COLA gradually rewards teams that miss the playoffs repeatedly. The longer a team goes without postseason success, the more its lottery odds accumulate. Once a team earns a top draft pick, however, its ticket total is reduced, preventing it from repeatedly benefiting from the system.

To evaluate whether COLA would work in practice, Duncan and Volkovran ran long-term simulations modeling team performance, player development and draft outcomes. Using probabilistic methods, they simulated hundreds of seasons to observe how teams performed over time under the system. The results indicated that no team remained consistently dominant or consistently poor. Instead, draft opportunities and team success balanced out over time, suggesting that COLA could maintain competitive parity while eliminating incentives to lose.

COLA also introduces radical changes to the draft system as a whole, proposing that the lottery line can be moved to incorporate playoff teams in strong draft years and the ability to opt out entirely from the lottery system for a fee of tickets.

This proposal, however complex it seems, truly addresses tanking in the NBA in a way that other proposals do not. By neglecting losses with regard to draft position, teams are forced to shift their value focus. Theoretically, that focus should shift back to winning and if that’s the case, talent will be properly distributed through the draft.

Cameron Young Breaks Through at TPC Sawgrass to Win 2026 Players Championship

Sports

Nate Tramdaks, Staff Writer

The PGA Tour’s flagship event, yet again, spared no drama come Sunday. In 2024, Scottie Scheffler came back from five down on Sunday to win. In 2025, Rory McIlroy won after being four back heading into Sunday. Now, in 2026, Cam Young completes a four shot comeback to claim his second win in his past 11 starts, and this is far and away the biggest moment of his career. The weekend was shaping up to be Ludvig Åberg’s break-out win, as he came into Sunday 13-under, a three shot lead over the field. The young Swede faded under pressure and fired a plus-four (40) on the back-nine. The final pairing of Åberg and Michael Thorbjorsen did not bring their best stuff, and the battle for the championship came down to the pairing ahead of them: Matthew Fitzpatrick and Cam Young.

Åberg’s play late in tournaments is starting to become worrisome. At the 2025 Masters, Åberg had a commanding hold on second and was within striking distance of the lead for all of Sunday. He ended up limping in with a bogey and double on 17 and 18 to finish seventh. Then, at the 2025 Scottish Open, Åberg blew up after holding a 54-hole lead and finished ninth. Now most recently, he gave away a three-stroke lead at Sawgrass. In fairness, a three-stroke lead is not insurmountable, especially for a course like Sawgrass, but it was evident from the jump Åberg did not have it. He avoided disaster on the fifth hole and saved bogey, shooting even par on the front, but it all started to unravel as he made the turn. He found the water on 11 and 12, making bogey and double. At Sawgrass, you are required to hit fairways, and Åberg has such a quick swing that when things start to spiral there is no stopping it. From that point on he faded out of contention and finished a T5.

Moving to the group ahead, Young and Fitzpatrick brought their best stuff. Fitzpatrick started off three under through four and was striking the ball incredibly well all day. Young was hanging tough all day, going one under on the front, still remaining within reach of Fitzpatrick. They both opened up the back by making two birdies in the first four holes, but Fitz almost gave an inch on bogey 14. He got that stroke right back with a birdie on 15. Heading into the final two holes, Fitzpatrick held a one-stroke lead over Young. 17 at Sawgrass is one of the biggest tests of nerves, especially when holding a tight lead. On the 134-yard par-three island green, Young stuck it 21 inches and sunk a knee-shaking birdie putt to tie as Fitzpatrick would make par. 18 is a 470-yard par-four with water up the entire left side. With the two tied for first, Cam Young hit a 375-yard bomb, the longest drive on that hole in the stat-tracking era. Fitzpatrick, feeling the pressure, hit his ball in the pin straw on the right side of the fairway. He was forced to punch out, and was laying short of the green. Young hit his approach shot to 14 feet just off the green. He missed his birdie putt and left himself 16 inches for par. Fitzpatrick had a makeable nine footer to save par, but missed. Young tapped in his par putt to finish his run down of Fitzpatrick and win the Players.

Cameron Young at the 2025 Ryder Cup via Wikicommons

The PGA Tour’s Sunshine Daydream

Sports

Nate Tramdaks, Staff Writer

As spring starts to round into form, so does the PGA Tour. Each year around late-February and early-March, the Tour departs from California and sets up shop in Florida. This Florida swing of the PGA Tour is extremely important, as it starts to provide viewers a large enough sample of the players. Storylines and narratives begin to build and we get a more vivid picture and understanding of the players. This swing is also very unique, as Florida’s landscape and terrain play a huge role and make the courses play unlike any other of the stops on tour. This is where we get to see courses that have Bermuda grass, a surplus of water hazards, and unpredictable weather conditions. This swing culminates in The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, the unofficial fifth major, and introduces us to the height of the golf season. With leg one of the swing down, here is the breakdown of what’s left to come.

The Florida swing opened at the PGA National Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens. Over the past weekend we saw Nico Echavarria pick up his sixth win on Tour at the Cognizant Classic. It was a dramatic fourth round that saw Euro Ryder Cup hero, Shane Lowry, throw away yet another tournament win. After an incredible -8 outing on Round 3 Saturday, Lowry was catapulted to the top of the leaderboard for a share of 1st. The Irishman came out swinging on Sunday as he was -6 through the first 13 holes and it looked like it would be a run away win. What has happened many times happened again; however, Lowry shrunk. Lowry came into the late 3 hole stretch of PGA National, the Bear Trap, with the lead and came out in a tie for 2nd. He dumped back-to-back tee shots in the water on 16 and 17, making double-bogey twice, and gave up any chance to win. He saved face with T2 finish.

The Cognizant is known as the appetizer of this swing; not many stars play in it, but the course dominates the viewing experience. The following week, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, is where things get turned up a notch. At Bay Hill Club in Orlando we got our third signature event of the season. Designed by Dick Wilson in 1961, and Palmer’s extensive remodeling in the ‘70s has made Bay Hill one of the most challenging tests on tour. With water and sand practically everywhere, and length being one of the biggest challenges to overcome, Bay Hill offers an exciting test for the stars leading into The Players Championship.

The Players is held at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. Arguably one of the toughest Pete Dye designs, Sawgrass offers many risk-reward opportunity shots, as well as tight fairways and heavily defended greens. As it is the first real test of thinking and course management, it punishes indecisive shot selection. There is no favorable play style at Sawgrass, whoever is dialed the most has the best chance. It will be hard for this year’s players’ top lasts. In 2025, we got a playoff finish that saw Rory McIlroy defeat JJ Spaun, after Spaun dumped his tee shot into the water on the famous par-3 17th during the playoff. Both players would go on to win majors that year, with Rory winning the Masters and completing the grand slam, and JJ winning the US Open. The Players give us our first taste of Major action.

Their final stop takes us to Palm Harbor, where the Valspar Championship is held at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort. The Valspar is an underrated watch. The Copperhead is a gorgeous course with each hole having water in play. As a result, cool bunkers and narrow fairway formations insist on good old-school course management. Viktor Hovland won there in 2025 at -11. At the wrap of the Valspar, it means we are three weeks away from the Masters and the peak of the PGA Tour season.

World Baseball Classic 2026 Approaches, Fueling MLB’s International Ambitions

Sports

Dani Colon, Editor

With the 2026 World Baseball Classic kicking off on March 4th, fans around the world will be watching the top countries battle for the championship. Almost like the World Cup of baseball, the elite players suit up for their home nations – sometimes even facing their own MLB teammates. The 2023 final between Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani drew 6.5 million viewers in the U.S. and over 29 million in Japan for that single game.

The WBC also strengthens MLB’s footprint in international markets. Countries like Japan, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, and South Korea already have passionate baseball cultures. The WBC showcases that passion and draws in record television ratings and social media engagement. For MLB, the increased merchandise sales, higher streaming subscriptions, and huge interest in regular season-games played abroad are all major benefits. When international stars shine in the Classic, their MLB teams often see immediate boosts in global attention, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers with players like Freddie Freeman representing Team Canada and Will Smith for Team USA.

The WBC also creates unforgettable moments, like Randy Arozarena playing for Team Mexico in the semifinals against Japan and robbing Kazuma Okamoto of a home run, or dramatic pitching performances that made history- such as Shohei Ohtani striking out teammate Mike Trout -and emotional celebrations like team Japan winning and being the 2023 champions. These highlights introduce MLB players to new audiences who may not have seen them before.

Looking ahead to the next WBC, many teams are expected to be completely stacked with talent, although Team Puerto Rico will be missing a few of their top players, including star shortstop Fransisco Lindor. Team USA has a strong possibility of taking home the trophy with star players like Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper, Paul Skenes and Clayton Kershaw.

This tournament gives players a chance to honor their heritage on an international stage. Although winning a World Series is the peak of a club’s success, wearing a national uniform taps into a different kind of pride. Players often speak about the emotional weight of hearing their national anthem before the first pitch or playing in front of fans who see them as national heroes. That experience can deepen their connection to the game and fuel their passion heading into the MLB season.

The WBC also helps players get more attention and recognition from fans around the world. A dominant performance in these games can elevate a player’s profile almost overnight. Stars who already have name recognition can expand their brand internationally, and lesser known players can introduce themselves to a global audience. In the 2023 WBC, many players from the Czech Republic were everyday working people with players being teachers, sales representatives, wood workers and even an electrician. Ondřej Satoria, an electrician who decided to play baseball for fun, struck out the famous power hitter Shohei Ohtani. This shows that anyone can make an impact in the WBC.

Love Him or Loathe Him, Patrick Reed is Back

Sports

Nate Tramdaks, Staff Writer

The ever-polarizing figure that is Patrick Reed is back in the spotlight. Reed announced his departure from LIV Golf back in Jan. 2026 after three and a half years with the tour. Simultaneously, he announced his intention to rejoin the PGA Tour. The 2018 Masters Champion was not granted immediate reinstatement through the Returning Player Program because he did not meet the criteria.

Unlike Brooks Koepka, fellow LIV defector, Reed will be serving a one-year suspension from the PGA Tour for leaving without proper release back in 2022. Patrick Reed will be spending the 2026 season on the DP World Tour (DPWT) with the intention to secure his PGA Tour card for the 2027 season and beyond. So far, Reed has been killing it; so let’s look at what he has done, the future outlook for his year and what a return to the PGAT means for the Tour and Captain America.

Patrick Reed is exercising his lifetime member status with DPWT, a status he acquired back in 2019 after winning the 2018 Masters. Reed is taking this route to regain PGAT status because the top 10 DPWT players gain exempt status into the PGAT for the following season, and there is a chance Reed may not qualify outright.

So far through four tournaments, Reed is head and shoulders above the field. He took home a win in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic where he won by four shots. The next week, he finished T2 in the Bahrain Championship, coming up short in a playoff. Then the week after, Reed capped off a dominant run in the Desert by winning the Qatar Masters by two shots. Heading into the South African Open, Reed is first in the DPWT Race to Dubai Ranking, leading by 400,000 points. His performance is starting to get recognized globally as he is currently ranked 18th in the Official World Golf Ranking, a huge jump from 42nd where he finished in 2025.

Despite having a lifetime member status, Reed is still subject to qualification requirements for DPWT “Back Nine” events which he has already locked up a spot for. Along with these tournament lock-ins, Reed will be playing in the Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in July. The Scottish Open is a PGAT co-sanctioned event that Reed is using a loophole to play in despite his suspension.

Reed will be playing in a PGA event before his suspension expiration in August 2026. Along with the DPWT events, Reed will almost certainly be playing in all four majors. He has lifetime exemption into the Masters and finished third in 2025. He can play in the PGA Championship at Aronimink by either invitation, which is how he played in 2025, or finish top three during the DPWT Asian Swing. He should qualify for the U.S. Open being top 60 in OWGR, and the Open being top 25 in Race to Dubai.

Patrick Reed’s full return to the PGAT in 2027 will be one of the most exciting developments for the sport in recent history. Not only will it spark the return of big names from LIV, but it will provide what the sport is currently missing – drama. Reed has been a controversial golf figure for his entire career, starting all the way back when he got kicked out the University of Georgia. Buried in all the extracurriculars, Reed’s talent can get forgotten. Reed has one of the most aesthetically pleasing swings in golf and is lights out under pressure. Reed will provide an energy that has been missing from the PGAT since LIV came about. When he’s on, and when fans get behind him, he is a fun guy to watch and root for. Going back to the 2016 Ryder Cup and his battle with Rory McIlroy during the Sunday singles at Hazeltine, Patrick Reed can once again be an electrifying presence on the biggest stages in golf.

Patrick Reed at the 2018 U.S. Open via Wikicommons

The Philadelphia 76ers Are What They Are

Sports

Nate Tramdaks, Staff Writer

During the NBA All-Star break, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe represented the 76ers in Inglewood, California. Maxey and Team Stars won the All-Star Game on Sunday and Edgecombe won Rising Stars MVP on Saturday. Aside from the All-Star festivities, this week-long break was a perfect time for the Sixers to regroup as a team as they enter the final stretch of the regular season and push onward to the playoffs. This team has had a lot of bright spots and some dark spots this season, but where do they stand at this point in the playoffs?

Coming out of the break, the Sixers sit at 30-24, sixth in the Eastern Conference and 3.5 games back of fourth (home court in the first round). Any Sixers fan would have signed for this record at this point back in October. Maxey has been playing at an All-NBA first-team level, Edgecombe looks like the second best rookie in the class just behind Cooper Flagg, and Embiid seems to be playing like his former self, but this doesn’t seem to be reflected in their record.

For the entirety of the season it has seemed like the Sixers would get within a 0.5 game or a game of third place, but would then drop two of their next three and fall right back to fifth or sixth. A lot of this has been due to the inconsistency with the play of Paul George and Joel Embiid. When they are fully healthy, they can compete with any roster in the league. Through the early part of the season, when Embiid was playing so infrequently, they had two different identities. With Embiid out, Maxey and Edgecombe were free to run in transition and were a more pace-and-spaced team. With Embiid in, they turn into a stagnant half-court team that is reliant on Embiid post-ups and an Embiid-Maxey two-man game. This parity in identity has been concerning in the regular season because it has been hard for them to build a rhythm. However, this will benefit the team in the playoffs, which is half-court and low-pace dominated. This has been the ideal for Sixer playoff success, finding the best infrastructure to support an Embiid-centric offense.

At the deadline, many Sixer fans were outraged at the decision of the team to sell off Jared McCain in order to duck the tax. That is a whole different story, but the short of it is that Sixers fans’ outrage is ill-informed and the trade was a good long term move. It is understandable to expect them to buy considering how open the East is. I am partial to Daryl Morey who said, if there was a move to be made, we would have made it. Nothing of value seemed to be out there anyway when you look at who was actually moved around the league.

As the Sixers open the back half of their season, they have the 23rd hardest schedule (seventh easiest). It seems likely they can avoid the play-in, even with Paul George out for a substantial amount of time, and even try to creep up a spot or two. Embiid has reported decreased swelling in his knee, and the Sixers have brought back Cam Payne to fill up some backup PG minutes. The Sixers have the talent to make a deep run, the question remains–do they have the timing?

You LIV and You Learn

Sports

Nate Tramdaks, Staff Writer

Since its 2022 inception, LIV Golf was designed to be a disruptive force on the global scale, with the intent to reshape professional golf. In nearly 4 years, it stalled on the runway. In its nascent stages, LIV was able to attract PGA stars, some of whom were past Major Champions. Guys like Bryson DeChambeau, John Rahm and Brooks Koepka (players who seemed to be entering the peak of their powers) were allured by the massive nine-figure contracts. Now, in 2026-27, those contracts are starting to expire, and players are starting to rethink their decisions.

The PGA defectors were vilified and for good reason. They took the easy way out. They accepted money from a morally reprehensible source – The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) – bloody oil money. The PIF owns 93% of LIV. This action alone brought into question the players competitiveness, dignity and integrity. The cowardice of the defectors didn’t stop there; they had the gall to turn around and sue the PGA. Several defectors filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour after being indefinitely suspended for joining LIV, arguing that, as independent contractors, the Tour’s actions unlawfully restricted their ability to earn a living. After almost a year of litigation, the case was dismissed in June of 2023.

For 3 years since LIV’s emergence, professional golf has been fragmented. The sports’ best players were no longer tested against each other week after week, only four times a year. The Majors have since carried extra weight due to this fact. You had real villains. In the 12 Major meetings since, LIV won 4 of the 12: Cam Smith (Open, 2022), Koepka (PGA Championship, 2023), Rahm (Masters, 2023), and DeChambeau (US Open, 2024). Among these wins, LIV saw a plethora of T10 finishes in these events.

Despite these finishes, LIV has been unable to harness a market and the future of their talent looks rather bleak. The players they had played in Majors were only there by way of past-champ exemptions; by the nature of LIV as tour, no LIV player can outright qualify for Majors. Since LIV’s tournaments are three-rounds, players cannot gain world ranking points. It goes without saying that the world rankings matter for the stars. Moreover, and most importantly, nobody watches LIV. The Sunday rounds for LIV average about 175 thousand viewers, which is tiny compared to the PGA’s 3.1 million average Sunday viewers. The Tour’s ability to sustain itself is now being heavily scrutinized, and player’s contracts are starting to expire.

At the start of the new year, multiple-time major champion Brooks Koepka announced his desire to rejoin the PGA. In response, the PGA created the “Returning Member Program.” This program was designed to allow only Koepka back immediately. The program outlines that players who won a Major or The Players Championship between 2022-2025 can return without suspension, but must pay a $5 million donation, forfeit 5 years of Tour equity, and must apply by Feb. 2nd. As previously mentioned, Koepka won the PGA in 2023. The PGA is rewarding Koepka with a slap on the wrist because, relative to other stars, Koepka seemed to acknowledge his mistake. He never repped LIV team merch/logos during Majors, was never outspoken against the PGA, and most importantly he kept his name off of the lawsuit. This past weekend, Koepka made the cut at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open for his first PGA start in 3 years.

Koepka’s return has started the mass departure from LIV with previous Masters champion, Patrick Reed, announcing his intention to return on January 29th. Reed does not fit the criteria for the Returning Player Program and will serve his suspension and play 1-year with the DP World Tour. Kevin Na and Henrik Stenson also announced their intentions to return and are serving suspension. The PGA is starting to prepare for DeChambeau and Rahm to return when their contracts are up at the end of 2026.

“I’ve got a contract for this year, and we’ll go through it there and see what happens after that,” said DeCambeau during LIV media day.

PCL Champs: The athletes, the underdogs, the contenders

Sports

Sean Musial, Editor

On Oct. 25, St. Hubert High School’s varsity soccer team won the Philadelphia Catholic League (PCL) championship against long-time winners Archbishop Wood at St. Joseph’s University. The game was an intense and harrowing victory for the Bambies’. It was the team’s first championship win since they took it home back in 2002 against Little Flower.

Wood scored early with only 4:02 on the clock during the first half. Hubert came back with their own goal with only 11:16 left in the half. The second half of the game saw the two teams trying to score, but the game ended up going into its first overtime, followed by double overtime. The team played an accumulated time of 110 minutes of soccer: 80 minutes of regular time and 30 minutes of overtime. Then penalty kicks (PKs) came around, and Hubert didn’t disappoint. Quinn Miller was a beast in the net, who dominated the game with 11 saves, not including the one she made during the PKs that put them on top. The players who scored during the PKs were Grace Smith, Luca D’Andrea, Saige Pimavera, Kady Donnely and Riley Roesner.

I had a chance to talk to the only scorer of regulation time for both the semi-finals and the championship: Bridie Musial. She made the Varsity team back in her freshman year. Throughout the last two seasons, her soccer career went through a rough patch, but she never gave up, continuously trying to prove herself. I interviewed her this past Monday; this is what she had to say:

SM: What did this senior season mean to you?

Bridie: To me, it was to prove myself throughout my four years of being there that I’m capable of being the player everyone thought I could be. And, it wasn’t the great it started, but in the end it all came to what I wanted it to be.

SM: What are two of your favorite memories from this year, or previous years?

Bridie: Number one—winning the PCL! And, scoring in that game and in the semi finals.

SM: With your senior year coming to an end, are you sad your high school soccer career is over? In addition to that, would you think about playing in college?

Bridie: No, I wouldn’t think about doing college because it wouldn’t be the same. It’s also a D1 school and I don’t want to go D1. I’m very sad my senior year’s over, and all my seasons, but at least I still have Coppa. Most of those girls play on Hubert’s soccer team with me. I know it’s not the same. I’ll be missing all those memories.

Even with the season officially at an end, this win will give future attendees of the school hope that there is a chance they could win the PCL again. Great season to the Bambie’s, and good luck to those moving off to graduating. Last but not least, good luck to the girls who are staying on for the duration of their high school career.