How Hideki Matsuyama became Japan's new national hero
CNN
With one small putt, Hideki Matsuyama ascended from professional golfer to national treasure.
Like Naomi Osaka before him, the 29-year-old's victory at the 2021 Masters propelled him into a Japanese superstar and a potential Olympic poster boy. By claiming a dramatic one-shot victory, Matsuyama became the first Japanese man to win a golf major. One Japanese newspaper even printed a 72-hole graphic detailing every single shot played by the golfer as Japan went Matsuyama made.
Odds are, there won’t be any ads about it over the next three weeks of the NCAA Tournament, but college basketball is celebrating an anniversary this year.
Team USA and Venezuela are set to meet Tuesday night in the final of the World Baseball Classic, a fitting showdown between two of the top teams on the field from nations that have a long and tense history off it.
Here we are, at the best three weeks of the sporting calendar. CNN Sports has everything you need to know to be ready for March Madness.
In a season of ticking off accomplishments, the Cornhuskers bull their way into March taking dead-eye aim at the elephant sitting square in the middle of their locker room: Their school is the only one power conference team that has failed to win an NCAA Tournament game.
Team USA avoided a World Baseball Classic disaster on Wednesday when Italy pulverized Mexico, ensuring the Americans advanced to the quarterfinals.
Cinderella is a funny girl when her glass slippers are Nike issued. We are amused by her as a lead-up to the ball, love her if earns a party-crashing admittance and then goes on to trash the place in the first weekend. But not everyone is so eager to hand her one of the coveted 37 extra tickets held in reserve.
New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch is requesting his ownership stake in the team be transferred to his children, according to an internal NFL memo.
Team USA is on the verge of one of the most embarrassing exits in World Baseball Classic history and, at this point, there’s nothing they can do about it.
Rick Barnes has been a head coach for 48 years. Won 857 games, been to the NCAA Tournament 29 times. He is not a man who needs to explain or even create a culture around his team. It sort of just exudes from him at this point.
Seven members of the Iranian women’s soccer team have remained in Australia, while the rest of the squad has now left the country for Iran, a source has told CNN Sports.
After their final defeat in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup on Sunday, supporters of the Iranian women’s football team crowded around their bus shouting at police to “save our girls” as it pulled away.
The Iran women’s national soccer team was forced to salute and sing its anthem on Thursday ahead of its Women’s Asian Cup group stage match against host Australia, sources close to the team tell CNN Sports, just days after the squad refused to do so in its tournament opener.
Lou Holtz, the College Football Hall of Fame coach who led Notre Dame to the 1988 national championship and won 249 games over 33 seasons at six schools, has died. He was 89.