Tag: Darius Rucker

Arizona State wins Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, Julia Lopez Ramirez shoots tournament record

Julia Lopez Ramirez had a tournament-record score Wednesday.

It came down to the final hole, but Arizona State held on.

Grace Summerhays sank her bogey putt on the final hole at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, helping the Sun Devils capture the 2024 Darius Rucker Intercollegiate title. It’s the first win of the year for Arizona State, and it came at an event that featured six top-10 teams.

The Sun Devils finished at 3 over for the tournament, topping No. 11 Northwestern by a shot and No. 12 Auburn by two. Host South Carolina finished fourth at 6 over.

Summerhays led heading into the day but shot 4 over in the final round. Nevertheless, she finished T-7 at 2 under. Patience Rhodes and Beth Coulter each placed T-12 finishes at even.

Missy Farr-Kaye said her teams has worked hard the past couple months on being more positive. Even as the Sun Devils trailed for a majority of the day, she is proud of her team’s resilience and how they battled even after taking the lead.

The ASU women earned the win a day after the ASU men won in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

In the individual competition at the Darius Rucker, there was a four-way tie for medalist honors, and how each player got there was unique.

First, Mississippi State’s Julia Lopez Ramirez picked up her first win of the season and did so in record-setting fashion, shooting a tournament-record 7-under 64 to finish at 5 under. Her birdie putt on the last hole for a 63 came up inches short.

Then, Texas freshman Farah O’Keefe rolled in a lengthy birdie putt on her final hole to get to 5 under early and set the clubhouse lead that would hold on for the remainder of the day.

South Carolina’s Hannah Darling, a two-time first-team All-American, birdied two of her final five holes to get into the share of the lead.

Then Northwestern’s Jennifer Cai, who said in a post-round interview she had no idea where she should, was long on her final hole in two shots needing a par to join the group in the clubhouse. Her chip shot ran long and on to the fringe, but she buried the roughly 15-foot par putt to earn the win.

LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad, the No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, finished a shot out of first, solo fifth at 4 under.

WATCH: Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa performs on stage with Darius Rucker

Miami’s QB joins one of their most famous fans for an on-stage performance.

While the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs are preparing for the Super Bowl, members of the other 30 teams, including the Miami Dolphins are enjoying festivities leading up to the big event.

This week, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa hosted the Madden Bowl after-party, where legendary Dolphins fan and country singer Darius Rucker was set to perform. Tagovailoa actually ended up joining Rucker on stage, playing guitar and singing along to Rucker’s hit song “Wagon Wheel.”

Rucker said during the season that he’d be ready for a jam session with the quarterback after seeing him perform on ESPN’s “ManningCast” for a Monday Night Football game.

Luckily, Tagovailoa wasn’t asked to sing along with Rucker’s “Only Wanna Be with You,” which famously features the lyrics “I’m such a baby, ’cause the Dolphins make me cry.”

ESPN’s College GameDay picks Ohio State at Indiana and more

Who do you having winning the big game this weekend Buckeye fans? #GoBucks

Although ESPN’s [autotag]College GameDay[/autotag] was live last week, it was a bit watered down due to having just a few games on the Week 0 slate.

This week feels much more like a college football weekend, [autotag]Ohio State football[/autotag] back on our screens, a full slate of games that started on Thursday night that carried over on Friday, the natural Saturday, along with a few games on Sunday and Monday as well.

The GameDay crew live from Charlotte, North Carolina, welcomed back [autotag]Lee Corso[/autotag], who missed week 0, and he made picks for this weeks top games along with [autotag]Desmond Howard[/autotag], [autotag]Pat McAfee[/autotag] and [autotag]Kirk Herbstreit[/autotag]. Country music star [autotag]Darius Rucker[/autotag] joined the panel as a guest picker.

Find out below which teams they picked to win this week including Ohio State.

College football fans absolutely hated the revamped College GameDay theme song

So…people really don’t like the new College GameDay intro song featuring Darius Rucker, Lainey Wilson and The Cadillac Three.

ESPN unveiled its brand-new College GameDay introduction music on Saturday ahead of the big Week 1 slate, and it didn’t go over so well.

Replacing Big & Rich with Darius Rucker, Lainey Wilson and The Cadillac Three and basically doing a remixed version of “Comin’ to Your City,” the seminal pre-college football show’s new intro song really did not earn raves from fans.

While the song was never high art, this new version really didn’t satisfy fans of the original version that debuted in the 2000s. Like, people really don’t like this. They were very vocal about it. Like, whew, bad reviews!

We’re not exactly sure what to make of this, and it’s fair to argue that this really isn’t all that much better than what came before. However, what came before was comfortable, and this is a cold shower of change.

College football fans aired their grievances to this revamped intro song, as one would imagine.

Feature image courtesy of ESPN. 

Golf at the Grove XXIII, a VIP weekend at WM Phoenix Open and Super Bowl among items up for grabs at this auction

There are some great golf experiences up for grabs at the Del Mar Country Club Golf Tournament and Dinner-Gala.

There are some pretty great experiences up for grabs at the Del Mar Country Club Golf Tournament and Dinner-Gala.

The goal of the function Saturday in Rancho Sante Fe, California, is to raise funds for SOF (Special Operations Forces) Support Foundation but the auction prizes are next-level. It might be the only way most of us would ever have a chance to do some of these things.

For example, want to play golf at Michael Jordan’s private golf club, the Grove XXIII? Oh, and for this round of golf you’ll play alongside Michael Strahan, who won a Super Bowl as a member of the New York Giants.

Perhaps you’d rather head to the Arizona desert in February for a VIP weekend for suite tickets at the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, and, a pair of tickets to Super Bowl LVII, which kicks off right after the final round across town in Glendale at the Arizona Cardinals home stadium.

Or maybe your thing is a Vegas weekend with a stay at the MGM Grand, a round of golf at Shadow Creek Golf Club with musician and golf nut Darius Rucker, and a private dinner.

There’s going to be much more up for auction at the event, which starts with an 18-hole golf scramble prior to the gala. Special guests at the event include keynote speaker Michéle Flournoy, featured speaker Michael W. MacKay and special guest Retired Navy SEAL Bob Harward.

Flournoy was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy under President Bill Clinton and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under President Barack Obama. MacKay is a Defense Fellow in the House of Representatives Washington, D.C., serving as the Military Assistant to the Legislative Director for defense, nuclear, military construction, veteran’s affairs and related issues. Harward is a retired United States Navy SEAL and a former Deputy Commander of the United States Central Command.

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New virtual celebrity golf tour on Twitch features Don Cheadle, Darius Rucker, Patrick Reed and more

A new virtual golf tour for coronavirus relief features celebrities Don Cheadle and Darius Rucker as well as the PGA Tour’s Patrick Reed.

While we impatiently wait for the return of tournament golf next month, varying formats of competitive golf are actually right around the corner.

There’s the charity skins match between Rory McIlroy-Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler-Matthew Wolff on May 17, not to mention The Match: Champions for Charity between Tiger Woods-Peyton Manning and Phil Mickelson-Tom Brady.

On the virtual side, the European Tour is using TrackMan for the BMW Indoor Invitational. On top of that, celebrities and professional golfers are teaming up for coronavirus relief.

Streaming exclusively on Twitch, T’d Up Golf has partnered with Group 33 for a one-of-a-kind virtual golf tour. The first “tour stops” feature celebrities Don Cheadle, Anthony Anderson, Darius Rucker and Chris Spencer being coached by the PGA Tour’s Pat Perez, Patrick Reed, Wyndham Clark and Kevin Na. The first event will virtually transport the players to Scotland.

“As we approach summer, we recognize that many people are missing the opportunity to not only play a round of golf themselves but also see their favorite professionals in action on famous courses around the world,” said Eric Brunner, Sports Partnerships Lead at Twitch. “Through our partnership with Group 33 and the launch of T’d Up Golf, we’re excited to bring some of golf’s most well-known athletes, fans and courses back to viewers’ screens through a virtual and interactive format that can only be found on Twitch.”

Teams will be playing to generate revenue benefiting COVID-19 frontline workers, providing them with food and the necessary resources. Viewers will also be able to use Twitch’s chat feature to interact with the teams throughout the competition.

“The format of pairing celebrities who have the chops for golf with PGA TOUR pros as fun-loving sidekicks/hilarious caddies is sure to make for great content,” added Bob Parsons, founder and CEO of PXG, also a partner for the fundraising event.

More information is set to come, including the schedule, additional golfers and celebrities. You can sign up for more information and updates right here.

Brian Flores has at least one (unofficial) vote for Coach Of The Year

Brian Flores’ work as the Miami Dolphins head coach was impressive in 2019 and at least one person would vote him 2019’s coach of the year.

When the Miami Dolphins first took the field this past season, the expectation was about as low as low can get. Some even went as far to say that the Dolphins would go down as the worst team in the history of the NFL. Fast forward to January of 2020 and the Dolphins weren’t even the worst team of the year — not by a long shot. And that comes back to players buying in on what new Dolphins head coach Brian Flores sold them this season — a process and staying focused on the task at hand.

The Dolphins ended the season on a two game winning streak, including a resounding win over the New England Patriots in Week 17 to send the Dolphins out in style.

With the win, some have gone as far as to suggest Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is deserving of some consideration for the NFL’s 2019 Coach of the Year honors. That award is typically awarded for the coach of the best team in football — but Flores’ group has come so far over the course of the season, acknowledging him in the conversation is well deserved.

And depending on who you ask, he might actually have an argument. We already know Flores has got one (unofficial) vote, courtesy of diehard Dolphins fan and musician Darius Rucker.

We’re here for it, Darius! Especially because we’re so used to the Dolphins making us cry, too. But there will be no crying on account of the Miami Dolphins this offseason — the coaching staff in place has instilled a level of optimism surrounding the Dolphins that hasn’t been felt in quite some time in South Florida. Whether or not that gets any votes that count for Coach of the Year or not, Miami fans should feel good about who is leading this team into 2020 and beyond.

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