5:36 PM ET Italy’s Renato Paratore produced a fine round of five-under-par 66 to lead at the halfway stage of the British Masters at Close House on Thursday as host Lee Westwood battled to make the cut. The 1.25 million euro event in Northumberland is the first of six tournaments to be staged in England
Golf
11:41 AM ET The PGA Tour will begin to let more people on site, beginning with next week’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. In a memo the tour sent to the players and released on Thursday, Tyler Dennis, chief of operations, outlined a program that will expand access to select tournament representatives and other VIPs while
10:21 AM ET Charlotte GibsonESPN Michelle Wie West, a five-time Solheim Cup veteran and 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champion, will return to Team USA as assistant captain. Captain Pat Hurst selected Wie West, 30, to work alongside previously announced assistant captain Angela Stanford when Team USA competes against Team Europe at Inverness Club in Toledo,
9:35 PM ET Grayson Murray, who announced over the weekend that he had tested positive for COVID-19, was the only player to do so this week in advance of the 3M Championship. Murray took his test at home and never traveled to the tournament site, where tests for those competing in the tournament are mandatory.
7:19 PM ET With two weeks to go before the first major championship of 2020, the PGA of America still is deciding how it will handle instances of a player in the field testing positive for COVID-19 despite being 10 days removed from the onset of symptoms. The PGA Tour amended its policy on cases
5:31 PM ET Associated Press NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, England — David Law of Scotland shot a 7-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead over Oliver Fisher, Garrick Porteous and Renato Paratore in the opening round of the British Masters at Close House Golf Course near Newcastle on Wednesday. Aaron Cockerill, Rasmus Hojgaard, Lee Slattery and Pedro Figueiredo
10:58 AM ET Associated Press The PGA Tour Series-China season has been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The China-based tour’s executive director says attempts to move the qualifying tournaments to other sites in Asia were not practical and restricted access into mainland China made it too difficult to stage tournaments in 2020. Greg Carlson
8:44 AM ET Associated Press ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The Women’s British Open is keeping its title sponsor and getting a slightly different name. The R&A announced Wednesday that AIG, a New York-based finance and insurance group, has extended its title sponsorship of the women’s major by two years through 2025. And now that the
7:48 AM ET ESPN Betting Insiders PGA Tour golf is back in full swing, albeit without the crowds we’re accustomed to. Jon Rahm took home the title at the Memorial Tournament and claimed the world No. 1 ranking in the process. The tour now heads to Minnesota for the 3M Open. Which players are good
6:37 PM ET BLAINE, Minn. — English golfer Tommy Fleetwood is ready to finish the PGA Tour season after an up-and-down four-month stretch, which included a pair of 14-day quarantines on two different continents. Fleetwood, one of the top golfers at this week’s 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota, last competed in the United States in