sday about a decision that looks set to prevent

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. -- Jimmy Walker was running out of time to make the Ryder Cup team for the second time in a row.Winning the PGA Championship took care of that.Walker went from No. 29 in the U.S. standings all the way up to No. 4 because of the double points at a major. With only four events remaining, and with a major championship on his side, he is virtually a lock to be at Hazeltine on Sept. 30.He went 1-1-3 at Gleneagles as a Ryder Cup rookie, beating Lee Westwood in singles.I remember when I left ... I said, `I never want to miss another one again, Walker said. I thought about that all year. I havent played as well as I would have liked to, Im not on the list. Im not even close.Walker said he saw U.S. captain Davis Love III this week and told him there was still time for him to play his way onto the team, or maybe even show Love enough form that he was worth of a pick. Thats no longer necessary.It also was a big week for Brooks Koepka, who had dropped from No. 3 to No. 9 by missing a World Golf Championship and the British Open with an ankle injury. He walked 18 holes Thursday for the first time since the U.S. Open. The ankle remains tender. But he shot 66-70 on Sunday and tied for fourth, moving up to No. 5.He is the equivalent of $680,000 ahead of Bubba Watson, who slipped to No. 9, with four tournaments left.The top eight automatically make the team.I wont need a pick, Koepka said.Watson fell out of the top eight, while Matt Kuchar missed the cut and dropped three spots to No. 11. Rickie Fowler is now No. 12.---LEFTYS OUTLOOK: Phil Mickelson ended his run through the majors in good spirits. He didnt play how he wanted at the PGA Championship, but he was looking forward to the longest break he has had since he could remember.He wont play again until The Barclays on Aug. 25 to start the FedEx Cup playoffs.Mickelson said he hadnt had three weeks off in the summer for more than two decades, though that simply was a case of misremembering. He had three week off between the U.S. Open and Scottish Open in 2014, and he took six weeks off in 2009 to tend for his wife when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.But thats not the point. He gets a long break, and hes excited.Ill take these three weeks off and be fresh and ready heading into the FedEx Cup, Mickelson said. Ill take probably the first week off and then really start to get ready. Thats a good stretch of golf of those four playoff events and the Ryder Cup. Im looking forward to those five events. This is the first time where Im excited to play all four FedEx Cup events. Usually I only play three. Ill be fresh and excited to go out in the Ryder Cup, too.All he needs now is a victory. This is one of Mickelsons best year without having won through the majors. He has been runner-up three times, starting with a short birdie putt he missed at Pebble Beach and most recently his British Open performance that was among the best, just not better than Henrik Stenson.He hasnt won since the 2013 British Open, a stretch of 68 tournaments worldwide. But theres still time with the four FedEx Cup playoff events, and the Safeway Open that he will play in October in California.Im starting to see my game come back, Mickelson said. Im starting to hit the shots again, what Im visualizing, what Im seeing and doing it with ease now. I get to the first tee and I just kind of tighten up and start to force the issue and dont just go out and play. I have to work on that for these coming FedEx Cup events. Im excited about where my game is.---MASTERS BOUND: A 74 in the final round of the U.S. Open cost Daniel Summerhays a top-four finish and a spot in the Masters.On Sunday, he didnt let the chance slip away.Summerhays had five birdies over the last seven holes for a 66, giving him third place alone and a tee time at Augusta National next April for the first time.I was definitely thinking about that going up the 18th hole, he said. Thats a lifetime dream. I knew exactly where I stood. I knew what was going on. Its so fun to know where you are and the situation and pump a drive down the middle of the fairway on kind of intimidating-looking finishing drive. Then to hit a wood up on the green like that and almost make a putt, that was pretty amazing.Summerhays loves the Masters so much that he says he has memorized the theme song.I can hear Jim Nantzs voice in the back of my mind: `Hello, friends, welcome to Augusta National. Its been a dream, he said.Robert Streb wasnt as fortunate. Needing to par the final two holes -- both par 5s -- he made bogey from two bunkers on the 17th and missed a 7-foot birdie on the 18th to finish out of the top four.---AMAZING GRACE: Branden Grace hasnt won a major. He sure seems to be getting closer.Grace once more was a contender in the PGA Championship, getting within one of the lead until a three-putt bogey stalled his momentum on the 16th, and he drove into the water on the 18th trying to take an aggressive angle for a shot at eagle.Even so, he went 66-67 over the final two rounds and tied for fourth, five shots behind.I feel Im progressing pretty nicely, said Grace, a winner of seven European Tour events and this years PGA Tour stop at Hilton Head. I think Im getting more confident as the majors go on.Grace was tied for the lead at Chambers Bay in the U.S. Open last year until hitting his tee shot out-of-bounds on the railroad tracks on the 70th hole. He tied for fourth in the PGA Championship last year. He tied for fifth in the U.S. Open.I was a little bit disappointed with the (British) Open this year, he said of his tie for 72nd. I thought I played some decent golf, but it wasnt one of those golf courses that really suited me. I couldnt get my eye around the place. I came here this week, I thought this is a place I can do well. Played great the first day, was just unlucky.When I tee it up now, I feel I can win a major.Ombre Hydro Flask . The move comes after the Canadiens were approached by the Buffalo Sabres for permission to speak to Dudley - a former Sabres player and head coach. "The Sabres called for permission and I appreciate that, Im flattered, Dudley told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun of ESPN. Hydro Flask Coffee . Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan scored shootout goals, and backup goalie Cam Talbot earned his second win in two nights as the Rangers shook off a late tying tally and beat the Maple Leafs 2-1 Monday night. http://www.hydroflaskpullosuomi.com/hydro-flask-straw-lid.html . The CFLs leading rusher kept adding to his gaudy numbers this season and scored the winning touchdown with just over two minutes to play. The New Westminster, B.C., native plowed three yards into the end zone for the last score of a heated, see-saw battle between the two teams with the best records in the CFL. Hydro Flask Juomapullo ., and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask., took sixth spot on Saturday in pairs at the NHK Trophy ISU Grand Prix figure skating competition. Hydro Flask 24 OZ . The head of USA Boxing came out swinging Tuesday with an open letter to Tyson -- a former Olympic hopeful himself -- that accuses the former heavyweight champion of trying to poach fighters who might be candidates for the U.Kieron Pollard, the West Indies allrounder, has been denied a No-Objection Certificate to compete in South Africas domestic T20 league, after the West Indies Cricket Board made the unprecedented move of levying 20% of the contract fee on any Caribbean player wishing to participate in an overseas T20 tournament.Pollard, who signed a two-year contract last season with Cape Cobras, was informed of the WICB decision on November 3 by the boards chief executive officer Michael Muirhead in an emailed letter. He is currently still in Trinidad, with the tournament due to get underway on November 11.Muirhead called the move a policy decision, taken by the WICB board of directors. He also said that the WICB had notified all the ICC Full Member boards of this decision.The WICB will levy a charge for the granting of an NOC for West Indian cricketers seeking a release to participate in Leagues outside the jurisdiction of the West Indies, Muirhead informed Pollard in the email, which has been accessed by ESPNcricinfo. This will be an amount equivalent to 20% of the player fee (as defined in the player contract) that is actually paid to the relevant player.Pollard was told he would not be granted the NOC until the WICB had received acceptance of our position from the various boards which feature Caribbean players in their domestic T20 tournaments.It is understood that the Bangladesh Cricket Board is considering a 10% payment, but might ask the BPL franchises to carry out such a payment. Cricket South Africa has rejected the WICB proposal while there has been no response as yet from the Pakistan Cricket Board and Cricket Australia.The Federation of International Players Association (FICA) has described the WICB decision as restraint of trade and warned that it could attract legal challenges.Muirhead argued that a release fee was necessary given how many Caribbean players are now seeking to maximise their earnings in the various T20 tournaments around the world.WICB however, having invested in developing a players talent, is not able to realise a return on its investment if the player is not available to play in local tournament, which would allow lesser experienced players the opportunity to face a more experienced and skilled opposition, thereby improving on the standard and competitiveness of the domestic tournaments, he wrote.However, the move comes as little surprise to seasoned observers of the current WICB administration. The board has consistently said that senior players who earn big money in the T20 leagues need to compromise and give back something to the regional cricket. Otherwise, as Muirhead noted to Pollard, it disadvantages the West Indies team.In the end, it compromises the standard of the WICBs international team and that teams performance internationally. The primacy of international cricket is threatenedd.ddddddddddddMuirhead stated in his email that the WICB move could not be called as restraint of trade. While we do not wish to act in restraint of trade, we must seek a balance to ensure that there is fair and adequate compensation for the investment made in the players, he wrote. What WICB seeks is some compensation to recognise the investment made into players, an investment from which another Full Member is benefitting.Although Pollard is the only player officially contacted by WICB so far, many other Caribbean players are predicting a similar email in their inbox at some point in the near future.Muirhead said the board could put the fees collected for an NOC from various players into a pot which then could be redistributed as contracts to players who only play T20. Pollard, along with the former West Indies captain Darren Sammy, are some of the prominent voices who have asked WICB to offer them T20 contracts.It is our expectation too, that the accumulation of these fees will facilitate the offer of contracts to players participating only in the short format of the game, Muirhead said.Pollard, however, is not even a contracted WICB player, having been controversially dropped for the tri-series in Zimbabwe, scheduled for later this month. And for that reason, Tony Irish, the FICA chairman, believes that the move is unjustified.We have made it very clear to all the boards that any restrictions placed on players are likely to constitute restraint of trade and there challengeable legally, he said. In the case of Kieron, he is not even contracted by the WICB. Therefore their attempt to levy 20% in exchange for the NOC effectively imposes a restriction on freedom of movement.Irish called the decision arbitrary, considering the WICB had not even discussed the move with players and the other boards. He added that he will be speaking directly to the WICB on Tuesday about a decision that looks set to prevent Pollard from fulfilling his second year of the contract with the Cobras.It is not a good situation. I will be taking it directly as a FICA issue with the WICB and making them aware of the implications.Insignia Sports, who manage Pollard along with other leading West Indies players including Sammy, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo, has also said it will be challenging the WICB move.It is a blatant restraint of trade on a player who has not been selected by WICB for the upcoming tri-series, does not have a contractual tie to the WICB permitting such a restriction, said Eddie Tolchard, one of the partners at Insignia Sports. Applying an unreasonable and unjustifiable fee and requesting CSA pay it in order to provide a NOC is a restraint of trade.Additional reporting by Nagraj Gollapudi ' ' '