Ryder Cup team taking shape
Golf: Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III filled out his roster of assistants on Monday by adding Scott Verplank and Jeff Sluman. Far more interesting is his decision in three weeks when he picks four Americans who will be hitting shots and trying to win back the cup at Medinah.
Tiger Woods was No. 1 on the list of eight automatic qualifiers, with Phil Mickelson holding down the final spot.
Love announces his four captain’s picks Sept. 4, the day after the second FedEx Cup playoff event. He indicated that the next three players in the standings – Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk – were likely selections, calling them “high on the list.”
Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas are the only players under serious consideration who are competing this week in Greensboro, N.C. The real emphasis begins the following two weeks at The Barclays, which features the top 125 on the PGA Tour at Bethpage Black; and the Deutsche Bank Championship.
The other qualifiers were Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson, Master champion Bubba Watson; and Ryder Cup newcomers Keegan Bradley, Jason Dufner and U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson.
NHLPA to propose bargaining agreement
NHL: The NHL Players’ Association is preparing to present its vision for a new collective bargaining agreement to the NHL when labor talks resume today.
Just don’t call it a counterproposal. NHLPA executive director Don Fehr said the union’s proposal will offer a “different kind of an approach” and an “alternate view.”
The presentation will come a month after the NHL made its first proposal, which included a 20 percent reduction of players’ share of revenues and limitations to free agency.
The current deal expires Sept. 15.
Former boxing champ Dokes dies of cancer
Miscellany: Michael Dokes, a former World Boxing Association heavyweight champion, has died. He was 54.
The Akron Beacon Journal reported that the boxer died Saturday in an Akron, Ohio, hospice from liver cancer.
Dokes won the heavyweight title at 24 in December 1982, when referee Joey Curtis made a controversial decision to stop his fight against champion Mike Weaver.
An admitted problem with cocaine helped him lose the WBA title only nine months later to Gerrie Coetzee, however, and Dokes never held the heavyweight crown again.
• Kvitova wins Rogers Cup title: Petra Kvitova outlasted China’s Li Na 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 to take the Rogers Cup title in Montreal.
The 22-year-old Czech earned her first tournament win of the year after taking six titles last year, including Wimbledon.
• Transcripts of Peppers surface online: North Carolina says it is investigating how what appears to be a transcript for former football star Julius Peppers surfaced on the university’s website.
In a statement, the school says it has removed the link and that it wouldn’t discuss confidential student information covered by federal privacy laws.