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Jason Day regrets missing the 2016 Olympics and refers to burnout

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SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (AP) — Jason Day still regrets skipping the Olympics when golf returned to the program in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. Day was the No. 1 player in the world at the time and cited concerns over the Zika virus.

“Looking back on it, I should have just sucked it up and gone down and played,” the Australian said Tuesday at the Paris Olympics. “I think in that case it would have been a great experience for me to go down there and represent something that’s bigger than you.”

Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson, among the top three in the world, also withdrew from Rio and never made it to another Olympics. Day had reason to think he might not get a chance, either. He failed to qualify for the Tokyo Games in 2021 while coping with injuries and a downturn in form.

Day was determined to get back.

“Granted, we’re from a pretty small country. It’s not like if I was representing America — it’s very difficult because there’s so many good players there,” he said. “I just felt that if I could just play half-decent at some point, I would be able to get back on the team.”

Day twice referenced “burnout” when he spoke about missing the 2016 Olympics. He was at his dominant best, winning eight times in a two-year stretch and holding the No. 1 ranking for 47 consecutive weeks.

“I don’t think it was necessarily from winning too much. It’s more the other stuff that comes with it,” Day said. “The signing of autographs. The pulling of different directions from your team, your family, your coaches. Because everyone is pulling at you. After a while, you can only give out so much of yourself.”

Day said he had a tough time turning down requests.

“And that’s ultimately what ended up having me burn out pretty quick,” he said.

First tee honors

Victor Perez of France will be hitting the opening tee shot in the Paris Games, an honor the Olympics gives to a player from the host country.

Rikuya Hoshino hit the opening tee shot in the Tokyo Games, while Adilson da Silva of Brazil hit the first shot at the Rio de Janeiro Games when golf returned to the program in 2016.

Scottie’s gold locket

Two-time Masters champion Scottie Scheffler talks about some “cool stuff” he keeps alongside the trophies in his golf room at home. That includes one item from the Masters that he couldn’t describe beyond saying it was a “little gold thing.”

That would be the gold locket, which doesn’t get mentioned as much as a green jacket or the silver trophy handed out at the Augusta National clubhouse.

“When you win the Masters, you get like this little thing that signifies that you’re a member of the club,” Scheffler said. “You only get it once, and so that sits in the room and it’s something that a lot of people don’t know about. It kind of just chills in a little corner.”

How big?

“Small,” he said, using his finger to try to illustrate the dimension. “It’s exactly how you think Augusta National would do it. Very simple, elegant, beautiful. Just tasteful, all the right things. Small, simple and means a lot.”

The three-sided locket is shaped like the Masters logo — the continental U.S. with a flag in Augusta, Georgia. Open it once and there’s a silhouette of the clubhouse inside. Open it again and there’s a silhouette of club co-founder Bobby Jones. On the back is the winning player’s initials.

Masters champions are presented the gold locket at the Masters Club dinner the following year. Some of them, like Ben Crenshaw, have given it to their wives. Scheffler, for now, has his chilling in the corner of his office.

LPGA Boost

The LPGA Tour has a new tournament in the Boston area this year and a new sponsor that is raising the perks before the inaugural event starts.

The FM Championship, which starts Aug. 29 at the TPC Boston, added $300,000 to the purse to bring it to $3.8 million. The five-year deal with Rhode Island-based insurance firm FM is for the prize fund to increase annually until it reaches $5 million in 2028.

The $3.8 million purse is the largest on the LPGA except for the five majors and the CME Group Tour Championship.

FM, formerly known as FM Global until a brand change two weeks ago, already has said it would offer free hotel accommodations to the players. It also is providing a $1,000 stipend to anyone who misses the cut.

“We can’t think of a better way to celebrate our new brand, our partnership with the LPGA and the return of women’s professional golf to New England than by investing in additional support for the incredible athletes of the LPGA Tour,” said David Johnson, senior vice president at FM.

Western Amateur on TV

The Western Amateur, the third-oldest amateur championship in golf, is celebrating its 122nd edition by getting some TV time.

ESPN+ is providing live streaming from Moraine Country Club in Dayton, Ohio, starting with the round of 16 on Friday. Subscribers can watch on the ESPN app, the website and connected devices.

“We’re proud to be elevating our flagship amateur championship, providing a bigger stage for the elite players who compete for one of the most coveted titles in golf,” said John Kaczkowski, president and CEO of the Western Golf Association.

The Western Amateur dates to 1899. Only the British Amateur (1885) and U.S. Amateur (1895) are older. Past champions include Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Curtis Strange.

Divots

Hideki Matsuyama understands plenty of English and is capable of delivering a few answers in English — albeit short answers — without waiting for the interpreter. Asked if he liked French food or if he brought his own chef, Matsuyama quickly replied, “Chef.” His intepreter at the Olympics added, “That was an easy one.” … Jhonattan Vegas was the fourth player this year to end more than six years without winning on the PGA Tour. He won the 3M Open on Sunday, which gets him into the Masters next year for the first time since 2018. … Only six times since 2010 has a player made triple bogey or worse in the first round and gone on to win a PGA Tour event. Rory McIlroy has done it three times.

Stat of the week

Lydia Ko is the only player to win medals in golf at the last two Olympics — the silver in Rio de Janeiro and the bronze in Tokyo.

Final word

“I always felt like major for golf is more important because we have not really grown up with the Olympics. After a few days in the Olympic Village, the opening ceremony in Paris with all this crowd in front of the Eiffel Tower and all the great moments we spent the last few days, it really feels like a gold medal would be now ranked higher than a major for me.” — Matthieu Pavon of France.

___

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

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Suspicious deaths of two N.S. men were the result of homicide, suicide: RCMP

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Nova Scotia RCMP say their investigation into two suspicious deaths earlier this month has concluded that one man died by homicide and the other by suicide.

The bodies of two men, aged 40 and 73, were found in a home in Windsor, N.S., on Sept. 3.

Police say the province’s medical examiner determined the 40-year-old man was killed and the 73-year-old man killed himself.

They say the two men were members of the same family.

No arrests or charges are anticipated, and the names of the deceased will not be released.

RCMP say they will not be releasing any further details out of respect for the family.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Turning the tide: Quebec premier visits Cree Nation displaced by hydro project in 70s

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For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.

François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from its original location because members were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.

The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.

George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”

“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”

Nemaska’s story illustrates the challenges Legault’s government faces as it looks to build new dams to meet the province’s power needs, which are anticipated to double by 2050. Legault has promised that any new projects will be developed in partnership with Indigenous people and have “social acceptability,” but experts say that’s easier said than done.

François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said the earlier era of hydro projects were developed without any consideration for the Indigenous inhabitants living nearby.

“We live in a much different world now,” he said. “Any kind of hydro development, no matter where in Quebec, will require true consent and partnership from Indigenous communities.” Those groups likely want to be treated as stakeholders, he added.

Securing wider social acceptability for projects that significantly change the landscape — as hydro dams often do — is also “a big ask,” he said. The government, Bouchard added, will likely focus on boosting capacity in its existing dams, or building installations that run off river flow and don’t require flooding large swaths of land to create reservoirs.

Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, said Legault’s visit to Nemaska represents a desire for reconciliation with Indigenous people who were traumatized by the way earlier projects were carried about.

Any new projects will need the consent of local First Nations, Beaumier said, adding that its easier to get their blessing for wind power projects compared to dams, because they’re less destructive to the environment and easier around which to structure a partnership agreement.

Beaumier added that he believes it will be nearly impossible to get the public — Indigenous or not — to agree to “the destruction of a river” for a new dam, noting that in recent decades people have come to recognize rivers as the “unique, irreplaceable riches” that they are.

Legault’s visit to northern Quebec came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.

The book, published in 2022 along with Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Nemaska community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, Wapachee said.

In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.

“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”

Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.

Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.

Earlier Sunday, Legault was in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro complex in honour of former premier Bernard Landry. At the event, Legault said he would follow the example of his late predecessor, who oversaw the signing of the historic “Paix des Braves” agreement between the Quebec government and the Cree in 2002.

He said there is “significant potential” in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, both in increasing the capacity of its large dams and in developing wind power projects.

“Obviously, we will do that with the Cree,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.



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Quebec premier visits Cree community displaced by hydro project in 1970s

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NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.

François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.

The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.

George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”

“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”

The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.

In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.

“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”

Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.

Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.

Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.

Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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