Scottie Scheffler leads by 4 at East Lake as Morikawa and Schauffele try to keep it close | Canada News Media
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Scottie Scheffler leads by 4 at East Lake as Morikawa and Schauffele try to keep it close

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ATLANTA (AP) — Scottie Scheffler put on another clinic from tee-to-green at East Lake on Friday for a 5-under 66 and a four-shot lead at the Tour Championship that didn’t seem as big as it looked.

Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele had something to do with that.

In a second round that brought a sense of urgency for those chasing the No. 1 player in golf, Morikawa responded with nine birdies, two on the final two holes after a 93-minute storm delay, for an 8-under 63.

Schauffele finished with a pair of 12-foot putts — one for par, one for birdie, both feeling just as important as the other — for a 64.

“This course right now with how firm the greens are, it’s a ball-striking type deal where you have to be in the fairways and hit your number, and he’s been killing everyone at that all year,” Schauffele said. “I know he’s not going to let up, so there’s only one way to get him.”

Morikawa has laid out a plan for the week. Still, he was seven shots back to start the day and has seen enough of Scheffler this year to know what to expect.

“He’s going to continue to make birdies,” Morikawa said. “He’s driving it really, really well here and you’re giving yourself enough wedges to make some scoring opportunities out there. For me, it’s just bringing energy and just kind of staying alive out there.”

Taylor Pendrith (69) of Richmond Hill, Ont., is 8 under overall, sitting in a tie for 10th, 13 shots behind Scheffler.

They still have their work cut out for them.

Scheffler is the No. 1 seed in the FedEx Cup and began the finale with a two-shot lead. He also is playing as well as he has all year, and those immediately behind him in the FedEx Cup were not at their best in the opening round. That accounted for Scheffler having a seven-shot lead at the start of the day.

He returned from the storm delay with a pair of birdies over his final three holes and reached 21-under par. Morikawa was at 17 under and Schauffele was another shot behind.

No one else was closer than nine shots to Scheffler.

At stake for Scheffler is a chance to win the FedEx Cup and its $25 million prize, which he failed to do as the top seed each of the past two years. But he looks more comfortable on an East Lake course that has been overhauled — “This is not the same course,” he said when he arrived Monday for his first look — and everyone has a big task chasing him.

Scheffler began the round with a 7-iron that he thought was going to leave him a 20-foot look at birdie, except that it caught the wrong side of the ridge and rolled off the green, down a severe slope and settled 90 away against a collar of rough.

He holed a 20-foot par putt, a good start that sent him on his way. Even with Morikawa and Schauffele scoring early, Scheffler still led by six shots early on the back nine until he made his first bogey in 29 holes and Morikawa chipped in for birdie, a two-shot swing.

Morikawa had four birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn, only to see his tee shot to the 11th bounce hard and roll off the back of the green, leading to bogey. But he recovered well enough, particularly with his two closing birdies.

Schauffele, who started the tournament two shots behind as the No. 2 seed, lost ground with a 70 on the first day. He sorted out most of his swing issues and had a bogey-free day.

Scheffler tried not to get caught up in his seven-shot lead — a product of his 65 on Thursday and the next five players behind him in the FedEx Cup doing no better than 69 — though it was unusual to see a six-shot lead on the front nine on a Friday.

“Today was a day where I had a big lead, but there was a huge group of guys right there, so obviously some guys are going to play pretty well,” Scheffler said. “But I did a good job of staying in my own world out there and put up a good round of golf.”

He went out in 32. Morikawa and Schauffele had to keep making birdies just to keep this from turning into a runaway. Scheffler’s lone mistake was going bunker-to-bunker on the par-4 13th and missing an 8-foot par putt.

Scheffler is driving it so well — he missed only three fairways — that he didn’t have more than a 7-iron into a par 4 and is setting a tough target for everyone to chase.

Adam Scott (67), Wyndham Clark (67) and Sahith Theegala (66) were nine shots behind. Sam Burns, Scheffler’s best friend on tour, birdied his last two holes for a 68 and lost so much ground he stopped looking at the leaderboard. He was 10 shots behind.

“He’s the best golfer on the planet. He’s really good with leads,” Burns said. “It’s not a great thing for us.”

___

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Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

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BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

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VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.

The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.

The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.

The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.

The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.

MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.

In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.

“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.

“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.

“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.

The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.

“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”

The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.

A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

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The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.

Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.

Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.

Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.

“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.

“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”

Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.

“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.

Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.

“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”

But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.

Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.

“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.

Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.

The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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