Sports
We just watched the last great golf story
“May you get what you wish for.”—The third Chinese curse When Rory McIlroy settled down in front of the media in the aftermath of his great, chaotic, cathartic victory at the Masters, he began his opening statement with a joke: “What are we all going to talk about next year?” It landed. Everyone laughed, and […]


“May you get what you wish for.”
—The third Chinese curse
When Rory McIlroy settled down in front of the media in the aftermath of his great, chaotic, cathartic victory at the Masters, he began his opening statement with a joke: “What are we all going to talk about next year?”
It landed. Everyone laughed, and he laughed, too. As far as I could tell, his tone was congenial, and McIlroy of all people—subject of unbearable scrutiny here and at every other major for a decade and more—had earned the good-natured dig. Behind it, though, as the night went on and I tossed the words around, I detected some deeper, more uncomfortable truth. And the truth felt ominous, and it kept me awake.
Because, actually…what are we going to talk about?
Don’t mistake me—I don’t regret McIlroy’s win. Not even a little.
There’s a rule in sketch comedy that within a scene, you never, ever solve the problem. The comedy comes from tension, so you play the problem, you prolong the conflict, and when you’ve extracted all the humor you can, you bail out. Resolution is not funny—it cuts the tension, and it’s unsatisfying for the audience. Take the famous SNL cowbell sketch as an example. Imagine if, after a minute, one of the band members had successfully stopped Will Ferrell from playing the cowbell. Party’s over, right? The two critical ingredients of that sketch are that one, the bandmates must want him to stop playing the cowbell, and two, he must never stop playing the cowbell. Whatever it takes, including the intervention of Christopher Walken’s weirdo producer, that conflict must be preserved. Extrapolate from there to the narratives of professional golf, and you could argue that McIlroy needed to keep losing majors in order to heighten the tension and prolong the action. Resolution, in the form of him winning a major, meant we would lose the story for good.
But sketch comedy is called “short form” for a reason, and in longform drama (or whatever combination of drama and comedy real life represents), delaying the resolution eventually hits a point of diminishing returns. This weekend at Augusta, that time had come; there was only one satisfying end to the long saga of Rory McIlroy’s 11-year sojourn in the desert of major championship golf:
Victory had been deferred as long as possible, and, admittedly, to great dramatic effect. Just when you thought we had run out of ways to see his heart break in the most public forum possible, fate delivered: he blew the fairytale ending at the Home of Golf, he missed the unmissable putt at Pinehurst, twice. Each loss, importantly, was an escalation on the one that came before, a dramatic heightening, and that itself is a key ingredient of a great story.
To lose at Augusta, as he threatened to do at least half a dozen times on Sunday, would have been just as unbearable, but—critical difference—it would have been unbearable in a way that undermined the journey. Pinehurst had been the absolute limit of a decade of escalations; at this point, he had been hurt a little too much. Heartbreak at Augusta would look less like an interesting setback, and more like celestial sadism.
“There’s something cruel in this,” my friend Chris said to me as we watched McIlroy dump his undumpable pitch into the water on 13. He put the words to what we all felt, and that’s when the epiphany hit: there was no longer anything interesting about Rory blowing a major. It would be a dark farce, but also a tedious one, a gratuitous one, and it would pay off emotionally only for those who enjoyed suffering for its own sake.
Whoever is writing the Rory saga seemed to get it. A decade of losses got us to where we are today, but one more loss would, paradoxically, undermine the carefully built tension. The win that transpired, on the other hand, unleashed a staggering catharsis, emphasizing the incredible competitive resilience of the “eternal optimist” whose greatness was a static fact and whose ultimate triumph came from a heroic refusal to stop trying. He was Odysseus, hellbent on getting home no matter how the gods tried to break him, until even the gods began to love him again.
McIlroy became great with the early wins, but he became heroic through his failures, and he became larger than life through his suffering. If you wanted him to win on Sunday, as I did, it wasn’t because of his real-life personal qualities, or the deficiencies of his opponents, but because you couldn’t bear to see this kind of extended suffering go unrewarded. Whatever you think of him, whatever complications you see in his actions, hadn’t he earned this? Didn’t he deserve it?
There was no better ending than Augusta. No better ending than a thousand obstacles at the threshold, convincing you he might be eternally cursed. No better ending than unbearable tension and agonizing delays right until the very end, until finally, can you ****ing believe it, victory. He’s the greatest story in sports, and I am in awe of the author who stuck the landing.
So despite a certain melancholy attached to passing time, I’m not upset that the story had to end. The string had played out. After Pinehurst, another journalist told me that golf would get a lot less interesting if McIlroy ever actually won, and I took his point, but yesterday the alternative looked even less appetizing. It was time for a series finale.
But now, to attempt to answer that original question, what are we going to talk about next?
If McIlroy’s journey had a heroic quality to it—and again, the comparison to Odysseus is too obvious not to reuse—the conclusion to that journey leaves me with a certain cynicism about what comes next. Look around, and what you see seems less like a clean slate and more like a vacuum.
What if Rory wins more majors? He might—he probably will—but none will carry the same weight. Not even close.
What if other players emerge and go on great runs? They have, and they will, but do any of them connect like McIlroy, for good and bad? Each passing generation becomes more media-trained, more single-minded, and—outside of the golf course but perhaps on it too—so much less interesting. How can they inspire anything close to the same strong feelings?
What about stories off the course? Sure, there will be plenty of those, but have you enjoyed what you’ve seen lately? Are you excited for more years of the endless PGA Tour-LIV power struggle, or the hyper-injections of money that steadily rob professional golf of it soul? Is that what we have to look forward to?
What about Jordan Spieth? OK, fair point.
Aside from a few flickering torches, though, it’s a dark landscape, and while people like me will always find something worth spending words on, what will tug on the heartstrings of the average fan?
In 1992, in the years immediately after the end of the Cold War, Francis Fukayama wrote a book called ‘The End of History and the Last Man,’ in which he argued that, to quote the simplified summary on Wikipedia, we had reached “the end-point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” Fukayama is often mocked for being very wrong about this, and the implication of my argument, that we have seen the last of professional golf’s great heroic epics, may look equally short-sighted with time. I may be a victim of the moment, influenced by a certain fatigue with the world in 2025. I’m not afraid to tell you it has happened before.
But it feels like professional golf had two great, mythic cards to play in the last decade, and it played both cards to perfection at the most mythic battlefield in the sport, Augusta National, in 2019 and 2025. What remains in the wake feels faint and ineffectual, just a shadow of the spectacle we were lucky enough to witness on Sunday.
To answer McIlroy’s question literally, there will be plenty to talk about. There always is. But to stare into the abyss of the subtext, I’m not sure it will be quite like this ever again. Even as the players get better, the stories get worse, and I can’t shake the feeling we are in the twilight of the gods.
Sports
Johnson Qualifies for NCAAs in 400 Hurdles
Story Links VIDEO OF RACE EVENT RESULTS JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Graduate student Marcus Johnson has qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 400 hurdles. The Bearcat standout punched his ticket by placing eighth overall at the NCAA East Region Meet […]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Graduate student Marcus Johnson has qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 400 hurdles. The Bearcat standout punched his ticket by placing eighth overall at the NCAA East Region Meet on Friday evening at the Jax Track at Hodges Stadium.
Running in the first of three heats, Johnson was fourth overall with a personal-best and school-record time of 49.93. The top three finishers in each of the heats – plus the next three fastest times – advanced to the NCAA Championships, which will be held June 11-14 at the University of Oregon. Johnson was the fastest time of the finishers outside of the top three in their heat and posted the eighth-fastest time overall.
Johnson is the first Binghamton men’s track & field athlete to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships since Dan Schaffer in the 5,000 in 2022. He is also the fifth male Bearcat ever to qualify for a NCAA Division I Track & Field Meet, joining Rory Quller, Cazal Arnett, Erik van Ingen, Jesse Garn and Schaffer.
More details to follow ….
Sports
St. Cloud State Volleyball Announces 2025 Schedule
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State Volleyball has officially announced its 2025 schedule. The Huskies’ 29-match regular season slate features a nonconference trip to Canada and Washington for the Western Washington Invitational before returning to St. Cloud to host the 2025 UP North Tournament at Halenbeck Hall. Opening its season on Sept. 4 in British […]

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State Volleyball has officially announced its 2025 schedule. The Huskies’ 29-match regular season slate features a nonconference trip to Canada and Washington for the Western Washington Invitational before returning to St. Cloud to host the 2025 UP North Tournament at Halenbeck Hall. Opening its season on Sept. 4 in British Columbia, SCSU will play eight nonconference matches before beginning Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) play Sept. 19 at home.
The Huskies begin their 2025 season with a trip to Burnaby, British Columbia and Bellingham, Washington for the Western Washington Invitational, hosted by Western Washington and Simon Fraser (B.C.) from Sept. 4-6. SCSU will play at Simon Fraser (British Columbia) before traveling to Bellingham to play San Francisco State (Calif.), the host Western Washington and Central Washington to wrap up the four-match slate. The Huskies have played Simon Fraser three times (1-2, last in 2021), San Francisco State twice (2-0, last in 1990) and Central Washington twice (0-2, last in 2023). SCSU and Western Washington have never met on the volleyball court before. Three of the four teams, and SCSU, ended the 2024 season in the top-25 or were receiving votes.
St. Cloud State returns home the following weekend to host the 2025 UP North Tournament at Halenbeck Hall. The Huskies will play matches against Adelphi (N.Y.), Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan and Barry (Fla.). SCSU has played Adelphi once (1-0, last in 2017), Michigan Tech 22 times (16-6, last in 2024), Northern Michigan 28 times (10-18, last in 2024) and Barry once (0-1, last in 1995 NCAA Elite 8). The Huskies split against MTU and NMU in the 2024 UP North Tournament which was hosted by Michigan Tech in Houghton, Mich.
Northern Sun play starts Sept. 19-20 when Minot State and UMary come to St. Cloud for the Huskies 2025 conference home opener weekend. The following Tuesday, Sept. 23, SCSU makes its first conference road trip of the season when it travels to Mankato to play Minnesota State. St. Cloud State will play its first ever road Northern Sun match against league newcomer, Jamestown with a trip to Jamestown, N.D. on Sept. 26 and will welcome the Jimmies to St. Cloud on Oct. 25. SCSU is 4-0 all-time against Jamestown, but the teams last met in 1988. Towards the end of the NSIC slate, the Huskies will play rival Concordia-St. Paul in a nonconference matchup at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul on Nov. 4.
In total, the Huskies will play 14 home regular season matches (10 conference matches). The NSIC Tournament will run from Nov. 18-Nov. 21 and the NCAA Tournament will begin on Dec. 4 with regional play and conclude with the championship match on Dec. 13.
Eight teams on St. Cloud State’s 2025 schedule finished last season ranked in the Final American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) DII national poll – San Francisco State (No. 2), Concordia-St. Paul (No. 13), Southwest Minnesota State (No. 16), Wayne State (No. 19), Barry (No. 20), Northern State (No. 22), Central Washington (RV), Simon Fraser (RV), while the Huskies finished ranked No. 5, which tied their best final ranking in program history.
2025 SCHEDULE
For all the latest on St. Cloud State Volleyball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Sports
‘Varsity Blues’ USC Coach Gets New Trial on Fraud Charge
The University of Southern California water polo coach tied to the “Varsity Blues” admissions scandal will get a new trial on a fraud charge but remains convicted on a bribery charge, a panel of First Circuit judges ruled. It’s impossible to tell if the jury reached its guilty verdict on Jovan Vavic’s honest services wire […]

The University of Southern California water polo coach tied to the “Varsity Blues” admissions scandal will get a new trial on a fraud charge but remains convicted on a bribery charge, a panel of First Circuit judges ruled.
It’s impossible to tell if the jury reached its guilty verdict on Jovan Vavic’s honest services wire fraud charge using a recently invalidated legal theory, the judges said in a Friday opinion. The theory that was shot down in a separate “Varsity Blues” appeal argued that payments to USC could be considered “actionable bribes.”
USC was the victim of the bribery scheme and therefore cannot be considered to have received bribes under honest services fraud, the First Circuit found in US v Abdelaziz.
However, the panel in the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit found misstatements by prosecutors during closing arguments weren’t enough to prompt a new trial for a separate charge—Vavic’s federal programs bribery conspiracy charge.
Prosecutors didn’t contradict jury instructions, and their statements likely didn’t impact the trial’s outcome, the judges said.
As coach, Vavic was paid to help students pose as members of the water polo team and get admitted to USC, according to prosecutors. The scandal ensnared dozens of ultra-wealthy parents, Hollywood stars, and college coaches. Vavic was the only coach to go to trial.
He was convicted in 2022, but granted a new trial after a district court found some evidence from the government wasn’t reliable.
For example, some of the payments from private equity investor John B. Wilson allegedly to secure his son’s admission went to the school’s water polo program, not Vavic, said Judge Indira Talwani of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Separately, Wilson sued USC in Los Angeles state court in September after his fraud and bribery convictions were overturned, asking for his six-figure donation back.
Judge Julie Rikelman wrote the opinion, and Judges Gustavo A. Gelpí and O. Rogeriee Thompson joined.
The case is US v. Vavic, 1st Cir., No. 22-1787, 5/30/25.
Sports
St. Cloud Tech loses in first boys volleyball tournament 2025
ELK RIVER — The first season of boys varsity volleyball in St. Cloud is over. St. Cloud Tech lost to Elk River 3-0 in the Section 8-1A play-in game Tuesday, ending the team’s inaugural season. The Tigers (1-17) were seeded No. 10 in the section and played No. 7 Elk River (13-16) for a […]

ELK RIVER — The first season of boys varsity volleyball in St. Cloud is over.
St. Cloud Tech lost to Elk River 3-0 in the Section 8-1A play-in game Tuesday, ending the team’s inaugural season.
The Tigers (1-17) were seeded No. 10 in the section and played No. 7 Elk River (13-16) for a shot at the two-seed, St. Michael Albertville (22-7). The Elks won the first set handily — 25-12, but Tech kept the second and third sets in single digits. The Elk won 25-20 and 25-22.
The Tigers beat Minneapolis Edison (8-15) on April 12. It was the first season of varsity designation for the sport by the MSHSL and most of the Tech players did not play volleyball competitively until the school added a club team in 2023-24.
There are few teams in Minnesota outside of the Twin Cities or Rochester areas, and the Tigers are the furthest north besides Bemidji (14-2). The Lumberjacks beat Tech in the Tigers’ home opener, and they are to play STMA for a chance to play Rogers (23-1) or Anoka (19-6) in the section final.
Contact reporter Reid Glenn at rglenn@gannett.com.
Sports
Turner Resets School Record In 100m Hurdles To Move On
COLLEGE STATION, Texas—The Long Beach State women’s track and field team opened competition at the NCAA West First Round Thursday at E.B. Cushing Stadium. ON THE TRACK Rahni Turner overcame a slow start in her 100m hurdles heat to win the race in a new school record time of 13.15. Turner previously held the […]

ON THE TRACK
Rahni Turner overcame a slow start in her 100m hurdles heat to win the race in a new school record time of 13.15. Turner previously held the school record with Hailey Fune’ at 13.21. Her victory automatically advanced her to Saturday’s quarterfinals in the event. The quarters begin Saturday at 4:15 p.m.
Claudine Raud-Gumiel missed moving on by one spot in the 100m hurdles. Her 13.44 resulted in 25th in the field of 48. The top 24 compete again on Saturday.
Battling a leg injury, Trinity Barnett competed in the 100m and 200m. She ran 11.66 in the 100m, coming in 44th. Returning a little over an hour later, she put up a time of 24.29 in the 200m, finishing 45th out of 48.
Sofia Lavreshina missed advancing to the quarterfinals in the 400m hurdles. Her 58.78 was the 26th fastest time in the field of 48.
IN THE FIELD
Giszelle Hrehor fouled on her three attempts in the hammer throw and did not record a place in the event.
Jonelle Scott failed to clear the opening height in the pole vault, 13-2 1/4, resulting in a non-placing finish.
UP NEXT
Tristyn Flores has advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals in the men’s 100m and men’s 200m. The 100m is scheduled to begin at 4:35 p.m. PDT. The 200m begins at 5:50 p.m. PDT. Friday’s Long Beach State field entries are listed below.
ALL TIMES PACIFIC
~#LongBeachBuilt~
Sports
Eagles win 2 all-sports trophies and top women’s athlete in ASUN awards
Selfless service to community In service, Carpenter was a dedicated volunteer with numerous nonprofit organizations, consistently giving back to FGCU and the local community. After Hurricane Ian struck in 2022, she contributed and coordinated more than 30 hours of volunteer work to assist local students and residents. She also led the bone marrow registration initiative […]
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