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Scottie Scheffler wins 2025 BMW Championship in absurd finish, claims bonus before FedEx Cup Playoffs finale

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Scottie Scheffler’s dominance of the golf world continued unabated Sunday at Caves Valley Golf Club as the No. 1 golfer on the planet overcame a four-shot deficit to best tournament-long leader Robert MacIntyre and win the 2025 BMW Championship. Capturing the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, he picked up his fifth win of the year second at a big-money PGA Tour event to go along with the pair of major championships he claimed this season (PGA Championship, Open Championship).
Scheffler not only takes home a $3.6 million winner’s share for standing atop the leaderboard at the BMW Championship, cementing the top spot in the FedEx Cup standings earns him a $5 million bonus ahead of the Tour Championship where he will look to become the first golfer in history to go back-to-back at the season finale.
Scheffler has now won 12 PGA Tour events in the last two years along with an Olympic gold medal and another victory at the Hero World Challenge. That makes him the first golfer since Tiger Woods to post consecutive seasons with five or more victories on the PGA Tour.
While MacIntyre coughed up the significant advantage he held most of the week, his second-place finish just outside Baltimore rocketed him 11 spots up the FedEx Cup standings to No. 9 for the season. Rory McIlroy struggled to find birdies all week but will enter the Tour Championship in the second spot after a T12 finish at Caves Valley.
Scheffler cemented his victory with this incredible chip on the 17th, notching a birdie to ensure MacIntyre had no chance of surpassing him. Grade: A+
2. Robert MacIntyre (-13): Stating after one of his rounds that, when his putter is rolling, there may not be many who can beat him, MacIntyre saw the inverse of that happen Sunday as he opened the door for the world No. 1 to march through. The left hander hit only one fairway on his front nine (with an iron in hand) and had a case of the rights with the big stick off the tee. This hindered his chances on approach and made it so many of those high leverage putts were not for birdie but rather for par. He trailed by one stroke with four holes to play but missed an 8-foot birdie look and watched as Scheffler rolled his in from a similar distance to all but seal the deal. Grade: A
T8. Rickie Fowler (-7): Fowler started the week barely inside the top 50 and started the final day barely outside the top 30. The former Players Championship winner got rolling around the turn with five birdies in a seven-hole stretch to reach 10 under for the tournament. He was projected to move to No. 25 in the FedEx Cup standings when the mistakes begin to compound. A bogey-birdie exchanged occurred on Nos. 12-13 before a bogey-double bogey run from the middle of the fairway on Nos. 14-15 all but sunk his chances. While Fowler played his way into the signature events in 2026, he had a chance to add his name to major championship fields had he qualified for the Tour Championship. Now, he’ll have to find another path to the four biggest events on the calendar as he is not qualified for them yet. Grade: A-
T12. Rory McIlroy (-3): It felt like every time McIlroy took a step forward, it was only a matter of time before he took a couple steps back. The world No. 2 carded four double bogeys and a boatload of bogeys on the week to go along with 17 birdies and an eagle. The scoring prowess was there, but if he is to win his fourth FedEx Cup crown next week at East Lake, he will need to clean up the mistakes and sharpen his iron play. There was perhaps some competitive rust early in the tournament given his lack of reps since The Open.
“The game was awful for the first six holes and then actually felt like I found something, especially on the back nine there,” McIlroy said. “So definitely something to build off going into next week. This week was [a consequence of] my three weeks off. I really didn’t do anything in those three weeks. I was probably expecting too much to get in contention, but there was glimmers of really good stuff in there this week. As I said, I felt like I found a bit of a groove over the last nine holes, so certainly something to build off going into the Tour Championship next week.” Grade: B-
T28. Xander Schauffele (+3): The first year in which the Tour Championship will see every player start from the same point, Schauffele will be nowhere to be found. Missing the postseason finale for the first time in his career, the two-time major champion was never able to get anything going outside of Baltimore where he entered the week at No. 43 in the season-long race. Missing time early in the year due to injury, he was never able to replicate the form from his career year in 2024. Everything was just slightly off — he made more mistakes, missed more putts, and his driver was far looser than a season ago. Schauffele had previously won the Tour Championship his rookie season and shot the lowest 72-hole total at East Lake during the staggered start era.
“Everyone out here is trying really hard,” Schauffele said. “There’s nothing worse than trying your hardest and playing like ass. It’s the worst combo. Some of us do it, some of us don’t. It’s been a while since I have, and I did it for a few weeks now, and it sucked. It’s going to be nice to sit back and be at home and away from golf.” Grade: C-
T33. Chris Gotterup (+6): The Scottish Open winner entered the week inside the top 30 but quickly needed to play offense after a slow start saw his name drift outside the projected cut-off point. Gotterup got things going on Sunday as he was 3 under through his first 15 holes but was unable to take advantage of the par-5 16th and dropped a shot on the difficult par-3 17th. For much of the afternoon, it appeared Gotterup would fall on the wrong side of the number, but when others stumbled, he started to climb and so much so that he snuck onto the tee sheet at the Tour Championship.
“I want to give myself another chance to play well and climb the Ryder Cup rankings and all that stuff,” Gotterup said. “But if I go home today or if I play next week, I’ve had a great year regardless. We were talking the other day, like if we were a month out and you said you were going to be here with a chance to fight for East Lake, you would have signed for that. I would have liked to have played better these last couple of weeks, but all things considered, big picture, it’s been a good season.” Grade: D+
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Afghanistan earthquake: Taliban appeals for international aid as rescue teams search for survivors | Afghanistan

The Taliban has called for international aid as Afghanistan reels from an earthquake that killed more than 800 people and left thousands injured.
Rescuers searched into the night for survivors on Monday after the 6.0 magnitude quake struck on Sunday. Many were trapped under the debris of simple mud and stone homes built into steep valleys.
Rescuers struggled to reach remote areas due to rough mountainous terrain and inclement weather. The worst of the destruction was in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan.
The dead, some of them children, were wrapped in white shrouds by villagers who prayed over their bodies before burying them, while helicopters ferried the wounded to hospitals.
“The rooms and walls collapsed … killing some children and injuring others,” said 22-year-old Zafar Khan Gojar, who was evacuated from Nurgal to Jalalabad along with his brother, whose leg was broken.
The disaster will further stretch the resources of the war-torn nation’s Taliban administration, already grappling with crises ranging from a sharp drop in foreign aid to deportations of hundreds of thousands of Afghans by neighbouring countries.
Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the health ministry in Kabul, called for international aid to tackle the devastation wrought by the quake of magnitude 6 that struck around midnight local time, at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).
“We need it because here lots of people lost their lives and houses,” he told Reuters.
The quake killed 812 people in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, administration spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said.
Ziaul Haq Mohammadi, a student at Al-Falah University in the eastern city of Jalalabad, was studying in his room at home when the quake struck. He said he tried to stand up but was knocked over by the power of the tremor.
“We spent the whole night in fear and anxiety because at any moment another earthquake could happen,” Mohammadi said.
Rescuers were battling to reach remote mountainous areas cut off from mobile networks along the Pakistani border, where mudbrick homes dotting the slopes collapsed in the quake.
“The area of the earthquake was affected by heavy rain in the last 24-48 hours as well, so the risk of landslides and rock slides is also quite significant – that is why many of the roads are impassable,” Kate Carey, an officer at the UN Office for the coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), told Reuters.
Rescue teams and authorities are trying to dispose of animal carcasses quickly so as to minimise the risk of contamination to water resources, Carey said.
Casualties could rise as rescue teams access more isolated locations, authorities said.
“All our … teams have been mobilised to accelerate assistance, so that comprehensive and full support can be provided,” said health ministry spokesperson Abdul Maten Qanee, citing efforts in areas from security to food and health.
Reuters Television images showed helicopters ferrying out the affected, while residents helped security forces and medics carry the wounded to ambulances in an area with a long history of earthquakes and floods.
Military rescue teams fanned out across the region, the defence ministry said, with 40 flights carrying away 420 wounded and dead.
The quake razed three villages in Kunar, with substantial damage in many others, authorities said. At least 610 people were killed in Kunar with 12 dead in Nangarhar, they added.
Some villagers sat weeping amid the piled ruins of their homes. Others began laboriously clearing the debris by hand, or carried out the injured on makeshift stretchers.
“This is Mazar Dara in Nurgal district. The entire village has been destroyed,” one victim told reporters. “Children and elders are trapped under the rubble. We need urgent help.“
Another survivor said: “We need ambulances, we need doctors, we need everything to rescue the injured and recover the dead.”
It was Afghanistan’s third major deadly quake since the Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign forces withdrew, triggering a cut to the international funding that formed the bulk of government finances.
Diplomats and aid officials say crises elsewhere in the world, along with donor frustration over the Taliban’s policies towards women, including curbs on those who are aid workers, have spurred the cuts in funding.
Even humanitarian aid, aimed at bypassing political institutions to serve urgent needs, has shrunk to $767m this year, down from $3.8b in 2022.
On Monday, Britain set out emergency funding support for those affected by the recent earthquakes, saying it would ensure that the aid does not go to the South Asian country’s current Taliban administration by channelling it through its partners.
Britain’s 1-million-pound ($1.35-million) assistance will be split between the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Red Cross (IFRC) to deliver critical healthcare and emergency supplies to Afghans in the most affected regions, the government statement said.
“The UK remains committed to the people of Afghanistan, and this emergency funding will help our partners to deliver critical healthcare and emergency supplies to the most hard-hit,” British foreign minister David Lammy said in the statement.
A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said it was ready to provide disaster relief assistance “according to Afghanistan’s needs and within its capacity”.
Meanwhile, foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar of India said it had delivered 1,000 family tents to Kabul and was moving 15 tonnes of food material to Kunar, with more relief material to be sent from India starting on Tuesday.
The US state department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs posted its condolences on X on Monday for the loss of life in the earthquake, but did not immediately respond when asked if the United States would provide any assistance.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
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Bill Belichick era starts with a bang

Bill Belichick’s tenure as a college coach couldn’t have started any better.
With North Carolina receiving the opening kickoff, the Tar Heels went right down the field for a touchdown.
Seven plays, 83 yards. In little over four minutes.
Running back Caleb Hood scored on the ground, from eight yards. Quarterback Gio Lopez was two for two for 58 yards.
The touchdown delight some of the luminaries in attendance — former UNC basketball coach Roy Williams, former UNC basketball star Michael Jordan, former UNC defensive standout Lawrence Taylor, and former Belichick pupil Randy Moss.
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Naomi Osaka dominates Coco Gauff to power into US Open quarter-finals | US Open Tennis 2025

Naomi Osaka turned back the clock on Monday in New York, producing the cleanest big‑stage performance of her comeback from maternity leave to overwhelm Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-2 in a blockbuster fourth-round meeting inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
In front of a packed 23,771-seat arena, the two crossover stars – who between them own three of the past seven US Open championships – reprised a rivalry that began with their famous encounter here in 2019. This time there were no tears, no consolations, only the sight of a four‑times major champion dictating terms again on the sport’s biggest stage.
Gauff, 21 and seeded third, is the same age Osaka was when she broke the teenager’s heart six years ago on the same court. Then, Osaka had comforted the 15-year-old wildcard in a moment that went viral. On Monday the generosity stopped at the baseline. Osaka dominated from the first ball, ripping returns and taking control of rallies before the crowd could rouse their favourite. She breezed through her opening service games with the authority that once lifted her to the summit of the sport, winning 16 of her first 18 service points, and her confident body language stood in stark contrast to the brooding, stressed figure she has sometimes appeared since her return.
Gauff’s serving woes, the recurring theme of her summer, surfaced immediately. In her opening service game she fell behind 15-40, hitting a routine forehand into the net to concede the break, and never quite recovered. She served a double fault three times in the opening set, the last on set point to hand it away after only 31 minutes.
By then she had sprayed 16 unforced errors, 11 of them off a forehand that was in open revolt. The Labor Day crowd, eager to lift her, swelled behind her at every pressure point, but their encouragement could not dispel the nervous energy. Osaka looked liberated, striding confidently to her chair with a one-set lead, while Gauff disappeared into the tunnel for a bathroom break.
“I felt it was the best I served all tournament,” Gauff said. “A lot of aces. Yeah, there were some doubles, but I thought that was a good performance from me serving. Off the ground I just made way too many mistakes.”
The troubles on serve have been simmering for months. After winning a second grand slam at Roland Garros in June, Gauff endured a turbulent summer of double faults and early exits, including a first-round defeat at Wimbledon that underscored the fragility of her delivery. She arrived in New York with a reshuffled team and a newly hired biomechanics specialist, Gavin MacMillan, who helped Aryna Sabalenka to turn her own serve from liability into a potent weapon en route to three grand slam titles and the world No 1 ranking.
Early rounds suggested the transition was uneven – a grinding three-setter against Ajla Tomljanovic, then tears in her second-round escape against Donna Vekic – before she steadied with a better display on Saturday in a straight-sets win against Magdalena Frech. She had spoken of embracing a long-term process rather than chasing a quick fix, but under the Ashe sun there was little sign of the assured server who had appeared only in flashes.
The second set followed a similar pattern. Osaka, serving at 2-2, fell behind on serve for the first time all afternoon but rattled off four straight points to hold. In the next game Gauff opened with a fifth double fault, then unravelled in a flurry of errors off both wings to gift Osaka another break. From there the match was all but a handshake away. Osaka pounded through the closing games without fuss, sealing her progress after just 64 minutes when Gauff dumped a forehand into the net for her 33rd unforced error.
The statistics reflected Osaka’s clarity of purpose. She landed only 42% of first serves but won 32 of 38 points on her racket, including 94% of first-serve points. She finished with 10 winners to 12 unforced errors, content to sit back as Gauff’s erratic play kept rallies short and prevented her famed speed from becoming a factor.
For Gauff, the defeat was a sobering comedown after an uneven but promising opening week. She had hoped a remodelled service motion would hold under pressure, but five double faults and more than four times as many unforced errors (33) as winners (eight) told the story.
“It’s disappointing for sure, but it is a step in the right direction,” she said. “If I kept the way I was going in Cincinnati to here, I would have been out the first round.” She admitted the past three months had taken a toll. “It’s been a tough post-French Open for me. I don’t know, I feel like I put so much pressure on myself at 21.”
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Osaka, in contrast, gave the appearance of a contender again. Seeded 23rd after reaching the Montreal final last month, she has now won 10 of her past 11 matches and appears to be gathering momentum with each week. This was her 14th career win against a top-10 opponent and the third since launching her comeback last year in Brisbane.
Every time she has reached a grand slam quarter-final she has gone on to lift the trophy – 12 wins from 12 matches at majors in the last eight or beyond – a curious statistic that now hovers over the draw. She will face Karolina Muchova in the last eight, and on this evidence she will be no one’s idea of an underdog.
Her elation was evident in the on‑court interview. “I honestly just had so much fun out here,” she said. “I was in the stands two months after I gave birth to my daughter watching Coco, and I just really wanted the opportunity to come out here and play again. This is my favourite court in the world and it means so much for me to be back here.”
Asked when she started believing again, she pointed to Montreal. “I had played a match there where I had to save two match points. Ever since then I thought to myself anything’s possible. You just have to keep trying and keep a smile on your face.” She added: “I’m a little sensitive and I don’t want to cry, but I want to say thank you to my team. I looked up to Coco a lot – the way she carries herself is really special – and it means a lot to share the court with her again.”
Whatever comes next, Monday felt like a landmark. One of only two mothers in the last 16 alongside Taylor Townsend, Osaka has spoken about rediscovering joy in her tennis. Here she found it in real time, grinning after big points and basking in the Ashe ovation.
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