National Sports

PORTRUSH, Ireland — An emotional opening shot by Darren Clarke. A shocking one by Rory McIlroy. Tiger Woods had his worst score to start a British Open. Brooks Koepka quickly got into contention again. Emiliano Grillo made a 1. David Duval made a 14.

TORONTO — York 9 FC captain Manny Aparicio won the fledgling Canadian Premier League some exposure south of the border when his long-range rocket against Pacific FC cracked ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10.

SEATTLE — Ron Francis has all kinds of eye-popping statistics attached to his Hall of Fame career. He averaged more than point a game, is second in NHL history in assists behind Wayne Gretzky and fifth in career points.

TORONTO — The Canadian Soccer Association has named 18 players from the three Canadian MLS team academies for its entry at the CONCACAF Boys' Under-15 Championship next month in the U.S. The tournament will run Aug. 3-12 in Bradenton, Fla.

WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg Blue Bombers may be odds-on favourites to extend their season-opening winning streak to five games, but you'll never get them to admit it. Every week they're 0-1, says star running back Andrew Harris.

Fifteen years ago, golfers didn't have to worry about making the Olympics. The sport hadn't been featured at a Games since 1904 when Canada's George Lyon won gold.

TORONTO — Canada has been confirmed as one of eight women's teams in the 2021 Rugby League World Cup. The other participants are host England, defending champion Australia, Brazil, the Cook Islands, France, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

GWANGJU, Korea, Republic Of — Canada's diving team earned another two spots at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after Pamela Ware and Jennifer Abel qualified for the final of the women's three-metre springboard Thursday at the FINA world aquatics championship

Tyler Ardron will captain Canada at the 2019 Pacific Nations Cup with Irish-born back Peter Nelson set to make his Canadian rugby debut.

TORONTO — Forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson signed with the Toronto Raptors on Thursday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, as per Raptors team policy. Hollis-Jefferson averaged 8.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 20.