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Rory McIlroy cruised to a St. Patrick’s Day victory at the Players Championship on Monday, defeating J.J. Spaun in a playoff at TPC Sawgrass in Florida.Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy cruised to a St. Patrick’s Day victory at the Players Championship on Monday, defeating J.J. Spaun in a playoff at TPC Sawgrass in Florida. The four-time major champion completed the three-hole shoot-out in one over par, while Spaun’s challenge wilted after a disastrous triple-bogey on the second playoff hole. “This is the third time I’ve won on St. Patrick’s Day, so it’s been a good luck charm for me,” McIlroy said after sealing the second Players Championship of his career and 28th PGA Tour title overall. “I was lucky enough to do enough to get it done, but unbelievably proud and happy to win my second Players … It’s really nice,” McIlroy added.

McIlroy had finished tied at the top of the leaderboard with Spaun following Sunday’s storm-hit final round after failing to hold on to a three-shot lead with five holes to play.

But after returning to the course on Monday in bright, breezy conditions, there was no sign of a repeat of the late stumble by McIlroy on Sunday that had allowed Spaun to force his way into the first playoff of his career.

McIlroy struck first on the opening playoff hole, the par-five 16th, crushing a 336-yard drive straight down the fairway before reaching the green in two.

Spaun meanwhile looked out of sorts from the get-go, finding the fairway rough off the tee before landing his second shot into the greenside bunker.

McIlroy failed to make his 33-foot eagle putt but calmly rolled in an awkward five-footer for birdie.

England’s John Parry and New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier, both in outstanding form, have confirmed their participation in the 2025 Hero Indian Open, scheduled to be held at the DLF Golf and Country Club

England’s John Parry and New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier, both in outstanding form, have confirmed their participation in the 2025 Hero Indian Open, scheduled to be held at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurguram from March 27 to 30. The tournament, sanctioned by the DP World Tour and the Indian Golf Union, will feature 138 players from nearly 30 countries competing for a prize purse of USD 2.25 million. Both Parry and Hillier are currently in Top-5 of the Race to Dubai rankings on the DP World Tour.

Parry, ranked third in the Race to Dubai, is no stranger to success in India, having won the Delhi Challenge on the Hotelplanner Tour last year. He followed up this victory with two more wins on the Hotelplanner Tour and secured his first DPWT win in 14 years at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.

Parry has continued his strong form in 2025, finishing T-8 at the Australian PGA, T-2 at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa, and clinched a win at Mauritius, followed by a runner-up finish in Kenya.

Hillier, 25, is also in impressive form, having finished runner-up at the 2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic. He has posted consistent Top-20 finishes across Australia, South Africa, Bahrain, and Qatar and is currently ranked fifth in the Race to Dubai standings.

Among other top players in the Race to Dubai standings, three winners from the ongoing season will also be competing. They are Johannes Veerman (No. 8), winner of the Nedbank Golf Challenge; Callum Hill (No. 11), winner of the Joburg Open; and Ryggs Johnston (No. 14), winner of the ISPS Handa Australian Open. Additionally, Jayden Schaper, ranked 15th, will also take part.

The tournament is part of the Asian Swing, which began in Singapore and will conclude with two events in China. The winner of the ‘Asian Swing’ will earn an exemption into the next Rolex event, the Genesis Scottish Open, co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour.

Another major incentive for all DPWT players is the opportunity to earn points towards the Race to Dubai. At the end of the season, the Top-10 players who are not already exempt from the PGA Tour will earn dual PGA Tour membership for the following year.

As many as 16 winners from both the current and previous DP World Tour seasons are set to compete. This includes 12 champions from the 2024 season and four winners from the 2025 schedule, all of whom will be serious contenders to lift the trophy on March 30.

The world number two was riding high coming into the first major of the year having captured two US PGA Tour titles this year.

Rory McIlroy put major championship miseries behind him with a heart-stopping victory at the Masters on Sunday that was nearly as nerve-wracking as some of the near-misses that came before. “You know, there was points on the back nine today, I thought, ‘Have I let this slip again?’” McIlroy admitted after giving up the solo lead three times before rolling in a four-foot birdie putt at the first playoff hole to beat Justin Rose.

Just a complete rollercoaster of a day,” McIlroy said. “An emotionally draining week for a lot of reasons, a lot of just rollercoaster rounds and late finishes.

“(I’m) absolutely thrilled to be sitting here at the end of the week as the last man standing.”

The world number two was riding high coming into the first major of the year having captured two US PGA Tour titles this year.

But he had two double-bogeys in a first-round 72 that left him seven strokes off the pace and two more on Sunday to make him the first Masters winner with four doubles on his scorecard.

His first on Sunday came at the opening hole, and immediately dropped him into a tie with playing partner Bryson DeChambeau.

He would also double-bogey 13 before hanging on to complete the win.

“It’s funny, walking to the second tee the first thing that popped into my head was Jon Rahm a couple of years ago making double and going on to win,” McIlroy said.

“So at least my mind was in the right place and was at least thinking positively about it,” added the player who says resilience is his greatest asset.

He has needed it over the years. From a crushing 2011 Masters defeat when he was just 21 to a devastating collapse over the final holes at the US Open last year, McIlroy has mastered the art of bouncing back.

“Look, you have to be the eternal optimist in this game,” he said.

But after failing in 10 attempts to complete the career Grand Slam at Augusta, McIlroy was feeling the pressure on the first tee on Sunday, even after back-to-back rounds of 66 to seize the lead.

Rory McIlroy says winning the Masters to complete a long-sought career Grand Slam will change how he feels going into other majors, starting at next week’s PGA ChampionshipRory McIlroy says winning the Masters to complete a long-sought career Grand Slam will change how he feels going into other majors, starting at next week’s PGA Championship. World number two McIlroy defeated England’s Justin Rose last month at Augusta National to capture his fifth major title, and first since 2014, to finally take the green jacket and complete the career Slam. The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland joined Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan with wins in all four major tournaments.

So when McIlroy tees off next week at Quail Hollow, a course where he has won four PGA Tour titles, it will be as a reigning major champion for the first time in 10 years.

“I’m obviously going to feel more comfortable and a lot less pressure, and I’m also going back to a venue that I love,” McIlroy said. “It’s nothing but positive vibes going in there next week with what happened a few weeks ago and then how well I’ve played at Quail.

Charlie Woods, the 16-year-old son of 15-time major winner Tiger Woods, won his first American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) title on Wednesday, taking a three-stroke victory in Florida

Charlie Woods, the 16-year-old son of 15-time major winner Tiger Woods, won his first American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) title on Wednesday, taking a three-stroke victory in Florida. The younger Woods fired a six-under par 66 final round to capture the Team TaylorMade Invitational at Streamsong Resort Black course, finishing on 15-under 201. It was the first victory in five AJGA starts for Charlie Woods, who fired eight birdies and two bogeys in the final round but closed with four consecutive pars to seal the triumph in the top US junior series.

A field of 71 included four of the nation’s five top-ranked juniors and 60 of the top 100. Woods was 606th in AJGA rankings but is expected to leap into the top 15 after the win.

Charlie Woods would be able to have talks with college coaches next month even though he wouldn’t be joining university teams before 2027 if then.

Woods was playing on a sponsor invitation in the event but will be exempt for AJGA invitationals the rest of this season.

Woods, who has won other age-group events, failed in an attempt to qualify for the US Open earlier this month.

Jaipur:

It was a crypto currency trail that led intelligence agencies to upper division clerk Vikas Yadav in Nau Sena Bhavan, the naval wing of the Defence Ministry.

Mr Yadav was addicted to online gaming, sources said. A Pakistani woman identified as ‘Priya Sharma’ – clearly a fake name – befriended him on Facebook three years ago after seeing his addiction, and persuaded him into spying for Pakistan. Thereafter, she became her handler.

After that, he switched to communicating with her on WhatsApp and Telegram.

So, how exactly did intelligence operatives find out Mr Yadav, the upper division clerk in the Nau Sena Bhavan, was a spy?

The case goes back to another one linked to a spy, Ravi Prakash Meena, a Rajasthan resident who was arrested in 2022. Mr Meena was a Class 4 employee in the Defence Ministry’s Sena Bhawan. Investigators found that Mr Meena received money through a cryptocurrency channel in return for providing sensitive information like maps to his Pakistani handler.
When intelligence agencies put Mr Meena’s cryptocurrency channel under surveillance, they were led to two more people. One of them was Mr Yadav, the clerk in the Nau Sena Bhawan. They found that Mr Yadav had been getting money from the same cryptocurrency channel as Mr Meena.

Thereafter, intelligence operatives put Mr Yadav under surveillance for over two years before finally arresting him. A large sum of money was being transferred from this cryptocurrency channel to Mr Yadav, who in turn used the money to feed his online gaming addiction.

The intelligence agencies have got four-day custody of Mr Yadav. His mobile phone has been sent to a forensics laboratory.

The police suspect that Mr Yadav was scanning sensitive naval documents and sending them to his Pakistani handler, ‘Priya Sharma’.

The method used by the Pakistani handlers is clear. They looked for clerical staff in the Defence Ministry and either lured them with honeytrap or offered money to give sensitive information.

Intelligence agencies also suspect Mr Yadav gave sensitive information during Operation Sindoor.

New Delhi:

Information from the black boxes recovered from the June 12 Air India plane crash has been successfully downloaded and is being analysed, the government said Thursday afternoon.

The black boxes – a flight data recorder, or FDR, and a cockpit voice recorder, or CVR – were damaged in the crash and there were questions over the recovery of usable data. Last week sources told NDTV the government may send the FDR and CVR to the United States for forensic extraction of data.

However, in a big breakthrough, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has succeeded in safely extracting the Crash Protection Module, or CPM, and the memory module, and downloaded the data.

The government said both boxes – one found on the rooftop of the hostel into which the plane crashed and the other from the debris – were securely transported to the AAIB lab in Delhi on Tuesday.

New Delhi:

Iran will never surrender to the US and any future aggression would come at a great cost, its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today in his first remarks after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel. The ceasefire followed the US’ targeting of three nuclear sites in Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strike at a US base in Qatar.

“The American president indicated in one of his statements that Iran must surrender. Surrender! It is no longer a question of enrichment, nor the nuclear industry, but of the surrender of Iran,” Khamenei said in a televised speech. “Such an event (surrender) will never happen. It will never happen.”
Referring to Iran’s airstrikes on US’s Al Udeid air base in Qatar, Khamenei said, “The fact that the Islamic Republic has access to key US centers in the region and can take action whenever it deems necessary is a significant matter. Such an action can be repeated in the future too. Should any aggression occur, the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price.” The remarks were posted on X, too. 
“Iran’s enemies use excuses like missiles or our nuclear programme, but they are actually looking for our surrender. Trump has unveiled the truth that the US will only be satisfied with Iran’s surrender. But surrender will never happen, our nation is powerful,” he said. 
Iran, he said, “delivered a heavy slap to the US’s face”. “It attacked and inflicted damage on the Al-Udeid Air Base, which is one of the key US bases in the region,” he said.  

New Delhi:

Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla said he is excited about the scientific tasks that he and the crew will perform for the next 14 days in the International Space Station (ISS). He said he is feeling a bit “lightheaded” but “that is nothing compared to the excitement”.

It was the first time the entire team spoke together since Group Captain Shukla and three other astronauts successfully docked their Dragon spacecraft with the ISS this evening. Visuals beamed from the ISS showed the four astronauts who had just arrived enjoying a healthy drink and laughing.

“I am feeling lightheaded,” the IAF pilot-turned-astronaut said. “But that is not much of an issue compared to the things we will do here for the next 14 days. It is a very proud and exciting moment, a big step in our space journey,” Group Captain Shukla said, flanked by the ISS crew and the three astronauts who came with him – Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, Tibor Kapu of Hungary, and Dr Peggy Whitson of the US.

He reiterated what he said earlier about the tricolour (national flag). “I wear the tricolour on my shoulders with pride.”

Group Captain Shukla’s family along with friends and relatives gathered at the school in Lucknow where he studied and watched the live telecast of the space capsule Dragon’s successful docking at the ISS.

The capsule which is part of the Axiom 4 mission is the fifth and final Dragon in Elon Musk-owned company SpaceX fleet. It was christened “Grace” after reaching orbit.

New Delhi:

Air Force pilot Shubhanshu Shukla wrote a historic new chapter in the country’s space exploration story Thursday after becoming the first Indian to float into the International Space Station.

Live visuals from the ISS showed Shukla, and the other three astronauts on the Crew Dragon capsule, being helped through the vestibule connecting the spacecraft and the ISS. Each had big grins on their face and were welcomed with bear hugs by the seven astronauts already on the ISS.

The four then lined up for a photo op drinking liquids from a foil packet.

The capsule that carried the astronauts – part of Axiom-4, a private mission – docked this evening, completing a 28-hour flight from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre to a point 424km over the northern Atlantic Ocean.

Docking is the procedure by which a spacecraft connects to the space station.

But before that docking can even begin the spacecraft must first rendezvous with the space station, meaning they must both be in the same orbital plane and be positioned close to each other.