Golf
Italy bids for 2022 Ryder Cup, Turkey pulls out
ROME – Italy will bid to hold the 2022 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone club just outside Rome.
Turkey, meanwhile, withdrew its bid Wednesday because it would require cutting down up to 15,000 trees.
Located in Guidonia, northeast of Rome, Marco Simone hosted the 1994 Italian Open won by Eduardo Romero of Argentina.
Turkey’s withdrawal left six countries interested in hosting the 2022 event: Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy Portugal, Spain.
Ryder Cup officials will undertake inspection visits before the end of the year. Formal submissions must be made by mid-February, and the winning bid will be announced later in 2015.
Lydia Ko, 17, wins LPGA Tour rookie of the year
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Lydia Ko is the youngest player to win the LPGA Tour’s rookie of the year award.
The 17-year-old Ko clinched the points-based award with three tournaments remaining on the LPGA Tour schedule. She already has two victories, two runner-up finishes and nine other finishes in the top 10.
Laura Baugh was 18 when she won the LPGA Tour rookie of the year in 1973.
Ko is No. 3 in the world ranking and No. 4 on the LPGA Tour money list with just more than $1.5 million going into the Lorena Ochoa Invitational this week in Mexico.
Ko, of New Zealand, born in Seoul, South Korea, is third in the Race to the CME Globe, which will culminate next week in Florida with $1 million going to the winner.
MLB
Baseball looking at more ways to speed up
PHOENIX – Joe Torre was pleased with the first season of baseball’s replay challenge system, even if teams were not always sure what could be reviewed.
What the Major League Baseball executive vice president could have done without was all the on-field lingering by managers.
Baseball is trying to cut down on the length of games, not add to them, so Torre said the rules committee is discussing ways to prevent that from happening.
Ex-clinic owner in MLB drug case gets more rehab
MIAMI – The former owner of the South Florida clinic that supplied performance-enhancing substances to Major League Baseball players will get more drug rehabilitation.
A federal judge Wednesday agreed to delay sentencing for Anthony Bosch from Dec. 18 to Feb. 17. Bosch lawyer Guy Lewis said Bosch needs a second phase of treatment for his admitted cocaine addiction.
Bosch pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to distribute testosterone to MLB players and others from the now-closed Biogenesis of America clinic in Coral Gables.
Bosch faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence but likely will get less because of his cooperation in the Biogenesis investigation.
Soccer
Bayern expands US presence with youth deal
NEW YORK – Expanding its U.S. presence, German champion Bayern Munich launched a partnership between Global Premier Soccer and its youth academy, the two entities announced Wednesday.
Bayern coaches will spend about five weeks annually in the U.S. working with GPS, which organizes 75 youth clubs in 11 states. Bayern hopes the deal will lead to developing American prospects.
Bayern opened a New York office in July and is hoping for increased exposure in 2015-16, when Fox will begin a five-year contract to take over U.S. television rights from GolTV, a network with limited distribution that has held them since 2006-07.
Associated Press
