Jim Furyk tells US players they need to make Ryder Cup more of a priority
Jim Furyk has admitted the United States need to make the Ryder Cup more of a priority as the 56-year-old plots a reversal of fortunes at Adare Manor in September 2027.Speaking expansively for the first time since being handed the US captaincy for a second time, Furyk pointed towards an overhaul of approach to the biennial event.He also suggested he will be keen to involve Tiger Woods on his backroom team.Victory for Europe at Bethpage last year means the US have won two of the past eight Ryder Cup stagings.The PGA of America wanted Woods to assume the captaincy for Adare, a scenario that was subject to delay before it was rendered impossible by the 15-time major winner’s Florida car crash in March.
Enter Furyk, who was the captain when the US were trounced in Paris in 2018.It seems, however, that Furyk has an abundance of ideas on how to improve matters for his country.That will start with insistence of an attitude shift.The lingering sense is always that Europeans care more about the Ryder Cup than their opponents.“When I look at my job, it’s to create a culture, a chemistry among them and put them in positions where they can be really successful,” Furyk said.
“Then I look at our organisation top to bottom and having two sets of goals.First, short-term, no secret, we want to be successful at Adare.We want to go over there and win on foreign soil, something we haven’t done in a long time.It’s not going to be easy.We have to scratch and claw, but we have the talent to be able to do that.
“Then I look at it from a long-term perspective and something we need to improve on and get better at,I like to say we need to create a blueprint,We need to create more continuity for our players and for our future captains,And we really need to start making the Ryder Cup more of a priority each and every year, year in and year out, and focus on growing and evolving into the future,That’s something I really take seriously.
”It feels unwise to dismiss Furyk’s chances, given Europe will be in the unusual position of heavy favourites in Ireland regardless of what happens between now and then,The Americans may relish being underdogs,On the eve of the US PGA Championship at Aronimink in Furyk’s native Pennsylvania, Woods remained a theme,He is taking time away from golf for treatment after his accident, with his professional future wholly unclear,Furyk has not spoken to the 50-year-old, but wants him in the Ryder Cup equation.
“Out of courtesy and for him, his family, and maybe a road to health, I haven’t reached out, but I will definitely,” Furyk said.“We’ll see where that role may fall.In the past, he’s taken a back seat.I will say I enjoyed serving as a vice-captain with him a number of times.He brought a lot to the team room, a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience.
”Furyk’s European counterpart, Luke Donald, is delighted to be able to call upon the services of Jon Rahm.A lengthy standoff between Rahm and the DP World Tour over sanctions for the Spaniard’s participation on LIV Golf threatened to remove him from the Ryder Cup equation.The matter has now been resolved, with Donald dismissing any sense it could cause lingering issues within Europe’s squad.“An agreement had come to fruition sooner rather than later,” he said.“The longer you leave that, the more onus is on me to potentially help with some of those bridges.
“It’s my job to make sure everyone is aligned,I like to use the phrase, even brothers fight sometimes,But deep down, they love each other and the mission is pretty clear when we play a Ryder Cup, to win,“They understand that putting those feelings, those egos of different personalities, personal things to one side is important if you’re going to be successful,I don’t have any real qualms or issues that the team room won’t be unified.
”Rory McIlroy, Rahm and Jordan Spieth is the marquee grouping on days one at two at the US PGA.Focus will be on McIlroy’s movement after his preparation was disrupted by a troublesome blister on a little toe.
Google announces raft of free upgrades for Android phones
Google has announced a range of features coming to Android phones this year, including a new Gemini Intelligence AI system and a tool to help users avoid distracting apps.Revealed in a livestreamed “Android Show” event, the free upgrades are scheduled to arrive in waves over the next year for high-end new and old phones alike, including Samsung and Pixel devices. Google also revealed that a new lineup of laptops will arrive in the autumn.Gemini Intelligence will combine the company’s top AI tools into one system aimed at being more proactively useful.It will be able to automate tasks by directly interacting with the apps already on a phone
Head of Microsoft’s Israel branch to step down after inquiry into dealings with Israeli military
The head of Microsoft’s Israeli subsidiary will step down in the wake of an inquiry that has scrutinised its business dealings with the Israeli military.Microsoft ordered the inquiry last year in response to a Guardian investigation revealing the military had used the company’s technology to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected Palestinian civilian phone calls on a mass scale.The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found the military’s elite spy agency, Unit 8200, had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to store a vast trove of intercepted calls from Gaza and the West Bank.The inquiry commissioned by Microsoft is understood to have recently concluded. Its findings are unclear; however, sources familiar with the situation said they prompted an announcement last week that Microsoft Israel’s general manager, Alon Haimovich, would leave the company
GameStop’s $55.5bn bid for eBay rejected as ‘neither credible nor attractive’
The board of eBay has rejected the US video games retailer GameStop’s surprise $55.5bn bid (£41bn) for the online marketplace, describing the proposal as “neither credible nor attractive”.Earlier this month, GameStop made an unsolicited bid for eBay, publishing a letter on its website outlining a half-cash, half-stock proposal.This was despite the US games company – which became a global household name during the meme stock craze of 2021 – being worth far less than its takeover target. GameStop had a market valuation of roughly $12bn before its bid, almost a quarter of eBay’s $46bn valuation
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian.Donald Trump is headed to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, would join Trump
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech while emulating Xi Jinping on AI
Donald Trump is heading to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, would join the US president. Other guests from the tech sphere include Meta’s recently appointed president, Dina Powell McCormick; Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of computer memory maker Micron; Chuck Robbins, CEO of longtime telecom giant Cisco; and Cristiano Amon, CEO of semiconductor maker Qualcomm, according to a White House official.Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO – who is close to Trump but criticized the US’s limitations on chip sales to China in an April interview, saying that he didn’t want a “loser mentality” to cost the US its edge in AI – will not be joining the president
Molière Ex Machina: AI used to create ‘new work’ by beloved French playwright
Molière is to the French what Shakespeare is to the English: the last word in historical literature, drama, wit and satire.Now, more than 350 years after his death, the 17th-century dramatist has been revived after scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style.L’Astrologue ou les Faux Présages (The Astrologer, or False Omens), a three-act comedy, made its debut at the Royal Opera at the Château de Versailles last week.The two-hour play tells the story of a wealthy bourgeois Parisian who, under the instruction of a charlatan astrologer called Pseudoramus, insists his daughter Lucile marry a debt-ridden and elderly wigmaker.While the theme could well have been dreamed up by Molière, the dialogue, music, costumes and scenery were all created with the help of a French AI tool called Le Chat (The Cat)
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Ah, ah, ah, ah - I saved my dad’s life with a little help from The Office and the Bee Gees