1st Down: Jessica Korda didn’t have the best of starts to the day on Thursday, but she sure did make the most of it, shooting a -5 66 to begin the British Open at Muirfield. The reason for her tough start? Her lack of luggage, as it remained lost, with the golfer having to borrow clothing to play in the round. Despite those difficulties, she is just a single shot off the pace of leader Hinako Shibuno through one round of links golf.
2nd Down: Jonathan Huberdeau will be staying put in Calgary for quite a while, with the forward signing on to an eight year extension that is worth up to $84 million. The Flames had only just acquired him from the Florida Panthers following a season in which he scored 30 goals and dished out a league-high 85 assists. His total of 115 points was good enough to tie for second best in the league as well. He had been a Panther for ten years prior to the trade that sends him across the border.
3rd Down: The NFL’s first game of the season was completed on Thursday night as the Hall of Fame Game took place with the Las Vegas Raiders winning 27-11 over the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was, of course, only a preseason game, but it does signal that fall and football are quickly approaching us. The Jags’ only TD came very late in the game, otherwise they played pretty poorly in their opener.
4th Down: On this day in sports history, Bud Selig handed out a huge 211 game suspension to Alex Rodriguez for PED use. The suspension would later be changed to 162 games, but it did set a rather large precedent at the time. Meanwhile, in 1999, Mark McGwire, another man that would be embroiled in PED controversy later on, hit his 500th homer. He was the quickest to ever reach the 500 mark at the time.
