PSA Forum tackles boxing, billiards

TWO sports dearest to the hearts of Filipinos are the featured discussion in the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum on Tuesday (July 18) at the conference hall of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, headed by newly-elected president Robbie Puno, serves as the main guest of the two-part session that will also have the protagonists of the Sharks International 9-Ball Open.

The session starts at 10 a.m., with San Miguel Corporation, Philippine Sports Commission, MILO, Philippine Olympic Committee, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation as major backers.

Puno, the current congressman representing the first district of Antipolo, will be accompanied by secretary-general Marcus Manalo and executive assistant Karina Picson to talk about the ABAP’s immediate plans and activities, including its coming campaign in the Asian Games, which serves as qualifier to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Chief organizer Hadley Mariano, on the other hand, is going to discuss the Sharks 9-Ball Open meet that will have World Cup of Pool champions James Aranas and Johann Chua as among the top participants.

PSA president Nelson Beltran, sports editor of the Philippine Star, enjoins members to attend the session being livestreamed via the PSA Facebook page fb.com/PhilippineSportswritersAssociation and aired on a delayed basis over Radyo Pilipinas 2, which also shares it on its official Facebook page.

WASHINGTON—Sweden’s Linn

Grant captured her first LPGA title on Sunday, following up her stunning third-round 62 with a three-under par 68 to win the Dana Open by three strokes from US Open champion Allisen Corpuz.

Grant had entered the final round at Highland Meadows with a six-shot lead, having flirted with the second-ever 59 in LPGA history on the way to her nine-under third round.

“I think I could be a bit more relaxed,” she said of the big lead. “But I knew this course was very scoreable. So in my mind I was just thinking someone was going to shoot the same score I did yesterday.”

That didn’t happen, and four birdies with one bogey was more than enough to secure the win with a 21-under total of 263.

Corpuz, fresh from capturing her first major title at Pebble Beach last Sunday, did manage to apply some pressure with six birdies in a six-under par 65 that left her in second place on 18-under par 266.

But Corpuz admitted that going into the final round six adrift she never really expected to be challenging for the trophy.

“Linn’s such a solid player,” she said. “And a six-shot lead is tough to overcome. I really just tried to come out and just give it my best shot.”

Free Throw Shooter

NATHANIEL DELA CRUZ

The Region Beta Paradox

“PEOPLE rationalize divorces, demotions, and diseases, but not slow elevators and uninspired burgundies.”

Or, as a manifestation of the region beta paradox, when a terrible condition forces a person to act on it and end up in an optimal or best possible situation, something someone who is in the same, but less terrible situation, would not do simply because his situation is bad but bearable.

Let’s say you are hungry and there is bread and water inside the room. It is possible that you will just stay put and settle for what’s already there.

Now let’s say you are hungry and there is no food inside the room. That is a terri-

Grant made seven straight pars before birdies at the par-three eighth and parfour 11th.

A birdie at 13 was followed by her lone bogey of the day at 14, but she pulled a stroke back at the par-five finishing hole.

“I’ve imagined this day so many times, so many ways in my own mind,” Grant said. “Just being here now I’m just so ble situation to be in, and unlike the other person whose hunger can be alleviated with bread and water available to him, you have no choice but to go outside and look for food, and possibly find something better than just bread and water. Something great happened from trying to resolve a terrible situation.

Crystallized. Simplified. Applied. If you want the full discourse, read “The Peculiar Longevity of Things Not So

Bad” by Daniel T. Gilbert, Matthew D. Lieberman, Carey K. Morewedge, and Timothy D. Wilson, the research that birthed the region beta paradox, published in Psychological Science, a monthly, peer-reviewed, scientific journal and the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Despite the names that surrounded Damian Lillard, we all know he was given just bread and water from his first, to his (potentially) last, day in Rip City. CJ McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, and Nic Batum are good - regular season good at best. LaMarcus Aldridge has always been underwhelming. Carmelo Anthony is a real pit bull, but he joined Damian at the decline of his career.

The amazing part - and testament to Lillard’s professionalism and integritywas his content.

He never got the superstars that be- speechless and at the same time I feel familiar with the setting for some reason.”

Grant, 24, earned her LPGA tour card for last season but was barred from the US because of Covid vaccination requirements.

She had four top-10 finishes in six LPGA starts outside the United States last year plus four Ladies European Tour came available with every free agency that came and went, and unlike many of today’s marquee players, Lillard (to my knowledge) never threw tantrums and demanded Portland get blue-chip players. Lillard, the 6th overall pick from Weber State in the 2012 NBA Draft, let the front office and coaching staff do their job, and he did his. The ship has holes, but it will float. Damian Lillard, the recipient of the 2020-21 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award, rationalized loyalty, patience, hard work, and timing, not instant championships and super teams.

This is not to say that he didn’t want a ring. He wanted one, just like every competitive basketball player. But first, he wanted to be patient. He did not obsess over winning a championship solely. He wanted to do it the right way, or at least, in a way that does not stain the hardware that was won, like openly recruiting stars and fighting with the front office and coaching staff and trying to find a shortcut and do it the easy way.

And that’s what we saw him do all throughout his 11 years in Portland. He never felt the need to resort to drastic measures.

Not until he started rationalizing championship, legacy, and achievement.

What do we call superstars who have

(LET) triumphs and won her fifth LET title in May in France.

Great form Now she’ll take added confidence into the next two majors of the season, the Evian Championship in France and the British Women’s Open.

“I feel like I’m in great form at the moment,” she said. “I really like that (Evian) golf course. I’m really excited to go back and play there again.”

Corpuz, who has been caught up in a whirlwind since her US Open triumph, said her first priority this coming week would be “a lot of sleep.”

“Seeing a couple of friends to celebrate,” she said of her other plans, then “just repacking the bags for Europe.

“I missed the cut at both Evian and British last year,” Corpuz said. “So have a lot of room for improvement. The game feels really solid so (I’ll) just try to keep doing the same thing.”

American Lindy Duncan matched Corpuz’s 65 to finish alone in third on 269. Australian Stephanie Kyriacou and China’s Lin Xiyu shared fourth on 270.

Kyriacou played alongside Grant and said the experience added to an instructive week.

“I learned a whole lot about the mental side of golf,” she said of the week. “How to deal with nerves and all that stuff. So a lot of things to take away from this week, even though one wasn’t a trophy.” AFP been chasing a championship for many, many years?

Yes, hungry. The situation inside the room changed from tolerable to unacceptable. Now, bread and water (and loyalty) are not enough to feed the body, mind, and championship. Kailangan ng sustansya, in the local parlance.

He’s not even looking for an outright championship. He is looking for a great coach, an excellent culture, a winning attitude, and a real competitive spirit, things that the Miami Heat organization has been consistent in, even after their superstars have left with at least five banners owed to the organization and fans on a king’s promise during the Big Three’s euphoric ascension.

Damian Lillard does not want a feast on the table laid out for him. He is not lazy, and he never said he wanted it easy. He wants to hunt, and this time he wants to return from the trip with the prize in the bag. He doesn’t want to be pampered. He wants to earn what he deserves - and a championship is something he has long deserved.

It is such a travesty that he has to become desperate, but maybe that is what the NBA and the fans need: peak and desperate Lillard and the favor of Daniel Gilbert’s region beta paradox.