• Australia's largest state hits record-high COVID-19 cases despite weeks of strict lockdown. 'It's a tinderbox ready to explode,' one official said.
• eToro says crypto made up 73% of trading commissions in the last quarter, as retail customers dived in
• A flight attendant says she was too exhausted to report a passenger who shoved her when a flight was overbooked: report
• US jobless claims climb for first time in 5 weeks, to 353,000

AMID RUMOURS THAT Tiger Woods has made some significant improvements during his eight-week hiatus from competitive golf, some people in the golf world remain deeply sceptical.

The Golf Channel’s lead analyst Brandel Chamblee said that Tiger’s play around the greens was so bad the last time we saw him that there’s no way he could have fixed it yet.

Here’s what he said on a media conference call on Wednesday (via Tod Leonard of the Union Tribune):

Golf Digest’s Tim Rosaforte reported that Tiger shot a worst-ball 66 at his home course during the hiatus — which was arguably the best round he has ever played there.

Combined that nugget with the fact that Tiger played a practice round at Augusta on Tuesday, and there’s optimism about him teeing it up at Augusta.

Chamblee isn’t the only sceptic, though. Pro golfer Chris DiMarco said on the Dan Patrick Show that he doubts Tiger will play the Masters.

“I would be surprised. I really would, because I don’t think that where we saw him two months ago to where he is now that he is physically and mentally that much better and ready to compete at Augusta,” he said.

An announcement of whether he’ll play should come sometime in the next few days. We won’t know if the rumors about his improvement are true until he tees it up. When he last played competitive golf in early February, he was all over the place around the greens:
https://vine.co/v/Ot5udFvnDlK

Donegal hit four goals to beat Monaghan while Tyrone defeat Armagh in Ulster U21 semi-finals

Analysis: Munster and the Chiefs do damage with open-play mauls