LIV Golf, Fox strike broadcast deal

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FILE - Philadelphia 76ers chief executive officer Scott O’Neil speaks to reporters at the team’s NBA basketball training facility, Monday, July 8, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

CT_IC_1052145975_1052183844_016-0117_0116_NWS_fritz.jpg

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 06: Team United States members, Taylor Fritz, Denis Kudla and Coco Gauff speak to the media during a media opportunity after winning the 2025 United Cup, at Sydney Opera House on January 06, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for Tennis Australia)

FILE - United States’ Lindsey Vonn poses with her career’s medals in the finish area after the women’s downhill race, at the alpine ski World Championships in Are, Sweden, Feb. 10, 2019. Vonn details in a column for The Associated Press on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021 the mental health challenges she faced after retiring from ski racing. The most successful female ski racer of all time says she needed to find a new outlet after releasing all of her troubles on the mountain for so many years. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati, file)

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LIV Golf, Fox strike broadcast deal

LIV Golf finally has a network TV partner as the Saudi-funded league enters its fourth season, announcing a multi-year deal with Fox Sports to broadcast all three rounds across its channels and streaming app. Terms of the deal weren’t announced, and it wasn’t clear if Fox was paying a traditional rights fee to LIV Golf. LIV said more than half of the league’s schedule would be shown on Fox or FS1. Select rounds will air on FS2, Fox Business Network and the network’s app, along with subscribers to the LIV Golf+ app. LIV was shown on the CW Network the last two years, which failed to gain any real traction and some reruns getting a bigger audience than the live competition. Overseas events were shown on tape delay in the U.S. “... This relationship signals the next phase of growth as our league joins the company of the nation’s premier sports leagues and conferences, said Scott O’Neil, above, the new CEO of LIV Golf. Fox gets back into golf for the first time since it signed a 12-year deal estimated at $1 billion with the USGA in 2013. That deal lasted only five years when Fox got out of the agreement.

Fritz giving prize money to fire relief

American tennis player Taylor Fritz said Thursday he’s donating the prize money he earned for his first-round victory at the Australian Open — about $82,000 — to relief funds to help people affected by the wildfires in the greater Los Angeles area. “It’s really the least I can do,” said U.S. Open finalist Fritz, who was born in Rancho Santa Fe, California, and still is based in the state. “ ‘SoCal’ has been my home forever. I still spend a lot of time in LA, but I lived in LA for quite a while. I have friends impacted; family not so much. I had some family have to evacuate. The house that my brothers grew up in burnt down. They’re not living there anymore,” Fritz said after reaching the third round at Melbourne Park with a 6-2, 6-1, 6-0 victory over qualifier Cristian Garín of Chile. “A lot of people are affected by it,” added Fritz, the runner-up to Jannik Sinner at the U.S. Open in September and seeded No. 4 in Australia. “I feel like if you’re in a place to help, then you should.” The major blazes are on track to become the nation’s costliest fire disaster, with at least 25 people dead and thousands of homes destroyed.

Vonn fine after fall during practice

Lindsey Vonn said she’s “good” and has only a few bruises after falling toward the end of a World Cup downhill training run on Thursday in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The protective air bag that most downhill skiers wear inflated under Vonn’s racing suit to help soften her fall. Vonn got back up and skied to the finish area on the Olympia delle Tofane course but then went inside a tent for treatment. She did not break any bones, her team said. “I’m good,” Vonn said later in the day. “I just caught a lot of air off the second-to-last jump and landed and my ski kind of caught funny.” “My bum is sore but otherwise I’m good,” she added, indicating that she still plans to race this weekend. The 40-year-old Vonn recently returned to racing after nearly six years of retirement, with a titanium knee replacement. Last Sunday, Vonn finished fourth in a super-G in Austria. Vonn holds the record of 12 wins in Cortina, the stage for next year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics. “Everything’s getting faster and better, and I’m dialing everything in one day at a time, so hopefully I can get on the podium this weekend,” Vonn said. —AP