eagle, birdie, birdie to force a play-off against Kevin Kisner and Sergio Garcia last ye

A group of womens soccer players have abandoned their gender discrimination lawsuit in Toronto against FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association over their plans to play the 2015 Womens World Cup on artificial turf. The complaint was withdrawn Wednesday morning with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, TSN has confirmed, five months before the June 6-July 5 competition. The tournament will be held in Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Moncton and Montreal. The complainants had included Abby Wambach of the U.S. and Germanys Nadine Angerer, FIFA players of the year for 2012 and 2013, respectively. On behalf of the players, I want to thank all who aided our fight for natural grass fields at the 2015 World Cup including our volunteer lawyers from Canada and the United States, Wambach wrote in a statement. Our legal action has ended. But I am hopeful that the players willingness to contest the unequal playing fields – and the tremendous public support we received during the effort – marks the start of even greater activism to ensure fair treatment when it comes to womens sports. The players who filed the complaint charged FIFA is discriminating against women by having the tournament on artificial turf since the 2014 FIFA World Cup for men in Brazil was played on grass. Some professional football leagues, including Major League Soccer and some FIFA World Cup qualifying matches, are played on artificial turf. Canada won the right to host the 2015 Games when the only other finalist, Zimbabwe, withdrew from consideration. FIFA and CSA... will fail to host a discrimination-free tournament. They have embarrassed themselves and provided further grounds for reformers to challenge their current leadership, Hampton Dellinger, a lawyer for the complainants, wrote in a statement. Dellinger wrote that FIFA and the CSA have threatened protesting players with suspension, delayed a final court ruling on the matter, and rejected a settlement offer. The players united, international effort to protest discrimination has had a positive impact, Dellinger wrote. The deplorable artificial surface at BC Place, the site of the final, will be replaced. Goal-line technology will be used for the first time in a womens World Cup and we know that the 2019 World Cup will be held on grass. Moreover, the players and their supporters have highlighted continuing gender inequity in sports and lessened the chance that such wrongdoing will occur in the future. Soccer officials have said natural grass surfaces arent practical because some of the stadiums used for the World Cup are also scheduled to be used next summer for preseason and regular season Canadian Football League games. Its tough to ensure a grass field is in good shape for soccer the day after a football game, the officials have said. No Canadian women were among the complainants because some worried about what the CSA might do after the fact, Dellinger said. Nate Schmidt Jersey . Dwyane Wade took over in the fourth quarter. Cody Eakin Jersey . Basketball fans around the globe will be watching as Kobe Bryant makes his season debut - 240 days after tearing his left Achilles - against Toronto, a team he has used as his own personal punching bag. http://www.officialgoldenknightspro.com/Brad-hunt-golden-knights-jersey/ . Wiggins, who had been seen as a contender for a podium finish in Paris, was one of about 20 riders caught near the back of the peloton with 38 kilometres to go in the 218-km flat stage from Le Mans to Chateauroux. Jonathan Marchessault Jersey . The Brazil defender was substituted 13 minutes into Wednesdays 2-1 Copa del Rey win at Athletic Bilbao because of a right hamstring problem. Scans revealed a second grade tear which could keep him out for a reported four to six weeks. Alex Tuch Jersey . The third-seeded Bouchard, from Westmount, Que., was coming off a semifinal appearance at the French Open. She took the opening set before the unseeded American came back for the 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory.Craig Perks, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Martin Kaymer and Rickie Fowler all feature as Sky Sports remembers the six best final-round finishes in the history of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Craig Perks, 2002Craig Perks will always be remembered for the most thrilling final three holes the Players Championship has ever seen, which ended in the only PGA Tour win of his career.Having spent the second and third days near the top of the leaderboard, the fourth day didnt seem to be going the way of the New Zealander. Fifteen holes into his round, Perks had only hit three fairways and on the 15th, his par putt lipped out from a foot to put him one behind the leading group at five under par. A combination of bravery and luck worked in his favour at the long 16th as his ambitious second narrowly missed the water, and Perks rewarded himself by chipping in for a remarkable eagle to take a one-shot lead. He wowed the crowd yet again when he doubled his advantage on the following hole, rolling his slippery 30-foot putt down the slope and into the hole. Craig Perks tips his cap to the gallery having holed his second chip in three holes at the par-four 18th in 2002 Having missed six fairways to the right, Perks opted for the safe option and took out the three-wood on the final hole in a move one commentator described as idiotic, and, sure enough, the Kiwis tee shot veered into the trees and left him with no option but to pitch back to the fairway.His 162-yard third could not hold the green and he faced a tough up and down just to limit the damage to a bogey, but Perks holed from off the green for the second time in two holes and when Tiger Woods presented Perks the trophy, all he could say was: Youre unbelievable. Ways to watch How to keep up to date with the action from Sawgrass across Sky Sports this week... Adam Scott, 2004At the age of 23, Scott became the youngest ever winner of the Players Championship, but without the luxury of a two-shot lead over Padraig Harrington coming down the 72nd hole, it could have been a very different story. Leading after both the first and third rounds, Scott began the day with a two-shot lead at 10 under and looked supremely confident as he stayed at the summit throughout Sunday. Adam Scott dropped his six iron on the final hole as his second shot found the water in 2004 - but he still managed to secure victory The Australian safely negotiated the 17th to remain two clear of Harrington, and he made light of taking on one of the most daunting tee shots in golf at the last and split the fairway.With a six-iron in hand, Scott attempted to punch his second shot towards the right-hand side of the green and looked as surprised as the rest of the gallery to see his ball hook left into the hazard. The engraver had even begun etching his name on to the trophy, but was told to stop immediately after the splash.Now needing to get up and down to avoid extra holes, Scott calmly stepped up to his ball and chipped it to 10 feet. The putt stayed true, and Scott described a feeling of calmness as he saw the ball roll into the middle of the hole. Sergio Garcia, 2008With the biggest victory of his career, Garcias sudden-death play-off victory against Paul Goydos was the accumulation of a final-round putting masterclass. In winds gusting up to 40mph, the Spaniard only needed 28 putts during his composed final-round 71. Posting a near-perfect back nine, Garcia answered his lone blemish at the short 13th hole with a birdie at the next, where he nailed a thrilling 47-foot putt to move just one behind long-time leader Goydos. On the par-three 17th, Garcia left himself an awkward, downhill par putt, but it was the type of clutch putt he needed to keep him in contention. Reflecting on the putt after completing his round, he described it as the longest three feet I have ever seen. Sergio Garcia needed just 28 putts to force a play-off and claim victory over Paul Goydos in 2008 Yet his biggest par save was still to come, and on the final hole Garcia left himself with a testing seven-footer which he knocked in to finish on five under, and Goydos could not emulate the Spaniards battling par at 18 and sent the tournament into the first play-off for 21 years.The pair headed back to the 17th tee and Garcia piled the pressure on the veteran American with a stunning wedge to four feet. Goydos ballooned his tee shot out into the water, and a tap-in par was enough for Garcia to snatch the win and sweep to a career-high second in the world rankings. Henrik Stenson, 2009In the baking heat that caused the greens to become icy fast, Stenson produced what commentator Johnny Miller described as: The best round of Sunday golf I have ever sseen.ddddddddddddThe Swede began the day five shots behind the leading group, but his flawless round of 66 in the hard and fast conditions earned him a four-shot victory by the end of the day. Missing only one fairway during the final round and barely touching his driver, Stenson carded six birdies and 12 pars in a supreme display of ball-striking. With a flawless final round, Henrik Stenson overturned a five-shot deficit to win the tournament by four shots on a difficult final day in 2009 A 15-foot birdie putt from the edge of the seventh green lifted him into a share of the lead with Ian Poulter, Ben Crane and Retief Goosen, and he would take the outright lead just two holes later. Stenson hit driver only once all day at the long 11th, where he bunkered his second before splashing out to four feet and holing the chance for birdie, and a three-wood and a mid-iron to the heart of the 16th green set up another gain which took him four clear of a fading Poulter.I could afford to go bogey-bogey and still win it, said Stenson, after wrapping up the second PGA Tour title of his career. Thats always a handy situation to be in.Martin Kaymer, 2014A long rain delay and some uncertain shot-making down the stretch on Sunday looked to have scuppered Kaymers chances of victory, but one remarkable putt at the 17th enabled the former world No 1 to hang on in a thrilling finale in fading light.The German had momentum on his side when he got up and down for birdies at the ninth and 11th, but play was suspended due to approaching thunder and lightning storms with Kaymer leading by three strokes with four holes remaining. Martin Kaymer held a three-shot lead when play was suspended in 2014, and instantly dropped two shots when he returned Following the lengthy hold-up, Kaymer drove into the pines at the 15th and ran up a double-bogey, and his curious decision to use a putter from several yards off the 16th green backfired as he settled for a disappointing par.Kaymer took the safe line at 17 and his ball cleared the water, only to spin back sharply and came to rest in the fringe just a couple of feet from the hazard, and his woeful chip left him staring at a 30-foot putt for par.But the US Open champion curled home the monster putt to stay one clear of the field and, needing lights from the clubhouse and the scoreboards on the 18th green, Kaymer managed once more to get up and down for par to pip Jim Furyk to the title. Fowler to bounce back Rich Beem expects Rickie Fowler to recover from his Wells Fargo near-miss and challenge at Sawgrass Rickie Fowler, 2015Standing on the 13th tee on the final day, Fowler was six shots off the leading group, but what followed was an end that will go down in history as one of the best finishes the tournament has ever seen.The young American knew he had to do something special, and he ignited his astonishing charge with a 10-foot putt for birdie at 13 and his par at the next proved to be his worst score for the remainder of the round. Rickie Fowler finished birdie, par, birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie to force a play-off against Kevin Kisner and Sergio Garcia last year Fowler, determined to silence the doubters after being labelled as one of the most overrated players on the PGA Tour at the start of the week, followed a birdie at 15 with a stunning second to a couple of feet at the 16th which set up an eagle. Now trailing by only one, Fowlers nerveless wedge to 17 pitched eight feet from the pin and rolled even closer, and he picked up his fifth shot in as many holes when his putt found the left side of the cup.Fowler managed the second-longest tee shot of the day at 331 yards on the final hole and found the middle of the green with his approach, and his red-hot putter struck again as the birdie putt dropped to give him the clubhouse lead on 12 under - a target later matched by Kevin Kisner and Sergio Garcia.The Spaniard was eliminated after the subsequent three-hole play-off - the first in the tournaments history - and Fowler then hit another near-perfect wedge to the 17th for the third time on Sunday to pip Kisner to the title. Fowler holds the trophy aloft after his Sawgrass success in 2015 Watch the Players Championship throughout the week from live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf Also See: Beem backing Fowler Ways to watch Rickie reflects on Players win Golf live on Sky Sports 4 ' ' '