The Washington Post - USA (2020-11-13)

to meet you guys.”

The past two years have been

anything but easy for Smith after

he endured 17 surgeries and

months of rehab to recover from

a gruesome leg injury. It seemed

fated to end his NFL career. At

one point it nearly took his life.

Yet on Sunday, when Washing-

ton plays the Lions in Detroit,

Smith will continue his remark-

able comeback and make his first

start in 728 days. And this one

will have a drastically different

KLMNO

SPORTS

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13 , 2020. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS M2 D

THE MASTERS

Players who completed first round

TO PAR

1Paul Casey -7

T2 Webb Simpson -5

Xander Schauffele -5

T4 Tiger Woods -4

Hideki Matsuyama -4

Lee Westwood -4

Louis Oosthuizen -4

Patrick Reed -4

Today’s TV: 7:30 a.m., ESPN;

1 p.m., ESPN

BY BARRY SVRLUGA

augusta, ga. — The rough is thicker, the

greens are softer, the calendar is later. The

opening round of the first November Masters

in history is not yet complete — thunder-

storms Thursday morning are to blame for

that. But we now know the differences and the

similarities. The most prominent thing that

didn’t change from spring to fall: Tiger Woods

is in the mix.

Woods, the defending champion who is

pursuing what would be a record-tying sixth

green jacket, didn’t post the day’s lowest score,

an honor that went to England’s Paul Casey,

who leads overnight after an opening 7-under-

par 65. That sat two ahead of the 67s turned in

by Americans Webb Simpson and Xander

Schauffele, not to mention countryman Justin

Thomas, who only made it through 10 holes

before play was suspended by darkness at 5:30

p.m.

“To be honest, you rarely walk off this golf

course going, ‘It could have been two or three

better,’ ” Casey said. “But it kind of felt that

way. I d on’t w ant to be greedy. I’m very, very

happy with my 65.”

Those two or three more shots? That’s an

indication of what these warm, soggy Novem-

ber conditions brought. The morning thun-

derstorms that caused a delay of nearly three

hours — as well as downpours earlier in the

week — left Augusta National Golf Club nearly

defenseless. Approach shots that would nor-

mally run through greens instead nearly

plugged in place. At times, it became target

practice.

SEE MASTERS ON D4

Low and slow start

Rain takes down Augusta’s defenses, and Casey, Woods, others t ake advantage

Most of the time,

Greg Sankey is so

dry he can make a

desert jealous. The

SEC commissioner

has an

understated

personality, and in

his blustering

athletic conference, that can

create a soothing effect. But there

is no calm way to normalize this

week in college football.

“I’m certainly shaken but not

deterred,” Sankey said during a

conference call with reporters

Wednesday, reacting to the four

SEC games postponed because of

struggles to contain the

coronavirus.

There’s a c andidate for phrase

of the year: Shaken but not

deterred.

Sankey wasn’t speaking for all

sports, but he could have been. As

the coronavirus keeps plundering

our bodies and spirit, it feels as if

sports have reached a point of no

return. They won’t quit on their

own, not without a m unicipal

directive. Perhaps they think they

can’t stop, considering how

money influences risk

assessment. “Shaken but not

deterred” also means, “This is bad,

but we won’t turn back.”

SEE BREWER ON D6

As pandemic

gets worse,

sports trudge

ever onward

Jerry

Brewer

Turner, Scott’s father, with San

Francisco — the offense Washing-

ton first rolled out with Dwayne

Haskins was later tweaked to

better suit the skill set of Kyle

Allen in Week 5. When Allen

suffered an ankle injury in the

first quarter of Washington’s loss

to the New York Giants on Sun-

day, it was inevitable the offense

could change again.

“We knew the second [Smith]

came in, the game plan was going

to change slightly from what

Allen would have done,” Giants

Coach Joe Judge said after his

SEE WASHINGTON ON D4

averages only about three sea-

sons of pro experience; running

back Antonio Gibson was 7 years

old when Smith was a r ookie.

Even more bizarre: At 2-6,

Washington is vying for a playoff

spot, trailing by just a game and a

half in the lackluster NFC East —

while also trying to find an iden-

tity and future quarterback.

“Obviously a lot has happened

since two years ago,” Smith said.

“Not just for myself but certainly

for all of us and the conditions

that we’re in right now.”

Although the system is famil-

iar to Smith — he played for Norv

feel from his last one.

“It obviously has been a long

time, even just driving into work

with that feeling knowing that

the ball’s in your hands and

preparing all week like that,” he

said. “It has been a while since

I’ve had that feeling, almost two

years to the week. It’s different.

It’s a d ifferent deal.”

As Washington tries to rebuild

under Coach Ron Rivera, Smith

is already its third starting quar-

terback of the season. He is

working with a first-year play

caller in Scott Turner and a

starting unit that, excluding him,

BY NICKI JHABVALA

Much has changed since Alex
Smith was last the starting quar-
terback of the Washington Foot-
ball Team. Different teammates,
different coaches, a different sys-
tem, even a different team name.
And certainly a different setup.
“This Zoom format is, I’m not
going to lie, much easier than the
face-to-face deal,” he said with a
grin while talking to reporters
Wednesday. “That’s part of it. But
this is definitely an easier format
and a little more organized. It’s
definitely easier than being able

Smith returns to Washington’s starting role in a changed world

Washington at Detroit

Sunday, 1 p .m., Fox

BASEBALL

Freddie Freeman of the

Braves and José Abreu of

the White Sox claim

MVP honors. D2

SOCCER

A new generation of the

U.S. men’s team makes its

long-awaited international

debut in draw vs. Wales. D5

FRIDAYS WITHOUT FOOTBALL

Add the homecoming

parade, bonfires and team

dinners to the list of things

lost to the pandemic. D6

CHRIS CARLSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bryson DeChambeau double-bogeyed the par-5 1 3th hole but bounced back to finish the first round of the Masters at 2 under — five strokes behind l eader Paul Casey.

Barry Svrluga: DeChambeau sets

about strong-arming Augusta. D3

BY DES BIELER

The Ivy League canceled its

winter sports seasons, the confer-

ence announced Thursday, mak-

ing it the first Division I college

athletics conference to do so.

The league — composed of

Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dart-

mouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton

and Yale — made its decision

amid an unprecedented spike in

the coronavirus pandemic na-

tionally. New coronavirus cases

in the United States reached a

record total of 145,835 on

Wednesday, a n umber that was

on track to be topped Thursday.

“Consistent with its commit-

ment to safeguard the health and

well-being of student-athletes,

the greater campus community

and general public, the Ivy

League Council of Presidents has

decided that league schools will

not conduct intercollegiate ath-

letics competition in winter

sports during the 2020-21 season.

In addition, the Ivy League will

not conduct competition for fall

sports during the upcoming

spring semester. Lastly, intercol-

legiate athletics competition for

spring sports is postponed

through at least the end of Febru-

ary 2021,” the conference an-

nounced.

The canceled winter sports

include men’s and women’s bas-

ketball, men’s and women’s ice

hockey, men’s and women’s

squash, men’s and women’s

SEE IVY ON D6

Ivy League

cancels

its winter

seasons

Conference becomes first

in Div. I to make decision

amid spike in virus cases

There’s no baggage like golf

baggage, especially at a major

championship. Seldom do

athletes in any sport seem as

burdened, isolated and grim

in competition or as close to a

burst of temper or a look of

heartbroken disappointment.

There are exceptions. But not

many.

In a s port played at a s troll in lush places

for luxe prize money, with no pressure to

please teammates and no 300-pound pass

rushers or fastballs to avoid, golfers often

seem as if they carry the weight of the world.

Perhaps no sport is so blunt, so impolitely

raw about asking questions of famous, gifted,

rich athletes that almost all of us are asked —

or ask ourselves — but usually far from

cameras. How hard must we work and how

good must we be at that job to pass muster?

Whose judgment matters: my own, my

family’s or my meanest critic’s?

Paul Casey of England, ranked 22nd in the

world, leads the Masters after a first-round

65 on Thursday. The first question asked of

him after his round referenced his 81 on

Thursday of last year’s Masters.

“I love that you focus on maybe the worst

round I’ve ever had around here. Thank you,”

said the genial Casey, who turned the

moment into pleasant banter.

Fortunately, the follow-up question had

nothing whatsoever to do with perhaps the

most-mentioned aspect of his career: Casey,

43, has never won a major title in

65 attempts despite a long, distinguished

SEE BOSWELL ON D3

Some of the world’s best golfers again confront the wait — and the weight

ERIK S LESSER/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Paul Casey, seeking his first

major title, leads after a 65.

Thomas

Boswell