Dai Sport

The first golf Major since lockdown begins today in San Francisco when players tee off at the US PGA. It’s another sporting instance where the men’s game is further down the road to recovery than the women’s – a discrepancy that Wales’ Lydia Hall finds all too familiar, as Graham Thomas reports. Lydia Hall flies back into the UK at the start of August – as determined to be high on the leaderboard at the Ladies Scottish Open as she is to help shake up women’s golf. After six months spent in Australia – four more than intended because of lockdown amid the global pandemic – the current Welsh No.3 has had plenty of time to assess her sport and its injustices.

Jonny Williams is hoping his one-year contract extension with Charlton Athletic can trigger more glory at the delayed European Championship finals next summer. The Wales midfielder – who was Chris Coleman’s occasional joker in the pack for the national team four years ago – has opted to extend his time with his current club. The 26-year-old was unable to stop Charlton going straight back down from the Sky Bet Championship last month – a year after he helped the Addicks into the second tier with promotion via the League One play-offs.

Can newcomer Sam Moore make the same impact as Nick Williams? The son of former Wales lock Steve Moore certainly has big boots to fill. Moore has been impressing everyone in training at Cardiff Blues since joining from Sale Sharks and turning his attentions away from representing England to playing for the land of his father, uncle and the city where he was born. A knee injury helped to take him off Eddie Jones' radar and now he will get the chance of a new beginning in a Blues shirt.

Danny Newcombe has been handed the job of leading Welsh hockey into next year’s European Championships after being named as the new head coach following Zak Jones’ move into the team GB set-up. Hockey Wales have adopted the tried and trusted football ‘boot room’ policy of promoting from within in the wake of Jones’ departure. Newcombe has worked alongside Jones as his assistant for the past two years and has been working within the Welsh hockey coaching network for almost a decade.

Scott Ruscoe will lead The New Saints side into their latest European campaign in three weeks' time, quietly encouraged by his summer transfer activity. With last season's disappointment and off-field wrangling behind them, Ruscoe has been able to focus entirely on preparing his team for what will be his fourth season in charge. His recruitment has seen three senior players come into the fold: in defence, midfield and attack.

Rhondda Netball are calling on supporters to back their bid for a share of £1m as they aim to develop more role models and leaders within their organisation. Having already become a regional winner, the Valleys netball charity – one of the largest female sports participation programmes in Wales – need online votes to win the top cash prizes on offer. Rhondda Netball have already made the shortlist to win a share of Persimmon Homes’ Building Futures £1million pot, supporting under-18s across the UK.

Newport County manager Michael Flynn believes he has taken an important step in rebuilding his squad for the new season, having re-signed defender Scot Bennett. Having already seen Jamille Matt slip through his fingers when the striker moved to League Two rivals Forest Green Rovers, Flynn was determined to secure Bennett as the first keystone to his reconstruction job following the shutdown of last season. There remains a great deal of re-shaping for the County manager to do before the new campaign, but he views the retention of Bennett – who seemed destined to leave after the running down of his previous contract – as crucial to those plans.

Jamie Clarke has confessed he thought he would be going home after round one of the Betfred World Championship. The world No. 89 from Llanelli – the lowest ranking player in the tournament in Sheffield – is instead preparing a second round match on Friday after beating world number four Mark Allen, 10-8. Clarke produced a superb display on Tuesday night but admitted: “I haven’t looked at the draw. I just looked at Mark Allen and thought, I’m going home.

You’ve waited five months for racing to restart, you fly to Italy for the Covid-19 delayed opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and then one of your team-mates crashes the car before you get the chance to drive it. The situation doesn’t bare thinking about, does it?

The Welsh Assembly Government has today pulled the plug on what was going to be the long awaited return of motor racing at Pembrey Circuit – even though this weekend’s now postponed BTRDA Rallycross Championship event was going to be run behind closed doors.