Players Championship: Webb Simpson leads by five at TPC Sawgrass

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Webb Simpson posted a par on 18 for a 63

The Players Championship, second-round leaderboard
-15 W Simpson (US); -10 P Cantlay (US), C Schwartzel (SA), D Lee (NZ); -9 C Hadley (US), C Howell III (US), A Noren (Swe); -8 J Day (Aus), S Stricker (US), X Schauffele (US)
Selected others:-5 I Poulter (Eng); -4 J Rose (Eng), T Fleetwood (Eng); -2 M Fitzpatrick (Eng); -1 M Laird (Sco), R Fisher (Eng), S Lowry (Ire), J Spieth (US), J Thomas (US), T Woods (US); +1 R Fowler (US), R McIlroy (NI);+2 T Hatton (Eng), R Knox (Sco); +7 D Willett (Eng); +8 P Mickelson (US)Full leaderboard

American Webb Simpson scored a course record-equalling 63 to establish a five-shot halfway lead at 15-under in the Players Championship in Florida.

Simpson looked set to post a new record after six successive birdies, but found the water when attacking the island green on 17 and posted a double bogey.

"You're at TPC Sawgrass, so you know trouble is everywhere," Simpson said.

Compatriot Patrick Cantlay (68), South African Charl Schwartzel (66) and Danny Lee of New Zealand (66) are in second.

Simpson's fellow first-round leader, American world number one Dustin Johnson, is now eight shots back after a 71, one behind the world's seventh-ranked player, Jason Day of Australia (67).

World number three Jon Rahm, of Spain, is a further stroke adrift of Day after a 70.

• 'McIlroy's comments helped me make cut' - Fitzpatrick's Sawgrass diary

Fourteen-time major winner Tiger Woods (71) finished on the cut line at one under, as did world number two Justin Thomas (70) and world number four Jordan Spieth (68).

However, Rory McIlroy was among three of the world's top 10 not to make it - along with Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama - after a haphazard 74 which included four bogeys and a double.

Ian Poulter is the highest-placed Briton on five-under after shooting a 69, one shot ahead of world number five Justin Rose (72) and Tommy Fleetwood (71).

A further two Englishmen, Matt Fitzpatrick (70) and Ross Fisher (73), made the cut on two under and one under respectively, as did Scotland's Martin Laird (71).

'Everything was going in'

Simpson, the 2012 US Open champion, had started the tournament by compiling an accomplished 66 but accelerated clear of the field with a stunning spurt on the back nine on Friday.

The 32-year-old was already five under for his round when he recorded the first of six consecutive birdies on the 11th.

"You start just kind of laughing," said Simpson, whose halfway score of 15-under matched the tournament record set by Day two years ago.

"Everything is going in. You feel like no matter what, you're going to make it. It's rare as a golfer where everything comes together."

Simpson was 11 under for the day when he stepped on to the 17th tee but his pushed tee shot on Sawgrass' signature hole clattered against a railway sleeper and ended up in the water.

"I was in between clubs," he explained. "I tried to smash a sand wedge and blocked it a little bit. It's a bit of a bummer."

Simpson righted himself to par the last and equal the 63 previously shot by Fred Couples, Greg Norman, Robert Castro, Martin Kaymer, Day and Colt Knost.

Woods squeezes under cut line

Woods carded a one-under-par 71 on Friday

Woods carded two birdies and one bogey in a second round of 71 to finish one under and ensure he would be around for the weekend.

A dropped shot on 18 looked, at one stage, like it would cost the 42-year-old, but he squeezed in under the cut line.

"I was just a touch off today," he said. "I didn't make many birdies. I had my chances. I didn't hit it close enough.

"The course could have been had today. It's so hot, it's playing short, the greens are receptive."

Fellow American Fowler also suffered an early exit after a wayward tee shot at the par-four sixth hole got stuck in a palm tree.

He commandeered a pair of binoculars to help his search but could not confirm that a ball spotted in the tree was definitely his, instead declaring his ball lost and returning to the tee for his third shot.

It was the first of successive double bogeys for the 2015 champion, who finished on one over par.

"Unfortunately, the part of the ball that was showing was just all the white and dimples," said Fowler. "I couldn't see any of my markings and so couldn't identify it, so back to the tee

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Gianluigi Buffon: Juventus keeper charged over Michael Oliver comments From

Juventus keeper Buffon (left) was sent off by referee Michael Oliver against Real Madrid

Juventus' Gianluigi Buffon has been charged by Uefa over comments about referee Michael Oliver after their Champions League defeat by Real Madrid.

Buffon was sent off for dissent after Oliver awarded Real a late penalty, which they scored to go through.

Following the quarter-final second leg on 11 April, Italian Buffon said the official had "a bag of rubbish" rather than "a heart" and should "sit in the stands" and "eat crisps".

Real progressed 4-3 on aggregate.

Uefa says the 40-year-old Italy goalkeeper has been charged with breaching its "general principles of conduct" after his outburst against the English referee.

European football's governing body, which also charged Buffon for the red card, said in a statement the case will be dealt with on 31 May.

Referee Oliver and wife Lucy were offered police support after both were targeted on social media following the incident, with police also investigating threatening text messages.

What did Buffon say?

Immediately after the game, Juventus captain Buffon said: "It was a tenth of a penalty.

"I know the referee saw what he saw, but it was certainly a dubious incident. Not clear-cut. And a dubious incident at the 93rd minute when we had a clear penalty denied in the first leg, you cannot award that at this point.

"The team gave its all, but a human being cannot destroy dreams like that at the end of an extraordinary comeback on a dubious situation.

"Clearly you cannot have a heart in your chest, but a bag of rubbish. On top of that, if you don't have the character to walk on a pitch like this in a stadium like this, you can sit in the stands with your wife, your kids, having your drink and eating crisps.

"You cannot ruin the dreams of a team. I could've told the referee anything at that moment, but he had to understand the degree of the disaster he was creating.

"If you can't handle the pressure and have the courage to make a decision, then you should just sit in the stands and eat your crisps."

Several days later, Buffon defended his comments on Italian TV: "The content remains and I stand by all of it. I'd say them all again - maybe with a different type of language.

"You find a way to speak, right or wrong, that at times can seem excessive - but this is me, I am Gigi Buffon."

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How Hollywood can continue to advance the equal pay conversation

Ocatvia Spencer and Jessica Chastain attend The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.

(CNN)The way equal pay is talked about in Hollywood has been evolving for some time, with many outspoken womenstanding up for the effort in recent years.

But in the aftermath of Hollywood's sexual harassment reckoning, more substantive conversations about gender equality, broken systems and power structures have ushered in a more open dialogue about pay in Hollywood. More specifically, who's getting less of it.

There is no more fitting time than Equal Pay Day to take stock of the quest to make sure women and minorities are being compensated fairly for their work, and reflect on how Hollywood is working to make sure that the fervor with which the industry pursues that goal doesn't dwindle over time.

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Prince Harry Reveals Meghan Markle Will Join Him as Youth Ambassador to the Commonwealth

He also gave a shout-out to Queen Elizabeth.

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Giuliani fails to impress pro-Trump media

          Laura Ingraham was in the midst of 

a vigorous defense of White House press 

secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on

 Friday night when the Fox News host said

 this: “Trump needs a legal spokesperson,

 which he doesn't have at this point.”

Apparently Rudolph W. Giuliani doesn't count.

Giuliani is President Trump's lawyer and has been speaking for Trump — or trying to — almost nonstop since last Wednesday, when he appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News show and disclosed that the president reimbursed attorney Michael Cohen for a $130,000, pre-election payment to silence porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago.

But Giuliani's statements have been inconsistent and have failed to rally the president's media boosters, who often lionize his fiercest surrogates and embrace their talking points.

Speaking with Hannity, the former New York mayor said Trump “did know about the general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this,” making Trump's ignorance plea appear increasingly suspect.

On “Fox & Friends” the next morning, Giuliani asked viewers to imagine if Daniels had gone public “in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton.” His remark suggested the payment was designed to help Trump's electoral prospects and undermined the position that Cohen's initial outlay should not be viewed as an illegal, in-kind campaign contribution.

On Friday afternoon, Giuliani issued a statement “intended to clarify the views I expressed over the past few days.

“My references to timing were not describing my understanding of the president's knowledge,” he said, “but instead my understanding of these matters.”

He attempted to undo his own suggestion that the election was a consideration, saying that “the payment was made to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the president's family. It would have been done in any event, whether he was a candidate or not.”

Ingraham did not mention Giuliani's cleanup effort on her Friday telecast. Hannity also ignored it on his show, and Tucker Carlson did the same.

On Glenn Beck's radio show Friday, the conservative Trump critic charitably posited that Giuliani had pulled a “brilliant move” by revealing the president's reimbursement before it leaked.

“Well, I don't know about that,” replied Bill O'Reilly, the former Fox News host who appeared as a guest on the program.

O'Reilly often defends Trump, but he rejected Giuliani's contention that the payment to Daniels was unrelated to the campaign.

“They gave her a little bit of money because it was coming close to the presidential election, and they didn't want this woman running around with her attorney,” O'Reilly said. “So that's what happened.”

After Giuliani appeared Sunday on ABC's “This Week,” the Christian Broadcasting Network described “new controversies for President Trump after his attorney Rudy Giuliani tried to defend him again on TV”:

Giuliani was also doing damage control after his comments last week about the Stormy Daniels accusations. Giuliani had revealed the president repaid his personal attorney for a $130,000 hush payment to the porn star, despite the president denying he knew of the payment.

Giuliani now says he's not actually aware of when the president learned about the payment to Daniels.

CBN Chairman Pat Robertson once told the president, “I'm so proud of everything you're doing,” but Robertson's network is not pretending the holes in Giuliani's shifting accounts are not there.

The Daily Caller on Monday highlighted sharp criticism of Giuliani by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, the former Republican congressman, who said Giuliani has “completely blown up every timeline — every timeline of lies that Donald Trump has laid out before.”

Giuliani told The Washington Post on Sunday that Trump still has confidence in him, but the faith of Trump's media backers is not so strong.

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No wonder there’s an exodus from religion

President Trump at a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Thursday. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Do you wonder why the proportion of Americans declaring themselves unaffiliated with organized religion has skyrocketed in recent decades?

This trend is especially pronounced among adults under 30, roughly 40 percent of whom claim no connection to a religious congregation or tradition and have joined the ranks of those the pollsters call the “nones.”

To understand how so many now prefer nothing to something when it comes to religion, ponder the news over the past few days.

The same newspapers and broadcasts that were reporting on how President Trump finally admitted that he had indirectly paid a porn star to keep quiet about an alleged affair also offered accounts of what we’ll call Jesuitgate, the controversy over who should be the chaplain of the House of Representatives.

On Thursday, Speaker Paul D. Ryan backed down from his effective dismissal of the Rev. Patrick Conroy, a Jesuit priest, as chaplain. Ryan had said he asked the cleric to quit because he had provided inadequate “pastoral services,” but denied that Conroy was ousted because of a mild prayer for justice he delivered during the debate over the GOP tax cut.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) reversed course on May 3, and agreed to keep the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy on as House chaplain. (Reuters)

That phrase “pastoral services” must inspire a chuckle from your typical millennial agnostic. It makes the work of holy men and women sound like the this-worldly tasks of the accountant, the mechanic or the dentist. (As the grateful son of a dentist, I speak with respect for these extremely useful professions.)

Conroy had initially agreed to Ryan’s request to step aside but withdrew his resignation in a quietly stinging letter. The priest noted that he had never been informed of the shortcomings of his “pastoral services.” If he had, he would “have attempted to correct such ‘faults.’ ”

Conroy also quoted Ryan’s chief of staff, Jonathan Burks, as telling him “something like ‘maybe it’s time we had a chaplain that wasn’t a Catholic.’ ” Ryan’s office vehemently denied this (the Catholic vote is substantial), but the speaker announced he didn’t want to have a “protracted fight” and that Conroy could stay.

Many of us could have told the speaker that it’s a mistake to mess with a Jesuit. But think about it: The House Republican leadership was more inclined to push out a chaplain than to impose accountability on a president who is a proven liar and trashes the rule of law for his own selfish purposes day after day.

This degree of partisan irresponsibility only aggravates the already powerful skepticism among the young about what it means to be religious. In their landmark 2010 book, “American Grace,” the scholars Robert Putnam and David Campbell found that the rise of the nones was driven by the increasing association of organized religion with conservative politics and a lean toward the right in the culture wars.

Revealingly, Putnam and Campbell found that millennials with tolerant and open views on homosexuality were more than twice as likely to be religious nones as their statistically similar peers with conservative or traditionalist views on homosexuality. Many young people came to regard religion, in Putnam and Campbell’s words, as “judgmental, homophobic, hypocritical and too political.”

If you want a particularly exquisite hypocritical moment, consider that on Thursday, the very day when Trump had to admit his lies on the Stormy Daniels payoff, the president held a White House commemoration of the National Day of Prayer. “Prayer is the key that opens [to] us the treasures of God’s mercies and blessings,” he proclaimed, quoting Billy Graham. He tweeted this out as part of a pious 42-second video set to a sentimental soundtrack of peaceful strings. I guess Trump can use some peace and a lot of mercy right now.

What’s maddening about all of this is that religion has a strong case to make for itself — to the young and to everyone else — given its historical role as a prod to personal and social change and the ways in which movements for justice have been inspired through the centuries by the words of Exodus, Micah, Isaiah, Amos and Jesus.

Conroy was getting at this in the most uncontroversial way possible when he spoke in his now-contested prayer of how “our great nation” has created “opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle.” If a chaplain could be rebuked for voicing that simple and undeniable truth, what’s the point of the “religious liberty” that Trump and his GOP allies celebrate?

And when will those who advertise themselves as religion’s friends realize they can do far more damage to faith than all the atheists and agnostics put together?

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