THE PRESIDENTS CUP
Site: Montreal.
Course: Royal Montreal GC (Blue). Yardage: 7,279. Par: 70.
Television: Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Golf Channel); Friday, 1-6 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 7-8 a.m. (Golf Channel), 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (NBC); Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. (NBC).
Defending champion: United States.
Captains: Jim Furyk (U.S.), Mike Weir (International).
Last time: Jordan Spieth went 5-0, the Americans led 8-2 after two sessions and went on to a 17 1/2-12 1/2 victory at Quail Hollow Club in North Carolina.
Series: United States leads 12-1-1.
Notes: The Americans will be going for their 10th straight victory in the series that began in 1994. ... Royal Montreal is holding the Presidents Cup for the second time. The Americans won in 2007. ... This is the first U.S. team without either Jordan Spieth or Justin Thomas since the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah. ... Adam Scott is playing in his 11th consecutive Presidents Cup without ever having won. His debut was in 2003 when the International team tied in South Africa. ... Furyk was the Ryder Cup captain in 2018 in France. ... Hideki Matsuyama and Taylor Pendrith are the only players on the International team who have won this year. ... Keegan Bradley is playing as a captain's pick. He is the first active Ryder Cup captain to play in the Presidents Cup. ... Mike Weir beat Tiger Woods in singles at the last Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal. ... Each team has two players who have never competed in a cup competition.
Next time: Medinah Country Club in 2026.
Online: https://www.pgatour.com/
ACCIONA SPANISH OPEN
Site: Madrid.
Course: Club de Campo Villa de Madrid. Yardage: 7,154. Par: 71.
Prize money: $3.25 million. Winner's share: $541,667.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 8-11:30 a.m. (Golf Channel), 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (NBC Sports app); Saturday, 7:30-8 a.m. (NBC Sports app), 8 a.m. to noon (Golf Channel); Sunday, 7 a.m. to noon (Golf Channel).
Defending champion: Matthieu Pavon.
Race to Dubai leader: Rory McIlroy.
Last week: Billy Horschel won the BMW PGA Championship.
Notes: Jon Rahm makes his first European tour start since he joined LIV Golf last December. He has appealed his sanctions for playing LIV Golf opposite European tour events without a release. Rahm must play four European tour events to be eligible for the Ryder Cup. ... Rahm has won the tournament three times in the last five years. ... Tyrrell Hatton, Eugenio Chacarra, David Puig and Patrick Reed from LIV Golf also are in the field. Hatton previously played the British Masters. ... U.S. Amateur champion Jose Luis Ballester of Spain is playing. ... Former PGA champion Jimmy Walker is playing on a sponsor invitation. Walker also played the Irish Open two weeks ago. ... The field includes Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry, both playing their third straight week on the European tour. ... Sepp Straka is playing under his exemption as being on the last Ryder Cup team.
Next week: Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Online: https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-tour/
WALMART NW ARKANSAS CHAMPIONSHIP
Site: Rogers, Arkansas.
Course: Pinnacle CC. Yardage: 6,438. Par: 71.
Prize money: $3 million. Winner's share: $450,000.
Television: Friday, 4:30-7:30 p.m. (NBC Sports app), 8-10 p.m. (Golf Channel-tape delay); Saturday-Sunday, 2-5 p.m. (Golf Channel).
Defending champion: Haeran Ryu.
Race to CME Globe leader: Nelly Korda.
Last week: Lydia Ko won the Kroger Queen City Championship.
Notes: The tournament is one of two on the LPGA schedule held over 54 holes (excluding the Solheim Cup). The other is the ShopRite LPGA Classic. ... The last two winners, Haeran Ryu and Jeeno Thitikul, made this tournament their first LPGA victory. ... Lydia Ko is going to South Korea this week to play the Hana Financial Group Championship. She has 22 victories on the LPGA and 29 titles worldwide, not including the gold medal she won in the Paris Olympics this summer. ... Lilia Vu, the No. 2 player in the women's world ranking, is playing for the third straight week dating to the Solheim Cup. ... Vu is among 12 players from the Solheim Cup competing this week, six from the United States and six from Europe. ... Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis and Maria Fassi are playing what amounts to a home tournament. Both played college golf at Arkansas.
Next tournament: Buick LPGA Shanghai on Oct. 10-13.
Online: https://www.lpga.com/
Last tournament: Patton Kizzire won the Procore Championship.
Next week: Sanderson Farms Championship.
FedEx Cup champion: Scottie Scheffler.
Online: https://www.pgatour.com/
Last week: Paul Broadhurst won the Pure Insurance Open.
Next week: Constellation Furyk & Friends.
Charles Schwab Cup leader: Ernie Els.
Online: https://www.pgatour.com/pgatour-champions
Last week: Frankie Capan III won the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship.
Next week: Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
Points leader: Matt McCarty.
Online: https://www.pgatour.com/korn-ferry-tour
Last week: Ripper won the LIV Golf Team Championship.
Individual champion: Jon Rahm.
Next tournament: End of season.
Online: https://www.livgolf.com/
Japan Golf Tour: Vantelin Tokai Classic, Miyoshi CC (West), Aichi, Japan. Defending champion: Yuta Kinoshita. Online: https://www.jgto.org/en/
Asian Tour: Yeangder TPC, Linkou International Golf and CC, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Defending champion: Poom Saksansin. Online: https://asiantour.com/
Japan LPGA: Japan Women’s Open Golf Championship, Ohtone CC (West), Ibaraki, Japan. Defending champion: Erika Hara. Online: https://www.lpga.or.jp/en/
Challenge Tour: Swiss Challenge, Golf Saint Apollinaire, Folgensbourg, France. Previous winner: Adam Blomme. Online: https://www.europeantour.com/challenge-tour/
Ladies European Tour: Lacoste Ladies Open de France, Golf Barriere, Deauville, France. Defending champion: Johanna Gustavsson. Online: https://ladieseuropeantour.com/
Korea LPGA: Hana Financial Group Championship, Bear’s Best Cheongna, Incheon, South Korea. Defending champion: Dayeon Lee. Online: https://klpga.co.kr/
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
A man walks on the course in the rain during a practice session at the Presidents Cup golf tournament at the Royal Montreal Golf Club, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024 in Montreal. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — With the backdrop of elections worldwide that highlight strains on democracy, former President Bill Clinton urged attendees of his foundation's annual meeting to meet their communities' needs through collective action.
Strong democratic institutions, Clinton argued, are necessary to achieve the social impact sought by the political, business, and philanthropic leaders convened this week by the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.
“Being here and making commitments to action can actually deliver real results to real people,” he said Monday morning. “It’s the best way we can strengthen faith in those kinds of democratic institutions.”
It was a strong endorsement of philanthropy's ability to help address discontented voters' concerns at a time when surveys show higher levels of trust in the nonprofit sector than others. The Clinton Foundation underscored that outlook over the past two days through its theme of “What’s Working," unveiling 175 new commitments that seek to prove even the greatest challenges in these tumultuous times have solutions.
Throughout the conference, participants emphasized the need for collaborations when one sector alone cannot tackle a difficult problem.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture pledged more than $466 million to bolster food security in 16 other countries by providing school meals or implementing climate-conscious farming technology.
Partnerships are key, according to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, because much of the agency’s food aid gets funneled through non-governmental organizations that “are trusted in areas of the world where something coming from ‘the U.S. government’ may not be."
“The reality is if you have people who are well fed, you’re going to have less strife,” Vilsack told The Associated Press. “If you have less strife, it’s going to be a less unstable world.”
Other commitments included the nonprofit Center for Mind Body Medicine’s pledge to provide trauma healing services to 500,000 youth and adults throughout the Gaza Strip. Jill Biden unveiled a $500 million plan to advance women's health research. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the opening of a comprehensive women’s center in Iraq led by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nadia Murad to support survivors of sexual violence.
In between panels, attendees from over 80 countries mingled in lounges focused on issue areas like climate and health.
Wayuu Taya Foundation founder Patricia Velãsquez credited past Clinton Global Initiative meetings for connecting her nonprofit with the partners necessary to scale up its provision food, water and medicine throughout indigenous parts of Venezuela.
Over 20 years of trust-building became all the more crucial in more turbulent recent years, she said. Runaway inflation, intensified repression and an exodus of millions have unfolded under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Velasquez told AP that philanthropic organizations like hers are best positioned to provide aid under those “complicated” circumstances because “we don't take sides."
“We can’t put a color or political party on those who need," she said. “If the political parties want to put colors on us, that’s a whole other story. But our job is to help the people.”
The Clintons' deep network also allows the initiative to elevate new actors on the global stage.
Spotlighted was Welcome.US, a not-for-profit initiative connecting U.S. sponsors with refugees from countries including Ukraine, Afghanistan, Haiti and Cuba. After both parties clear background checks, U.S. citizens help refugees land on their feet through a lesser-utilized pathway to entry called humanitarian parole.
Since its founding in 2021, Welcome.US reports that the process has gone from welcoming roughly 11,000 refugees in one year to nearly 500,000.
“We can take some risks with things that government can’t," Welcome.US President Anya McMurray told AP. "Nonprofit philanthropy can make some big bets. There is more room to be innovative and creative because there is the ability to assume risk that, sometimes, government cannot do.”
To inspire their 2,000 attendees, organizers leaned on familiar faces like José Andrés. In less than 15 years, the celebrity chef has turned World Central Kitchen into a leading provider of food relief.
Yes, he said during a conversation with journalist Katie Couric and renowned conservationist Jane Goodall, the war in Gaza sometimes looks like “a war against humanity itself.” But he added that “the best of humanity shows up” in the worst moments, citing the example of Israeli and Gazan chefs who he said have expressed interest in feeding the hungry on both sides of the border.
“These are the voices of humanity,” he said to much applause. “That’s why we all need to be asking, always, for peace.”
The final panel featured Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled Belarusian political activist whose husband has been imprisoned for over a year after he challenged his country's authoritarian president, and Yulia Navalnaya, who has similarly taken up the mantle left behind by her late husband Alexei Navalny after the Russian opposition leader died earlier this year in a state prison.
Dictators, Tsikhanouskaya said, try to make you believe they hold “simple solutions to difficult situations.” The prevalence of dictatorship in any one country is a threat to democracy all over, she added.
“Every person has to understand this moral obligation of each of you to contribute somehow in strengthening democracy," she tasked the audience.
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Former CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates, speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Britain's Prince Harry speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Russian political leader and the late Alexei Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya, right, and Belarusian politician, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, left, enter to the stage during the Clinton Global Initiative, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Chef Jose Andres, top, kisses English primatologist and anthropologist, Jane Goodall, bottom, during the Clinton Global Initiative, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Former U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, from left, speaks as American television producer and screenwriter, Shonda Rhimes, and President of the Ford Foundation, Darren Walker, listen during the Clinton Global Initiative, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Bill Clinton, founder and board chair of the Clinton Foundation & 42nd President of the United States, left, gives President Joe Biden the "Global Citizen Award" as they clasp hands during the Clinton Global Initiative, on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Hillary Clinton, 67th Secretary of State of the United States, left, speaks with. Matt Damon, right, on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
