GOLD COAST, Queensland --?Ian Poulter admits he is finding his return to competitive golf mentally hard as he prepares for this weeks Australian PGA Championship at Royal Pines.The opening event of the 2017 Race to Dubai will be 40-year-old Poulters first appearance in a regular European Tour event for 10 months after he had surgery to correct a long-standing foot injury.Poulter was forced to take 11 weeks off -- including the Ryder Cup -- and has only played a handful of PGA Tour and Asian Tour events since returning to action. But he has fond memories of playing Down Under, where he won the won the 2011 Australian Masters.When you take a big chunk of time off, its hard mentally to get back in the frame of mind of playing competitive golf all the time, Poulter said. I havent ever been in that type of position before.I was trying to work out when the last time was that I hadnt hit a ball for 11 weeks, and I cant ever remember -- even as a kid -- taking that length of time away from the game. It was a nice break but the difficulty will come from being under pressure to hole putts at the right time.You can prepare hitting golf balls, you can play practice rounds, you can get yourself ready in terms of being conditioned to play, but theres nothing like being under pressure and actually having to do it for real. So its about managing those expectations when you come back to play.On the injury, he added: The foots good. To take myself out of trying to qualify for a Ryder Cup place, that was pretty hard to take because I obviously love that event so much. But a rest was needed to get the rehab done and to come back strong at the back end of this year, and after this week and next in Hong Kong well reassess and see where were going to start next year.If Poulter is to win his 13th European Tour title, and first since the 2012 HSBC Champions, he must see off stiff competition from the likes of world No. 7 and 2013 champion Adam Scott, his World Cup of Golf teammate Marc Leishman, and defending champion Nathan Holman. Earl Weaver Jersey Large . - Chris Tierney snapped a tie with a power-play goal late in the third period as the London Knights rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Erie Otters 5-3 in Ontario Hockey League action on Wednesday. Orioles Jerseys China . Terms of the deal were not immediately available. The 26-year-old finished last season with Clevelands Triple-A affiliate in Columbus after signing with the Indians in August. http://www.customoriolesjersey.com/custom-earl-weaver-jersey-large-78a.html . Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach. Custom Orioles T-shirts . Its the second straight game Bell has scored in extra time for Kelowna, which beat the Brandon Wheat Kings 6-5 on Friday, and he now has four game-winning goals on the season. Authentic Custom Orioles Jersey . Supported by three-run homers from Jayson Werth and Wilson Ramos, the young right-hander went seven strong innings in the Washington Nationals 8-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night. LAS VEGAS -- The Friday Football Showdown -- the $2,000 buy-in contest at the Golden Nugget which is in competition with the more-established Westgate SuperContest and includes college games and over/unders -- is back for a second season and open to the public.Before last year, the Friday Football Showdown, which is hosted by The Las Vegas Sportsline radio show on local ESPN affiliate AM 1100 and has roots dating back to the old Stardust Invitational and Leroys Money Talks Invitational radio contests (which had 16-player fields in a single-elimination tournament format) was open mostly to professional handicappers and touts. Last year, the Golden Nugget and Sportsline crews decided to make it an open contest, with the top eight handicappers from the first half of the season qualifying for the head-to-head tournament to determine the champion.Registration opens at 12 p.m. PT Friday, to coincide with the release of the Golden Nuggets College Football Games of the Year.The Friday Football Showdown attracted an 87-player field in its first open year, which organizers were happy with, and Jonathan Rice took home $118,500 (the $115,500 champions prize, plus $2,000 for making the playoffs and $1,000 for his quarterfinal win) after beating the team of Frank Betti and Anthony Curtis (who collected $38,500 for second plus the $3,000 in prior winnings) in the finals. This year, the goal is to get closer to 200 entries.After we made it open to the public for the first time last year, we went over the rules and wanted to make it more exciting and more fair, said Golden Nugget race and sports book director Tony Miller.Miller said the more exciting rule changes were mostly developed by him and his staff, including his right-hand man Aaron Kessler, along with The Las Vegas Sportsline host Matt Youmans, and include a wild-card chase in Weeks 9 and 10 for those who dont qualify in the first eight weeks, plus a mini-contest over Weeks 15-17. The more fair rules were suggested by contestants last year; those include moving the day that contest lines become available from noon Wednesday to noon Thursday and increasing the money for making the playoffs from $2,000 to $3,000.The moving of the lines from Wednesday to Thursday was because we saw a lot of lines, especially college totals, move a lot, and some players would just be playing the biggest moves, Miller said. Now, you still have 26 hours from noon Thursday until 2 p.m. Friday to put in your plays.Also, last year, if you made the playoffs and got eliminated in the first round, you would only break even, so we agreed tthat those qualifiers should at least make a profit.ddddddddddddFull rules, including tie-breaking procedures that make NFL tie-breaking protocols look simple, are posted on The Las Vegas Sportsline website, but here are the basics:Theres one entry per person and local players or out-of-towners can designate a proxy to put in their weekly plays.All contestants make seven plays against the Golden Nuggets contest lines (again, the full slate of college and pro sides and totals are available, unless a game is off the board and left off of the contest card) during Weeks 1 through 8 of the NFL season (the opening weekend of college games arent included). Each win is worth one point per win, with a half-point per push (there are no 2-point best bets this season).The top-seven records from the first eight weeks advance to the playoffs. The wild-card chase is held in Weeks 9-10, with contestants making nine plays those weeks and the wild-card winner making the playoffs as the No. 8 seed.Playoff contestants will receive $3,000 each and must appear on The Las Vegas Sportsline radio show (2-3 p.m. PT on those Fridays) to announce their plays or designate someone to appear for them. The quarterfinals will be Nov. 18, Nov. 25, Dec. 2 and Dec. 9 (winners get an additional $2,000) with the semifinals on Dec. 16 and 23 and the championship match on Dec. 30. A total of $32,000 will be paid out to the winners of the qualifiers and the quarterfinal winners, the remaining prize pool will be split up with 60 percent going to the champion, 25 percent to the second-place finisher and 5 percent each to the semifinal losers.All entrants are eligible to compete in the mini contest in Weeks 15-17 (playing along with the semifinalists and finalists), making seven selections each week. The winner will receive 5 percent of the remaining prize pool (or split among all mini-contest ties).One change the Golden Nugget didnt make is that its returning 100 percent of entry fees as prizes. The Westgate SuperContest has instituted an 8 percent administrative fee off the top of its prize pool this season, and only time will tell if that hurts their number of entries. The South Point has also been working on a 100 percent payback high-end football contest of its own, but no details have been announced as of this time.Keep an eye on ESPN Chalk as we give you the latest news from the Las Vegas football contest scene all the way through the champions being crowned. ' ' '