Rory McIlroy slips out of contention after second round 76 in Charlotte

Rory McIlroy's nightmare start left him way off the pace at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow . Photograph: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Martin Flores and Angel Cabrera lead the way after two rounds of the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte after Rory McIlroy endured a difficult day to slip down the leaderboard.

The Northern Irishman's hopes of repeating his 2010 win receded after a nightmare round of 76 on Friday. After starting out three strokes off the lead, McIlroy suffered a back-to-back double bogeys at holes three and four, while further losses at two, six and 16 were only partially offset by three birdies to leave him at one over and spared the cut by a single stroke.

But it was an unassuming Zimbabwean who made the headlines with a record-equalling round. Brendon de Jonge began the day dead last on the leaderboard after shooting 80 on Thursday but turned his form around in dramatic fashion 24 hours later, a 10-under-par 62 vaulting him up the standings and back to two under overall - seven shots off the joint leaders.

De Jonge's efforts saw him tie the Quail Hollow course record held byMcIlroy, whose final-round 62 saw him to his first career PGA victoryfour years ago. De Jonge's Friday charge has spared him from the cut and the 33-year-old is now looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

"I wish I could go into every round with that kind of a mind set, but it's easier said than done," De Jonge, who made eight birdies and an eagle, said on pgatour.com.

"As horrible as yesterday was, today was as nice. So this game gives you something and takes something away."

The story could have been even more remarkable for De Jonge when he gave himself an 18-foot putt on the last hole for a course-record 61, but it was not to be.

"I knew I had to keep going really just to make the cut, so I had that mind set all day that I needed to get out and get as far under par as possible and thank goodness it worked out," De Jonge added.

"To be honest, I didn't expect to be playing this weekend, so everything is a bonus. I have to do a good job of starting fresh tomorrow and realizing that it's a new round."

The Charlotte event has been more consistent for Argentinian veteran Cabrera, who led by one shot after a first-round 66 and followed up with a 69 on Friday to ensure he kept his place at the top of the leaderboard.

Flores joined Cabrera at the top of the pile after adding a 68 to his opening 67, while England's Justin Rose is also well in the mix, his second-round 67 keeping him just a stroke off the leaders at eight under.

Scotland's Martin Laird is on five under, but England's Lee Westwood will play no further part in the weekend after he missed the cut at three over, having added a 76 to his opening 71.

Jason Day to miss Players Championship with thumb injury

Jason Day of Australia has been suffering from injury and illness. Photograph: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Jason Day's persistent thumb injury continues to dog his season, now ruling him out of the lucrative Players Championship next week.

Day placed the left thumb in a cast for two weeks after the Masters to immobilise the joint and stimulate healing but the method has failed to have him ready for what is known as the ‘fifth major'.

Also suffering from a bout of bronchitis, the world No.6 is now hopeful of a return at the Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus, in his US backyard in Columbus, Ohio from May 29.

After failing to commit to the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, Day admitted to further frustration with the injury that has seen him play just once since claiming the World Golf Championships Match Play Championship in February. "It's tough but I just have to put this thing front and centre now and make sure it heals," Day said via text message.

Traditionally the Memorial Tournament would also constitute Day's last start before the US Open a fortnight later, this year's event being held at Pinehurst in North Carolina.

The Queenslander has been runner-up twice at the US Open, including last year at Merion where he had the lead with eight holes to play.

The injury has come at an awful time for the 26-year-old who was in career form and set to push on from his World Cup win last November in Australia and his WGC triumph earlier in the year.

Adam Scott spearheads the now nine-man Australian contingent who have qualified for the Players Championship where he will once again have the chance to become the No.1 player in the world.

Stuart Appleby, Aaron Baddeley, Steven Bowditch, Greg Chalmers, Matt Jones, Marc Leishman, Geoff Ogilvy and John Senden join Scott in the field.

Formula One holds its breath as Bernie Ecclestone's bribery trial begins

Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One chief executive, could face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty in Munich. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

Bernie Ecclestone goes on trial in Munich on Thursday and for the next five months Formula One will hold its breath. The man who transformed the sport into a billion-pound business and who has run it for four decades in his idiosyncratic and controversial way faces the possibility of 10 years in jail if found guilty of bribery. The sport could face an even longer term of uncertainty, even decline.

The judge Ecclestone will be up against does not take any prisoners; or rather, he does. Peter Noll convicted the former German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, a central figure in the Munich hearing, and sent him down for eight-and-a-half years in 2012. In his concluding statement, Noll said: "In this process we assume the driving force was Mr Ecclestone."

Last month the same prosecutors, who have spent two years preparing for the Ecclestone case, brought down Uli Hoeness, then president of the European football champions Bayern Munich. Hoeness was jailed for three-and-a-half years for tax evasion.

If all this was not enough to seriously daunt Ecclestone – who will be 84 in October – Noll has also been handed what could be a loaded gun. In February Ecclestone – who denies any wrongdoing – won a civil case brought by the German media company Constantin Medien.

Ecclestone was accused of entering into a "corrupt agreement" with Gribkowsky, and that, as a former shareholder, Constantin Medien lost out in BayernLB's deal to CVC as the shares were undervalued.

But although F1's chief executive won that time, the comments by Mr Justice Newey were immensely damaging. He said it was "impossible" to regard him as a "reliable or truthful witness".

Looking ahead to this trial, Ecclestone said: "He [the German judge] might find, when I'm in court there, that he doesn't agree with what the English judge has said. The judge in England didn't have all of the central witnesses, and I wasn't there to defend whether I'm a liar or unreliable. I was there to simply state whether the shares were cheap or not."

In Munich, Ecclestone will be accused of paying Gribkowsky a bribe of $44m (£26m) to smooth the sale of F1 to the private equity firm CVC eight years ago.

The possible consequences for Ecclestone are dire. The CVC co-chairman, Donald Mackenzie, has said that he would fire Ecclestone if he was found guilty of wrongdoing. Ecclestone would appeal against any guilty verdict.

It was the future of F1, more than Ecclestone, that was being discussed in the paddock in China last week. Although there was much sympathy for Ecclestone there was even more concern for what would be left behind. And the fact that before then, for the next 20 weeks over which the 26-day trial will be spread, this will be a massive distraction from a sport only just showing signs of recovering from a difficult start, following a vast number of changes to the rules and regulations.

F1 does need some fresh air blown through it. There are a number of important people in the paddock who feel that Ecclestone is well past his sell-by date but the same people are also fearful of the post-Ecclestone era, which will arrive soon enough, whatever happens in Munich.

It seems certain that Ecclestone, ultimately, will be replaced by a number of people, and one of them may include the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, whom the current supremo gets on with better than any other leading paddock figure. Just who might take control of the sport is occupying everyone's thoughts at CVC.

It is not just a private equity firm that is preoccupied by all this. The fact is that Ecclestone, a brilliant deal-maker who carries most of the information in his entrepreneurial head, is a hard act to follow.

Bernie Ecclestone launches defence against bribery charges

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone (2nd right) with his lawyers and a translator at court in Munich for his bribery trial. Photograph: Joerg Koch/Getty Images

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has launched his defence against charges of bribing a public official in the first of at least 26 days of hearings at a Munich court.

Ecclestone has denied the bribery charges, claiming he was the victim of a blackmail scam.

In a statement to court, he said: "The alleged bribery never happened. The prosecution's claims are based on statements by Dr [Gerhard] Gribkowsky which are wrong, misleading and inconclusive."

Entering the court at 9.30am on Thursday clutching what looked like a scrapbook, Ecclestone appeared calm and relaxed.

Asked by the judge Peter Noll about his marital status, Ecclestone said he was divorced. "Divorced? I thought you were married," said Noll. "I like to remember the divorced part," quipped Ecclestone, who is married to his third wife, Brazilian Fabiana Flosi.

Noll seemed to appreciate Ecclestone's sense of humour: "Those were the easier questions," he said.

The 256-page indictment against Ecclestone, formulated after a two-year investigation, accuses him of bribing a German banker with the intention of cementing his powerful position at the top of the motorsport.

The banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky, was notionally the chief risk assessment officer for the Formula One shareholder Bayern Landesbank at the time. But, the indictment alleges, payments totalling $44m (£26m) and the promise of future employment in Formula One swayed Gribkowsky to act against his employers' interests, easing the sale of Bayern LB's share to a company that had guaranteed to keep Ecclestone in charge as chief executive.

Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight and a half years' jail in 2012 by the same judge presiding over the trial against Ecclestone. The former banker is expected to appear as one of 39 witnesses later in the trial.

In a long personal statement read to the court on Thursday, Ecclestone denied bribing Gribkowsky, claiming instead that the former banker had blackmailed him by threatening to supply false information about his family trust Bambino to the tax authorities. Rather than a bribe, Ecclestone's defence team claims the $44m payments were hush money.

The statement said: "It was clear, he [Gribkowsky] wanted money. He said he had always protected me, but that there was a lot he could say. I often asked my lawyers: 'Is there a German word for blackmail?'"

Far from being an easily manipulated pawn, Ecclestone painted a picture of Gribkowsky as a power-hungry man who dreamed of becoming "Mr Formula One" and owning his own race team.

In one meeting, Ecclestone said, the German had made himself comfortable in the chief executive chair and smoked a cigar throughout, causing Flavio Briatore, then a senior figure in Formula One who had recently quit smoking, to storm out halfway through the meeting.

The indictment acknowledged that Gribkowsky had made "insinuations" about Ecclestone being ultimately in charge of Bambino, but seemed to dismiss the possibility of blackmail as Ecclestone had "no concrete evidence to hand".

Ecclestone's defence is that he had been forced to act even though he felt he had done nothing wrong in his affairs with Bambino, because the risk involved of a reputable banker like Gribkowsky contacting the UK tax authorities was "hard to calculate" and could have led to a fine of "more than £2bn".

"Some people have asked me how it is possible that someone like Bernie Ecclestone can be put under pressure", said his statement. "I say: Yes, it's possible, if you know exactly where to apply the right pressure, and Gribkowksy got the right spot for me and Bambino"

Ecclestone's statement claimed he had been unaware that Gribkowsky, who was employed by a state-owned bank, was a public official. He claimed Gribkowsky had sent him a note saying: "Banking is a people's business. Never ask what a bank can do, but what a banker can do for you. There's no relationship between institutions, but only between individuals."

Far from him alone trying to cling on to his position in Formula One, Ecclestone claimed, the racing teams were supportive of his role and concerned about the growing involvement of banks in the running of the sport.

A spokeswoman for the court did not rule out the possibility of Ecclestone paying a settlement to avoid jail. "There has been no attempt to reach a deal so far, but it remains possible that an arrangement could be made over the course of the trial", said Andrea Titz.

Ayrton Senna to be remembered in Imola 20 years after his death

Link to video: Ayrton Senna: fans mark 20th anniversary of F1 legend's death

Ayrton Senna never drove for Ferrari, the most passionately supported of all Formula One teams, but in the northern Italian town of Imola, where the great champion perished 20 years ago, they are putting aside such petty prejudices.

Five days of events to mark Senna's death will commence on Wednesday, for the last man to die in a grand prix is remembered like no other.

Senna was one of the three or four greatest drivers in history, and very possibly the finest; his sheer speed, high intelligence, utter dedication, ruthlessness and good looks placed him apart from his rivals, and his early death added lustre to the legend.

The figures are incredible enough – three world championships, 41 wins and 65 poles – but it was the ferocity of his will outside as well as inside the car that separated him from the others in his sport. This was a man who walked away from his wife, his country and his friends in order to devote himself to Formula One.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are not always in agreement, as anyone who worked at McLaren in 2007 would ruefully agree, but in their grief for the loss of their hero they are united.

Sitting beside each other shortly before the last grand prix in Shanghai, Hamilton said: "When I was a kid I had all the books, all the videos ... Ayrton was the driver I looked up to, way before I even started racing.

"He inspired me to be a driver and on the day of his passing, his death was ... it was very difficult for me to show my emotions in my family, so I went off to a quiet place and it was very difficult for several days ... your hero's gone.

"He is an incredible legend. You can still learn things from how he approached racing and how he drove. You like to think that one day you may be recognised as someone that was able to drive similarly to him. He was always my favourite driver."

Alonso said: "It's the same for me. He was an inspiration. I remember some of the races that we could see in the news in Spain, because we didn't have the TV coverage of Formula One.

"I remember I went to school and on my book I didn't have pictures of girls, but I had Ayrton there, and the same in my room. I had a big poster of Ayrton and even my first go-karts were in the colours of Ayrton's McLaren because my father also liked him.

"It was a very sad moment [when he died]. I know there is something happening at Imola in Italy in the next weekends and I intend to be there, just to be close on this unfortunately important day."

He was first known as Ayrton da Silva, then Ayrton Senna da Silva and finally Ayrton Senna. His first F1 team was Toleman, and his aggression – he would drive straight at competitors rather than yield – upset everyone. "I could maybe forgive him if I liked him, but I don't," said one of his rivals, Michele Alboreto.

But Toleman knew exactly how good he was. The engineer Pat Symonds, who is now with Williams, told Christopher Hilton, in Memories of Senna: "There was one area at Dallas where just about everyone hit the wall. He hit it there too. When he got back to the pits he said: 'I just cannot understand how I did that. I was taking it no differently than I had been before. The wall must have moved.'

"We thought: 'Yeah, right, sure the wall's moved.' He was very insistent on this so after the race we went out and had a look. The wall had moved. It was concrete blocks and someone had clipped it, moved it, moved it just a few millimetres – and I mean just a few millimetres – and he had been judging it that perfectly."

His last employer in F1 was Frank Williams, who said: "My abiding memory of Ayrton is not his world-class ability as a racing driver but as an intellectually unbeatable businessman. Throughout the several meetings that took place between me and Ayrton regarding his joining Willams, it became apparent that he arrived for each and every meeting fully prepared on every point for discussion.

"He had prepared in his mind at least three counter moves to every possible counter move by myself. He was gifted with a propensity for extraordinarily clear thinking and an outstanding ability to out-guess, out-think and out-manoeuvre his business opponent."

When the president and CEO of Formula One Management Bernie Ecclestone was asked about the great Brazilian he said: "The trouble with asking for good memories of Ayrton is that I do not have any bad ones. Perhaps my very vivid memories are of his strong opinion, and most of the time he was right."

Back to Hamilton, who said recently: "Sebastian Vettel always runs over the astroturf and over the kerb a little more than he should, going beyond the white line, which you're not actually allowed to do but they let you get away with it.

"In Senna's day, if he went one foot over that kerb, it would be grass and he would spin, and be penalised. He would be right on the limit, rather than over the limit, and I respect that style of driving more.

"Now you can go beyond and get back because modern tracks have run-off areas. They used to be gravel. Hit that, and your car was damaged or stuck. Now you can push beyond, go wide and come back on.

"If I could choose an era, I would love to have driven in Senna's time, 1988, 1989. The cars were dangerous then. When I went around Silverstone in his car, I went flat out and my head felt so exposed. I thought to myself: 'Jeez ... those guys.'"

Floyd Mayweather denies showing signs of decline in Las Vegas win

Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana, right, exchange punches in Las Vegas. Mayweather won a majority points verdict. Photograph: John Gurzinski/AFP/Getty

Glimpses of the real Floyd Mayweather are rare, so carefully does he massage his image and so dutifully do those around him comply with each swing of his mood. As Amir Khan said beforehand: "When you're talking with Floyd Mayweather, he's the boss. You have to listen to him."

That is true. Yet, in the course of his 46th victory, a bruising majority points verdict over Marcos Maidana at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night that he later rated nearly as tough as his win over Miguel Cotto in 2012, Mayweather's command of his landscape began to shrink.

Even as he pawed at his wounds two hours later and drank in the applause of his acolytes at another chaotic press conference – he had only to chant "Hard work!" than the room filled with the call-and-response he demands, "Dedication!" – minor suspicions surfaced that we might have seen the best of Mayweather. He is still unbeaten. But he is no longer is unbeatable.

Mayweather remains the best boxer in the business, ahead of the legally entangled Andre Ward and the seemingly untouchable heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko, but, at 37, his task of reaching Rocky Marciano's career record of 49-0 looks onerous rather than a given. He needs three wins to deliver on his six-fight deal with Showtime. None of them is likely to be as easy as most of the 46 he has already compiled.

Klitschko and Mayweather started their careers within a month of each other 18 years ago, and, while the Ukrainian's boast that he might box until he is 50 is fanciful, Mayweather's prospects of drawing alongside Marciano in boxing history also need closer examination.

For a man who regards himself so highly to be continually trapped and hurt by a willing but predictable assailant – the same fighter that Khan dropped then outpointed four years ago – is so palpably evidence of the first signs of decline that for Mayweather to pretend otherwise is slightly worrying.

Certainly after he had weathered the early storm on Saturday, he found much of his old genius for eluding punishment while punishing his opponent for impertinence. There were even extended passages of such brilliance and much to applaud as he finally took a grip on the contest. But the man in front of him was as easy to read as a bus ticket. As Maidana wound up his right arm it was liking watch a young cricketer learning to bowl, head down and hurling for all he was worth.Yet he found "all the right areas" way too often.

Mayweather, naturally, did not agree. He complained with justification that many of Maidana's blows were illegal, crashing down on the back of his head or so far south of the border as to require a visa for Mexico. He said, to the astonishment of any sane witness: "I could have made this a lot easier for myself, but I wanted to give the fans a show."

If the audience were sadists (and some of them are), he fulfilled their every wish. But it surely was stretching the point for Mayweather to claim that he willingly exposed himself to the dangers of defeat for their benefit.

The truth was he was a step slower than in his last fight, a magnificent performance against the Mexican Saúl Álvarez in September which ranks among his most convincing victories at elite level. This time, there were punches Maidana might have launched back in Argentina yet somehow travelled to their destination unimpeded.

Mayweather, who has wrestled with the recent break-up of his relationship as well as witnessing the turmoil that is raging inside the camp of his co-promoters, Golden Boy Promotions, said before this fight he had already contemplated leaving the business. He has retired before. He must one day do it again, although it is highly unlikely he will walk away now.

"Boxing is all I have ever done," he said on Saturday night. As for next time, he said: "I don't know what I'm going to do for my next fight yet. But I always find a way to win."

And that remains the truth.

Amir Khan's assured win over Collazo may cost him shot at Mayweather

Amir Khan, right, said he was pleased with his discipline after beating Luis Collazo in his first fight for 13 months. Photograph: Harry How/Getty Images

Hours after Amir Khan's pleasingly efficient debut at welterweight, a clear points win over the former world champion Luis Collazo to move him closer to a fight with Floyd Mayweather, a Showtime suit confided that the network was indeed pleased with the result. "But we also liked the old Amir," he said, "the one who gambled."

In a city and a business where risk-taking is part of the cultural fabric Khan's instinct for laying it all on the line has been his biggest-selling asset. The people here like blood. So do the fans. They crave knockouts and excitement. Khan invariably delivered that, with his quick fists and his suspect chin. It was as though he fought to the rhythm of the baying mob, his courage taking him to places better left unvisited, as whenDanny Garcia recovered from a shellacking to grab his light-welterweight belt with a brutal knockout.

While there was little to criticise and much to applaud about Khan's clinical win on Saturday night, the fight was short on the sort of drama that had crowds edging forward in the past. When Khan might have gone for a stoppage towards the end after knocking Collazo down and building up a big lead, he could not find the single-shot power at the higher weight to put away an opponent almost begging to be hit, hands down and his back on the ropes. That is at least a minor concern because, as Ricky Hatton, who edged a win over Collazo eight years ago, told him beforehand, it is tougher physically one weight up.

None of this should count against the winner in his quest for the most lucrative engagement in the sport, a fight with the reigning king of the division, Mayweather, whose top-of-the-bill victory over the tenacious Marcos Maidana kept his unbeaten record intact.

Mayweather had teased Khan with the prospect of a shot at his title for this show, switching to Maidana after he shocked the cocky Adrien Broner in December. Now, having beaten Maidana in 2010, Khan is entitled to go back to the top of the queue, yet that is no certainty.

He bordered on the cheeky when he observed later: "Mayweather put on a great performance but you look at the way I fought Maidana and the way he fought Maidana. I put him down with a great body shot. Maidana is slower than me and he was still catching Mayweather. Floyd is getting older and people want to see him get beat. It would be a boxing match, skills v skills, and the youth will take him, that's for sure."

However, Khan says he will not compromise his commitment to Ramadan, which finishes on 28 July, and will cut deeply into the preparation time required for a possible fight with Mayweather in September, one of the two months he chooses to perform.

Showtime and Mayweather would gladly give the old Khan a shot, because it would be simultaneously thrilling and less of a threat to the sport's cash cow. Paradoxically the new Khan, fashioned astutely by his trainer Virgil Hunter, would have a better chance of beating Mayweather and consequently his value to them dips.

That is not to say Mayweather would not still start favourite. Khan knows that. But a rematch with Maidana is a more likely fight for Mayweather this year, with Khan looking elsewhere, possibly towards Devon Alexander, with whom he was paired last December before withdrawing on a promise from Mayweather to be his opponent on Saturday night.

Or he could try for a fight with Shawn Porter, who took the Alexander gig and his IBF title and destroyed Paulie Malignaggi in his first defence. Porter has a mandatory challenger in Sheffield's Kell Brook, however, so there are obvious contractual difficulties there.

There is an obvious lucrative alternative: an all-British showdown between Khan and Brook. But that contest is loaded with career-changing possibilities for both, especially with the tantalising prize of a Mayweather fight in the background for next May. It surely would be an all-or-nothing war. And Khan would have to go back to Matchroom to negotiate a deal for that one.

Richard Schaefer, who is still the chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions despite an unresolved row with Oscar De La Hoya, said: "I'm going to talk to Amir and his team and Al Haymon [Mayweather's adviser] and see what we can work out. Tonight I think we saw that his move to 147 was long overdue.

"There are a lot of big fights out there at 147 but I am going to do what I can to match his dream of fighting Floyd Mayweather. Amir Khan has made a very strong case tonight, with his youth and skills. These are all great options for Floyd, whether it is a rematch with Maidana or a fight with Amir Khan. I know Floyd is pretty much set on these dates, May and September, but I am going to have discussions with him."

Khan was bruised but content after seeing off Collazo, and rightly so. It was, as Schaefer observed, "his best performance in two or three fights". He looked cut and strong at the weight, even though he had to do a lot of his work on the back foot, his speed was undiminished and he responded calmly to pressure, refusing the lure of a tear-up in a contest marred by a lot of needle and way too much holding.

"I had to be disciplined tonight," Khan said. "Collazo's a great fighter. This was my first fight in 13 months. I'm still improving and will sit down with my team and look at the tape."

He will be happy to dwell on the fourth, when he decked his opponent with a peach of a short right for a quick count, and the 10th, when he put Collazo down twice, first with a body shot then a left jab-hook that caught the New Yorker's chin at the end of its extension. Yet he could not finish him. That will be a slight concern because it seems he will be taken into the later rounds at this higher weight by stronger opponents with good chins, and that makes for a lot of hard work.

Nevertheless, he won and did so convincingly on the score cards, with two counts of 119-104 and one of 117-106. There were a lot of competitive rounds, but Khan won most of those with his long right lead through Collazo's static southpaw defence. I had him winning 118-106, with two shared rounds.