1. If we needed more proof that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, Phil Mickelson proved it to sports fans on Sunday by transforming ESPN’s coverage of the Open Championship into a Rorschach test of how we watch television. For an internet commentariat that went to bed confident that Lefty was out of contention at Royal Muirfield in this year’s Open Championship, Phil’s come-from-behind victory was a reminder that sports forever reserves the right to stab you in the decency and twist the knife; for Mickelson’s Rick Reilly-an supporters, it was proof that, more than anyone else on the PGA tour, Phil can still make that ball dance.

Phil Mickelson’s British Open win proved once and for all that he is golf’s answer to Kanye West, writes Bryan Joiner in The Classical.

2. Martino is not another Bielsa – he is far too pragmatic for that – but he is bielsista, not merely in his football but in his look: he too sports a fluffy demi-mullet and while there may not be a cord on his glasses, he still exudes the air of a bookish academic who cannot quite work out why he is wearing a tracksuit rather than tweed.

Barcelona’s decision to appoint Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino as their new coach sent a fair few football fans scrambling for Wikipedia this week. The Guardian’s Jonathan Wilson looks at the man and his footballing influences.

3. Martino appears well placed to continue Barca’s gradual shift towards a more vertical style which utilises possession as a vehicle for attack rather than mere control that Vilanova initiated last season. Martino’s intention is for the player in possession to always have at least three forward passing options, an aim that is achieved through constant, varied movement in the final third–onrushing full-backs, midfielders moving between the lines and forwards switching positions.

And in The Score (the other one!), Nick Dorrington takes us through what to expect from Barca’s new boss on and off the pitch.

4. Both are presumed guilty by lazy implication and cynical inference. Granted, our skepticism is well-earned. Again and again we find cheaters of every kind succeeding in every sport. In the same week we sent Froome up the Ventoux and Davis to the All-Star Game, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell and a handful of others were accused of doping in track and field. As were more cyclists. And NFL football players. As a mirror to the larger culture, as a morality play, nothing much in sports surprises or disappoints us anymore. Sports are just a theater of the human, after all, and from the beginning of time athletes have lied and cheated. A rush to judgment is easy.

ESPN’s Jeff McGregor feels that he — and the rest of Western civilization — are being played for suckers by sports stars.

5. My passion for sports reporting had nothing to do with swinging dicks. Still, that was the popular assumption when a handful of women — including this one — broke into men’s locker rooms in the mid-’70s. We didn’t care about sports, they said. In their febrile minds, we were there to ogle jocks and cocks. As if.

Gail Shister, one of America’s first female sports reporters, writes about her experience trying to break into a male-dominated profession.

6. According to the model, Bolt’s time of 9.58 seconds was achieved by reaching a terminal velocity of 12.2 metres per second, around a quarter of that achieved by a skydiver in a belly-to-earth freefall position, and exerting an average force of 815.8 newtons, close to the force of a knockout punch from a heavyweight boxer.

Scientists work out the secrets behind Usain Bolt’s world-record speed.

ESPN announces line-up for the next 6 episodes of ’30 for 30′