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PINEHURST, N.C. - With pigtails and plenty of giggles, Lucy Li just wants to have fun like any 11-year-old girl. Except that shes playing the biggest event in womens golf. Li, a sixth-grader from the Bay Area who doesnt appear to be the least bit overwhelmed by the attention around her, became the youngest qualifier in U.S. Womens Open history when she shot 68 at Half Moon Bay last month to win her sectional by seven shots. She celebrated by having dinner at her favourite restaurant and watching "The Amazing Spiderman 2." Now its time for the amazing Lucy Li show. "She looks so darn cute," said Michelle Wie, who didnt make it to her first Womens Open until she was 13. "I was like, I dont think I looked that cute when I was 11. But she just looks so excited, so wide-eyed. ... And Im just really so excited for her to be out. Its a memory that will last her a lifetime. What other 11-year-old can say that they played in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst? And she got to see the men play, too." Life is moving at warp speed for little Lucy Li. She only became serious about golf four years ago when she set up shop in Miami to work with Jim McLean. Just two months ago, the precocious 11-year-old with a mouth full of braces won her age division in the inaugural Drive, Chip and Putt Championship at Augusta National. And now shes at Pinehurst No. 2, ready to take on the course where Martin Kaymer won the U.S. Open on Sunday. "Its awesome, right?" she said. "I mean, Pinehurst and Augusta National in like two months. I mean, thats just amazing. Its mind-blowing for me. Its been awesome, because its been ... I mean, the food is great and its been a lot of fun. Ive made a lot of friends." Theres something about U.S. Womens Open in the North Carolina sandhills that attracts all the kids. Morgan Pressel qualified when she was 12 and had just turned 13 when the Womens Open was down the street at Pine Needles in 2001 (Li wasnt even born then). Lexi Thompson qualified and played at 12 when it returned to Pine Needles in 2007. Too young? Both went on to win major championships. "Look, if youre good enough, youre old enough — or young enough, whichever way you look at it," Laura Davies said. "If you can play the golf and you can qualify, then have a go. Whats the worst that can happen? She shoots a million this week and everyone says, Wasnt it great she was here? So I dont think anything bad can come out of it because shes too young to worry about the pressure. "Shes just having fun. Shes got a week off school. Its perfect." Li looked as if she was having a blast on a broiling day of practice Tuesday. She went nine holes with a local caddie. Then, it was time for a press conference, which drew the largest crowd of the day. Her pigtails in braids, held by clips the shape of hearts, she twirled in her chair waiting for it to start. She giggled before just about every answer, including one about whether her father could beat her. She laughed. She laughed again. And then she moved closer to the microphone and said, "No." But the kid made one thing clear. Shes not out to prove anything. She not out to make history. "The perfect week? I just want to go out there and have fun and play the best I can, and I really dont care about the outcome," Li said. "I want to have fun and learn. I want to learn a lot from these great players." She is not the youngest player in Womens Open history. Beverly Klass was 10 when she played in 1967, before there was qualifying. The youngest player to make the cut was Marlene Hagge, who was 13 in the 1947 Open at Starmount Forest in North Carolina. Among the favourites this week is Lydia Ko, the youngest LPGA Tour winner in history at 15 in the Canadian Womens Open two years ago. Age is becoming irrelevant, though something about the number "11" grabs the attention. "I saw her on the range this morning for the first time and didnt really watch her hit any balls — just how little she was, and the pigtails kind of caught me off guard," Stacy Lewis said. "But Im not a big fan of it. She qualified, so we cant say anything about that. You qualify for an Open, its a great thing. I just like to see kids be successful at every level before they come out here. "When I found out she qualified, I said, Well, where does she go from here? What do you next? I dont know. If it was my kid, I wouldnt let her play in the U.S. Open qualifier at 11. But thats just me." Li played in the U.S. Womens Amateur last year at 10. She was the youngest to qualify for match play at the U.S. Womens Amateur Public Links. The idea to try to qualify for the Womens Open was "mine." "Because I wanted to go out there and get the experience," she said. "Because its 36 holes and I didnt care if I qualified or not. I didnt think about it. I just wanted to go for the experience." . Riethers apparent stamp on Manchester United midfielder Adnan Januzaj during Saturdays Premier League match at Craven Cottage was missed by the match officials. A three-man panel of former referees reviewed the incident and all agreed that it was a sending-off offence. . In this weeks Leaf Report podcast, James Mirtle and Jonas Siegel debate whether Toronto can continue their shootout dominance and discuss what Dave Nonis game plan should be heading into the trade deadline. http://www.officialsaintslockroom.com/l ... jersey-90/. LOUIS -- The St. .ca Fantasy Editor Scott Cullen, NFL Editor Ben Fisher, and Isaac Owusu discuss three hot fantasy football topics. . Teams one through twenty competing in Englands top flight are each fatally flawed. A wide-open, highly competitive and mistake-filled season has followed.TAMPA – Tim Gleason has built a career in the NHL on protecting the house. "You hate when they score," he said with some distaste at the thought. "You take pride in it. You think its your fault every time it goes into the net, whether youre on the ice or not. From a defensive standpoint or mindset, its something that you do have to take pride in." At the core of another failed season with the Maple Leafs sitting outside the postseason picture (theyre still technically alive, but just barely) is a defensive foundation that ranks as one of the worst in hockey. And if there is one dominant trend in the organizations failures since the end of the 2004-05 lockout its just that: they cant keep the puck out of their own net. Season Rank (Goals Against) 2005-06 21st 2006-07 27th 2007-08 27th 2008-09 30th 2009-10 29th 2010-11 24th 2011-12 29th 2013 17th 2013-14 26th Hired to replace the high-octane Ron Wilson in the spring of 2012, Randy Carlyle was supposed to help change all that. "I think that our defensive play, its been sporadic," said Carlyle after a late season practice in Tampa, his team nearing elimination from the postseason for the eighth time in the past nine years. And if Carlyle does lose his job for the house of cards that eventually collapsed in Toronto this year it will be in large part to his failing to influence change in the way the Leafs play defence. But a related question that Dave Nonis and the management team will have to ponder in the summer assessment that follows is how much of the defensive struggle is related to coaching and Carlyles system and how much is simply a failing in personnel and their subsequent commitment to defence. Carl Gunnarsson, one half of the teams top pairing on the back-end, downplayed the trouble as a matter of system. "I dont think theres anything wrong with the system," he told the Leaf Report. Instead, Gunnarsson believed it was a matter of execution within that system. He pointed to a lack of patience, a tendency to stray from the game-plan at the first sign of adversity. And if there was one thing, he said, that made a club like Boston the stingiest of stingy it was their wholehearted commitment to the system Claude Julien has put into place. "If theyre down, if theyre up, they always play the same way and they know that it works," he said. "For some reason, we dont seem to get it in our heads [that] when we do play according to the system and everyone is executing its been working." All of which would explain the unpredictability and inconsistency imbued in the Leafs performance this season. One good period has quickly spiraled into two bad ones. One good game has rarely translated into another. Without saying so quite bluntly, Gleason seemed to suggest that an ingredient of will was missing with this Leafs team when it came to keeping the puck out of the net. That was never more apparent than in a lacklustre loss to Winnipeg over the weekend, one that saw Toronto simply outworked with their playoff chances riding on the line. The Jets grinded pucks down low in the Leafs zone for minutes on end, one-on-one battles lost with alarming frequency. "I think were hoping to get things out of the zone instead of bearing down and knowing its going to get ouut," Gleason said.dddddddddddd "The hopes got to stop. "Were good enough offensively to put numbers on the board, we just have to find a way to bear down, take care of our zone first and then go from there." Otherwise, the Leafs have been doomed by an uneasy assortment of fatal blunders resulting in a steady stream of breakaways, odd-man opportunities and two-time Rocket Richard trophy winners left open with far too much time and space. That was the case when the Leafs last played the Lightning – theyll square off again on Tuesday night – Steven Stamkos scoring a hat trick in a Tampa win. At practice Monday, Jake Gardiner went back to retrieve a puck in the defensive zone with pressure from an oncoming forward. "Get inside," Carlyle bellowed. "Dont let him come inside." Only Gardiner did and the puck was quickly lost. "Obviously with the defensive zone coverage we need to be a lot more inside and lot more stiffer and not as giving of many opportunities from that critical area," Carlyle said afterward. It was a point of emphasis for the coaching staff during the Olympic break. "Theres looseness," he said. "We have people back in position and the stick is not in the right position. Its a foot, six inches, two inches [in the wrong place]. And those things are happening to us. Those are the things that are frustrating for everybody." That was evident, he said, in the two of the goals scored by the Bruins in a third period comeback last week (the Leafs won in overtime). Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron tallied the second and third Boston goals with a swarm of Leafs in and around the puck. "We had people right there," Carlyle said. "We had all five guys around the puck. But somehow they snuck the puck through us – they made good plays – but we were in position. Stick position was an area that obviously we didnt have it in good enough position." On the day of his first training camp in Toronto, the Leafs head coach declared that "its going to just as important to prevent a goal as it is to score a goal and recognition of that is not going to be taken lightly." Part of his job then would be to enforce that mandate, infuse his will on the group. He has not managed to do that in either of his two full seasons behind the bench, his preferred style of play often clashing with the personnel. The Leafs have been one of the leagues worst possession teams under his purview, spending far too much time in the defensive zone. They subsequently yield more shots against than any other team and fail all too often in that defence – they rank fifth worst in goals against despite boasting terrific goaltending from Jonathan Bernier for most of the year. A bad penalty kill, one that ranks third from last this season, has only added to the trouble. And if theres credit owed to the coaching staff for the units improvement a year ago, then responsibility must go the other way when that performance falters. But the question for Nonis is how much of the defensive trouble goes beyond coaching and into personnel? A defence that features Gunnarsson and Dion Phaneuf at the very top isnt likely to have much success at goal prevention and needs obvious upgrade. Beyond that is a forward group long on skill, but short on the requisite commitment, competitiveness and attention to detail. Torontos best players are often amongst its worst offenders. Nonis will wrestle with those questions of coaching and personnel in another offseason that comes earlier than was hoped. Whats clear is where improvement for the club has to begin. "Defence," Gleason said, "I think at the end of the day wins championships." ' ' '