TV Guide: Rory won’t have time to smell the roses... or dogwood or azaleas

Standby for azaleas, unfurl the white dogwood, it’s almost time for the world’s greatest garden show (with golf competition attached). The 18 holes are named after the plants that grow there, though some golfers may connect them more to disasters.

Tea Olive, one of the trickiest opening holes in majors, tasted especially bitter for Ernie Els in 2016 when he took six putts from three feet to end his hopes with 71 holes still to play, while Brooks Koepka was prickly at the 18th last year, aptly named Holly, when he took a quadruple-bogey and missed the cut.

The most famous sapper of spirits is Golden Bell, the par-three 12th, where Jordan Spieth took a seven that killed his challenge on the last day a decade ago and Tom Weiskopf ran up a 13 in 1980. But don’t get cocky if you escape with par: Rory McIlroy did last year to open a three-stroke lead that he gave back at the next two holes (from Thursday, Sky Sports Golf, 2pm).

Britain used to rule the tennis courts, and the casino tables, at Monte Carlo. Brits won the first 12 men’s titles from 1896 and 13 of the first 16 for women. The luck has long turned and instead, will Aryna Sabalenka, who has won 23 of her 24 matches this year, continue her hot streak and can anyone unsettle Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz (Sunday, Sky Sports Tennis, 2pm)?

Sonia Bompastor, the Chelsea manager, blew her lid when Arsenal’s Katie McCabe escaped a card for grabbing Alyssa Thompson’s ponytail in the Champions League this week. Chelsea can take out their frustration on another north London club when they host Tottenham in the women’s FA Cup quarter-final (Monday, Channel 4, 1.30pm).

In the men’s version, Leeds United seek their first Cup semi-final place since 1987 away to West Ham United (Sunday, TNT Sports 1, 4.30pm).

Tyson Fury says boxing is “like a risky love affair” and he cannot resist another fling. The Gypsy King returns to the ring against Arslanbek Makhmudov, a Russian who likes to wrestle bears. Fury’s father says his son’s legs have gone but that shouldn’t lower his confidence. When Fury last fought, at the end of 2024, he said he beat Oleksandyr Usyk by at least three rounds: the judges all scored it as a 116-112 loss (Saturday, Netflix, 10pm).

Jimmy White first qualified for snooker’s World Championships in 1981 – and he hasn’t reached the Crucible for 20 years – but hope springs eternal even at 63. The Whirlwind, now just a light breeze, begins qualifying against Gao Yang, of China, who is 42 years his junior. At the other end of a career is Poland’s Michal Szubarczyk, who won last year’s world amateur title aged 14 (from Monday, TNT Sports Extra, 10am).

Photograph by Andrew Redington/Getty Images