Suarez: I'd love to have Messi's left foot and Neymar's pace

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The Barcelona striker, who has been in scintillating form alongside his fellow South Americans this season, has revealed the traits he most admires in his attacking team-mates.

Luis Suarez has revealed the traits he would take from his fellow South American forwards at Barcelona - Lionel Messi's left foot and Neymar's pace.

The Catalans' front three have produced some sublime football this season, scoring 59 Liga goals between them as Barca target success in the Spanish top-flight, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey.

And Suarez admits he would relish being as strong on his left side as Messi and as quick across the ground as Neymar.

"I'd love to have Messi's left foot, which is one-of-a-kind in the world, remarkable" he was quoted as saying by Marca, before going on to praise Neymar's speed and  'joie de vivre'.

"All of the players have a great relationship and it shows, we're always laughing amongst ourselves and hugging - it's not just us three. It's not about affection, it's about support.

"We don't plan anything; it all just comes naturally. We just enjoy ourselves and if we're happy, we're able to do that."

Barcelona, who are eight points clear of second-placed Atletico Madrid at the top of the La Liga table, take on Rayo Vallecano on Thursday.

‘My earlier decision stands’ – Enyeama rules out Nigeria return

GOAL.COM

A return to the Super Eagles is not on the agenda for the OSC Lille goalkeeper, who will not rescind his decision to quit the senior national team.

Vincent Enyeama has ruled out a return to the Nigeria senior national team, claiming he does not want to talk about the issue again.

Enyeama, pulled the curtain on his international career, 13 years after making his debut for the Super Eagles on October 8, 2015 after a fractured relationship by coach Sunday Oliseh.

The 33-year-old Lille goalkeeper had arrived at the Eagles' training camp in Belgium late having had extra time off agreed following the death of his mother. However, he arrived to find he had been stripped of the captaincy, which had instead been handed to Ahmed Musa.

With reports in the media tipping interim national team handler Samson Siasia to recall the veteran back to the team following the resignation of Oliseh, but Enyeama says he has made up mind and will not quash his decision.

“I don’t want to talk about this issue again. I think my earlier decision stands,” Enyeama toldBrilaFm.

Meanwhile, chairman of technical and development committee of Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Chris Green revealed that the Eagles’ handler have been directed to submit their programme for the qualifiers against Egypt.

According to Green, the NFF is expecting the programme latest by Thursday this week. The programme will contain the team list and other things the coaches believe will give them success against Hector Cuper’s men.

Nigeria are second in Group G with two points behind the seven-time African champions.

Group Seeks Removal Of President’s Assent Need On Amended Constitution

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Nigeria’s Civil Society Organisation have asked the National Assembly to amend section nine of the 1999 Constitution to dispense with the need for Presidents’ assent during constitution amendment processes.

The group made their demand known to members of the National Assembly in Abuja on Monday.

According to the activists, the provision, which requires Nigerian Presidents’ assent to the document before its binding force, could be applied to the citizenry which is one of the reasons why the previous National Assemblies were unable to complete the amendment processes.

Members of the group urged the current Assembly to complete the process before the next political season begins.

The Chairman of the forum and a former federal lawmaker, Senator Khairat Gwadabe, said that the meeting would mobilise support to ensure that the Constitution amendment process was not hijacked by selfish interests

Other members of the group also identified section nine of the Constitution which requires the Presidents’ assent on an amended Constitution to be a major challenge.

The 5th, 6th and 7th National Assembly made several efforts to amend the 1999 Constitution, but all met with their different challenges.

It is hoped that the recommendations from the meeting of the Civil Society Organisation would help the 8th Assembly succeed.

Rickey Tarfa’s Change Of Affidavit Stalls Judgment

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Judgment in the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Suit filed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Rickey Tarfa, challenging his arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was not delivered on Monday after Mr Tarfa put fresh facts before the court.

In the fresh affidavit, a former staff of Mr Tarfa’s law firm, one Mohammed Awwal Yinusa, said the 225,000 Naira, which the EFCC claimed was to bribe the judge, was actually paid to him.

The former staff claimed that the account number quoted by the EFCC actually belonged to him.

The case has generated so much interest and everyone was eager to hear the judgment of the fundamental rights enforcement filed by Mr Tarfa.

Mr Tarfa wanted the court to declare that his arrest and detention was illegal.

Amongst other things, he asked the court to award 2.5 billion Naira in his favour and against the EFCC, its acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu and two operatives of the commission, all of whom he listed as respondents in the suit.

But fresh facts brought by the senior lawyer stalled the judgment.

In a further and better affidavit introducing the fresh facts, a former staff of Mr Tarfa’s law firm, Yinusa, who shared similar names with Justice Mohammed Yinusa, claimed ownership of the account which Mr Tarfa paid in 225,000 Naira.

The EFCC had claimed that Mr Tarfa bribed the judge with the money.

Mr Tarfa had in an earlier affidavit said the money paid to the judge was a donation by a group of friends to commiserate with him over the loss of his father in law.

Mr Tarfa’s lawyer also said that it was in the interest and for the advancement of justice that the court allowed the fresh evidence for the effectual and effective determination of the suit.

But the EFCC said the action was an afterthought and an attempt to mislead the court.

The EFCC also told the court that Mr Tarfa in his extra-judicial statements to the EFCC consistently put his age at 43 instead of 54, a situation that Mr Tarfa’s lawyer said was a mistake which was corrected in the body of the statement he put before the court.

Justice Mohammed Idris has listened to all the arguments and fixed March 2 for his ruling on whether to allow Mr Tarfa adduce fresh facts in the enforcement of his Fundamental Rights Suit before the court.

Former Chief Of Defence Staff, Badeh Asks Court For Bail

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A former Chief of Defence Staff in Nigeria, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja, the nation’s capital, to grant him bail from detention.

Badeh is being held in Lagos by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission since February 8, 2016, when he was invited by the Anti-graft agency for questioning.

The application dated February 15, was brought pursuant to section 35(4) and section 36(5) of the Nigerian Constitution and sections 158, 162 and 165 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.

At the Monday hearing, his lawyer, Mr Samuel Zibiri, asked the court for an order admitting him to bail on self-recognisance, or on such favourable and liberal terms as the court may deem fit to make in the circumstances of the case pending further investigation by the respondent and/or arraignment before the court.

Mr Zibiri said the application was based on the grounds that the applicant voluntarily went to the office of the EFCC on February 8 and was subsequently detained by the commission after several hours of interrogation. He claimed Mr Badeh was compelled to write a bulky statement.

He told the court that the detention of the former Chief of Defence Staff, under a remand order issued by a magistrate court in Lagos, “is a gross abuse of the ACJA 2015”.

The lawyer insisted that Mr Badeh should be granted bail because a Federal High Court was superior to the Magistrate Court.

He also said that the alleged case of fraud for which the applicant was invited is ordinarily bailable.

“There is no reason for, or any likelihood that the applicant will jump bail, escape from justice, interfere with witnesses or investigation if same is still ongoing, or the course of justice upon his being granted bail,” Mr Zibiri stated.

He also argued that the applicant’s health condition was bad and that he had recently undergone a surgery on his spine which required constant post-operative follow-up by his physician as well as renal condition which he was currently undergoing treatment for.

Severed PHCN Workers Protest Liquidation

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Severed workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), are protesting ongoing plans to liquidate the company’s assets amidst pending labour issues including outstanding severance benefits of nearly 5,000 workers.

The protest was led by the Chairman of the FCT Council of Electricity Employees, Mr Wisdom Nwachukwu on Monday.

The workers demanded that Federal Government put the liquidation on hold and investigate the rushed process by the Bureau of Public Enterprises and the engagement of a law firm, J.K Gadzama as liquidator, contrary to the provisions of the law on assets liquidation.

They said that 10% equity and 7.5% RSA owed over 50,000 workers by the Federal Government, 16 months outstanding benefits and other outstanding issues in the sub-sector should be concluded before the winding down of the corporate headquarters of the PHCN, as agreed between the Power Sector Labour Union and the Federal Government in 2012.

The Nigeria Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) on Thursday, urged the Federal Government to suspend the planned liquidation of the unbundled PHCN.

The General Secretary of the Union, Mr Joe Ajearo, made the call during a protest by the workers in Abuja.

Mr Ajaero said that the planned liquidation must not take place without settling outstanding major labour issues in the sector.

Candidates gear up for Super Tuesday

(CNN)   Super Tuesday is likely to live up to its billing forDonald Trump. The first day of multiple-state voting looms large in a wild presidential race after early states trimmed the field and the brash billionaire and his army of outsider voters are positioned to send panic through the Republican establishment by tightening his grip on the party's nomination.

Hillary Clinton boosted by her huge win in South Carolina on Saturday -- is meanwhile hoping to start locking out her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, who is giving her a tougher-than-expected challenge, by showing the strength of the Southern foundation of minority voters on which her campaign is built.

A CNN/ORC national poll out Monday shows Donald Trump in a dominant lead, getting 49% of the Republican primary vote -- 30 percentage points ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. On the Democratic side, Clinton tops Sanders 55% to 38%. The contests, across 12 states, herald several weeks of nationwide skirmishes that will be decisive in determining who gets to face off for the White House in the fall.

The sheer scale of the battlefield favors Trump, whose ubiquitous media profile means he is known everywhere, and Clinton, whose decades in public life give her an advantage over the lesser-known Sanders.

It's Trump who may stand tallest on Tuesday night. "On Tuesday, you have a big day," Trump told supporters at a big rally in Tennessee on Saturday, saying he didn't care if someone was at death's door or if their wife was leaving them -- they had to vote.

"You get up, you go to the polls, and you vote!" he said. "I promise you, that you are going to look back on this night and you are going to say this was a very important night ... a very important evening in your life."

While Trump expects to savor a night of triumph, his top rivals, Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have lesser expectations. Rubio is desperate to at last secure an elusive win, somewhere, anywhere. And Cruz faces a make-or-break moment in his home state of Texas.

A total of 595 Republican delegates are up for grabs of the 1,237 needed to clinch the GOP nomination. Sanders and Clinton are facing off for 865 of the 2,383 delegates needed to win the Democratic race.

Republicans are competing for delegates to be awarded Tuesday in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.

Democrats will award delegates in the same states as Republicans, apart from Alaska, and they are also competing in Colorado and in American Samoa.

A fateful moment

Super Tuesday is coming at a fateful moment in the Republican race. It has finally dawned on rival campaigns and party establishment figures that far from fading as many predicted, Trump -- after his three thumping wins in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada -- will clinch the nomination unless there is a dramatic twist in the race.

That realization spurred bitter clashes between Trump and Rubio on Friday and over the weekend and has Cruz also gunning for the billionaire. And it played into former candidate Chris Christie's endorsement of the erstwhile reality star he had once billed as unfit for the presidency.

Republican leaders and operatives, meanwhile, are wondering whether the blitz against Trump by Rubio at CNN's debate in Houston on Thursday came too late to halt the billionaire businessman.

"I am not sure throwing the whole kitchen sink is going to make much difference in the trajectory of the race," said Ford O'Connell, a GOP strategist not currently working for any presidential candidate. "Political scientists are going to wonder for years why they didn't go after him a lot earlier."

Polling is sparse in some states, so it's difficult to be certain about the outcome everywhere. But it's possible that Trump could barnstorm to victories in as many as 10 contests and whip up an unstoppable tailwind.

His rivals are already bracing for a tough night.

"Nobody's going to win but Trump." Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is hoping to remain viable until the race turns north, told CNN's Sara Murray on Thursday.

Cruz, a Texas senator, added on Friday: "Right now, Donald Trump has enormous momentum."

He added, "If he continues with that momentum and powers through and wins everywhere on Super Tuesday, he could easily be unstoppable." Rubio is on a high after a stellar debate performance last week in which he pulled off the most effective prosecution yet of the Republican front-runner. But the euphoria could be dampened by the Super Tuesday math.

Despite the Republican establishment flocking to Florida senator, seeing him as the strongest anti-Trump candidate, he has yet to win a single contest after four states held votes -- and it is not obvious where that might happen on Tuesday.

His best chances appear to come in states that have a mix of religious, conservative and highly educated white-collar voters.

That's why the Rubio campaign and his Super PAC, Conservative Solutions, have been buying television advertising in areas including the Washington media market that covers the populous Northern Virginia suburbs and the region around the state capital of Richmond, according to Federal Communications Commission records. Rubio spent the entire day in Virginia on Sunday.

Rubio supporters such as Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy are predicting he can win Minnesota as well.

"Wait 'til Tuesday. As the field narrows, there is a consolidation of votes that I think are opposed to Donald Trump and those are going to go to Marco Rubio. We are going to see that consolidation, I think, project itself in wins," Duffy said on CNN.

But even if he is left winless on Tuesday, Rubio can survive because his must-win home state primary in Florida is on March 15. In theory, he could lose all of the Super Tuesday contests and start to overtake Trump when states start doling out delegates on a winner-take-all basis in mid-March.

Make or break for Cruz

For Cruz, his win-or-go-home moment is now.

"If Cruz doesn't win Texas, it is game over for him," said Phillip Stutts, a Republican political consultant. "Rubio doesn't have to win, but Cruz has to."

Trump's big advantage going into Super Tuesday is that his opposition remains divided.

Cruz, Rubio and Kasich in some states are dividing up the anti-Trump vote between them, meaning no single candidate can unite opposition to Trump.

"Right now, they are all fighting each other while Donald Trump wraps up delegates. That's a problem -- it needs to be a two-man race," said Stutts.

For instance, in Virginia, Trump leads with 41% while Rubio is at 27%, Cruz is at 14% and both Kasich and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson have 7% each, according to a Monmouth University poll last week.

And in Massachusetts, it's Kasich who is inadvertently helping Trump -- sitting tied in a WBUR poll with Rubio at 19% -- well behind Trump at 40%.

Even if Trump does sweep the field on Super Tuesday, his nomination will not be assured, however, because in the GOP, all states that vote before March 15 must divide delegates among the competing candidates based on their share of the vote, as long as they reach certain thresholds in some states.

But the real estate mogul could carve out a strong delegate lead ahead of big-state winner-take-all primaries such as Ohio and Florida in two weeks, where first-place finishes could effectively make him the Republican nominee.

Cruz, who once looked like a strong competitor to Trump after he emerged victorious in Iowa, finds himself in a weakened position after failing to beat Trump or Rubio in last Saturday's South Carolina GOP primary. It was an especially stinging blow because it raised questions about his plan to dominate Southern states packed with ideological conservatives and evangelicals in the so-called SEC Primary.

"Cruz has the most riding on Super Tuesday," said Stutts. "His whole strategy really banked heavily on the Southern strategy. Not only does he have to win Texas, he has to find another 'W' and take home the most delegates on Super Tuesday."

While Cruz leads most polls in Texas, he trails Trump elsewhere. The Yellowhammer conservative news website reported that the Texas senator had pulled out of events in Alabama over the weekend in a possible sign his Southern firewall was crumbling.

Cruz's team is confident, however, that their boss can rewrite the political narrative Tuesday.

"This is the day that we have spent (the) most time on," former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Cruz supporter, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday.

"We are going to win multiple states next Tuesday."

Should Cruz win in Texas -- the state he referred to last week as the "crown jewel" of Super Tuesday because of its 155 delegates -- there could also be an upside for Trump.

That's because a win there would give Cruz a rationale to stay in the race and keep Rubio from coalescing opposition against the Republican front-runner.

"I don't think it is bad news for Donald Trump if he loses Texas," said CNN political analyst David Gergen on Thursday. "If he wins most of the other states and loses Texas, he will have momentum coming out of it, and Cruz stays in the race. And he needs Cruz to stay in the race."

Clinton could see advantage

On the other side of the aisle, the Democratic Super Tuesday clash is not going to force either of the candidates out of the race however it ends.

But it could hand a clear advantage to Clinton as she seeks to exploit the Southern advantage that her campaign has long argued makes it impossible for Sanders to win the nomination. The former secretary of state will be looking to engineer a sweep of the Deep South, Virginia and Texas and to also be competitive in states where Sanders, a Vermont senator, looks to have his best chance.

That could allow Clinton to build up a lead in delegates before the race heads to Northern and Midwestern states where the Sanders message of an economy rigged against American workers could provide her with a more irksome challenge. Clinton's huge win in South Carolina on Saturday was based on a huge outpouring from African-American voters.

That turnout suggests that she will triumph in states voting Tuesday with similar demographic profiles, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. Her aides know that she cannot knock out Sanders on Tuesday, but they hope to end the night with a lead of around 100 earned delegates.

Sanders, meanwhile, made clear where his future lies, paying only passing attention to the South Carolina primary on Saturday while spending the day in Texas and Minnesota.

His campaign is making clear that despite the size of his defeat in South Carolina equal to nearly 50% of the vote -- he is nowhere near giving up his campaign, though the candidate himself appears to have rock-bottom expectations in the South.

"I think we got a real shot at Minnesota. I think we got a shot at Colorado, Oklahoma, Massachusetts and Vermont," Sanders said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday. "So we're looking to the future, not looking back."

Chris Mosier: The trans athlete making giant strides

(CNN)  The transgender athlete had heard it all before. From the side of the road, someone uttering "was that a guy or girl?" as Chris Mosier ran past in full stride.

"I can't remember when that one was," he says of the kind of comments he's had to endure during a groundbreaking career. "Either just before or just after transition. I've heard comments consistently like that in races.

"Fortunately it's not the norm, but it wasn't a surprise to me when it happened. At the time, each time, of course it's hurtful. But it's just people are challenged by something they can't fit into a box, society likes to label things."

For as long as he can remember, the 35-year-old has known he didn't fit into that "box" -- that he didn't subscribe to society's traditional definition of male and female. But life might be about to get a little bit easier for this trans-athlete trailblazer.

Last month's guidelines from medical chiefs at the International Olympic Committee suggested trans athletes be allowed to compete at the Games without having to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

Although he won't be at Rio 2016 -- his event, the duathlon, does not have Olympic status -- Mosier can still celebrate a victory for the wider trans community.

"I'm not going to Rio and I'm fine with that. I'm just happy about what this means in a broader sense for the sport in helping young athletes," he tells CNN during a telephone interview from his New York home.

"What I like is that a young, skilled athlete will now have the opportunity to go to the Olympics without a problem."

The IOC guidelines have already had a positive personal effect for Mosier, who has qualified for the U.S. men's team in his age group for June's World Duathlon Championships in Aviles, Spain.

The International Triathlon Union, which sanctions the run-bike-run discipline, has confirmed to USA Triathlon that it will follow the new IOC policy.

"I'm just excited I'll be able to represent my country," adds Mosier, a silver medalist at the 2014 Gay Games.

He was also voted athlete of the year at the Complete Sports Diversity Awards and named in Advocate Magazine's 40 under-40 list, while in 2011 he was invited to the White House in recognition of his efforts in the LGBT community.

"I never imagined life would be like this," Mosier admits. "I'm now the person that I wanted to be and still want to be.

"I feel good in my own skin and confident and happy. It's amazing to see myself go from a shell of a person to being a fully-formed human being."

If the journey to get here hasn't been easy, Mosier is keen to stress his childhood as a girl was a very happy time despite the early question marks in his own mind and those of others.

"Children have an innate sense of who they are from a very young age," he explains.

"I loved sports and skateboarding from the very start. I remember different people saying 'but little girls don't do that.' That's when it became an issue, and those are my earliest memories."

The barbed comments continued through high school and college but not, Mosier insists, in the bullying sense that has perhaps been portrayed in retelling his story in the media in the past.

"People want to paint it as a time of bullying but it wasn't really that," he says.

"Yes, at high school people said things, but that was in the context of me being an athlete like, 'Good jump shot, is that a guy or a girl?' So in some ways it was more about being sexist towards female athletes than anything.

"For a long time I didn't have the language for what I was feeling about my identity so it took a voyage of self-discovery to find out what that was for me.

"I never really identified as a woman but there was an issue that society had presented me one way. I felt like, 'I'm not a man but I don't feel like a woman,' so that was a struggle." Finally in 2010, Mosier started transitioning from female to male, which included a course of testosterone.

There were fears how the transition might affect him as a person and his relationships with his partner now wife Zhen, family members and wider friends as well as his sporting career. "I was nervous about how that transition would impact me as an athlete. Would I still be competitive?"

Mosier was used to being at the head of events against female athletes and the stereotypical view -- one he shared to a certain degree -- was that he would be considerably less competitive against male opponents.

"I've not found that a disadvantage," he says. "There are races I've won and people wrongly assume that a (transitioned male) is not going to be competitive versus men." Crucial to his transition has been Zhen, who supported him in his quest to understand his identity and encouraged him to undergo therapy.

He says it has made him "a better athlete, a better person and a better husband," and he has become a role model for trans athletes. He is contacted by children as young as fifth grade to share their own experiences and lean on him for advice.

"I've never had a trans person to look up to, so this is an amazing opportunity for me," says Mosier, who works as a college administrator in New York and also coaches athletes. He knows the future will not always be easy. After the new IOC guidance he received unpleasant messages on social media, but Mosier is unperturbed.

"I think it's partly a lack of understanding and partly people who just stir the pot on social media whatever the subject," he says. "I think most people understand that it's a basic human right for a trans athlete to be able to participate fairly."

Cristie Kerr on beating the boys, French fries, wine and winning

(CNN)  Appearances can be deceptive. Like how Cristie Kerr has had a gilded life. Or how the American LPGA star is as intense off the golf course as she is on it.

Both are far from the truth. Yes, Kerr, 38, is now enjoying the rewards of a stellar career. But she has had to scrap all the way. That's why she looks so single-minded with a club in her hands. Sure, she was blessed with a talent for the game having taken it up as a nine-year-old in Florida.

But she has had to overcome prejudice on her high school boys' golf team, nurse her mother through a heart attack and breast cancer, cope with the break-up of her parents' marriage, deal with ballooning weight, overcome six years of uncertainty on Tour and start a family through a surrogate after being unable to give birth.

Despite all that, Kerr has risen to world No. 1, won 18 LPGA Tour events, including two majors, played on eight Solheim Cup teams and pocketed $17 million in prize money to become the highest-earning American woman golfer ever and third on the LPGA all-time money list.

She has also raised more than $2.5 million through her charity Birdies for Breast Cancer and has ventured into the wine business with her signature Napa Valley Curvature range being served at the White House.

Which all begs the question, how?

"I'm an ambitious person and I didn't doubt myself for a lot of those formative years," Kerr told CNN's Living Golf at her home in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Breaking down barriers

By the age of 12 she knew she wanted to become a professional, inspired by the feats of LPGA greats Nancy Lopez and Juli Inkster, and thrilled by the sight -- while watching tucked up in bed -- of Fred Couples winning the 1992 Masters.

She quickly developed into a standout on the junior scene, but the story really begins as a freshman on the boys' golf team at Sunset Senior High School in Miami.

"My first year in ninth grade it kind of made me uncomfortable," she says.

"My father said listen, 'if you're going to be on the boys team the only way they will respect you is if you beat them,' so I went out and inevitably I did beat a lot of boys, off the men's tees."

However, it wasn't quite that simple. Whispers and jealousy behind the scenes led to a mooted lawsuit to ban Kerr from playing with the boys. "Many times" she says she wanted to give up, but her parents and high school coach Darrell Baker kept her going.

"Barriers are hard to break down sometimes," Kerr added. "I just tried to play as well as I could. Maybe that's where a bit of my intensity comes from, playing against the boys and always trying to prove something."

She did, and then some. She made the U.S. Curtis Cup team in 1996 as an 18-year-old and finished as low amateur in the U.S. Women's Open the same year before turning pro and trying to gain an LPGA card.

"I was touted to burn the house down coming out of high school but when I got out there it was like,'woah, I have something to learn,'" she says.

Kerr made the amateur 1996 U.S. Curtis Cup team and turned pro later that year, aged 18.

"Qualifying that first year was hell. It was just me and my Dad. He was caddying for me and we were fighting a lot on the course, just because we were too close and because there was a lot of pressure trying to make money, trying to cover my expenses."

Kerr did secure her card, and given some financial help by other family members, she scratched her way on Tour. Life, however, was tough.

"If I was going to quit it would have happened back then," she said. "Those years shaped me to be who I am. A lot of people don't realize how tough you have to be as a pro golfer. A lot of people think it is a glamorous lifestyle but it's not, especially with the amount of travel we do."

Fries with that?

To add to the stress, Kerr's parents were divorcing and she struggled with her weight, eating for comfort against the pressures of golf and life.

"I didn't eat well growing up, I ate too much," she said. "I had no idea French fries weren't good for you."

She took the decision to go it alone, and went on a "quest" to educate herself about healthy eating,

"When I made the decision to live by myself, travel by myself, I had to be an adult and I had to do it quickly," she said. "It was very liberating and that helped me to be successful."

Kerr won her second major at the 2010 LPGA Championship at Locust Hill, New York.

Finally, in her sixth full season on Tour, Kerr made the breakthrough with victory in the Longs Drugs Challenge in California.

"It was a huge relief," she said. "Winning can be daunting. It can be, 'do I want all the things that come along with that?' I went through a big transformation with the weight loss and finally at that time I was ready to win and everything came together."

The second win came two years later, almost to the day, but it took three more years at the coalface before she captured that first major -- the 2007 U.S. Women's Open.

"I always knew in my heart I could but until you do it's always an unproven thing," she said.

Where does Cristie Kerr rank in the women's game? Have your say on the CNN Facebook page.

A second major win followed at the 2010 LPGA Championship -- by a whopping 12 shots -- and her rise to become the first American woman ranked No.1 in the world cemented Kerr's status.

But as befits this most driven of competitors she has a new focus -- besides being a mother to two-year-old son Mason and fitting in the time somewhere to become a qualified sommelier.

"The Olympics is a huge goal of mine, to make that team and play for my country," she says.

The 2016 Oscars winners list

(CNN) Here's the list of nominees for the 88th Academy Awards. Winners are noted in bold.

Best picture

"The Big Short"

"Bridge of Spies"

"Brooklyn"

"Mad Max: Fury Road"

"The Martian"

"The Revenant"

"Room"

"Spotlight" (WINNER)

Best actor

Bryan Cranston, "Trumbo"

Matt Damon, "The Martian"

Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant" (WINNER)

Michael Fassbender, "Steve Jobs"

Eddie Redmayne, "The Danish Girl"

Best actress

Cate Blanchett, "Carol"

Brie Larson, "Room" (WINNER)

Jennifer Lawrence, "Joy"

Charlotte Rampling, "45 Years"

Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn"

Best supporting actor

Christian Bale, "The Big Short"

Tom Hardy, "The Revenant"

Mark Ruffalo, "Spotlight"

Mark Rylance, "Bridge of Spies" (WINNER)

Sylvester Stallone, "Creed"

Best supporting actress

Jennifer Jason Leigh, "The Hateful Eight"

Rooney Mara, "Carol"

Rachel McAdams, "Spotlight"

Alicia Vikander, "The Danish Girl" (WINNER)

Kate Winslet, "Steve Jobs"

Best director

"The Big Short," Adam McKay

"Mad Max: Fury Road," George Miller

"The Revenant," Alejandro G. Iñárritu (WINNER)

"Room," Lenny Abrahamson

"Spotlight," Tom McCarthy

Best original screenplay

"Bridge of Spies," by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

"Ex Machina," by Alex Garland

"Inside Out," by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley; original story by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen

"Spotlight," by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy (WINNER)

"Straight Outta Compton," by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff

Best adapted screenplay

"The Big Short," Charles Randolph and Adam McKay (WINNER)

"Brooklyn," Nick Hornby

"Carol," Phyllis Nagy

"The Martian," Drew Goddard

"Room," Emma Donoghue

Best costume design

"Carol," Sandy Powell

"Cinderella," Sandy Powell

"The Danish Girl," Paco Delgado

"Mad Max: Fury Road," Jenny Beavan (WINNER)

"The Revenant," Jacqueline West

Best production design

"Bridge of Spies," production design by Adam Stockhausen; set decoration by Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich

"The Danish Girl," production design by Eve Stewart; set decoration by Michael Standish

"Mad Max: Fury Road," production design by Colin Gibson; set decoration by Lisa Thompson (WINNER)

"The Martian," production design by Arthur Max; set decoration by Celia Bobak

"The Revenant," production design by Jack Fisk; set decoration by Hamish Purdy

Best makeup and hairstyling

"Mad Max: Fury Road," Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin (WINNER)

"The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared," Love Larson and Eva von Bahr

"The Revenant," Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini

Best cinematography

"Carol," Ed Lachman

"The Hateful Eight," Robert Richardson

"Mad Max: Fury Road," John Seale

"The Revenant," Emmanuel Lubezki (WINNER)

"Sicario," Roger Deakins

Best film editing

"The Big Short," Hank Corwin

"Mad Max: Fury Road," Margaret Sixel (WINNER)

"The Revenant," Stephen Mirrione

"Spotlight," Tom McArdle

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey

Best sound editing

"Mad Max: Fury Road," Mark Mangini and David White (WINNER)

"The Martian," Oliver Tarney

"The Revenant," Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender

"Sicario," Alan Robert Murray

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Matthew Wood and David Acord

Best sound mixing

"Bridge of Spies," Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin

"Mad Max: Fury Road," Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo (WINNER)

"The Martian," Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth

"The Revenant," Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson

Best visual effects

"Ex Machina," Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett (WINNER)

"Mad Max: Fury Road," Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams

"The Martian," Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner

"The Revenant," Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould

Best animated short film

"Bear Story," Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala (WINNER)

"Prologue," Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton

"Sanjay's Super Team," Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle

"We Can't Live without Cosmos," Konstantin Bronzit

"World of Tomorrow," Don Hertzfeldt

Best animated feature film

"Anomalisa," Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran

"Boy and the World," Alê Abreu

"Inside Out," Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera (WINNER)

"Shaun the Sheep Movie," Mark Burton and Richard Starzak

"When Marnie Was There," Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura

Best documentary, short subject

"Body Team 12," David Darg and Bryn Mooser

"Chau, Beyond the Lines," Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck

"Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah," Adam Benzine

"A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness," Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (WINNER)

"Last Day of Freedom," Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman

Best documentary feature

"Amy," Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees (WINNER)

"Cartel Land," Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin

"The Look of Silence," Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen

"What Happened, Miss Simone?" Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes

"Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom," Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor

Best live-action short film

"Ave Maria," Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont

"Day One," Henry Hughes

"Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)," Patrick Vollrath

"Shok," Jamie Donoughue

"Stutterer," Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage (WINNER)

Best foreign-language film

"Embrace of the Serpent," Colombia

"Mustang," France

"Son of Saul," Hungary (WINNER)

"Theeb," Jordan

"A War," Denmark

Best original song

"Earned It" from "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Music and lyric by Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio

"Manta Ray" from "Racing Extinction"

Music by J. Ralph and lyric by Antony Hegarty

"Simple Song #3" from "Youth"

Music and lyric by David Lang

"Til It Happens To You" from "The Hunting Ground"

Music and lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga

"Writing's on the Wall" from "Spectre"

Music and lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith

Best original score

"Bridge of Spies," Thomas Newman

"Carol," Carter Burwell

"The Hateful Eight," Ennio Morricone

"Sicario," Jóhann Jóhannsson

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," John Williams