Los Angeles Lakers coach Darvin Ham said Thursday that LeBron James avoided a serious groin injury in Wednesday’s 114-101 loss to the LA Clippers and is considered day-to-day.
Replacing a long-time head coach is never an easy task. It doesn’t get any easier when he’s your dad too. Here’s how new Davidson men’s basketball coach Matt McKillop is doing both.
Mayfield, the No. 1 pick of the 2018 draft, has shown leadership this season, while going from potential NFL star with the Browns to backup with the Panthers.
Mariota’s calming demeanor has meant everything to this young team.
HOUSTON – Travis Vick has been coming to the PGA TOUR tournament in Houston for much of his life. Getting a signed ball from Stewart Cink is among the memories he has from watching the pros play. “He just came off the ninth green and went to the 10th tee box and threw me a golf ball,” Vick said. “That was my first autograph.” This week, Vick is inside the ropes. The Houston native, who grew up five minutes away from Memorial Park, is competing in the Cadence Bank Houston Open on a sponsor exemption. It is his third start on TOUR and debut in his hometown event. He got off to a good start. A 2-under 68 in Thursday’s first round – which also fell on his father’s birthday – left Vick just three back of leaders Alex Noren and Aaron Wise after the morning wave. “I grew up five minutes from here, so I’ve always come to this tournament and watched all the pros play,” said Vick, who estimates he had 50 friends and family watching Thursday. “As a child it was a dream of mine to maybe be able one day to play in the Houston Open because that was the big tournament from where I’m from. So just to be here is an honor and I’m hoping to make the most of it.” His dreams now extend beyond playing his hometown TOUR stop. Vick is in the final months of a successful amateur career and in position to capitalize on the rewards offered by PGA TOUR University presented by Velocity Global. He is No. 7 in the Velocity Global Ranking and can earn valuable points this week. The top five in the standings after the NCAA Championship will earn immediate status on the Korn Ferry Tour. Vick was the low amateur at this year’s U.S. Open (T43) and secured the clinching point for the University of Texas in its NCAA Championship victory. Vick said he’s been struggling with his ballstriking over the last few months, however, and Thursday’s round was a welcome sign of progress after shooting 80-75 at last week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. Vick lost plenty of golf balls in the mangroves and penalty areas that line El Camaleon’s fairways. That venue is one of the shorter and tighter ones on TOUR. “It’s kind of hard to play golf when you run out of golf balls,” Vick said. The renovated Memorial Park, which has a much different appearance than the one Vick played years ago, is what can be called a “big ballpark” where players can separate themselves with their ballstriking. “It’s a monster out there,” Vick said. “There’s long par 4s, there’s super undulating greens. They can make this place as hard as they’d like.” Vick gained more than a stroke with his approach play Thursday while averaging 319.0 yards off the tee. He fits the mold of the modern power player, having excelled in football, baseball and golf at Houston’s Second Baptist School. His prep baseball coaches were former Astros stars Lance Berkman and Andy Pettitte, the latter of whom has become a mentor who helps Vick with the game’s mental side. Vick considered playing baseball in college, as well, before deciding to focus on golf. “Andy has been very helpful as a guy who’s been there and done that,” Vick told GolfChannel.com at this year’s U.S. Open. “He helps with mentality – he knows a lot about golf, but it’s more from a big-league level, like, ‘This is what I’ve done. This is what I’ve tried. This is what I’ve experienced.’ Based on what he’s done in the game of baseball, him just having the thought of helping me is such an honor.” Vick is a promising prospect in his chosen sport, ranking 10th in the World Amateur Ranking, as well. His swing coach, Adam Porzak, is on the bag this week. The pair went to work during the practice rounds to fix some bad tendencies that have crept into Vick’s swing in competition. After starting Thursday’s round with a bogey at No. 1, Vick birdied half of the remaining holes on the front nine to make the turn in 3-under 32. He bogeyed the first two holes of the back nine, but birdied Nos. 12 and 15 to get back to 3 under. “On 10 and 11 I hit really bad shots and I didn’t really know what it was,” Vick said. “Then I made a little quick adjustment and birdied 12. From there on I hit it pretty well. So I was able to kind of make adjustments throughout the round. But I do feel like we’re moving in the right direction in regards to the swing and seeing a positive result like today definitely helps the confidence.” He made another bogey at the par-5 16th, where he hit his second shot into the water guarding the green, before parring the final two holes. “Bogeying No. 16 kind of hurt, killed the momentum,” Vick said. “But other than that, there’s a lot of great iron shots. It’s just a good round of golf.”
The attorney general for the District of Columbia says his office is filing a civil consumer protection lawsuit against the Commanders, owner Dan Snyder, the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell.
Most golfers can only dream of creating the speed and distance that PGA TOUR player Callum Tarren does. For the 2021-22 PGA TOUR season, Tarren ranked 15th in driving distance, hitting it 312.4 yards on average. He was also ranked 12th in Club Head Speed, averaging 121.56 mph per drive. At those speeds, any loss of stability can have negative effects on balance and ball flight. Catching up with Tarren at the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open, GolfWRX learned that he uses a unique trick to keep his right foot from slipping out from under him. While most golfers have the same style of spikes throughout the soles of their golf shoes – whether it’s metal spikes or soft spikes – Tarren uses a combination of both in his FootJoy Premiere Series Tarlow shoes. “In the right shoe, I have metal spikes in the front five [spike slots], and then soft spikes in everything else,” Tarren told GolfWRX. “Just because, when this shoe came out, I was getting a little right foot slip. And then I went to see Dr. Greg Rose at TPI (Titleist Performance Institute), and he said a guy my speed should be wearing metal spikes. “He said to try metal in the front five,” Tarren continued, “and ever since then I’ve had no slips. Obviously with ground pressures and ground forces, it helps me stay stable through the ball.” It comes as no surprise that Tarren opts for a black colorway in his golf shoes, either, since he’s known in the equipment world for using custom black Titleist irons and wedges. According to GolfWRX.com, Tarren uses a combination set of Titleist T100 (3-iron), Titleist 620 CB (4-iron) and Titleist 620 MB (5-9) irons, all with a black PVD finish. He also uses Titleist SM9 Jet Black wedges (46, 52, 56 and 60 degrees).
The relationship between Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving and Nike is likely severed for good, the shoe giant’s co-founder told CNBC.
The 51-year-old veteran chased rankings on the PGA and Korn Ferry tours. A change in his focus has given Alker a different outlook and more success.
HOUSTON — Last week, the Equipment Report revealed the company that made Justin Rose’s unique irons that were stamped not with a brand’s logo, but his own personal “JR” mark. This week, GolfWRX.com caught up with the 2018 FedExCup champ at the Cadence Bank Houston Open to go more in-depth on those custom-made Miura irons and why he made a drastic change to his putting style at last week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. More on Rose’s Miura irons At this year’s U.S. Open, GolfWRX spoke to Rose about the Titleist 620 MB irons he had recently put into play (link: ). Rose liked the shape of the 620 MB’s, but he found he was catching too many fliers out of the rough. That led him to task Miura with building him a set of custom irons, just as it had done for Adam Scott. “I was just catching a couple fliers with the Titleists, as you probably saw in Canada (where Rose shot a final-round 60 after a bogey on 18 when his approach flew the green),” Rose said. “It’s funny, you test clubs, but before you play them in competition, you don’t really know. In competition, you get all sorts of different lies and situations, and pressure, and adrenaline, and things like that. I loved the look of those Titleist irons, I just felt like the groove was not close to my TaylorMade groove, which I never catch a flier with. “I felt like there was maybe a best of both worlds. So I tasked … the guys at Miura there to make me something. I saw they did something cool for Adam Scott. They came, and I thought they had a touch more offset than I had anticipated. Testing that was really interesting. I felt like I hit them straighter because of that. “I’d go back to my TaylorMade, the P730, and I’d miss it a little right, straight away. So I’ve gone with (the Miuras). They’re still a little new on me, almost like half shaft offset.” The claw has disappeared For years, Rose has been using an Axis1 Rose Proto putter, and he’d been gripping the putter using a “claw” style grip. At last week’s event in Mayakoba, however, Rose switched it up into a more conventional style. “Left hand is still the same, but the claw has disappeared,” Rose said. “I felt like with the claw I was just struggling with the shape of my backswing. I was getting a little too linear in the backswing, a little too straight back. I just felt like the way my right hand was it was guiding me straight down the line. And I felt like when I put my right hand in just close to my left hand, I felt like it makes me symmetrical in the forearms, and the sweetspot works up the plane a bit easier in the backswing. First time in competition last week, I felt like I putted pretty good. “It still doesn’t feel conventional to me. Conventional to me is the reverse overlap. I put the left finger down the side of the shaft, so it’s almost a two-thumbs style where my thumbs are very close together. So I don’t regard that as a traditional putting grip. I’m still quite a traditionalist in where the straight up reverse overlap, thin grip, Scotty Cameron style putter; that for me is traditional… but yeah, a slight modification. You know, a lot of guys are gripping it like that. Danny Willet has the exact same putting grip. Matt Wallace is quite similar. Matt Fitzpatrick has the exact same grip. It must be an English thing.”
