Browsing: shots

Nick Khan reveals who actually called the shots throughout John Cenaâ€s retirement tour.

John Cena embarked on a year-long retirement tour in January 2025, which will culminate at Saturday Nightâ€s Main Event on December 13. However, WWE did face some criticism over how they booked Cenaâ€s final year as an active in-ring competitor, especially with his heel turn.

Speaking to Logan Paul on his IMPAULSIVE podcast, WWE President Nick Khan clarified that John Cena worked closely with Chief Content Officer Triple H over the creative direction of his retirement tour. Khan also confirmed that there were no creative disputes between Cena and Triple H.

“Itâ€s he and Triple H together, but there has not been a dispute. I donâ€t mean, ‘No, no, letâ€s end with this. No, letâ€s end this way.†Thereâ€s not been a dispute with John Cena since he announced his retirement tour, prior to that, by the way, or since heâ€s executed upon his retirement tour. Smooth,†Nick Khan said.

Nick Khan Says Brock Lesnar Is “A Gem To Work Withâ€

Brock Lesnarâ€s return to WWE at SummerSlam 2025 sparked controversy due to his involvement in Janel Grantâ€s lawsuit against Vince McMahon. However, WWE continues to feature Lesnar, and speaking to former UFC Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier, Nick Khan had some high praise for The Beast Incarnate.

“When he walks into a room, he looks and usually is the baddest dude on the planet,†Khan said. “Thatâ€s his personification. He is a gem to work with. Easy. As long as he sort of knows things in advance, there are no issues. Weâ€re honored to have him back,†Nick Khan said. [H/T Fightful]

Brock Lesnar competed inside WarGames at Survivor Series last month, and it will be interesting to see when he will show up next.

Read More: Nick Khan Clears Up Rumors About WWE Superfan ‘Green Shirt Guyâ€

Source link

Nov 22, 2025, 06:18 PM ET

NAPLES, Fla. — Jeeno Thitikul made nine birdies for the second straight day, this time giving her an 8-under 64 that allowed the Thai star to pull away Saturday and build a six-shot lead going into the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship.

Thitikul, the No. 1 player in women’s golf, is one round away from sweeping all the awards on the LPGA Tour, along with the $4 million check for winning.

She has all but clinched LPGA player of the year and the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average, and could set an LPGA record depending on her closing round.

Nelly Korda shot a 65 and still lost ground. She was six shots behind, along with Pajaree Anannarukarn of Thailand, who also shot 65 on another warm, relatively calm day at Tiburon Golf Club.

Thitikul was at 22-under 196. She won last year at 22-under par, and made it clear that her work is not yet done.

“Trying to make birdies and birdies and birdies,” she said with a stress-free smile.

After a bogey on the par-5 opening hole, Thitikul ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch to regain her momentum. And then she made four straight birdies on the back nine to seize control.

The final pairing will be the No. 1 and No. 2 players in women’s golf, but it still feels like a mismatch the way Thitikul has played this week.

“I was just trying to do the same,” Thitikul said. “Just trying to go for the fairway, trying to find the best that we can to get near the pin and then make the putt. Simple strategy.”

She already has made 24 birdies in her 54 holes this week. She has missed just five fairways and six greens going into the final round.

Korda didn’t plan on doing anything differently with a six-shot deficit on Sunday.

“You are out there competing hard and you’re trying to win, but you also have to not get too ahead of yourself and play the game,” she said. “Because if you start to get a little too ahead of yourself and push a little too hard, those mistakes do start to creep in and it’s not going to be beneficial.”

It’s her last chance to avoid her second winless season in three years on the LPGA. The exception was last year, when she won seven times, including a second major.

Anannarukarn was the 60th and final player to qualify for the season-ending tournament, where all 60 players had a chance to win the $4 million prize regardless of their ranking. She chipped in for eagle on the sixth hole and is making the most of her opportunity.

“Pretty cool,” she said. “Coming into this week I think it was a good opportunity I got into this week and with how I’ve been playing this season I’m really happy how I’ve been playing. It’s awesome to see that the results are showing and moving to a good direction.”

Sei Young Kim, who played in the final group with Thitikul, had to settle for a 68 that left her seven shots behind in fourth place. Gaby Lopez of Mexico had the low round of the week, a 62.

But it all starts with Thitikul, who has a chance to join Jin Young Ko of South Korea as the only back-to-back winners of the CME Group Tour Championship.

When you need to hit a pitch shot that launches high and stops quickly, it’s essential to learn how to use the bottom of your club — the bounce — properly. If your wedge digs into the turf, you may overreact by trying to avoid the ground entirely, which often leads to bladed shots.

Hitting the ground is not the issue — using the club’s bounce correctly is. That’s just one of five ways you can avoid chunking the ball. Check them all out below.

1. Use a club with bounce

Choosing the right club is critical. For a true pitch shot, you should use a lofted wedge with bounce:

• Sand wedge: 54–56°
• Gap wedge: 50–52°
• Lob wedge: 58–60°

Bounce helps the club glide through the turf rather than dig. It provides forgiveness if you contact the ground slightly early and gives you the confidence to hit the ground without fear of chunking the shot.

2. Ball position

Ball position greatly affects how the club interacts with the ground. To encourage the club to glide, play the ball slightly forward of center.

With the club centered in your stance and the ball just forward of that line, you preserve both loft and bounce. If the ball is played too far back, the shaft naturally leans forward — reducing loft, reducing bounce, and increasing the chance of digging.

3. Shaft lean

Forward shaft lean takes bounce off the club, making it more likely to dig. At address, the handle should point toward your center — or even slightly behind it — to add loft and expose the bounce.

You can favor your lead side with your weight, but be careful not to combine that with forward shaft lean. This applies at both address and impact.

4. Pivot and release

Your motion through the ball matters just as much as your setup. A proper pitch swing allows the clubhead to release, rather than holding angles and leaning the shaft forward.

Feel your trail hand help the clubhead catch up to — or even slightly pass — the handle. Finish with your weight forward, using a small pivot so the club can sweep the grass under and after the ball. Avoid falling back or trying to “help” the ball into the air.

5. Properly fitted wedges

Great technique matters, but wedge fitting also plays a major role in how the club interacts with the turf. Your wedge lofts, bounces, and gapping should fit your swing and course conditions.

I send most students — and my own family — to True Spec Golf for club fitting. Having wedges that glide instead of dig can significantly improve your short-game consistency.

If you’d like more information on how to execute the various short-game shots and a calibration system to lower your scores, consider exploring my short-game course, which covers both chipping and pitching.

Nov 16, 2025, 06:36 PM ET

BELLEAIR, Fla. — Linn Grant of Sweden had so much control of her game that she played 52 holes consecutive holes without a bogey, a streak that ended on the final hole Sunday when it no longer mattered. She closed with a 5-under 65 for a three-shot victory over Jennifer Kupcho in The Annika.

It was Grant’s second LPGA title, and the second time she received a trophy from Swedish great and tournament host Annika Sorenstam. Grant won the Scandinavian Mixed in Sweden when Sorenstam and Henrik Stenson were co-hosts.

“You made this course look easy. It’s not easy,” Sorenstam told her on the 18th green.

It must have felt that way to Grant, who was never under much stress. She finished at 19-under 261 and had a chance to set the tournament record until a bogey on the final hole, her first one since her opening hole Friday.

“There are weeks where everyone feels like their game is really good and there could potentially be a win. It’s just really nice to like see it go all the way and to really walk off 18 and be able to pat yourself on the shoulder and feel like I actually did it this week,” Grant said.

She is the first Swedish winner of the tournament that began in 2020, even more meaningful to Grant because she remembers going to clinics Sorenstam held in Sweden when she was a girl and recalls watching Sorenstam hit wedges to someone catching them with a baseball glove.

“I started doing that with my dad, so thanks for that,” Grant told Sorenstam.

“You made this course look easy. It’s not easy,” tournament host Annika Sorenstam, right, told Linn Grant on the 18th green Sunday. Willie J. Allen Jr./AP

Kupcho birdied the first hole to tie for the lead, but only briefly. Grant birdied the next hole and never trailed again. The Swede had to make a 15-foot birdie putt to stay one ahead through five holes, and then she seized control on the par-3 ninth.

Kupcho made her second bogey of the front nine, and Grant rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt to extend the lead to three shots. No one got any closer the rest of the way.

Kupcho also closed with a 65.

“I’m glad she was playing well because I think that really pushed me to play better,” Grant said. “And overall, I just had the thought of whoever wins is going to have a really good job.”

Gaby Lopez of Mexico birdied four of her last six holes for a 65 to finish third.

Brooke Matthews also came away a winner in two respects. She made a hole-in-one with a 9-iron from 140 yards on the 12th hole to win a two-year lease on a Lamborghini Huracán. Two holes later, Matthews chipped in for eagle and all those great shots mattered.

It added to a 65 — a card that included scores of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 — to tie for ninth, giving her enough points to move into the top 60 of the Race to the CME Globe. That qualifies her for next week’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, where the winner gets $4 million.

“It was wild,” Matthews said. “All week I was like, ‘I want to win the Lamborghini.’ … Just saw it bounce. I still can’t believe it. I blacked out. I can’t wait to watch it on film because I still can’t really remember it.”

Nataliya Guseva had her own big moment. She holed out with a gap wedge from 109 yards on the final hole for birdie — she had to lay up out of a fairway bunker — giving her a 68 that moved the Russian into the top 60.

Lucy Li also advances to next week down the coast in Naples. Her birdie on the final hole gave her a 66 and moved her up 13 spots to No. 58.

Grant was running out of time to extend her streak of winning each year somewhere in the world dating to 2020, when she was still an amateur and won twice on the Nordic Golf League. She has won titles on the LPGA, Ladies European Tour, LET Access Series, Ladies Sunshine Tour, Nordic Golf League and even the European Tour, which co-sanctioned the Scandinavian Mixed.

“My dad is a man of good words,” she said. “When he looked at someone else’s career he always said, ‘If you have a win every year that’s pretty solid.’ I guess that’s what it is.”

Defending champion Nelly Korda, a three-time winner at Pelican Golf Club, started six shots behind and couldn’t keep pace with Grand. She closed with a 69 and tied for 15th.

The Florida Panthers dropped a frustrating battle to their biggest rivals on Saturday night in Sunrise.

Florida struggled with their offense in a physical matchup, falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 at Amerant Bank Arena.

Advertisement

It was the first time in several games that the Panthers looked a bit out of sorts when compared to how they have generally been able to perform against their opponents.

In this case, the defeat stings just a little bit more because, you know, itâ€s Tampa.

Here are Saturdayâ€s takeaways:

TROUBLE GETTING PUCKS ON NET

An area that weâ€ve seen the Panthers struggle from time to time is with getting shot attempts through to the net.

Some nights their opponents have been amazing at getting into the shooting lanes, other nights Florida just canâ€t seem to find the net with looks that get through.

Saturday felt like a steady mix.

Advertisement

Between Tampa Bay blocking a couple dozen shots and Florida missing with several handfuls of others, it wasnâ€t nearly as difficult of a night for Andrei Vasilevsky as it could or should have been.

“They did a real good job blocking shots,†said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “I think we had 37 (shot attempts) that never got to the net. That’s a bit of a challenge.

FAILED TO WIN PUCK BATTLES

One of the ways Florida has become such a dominant force is in their physicality.

If youâ€re heading into the boards with a Panthers player in hopes of emerging with the puck, odds are the situation wonâ€t go well for you.

Advertisement

Thatâ€s the norm, but that wasnâ€t the case on Saturday.

Credit to the Lightning, who know exactly what to expect out of their cross-state rival and were ready, willing and able to withstand what the Panthers threw at them.

“I didnâ€t like the number of pucks we came up with on contested pucks,†Maurice said. “That would be the place that we need to get better at.â€

STRONG OUTING FROM PK UNIT

One area that Florida was excellent all-around on Saturday was their penalty kill.

This is nothing new, as the Cats†PK has been humming along for the past several games.

Not since the first period in Los Angeles have the Panthers allowed a power play goal, a stretch that has now reached 13 consecutive penalty kills.

Advertisement

“I liked our penalty kill, that was the highlight of the game. I thought we did a real good job with that,†Maurice said. “It’s no different than your power play; It’s all confidence based. We went through a run of having a tough stretch on our kill, and it’s been good for the last four or five games. Really aggressive, everybody moving together, getting sticks on pucks, winning face offs, some blocks, but some really good clears.â€

LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS – FLORIDA

Florida falters on home ice against rival Lightning, lose 3-1 to Bolts in Sunrise

Panthers Den: Florida starting to collect wins again, milestone night for Marchand, Reinhart locked in

Advertisement

Panthers look to keep good times rolling, welcome rival Tampa Bay to Sunrise

Special Teams Improvement Will Help Panthers Pile On Wins

The Hockey Show: Brad Marchand hits 1K, Joe Quenneville has Anaheim thriving, HHOF week

Photo caption: Apr 28, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Carter Verhaeghe (23) controls the puck against Tampa Bay Lightning center Gage Goncalves (93) during the third period in game four of the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Rich Storry-Imagn Images)

Source link

Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

Your wedges are your scoring clubs. When you have one in your hand from the fairway, you should be thinking birdie. And when you have to grab a wedge greenside, it’s all about getting up-and-down for par. If you can increase your conversion rate in both scenarios, you’ll quickly see your scores drop.

But despite how important the wedges are to low scoring, lots of recreational golfers have no clue what the proper technique is for hitting them. When they head to the range, it’s all about gripping it and ripping it — there’s little thought given to the short clubs.

This lack of attention in practice sessions often leads to bad habits, and with them, higher scores. But if you know what kinds of mistakes you should be avoiding, hitting crisp wedges becomes much easier.

In the video below, Dr. Greg Rose from the Titleist Performance Institute shares two huge mistakes he often sees recreational golfers make with their wedges that reduces spin. Correct them and you’ll hit shots with more spin in no time.

Every golfer wants to be able to backspin their ball like a tour player, but don’t understand how to optimize the physics in their favor.

Two of the biggest mistakes we see amateurs make with wedges is decelerating and de-lofting the club into impact.

This reduces the two… pic.twitter.com/I3sQ8fIoUk

— TPI (@MyTPI) October 3, 2025

2 ways to add spin

Wedges are crucial for scoring because they can access hard-to-reach pin locations, allowing you to stuff the ball close to tucked hole locations. That’s largely thanks to how much spin they produce.

When you can put spin on a wedge, you can hit it high and land it soft. Plus, you can stop the ball on a dime when the situation calls for it. Simply put, knowing how to properly put spin on the ball can unlock your scoring ability.

Putting spin on the ball is achieved in two ways. One is speed through impact (i.e. clubhead speed) and the other is high spin loft, which is the difference between attack angle and the loft of the clubface at impact.

1. Accelerate through impact

The first mistake golfers make when trying to create speed is decelerating through impact. This typically happens because they make a backswing that is too long for the shot they’re trying to hit, so they slow down through impact to keep the ball from screaming past the flag. If you really want to create spin, you’ve got to start by making a smaller backswing and accelerating through impact.

“For wedges, if you want the ball to backspin, I need speed through the bottom,” Rose says. “Make sure you release and increase your clubhead speed.”

2. Increase spin loft

The other mistake golfers make when trying to generate spin is not creating enough spin loft. As outlined above, spin loft is the difference between your angle of attack and the loft of the clubface at impact.

Feeling like you are hitting down on the ball is a great way to get the proper angle of attack to create spin. However, where many recreational players go wrong is that when doing this, they close the clubface and de-loft the club.

“The key here is feel like you’re swinging down, but make sure you’re adding loft,” Rose says. “If you look at great wedge players, not only are they creating a downward attack angle, [but] the face is also open.”

Nov 10, 2025, 10:53 PM ET

DETROIT — Cade Cunningham scored 46 points on a whopping 45 shots, Daniss Jenkins made the tying 3-pointer to force overtime and the Detroit Pistons rallied to beat the Washington Wizards 137-135 on Monday night.

Cunningham finished with 12 rebounds, 11 assists and 5 steals, helping the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons to their seventh straight victory on a night he shot just 14 for 45, by far the most field goal attempts in the NBA this season.

His 31 missed shots are the most by a player in a game since the 1976-77 merger. The last player to miss that many shots was Rick Barry in 1967, when he went 17-of-50 from the field. Of the 1,534 instances of a 45-point game in NBA history, Cunningham had the second-worst field goal percentage (31.1%), behind only James Harden (20.7%) in 2019.

Editor’s Picks

2 Related

Cunningham became just the second Pistons player with a 40-point triple-double, joining Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas.

Jenkins scored a season-high 24 points, and Jalen Duren had 19 points and 14 rebounds for the Pistons, who improved to 9-2.

CJ McCollum scored a season-high 42 points for the last-place Wizards, but he missed twice in the closing seconds as they lost their ninth straight and fell to 1-10.

McCollum’s 3-pointer gave Washington a 117-108 lead with 4:05 remaining in regulation. But Cunningham, the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, rallied the Pistons, and they tied it when he inbounded to Jenkins in the corner for a 3-pointer that tied it at 127.

Duncan Robinson’s 3-pointer with 1:04 left in overtime gave Detroit the lead for good at 134-133.

Cunningham shot 2 for 11 from 3-point range but 16 of 18 from the free throw line in his 12th career triple-double. The previous high in the NBA this season was 32 field goal attempts. done by three players.

Cam Whitmore scored 20 points, and Alex Sarr had 15 points and 15 rebounds for the Wizards.

The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.

Source link

Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

I’ve played muni golf all my life. I was never a country-club kid and even the courses I practiced at in high school were rough around the edges. Range balls with worn-down dimples. Putting greens that looked like shag carpet. That was the norm.

These less-than-ideal conditions forced me to learn how to hit some shots that I otherwise wouldn’t have. Lobs off hardpan. Chips out of divots. Putts through craters on the greens. You get the picture.

By the time I started working in golf and got access to nicer practice facilities, I’d taught myself quite a few handy shots. However, after all those years, one shot still eluded me: the short-sided bunker shot from firm sand.

Luckily for me, one of our Top 100 Teachers, Joe Plecker, grew up as a muni kid himself. And when I approached him wanting to know more about how to properly execute this shot, he was quick to teach me his secrets.

An easy technique for an impossible shot

When I faced a short-sided bunker shot from hard sand, I always got sick to my stomach. I knew I was either going to skid the club into the back of the ball or overcorrect and catch too much sand and leave it in the bunker.

With hard sand, it’s important to get a steep angle of attack to get the clubhead to enter the sand and blast the ball out. But when you do this, it can be easy to get the leading edge stuck and catch too much sand.

To execute the shot properly, Plecker suggests setting up in two parts. First, you want a setup that promotes a steep angle of attack. Second, you want to grip the club in a way that ensures an open clubface.

For the first element, Plecker says to set up with your upper body tilted toward the target.

“This upper body forward position is going to help us maintain a very steep angle [of attack],” Plecker says.

After that, it’s time to place your hands on the grip. Plecker likes to see a very neutral grip with the lead hand for this.

“I want to see your lead hand in a neutral position,” Plecker says. “Imagine your left hand is pointed right down the top line of the grip. That’s your finesse position, meaning it’s a heck of a lot easier from there to twist the club open.”

From here, all you’ve got to do is focus on twisting and hinging the club to the top. Don’t feel like you are making a bid, full-body turn.

“This is the secret to hitting a finesse bunker shot,” Plecker says. “The first move is to cast that club.”

If you do it correctly, the club will carve into the sand and pop the ball up and out of the bunker.

There are many ways to hit different shots: cuts, draws, soft ones and low ones. Most golfers think that shot-shaping requires a ton of swing and setup changes. It can, but there’s an easier way: Simply adjust the position of your trail-hand palm when you grip the club at address.

Check out the photos below. On the left, you can see how I’ve set my trail-hand palm on top of the handle before I squeeze the grip. On the right, you can see how my trail-hand palm is more under the handle. It’s subtle, but this simple change in hand position has powerful repercussions when attempting to hit different kinds of shots with every club in your bag.

With your trail palm on top of the club, you’re in a better position to hit more down on the ball, with the handle moving toward your body — good for producing a cut shot when you need it or to hit a finesse shot around the green. With your trail palm underneath the club, you’ll automatically shape your swing more in-to-out and more easily close the clubface — good for power draws off the tee and from the fairway.

Give each a try. With a little extra shotmaking finesse in your game, you’ll shoot lower scores.

How to do it

GOLF

1. Place your trail palm more on top of the grip to ensure more of a downward strike or to pull off a clever fade when the situation calls for it. This hold also works great from the sand and on delicate chip shots around the green.

2. Set your trail palm more under the handle to create an inside-out path, which is great for draws or if you have trouble with slicing.

Jeff Smith is director of instruction at Eagle Springs GC in Wolcott, Colo., and Timbergate GC in Edinburgh, Ind.

Oct 31, 2025, 05:37 AM ET

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Hye-Jin Choi tapped in for a birdie after missing a 20-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole to give her a 6-under 66 Friday and a five-stroke lead after two rounds of the LPGA Tour’s Maybank Championship.

Choi, who played on the South Korea team in last week’s International Crown, had a 36-hole total of 14-under 130 on the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country club course. She started the day with a one-stroke lead and it marked the first time in her career that she has led after the first two rounds.

The 26-year-old Choi is winless on the LPGA tour but has 28 career top-10 finishes. She placed second at the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open as a 17-year-old amateur.

Choi tried to remain in a positive frame of mind despite a bogey on her first hole.

“I tried to keep the faith and play steady,” Choi said. “So I made lots of birdies today and my shots and putting was all good.”

Defending champion Yin Ruoning shot 67 and moved up 19 places and into second place. She was tied with Hannah Green, a member of the winning Australia team at the International Crown last weekend, who shot 69 Friday.

Green said she enjoys playing in Malaysia, which is only a six-hour flight from her home in Perth, Western Australia.

“It’s almost like my home event,” Green said. “I also call this another home event.”

New Zealander Lydia Ko, who played on a composite World lineup in the team event in South Korea, had a 70 in the second round and was in a group tied for fourth, six strokes behind Choi.

“I was pretty fatigued coming into this week,” Ko said. “Just been trying to stay cool and keep my energy levels up.”

World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul shot 70 and was eight shots off the lead. Brooke Henderson had a second consecutive 70 and was 10 strokes behind Choi.

Thitikul, the only multiple winner on the LPGA Tour this year after winning the Mizuho Americas Open in May and in Shanghai nearly three weeks ago, has finished runner-up the last two times she has played in Malaysia.

Next week, the LPGA ends its five-week Asian swing with the Japan Classic at Shiga.