Michelle Wie Wests return to golf made her appreciate somethingthese girls are good.Her day didnt go as planned on Thursday as she shot a 10-over 82 in the first round of the Mizuho Americas Open. Wie West, the host of the LPGA event at Mountain Ridge Country Club in New Jersey, was playing a competitive round for the first time in nearly three years.Wie West hit just seven of 14 fairways and 10 of 18 greens in regulation. She struggled with 37 putts and four-putted the 11th hole. The greens, to be fair, did seem tricky for many other players.I think if you look at my round today, I think the one takeaway that you can get from that is these girls out here are amazing, she said. They make these golf courses look a lot easier than they actually are. That pin position on 11 was terrible. It was hard. You would've thought they would've made some easier pins for me today, but nope.I just went out there and I stayed positive. My husband [Jonnie West] is such a good, positive energy for me. At the end of the day, I put things in perspective and I build upon it, and you have to learn from these kind of rounds. That's just what golf is.RELATED: Here's the prize money payout for each player at the Mizuho Americas OpenJonnie is caddying for his wife this week. Wie West had a surprising wave of emotions before she teed off in the first round. The last time Wie West teed it up was at the 2023 U.S. Womens Open at Pebble Beach, where she missed the cut.I wasn't nervous going in, and I get to the first tee and I'm like, holy s-h-i-t. I now spell my curse words because I'm a mom, Wie West said. I was like, wow. Hole all of a sudden looks so small. Got to a two-footer and I'm like, I'm not going to hit the hole. No way.Happy that I played today ahead of the U.S. Open. As much practice as you can do, as many money games as you can play, there is literally nothing in the world that compares to the first round of a tournament. I thought today was great experience. I felt like the back nine I made some good putts, hit some good shots, almost brought it back to single digits. I'm excited for tomorrow. Just going to try to go as low as possible and keep acquiring those feels.Wie West, who won the 2014 U.S. Womens Open, will get back to working on her putting for the second round and the major next month at Riviera. She was tested on Thursday.The greens are very tough as it is. I got so nervy out there. I think I was just shocked at how nervous I got, Wie West said. These girls are really good out here. I think it's just such a great reminder for people watching on TV that these girls out here are dialed. They're playing on these conditions week after week and as tough as these greens are, they're handling it great. So for me today, the greens felt exponentially harder. It was nice having my husband on the bag. Saw a lot of friendly faces out there. As tough as it was, I took a lot of positives from it. Excited how the tournament has been run and a lot of positives.

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After facing a call to sell the Red Sox, Fenway Sports Group moved to quell protests from Liverpool fans by backing down over planned ticket price increases. Liverpool said Thursday it had changed its mind about inflationary price hikes planned over the next three years. The Premier League champion had been accused of greed by fans, who refused to spend money on drinks and food in the club's Anfield Stadium by way of protest. Thousands of fans held up yellow cards during a recent game against Crystal Palace with the message "Caution: Anfield's Soul at Risk." The unrest came at a time when Red Sox fans have also voiced their anger at principal owner John Henry and Boston's chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. Last week, a plane towing a banner imploring the ownership to sell the team flew over Fenway Park during batting practice. While Red Sox fans have been angered by a poor start to the season, which resulted in the firing of manager Alex Cora on April 25, Liverpool supporters have accused the hierarchy of "disregarding" fans over price hikes. They welcomed the reversal, which will now see an inflationary rise next season and prices frozen the following year. Fan group Spirit of Shankly thanked those at Liverpool who "listened to us and engaged with us, not all club hierarchies would have done the same." In February, Liverpool announced record revenues of more than $952 million for the year to May 2025. It was the highest-ranked Premier League team in terms of revenue, according to Deloitte and behind only Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain in Europe. That only added to anger from fans when price hikes were announced in March. Spirit of Shankly said at the time: "We should not be conned into thinking it is normal for prices to go up each season. This is a choice LFC are making and one that is driven by greed." While fans have acknowledged the success achieved under FSG including two Premier League titles and the Champions League they said the price increases were "tone-deaf and worrying." Liverpool said Thursday it would "seek longer-term alternative solutions" and "explore commercial ideas with the Supporters Board" to try to avoid future ticket price increases. But it added that "without wider progress on alternative solutions, future inflationary increases may still be required." Reporting by The Associated Press.

Mitchell Marsh slammed a superb 111 off 56 balls as bottom-placed Lucknow Super Giants snapped a six-match losing streak with a nine-run DLS victory over Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

As Vancouver prepare for a Western Conference showdown with San Jose, the club's uncertain stadium lease and potential relocation are overshadowing the on-field action

Report Solet price tag set at 25m for Newcastle United and InterUdinese defender Oumar Solet has been heavily linked with Inter and Newcastle United, but its now reported the asking price has been set at 25m.The 26-year-old has been very impressive so far this season at the Bluenergy Stadium, adding three goals and an assist in 32 Serie A appearances from central defence.Solet ready for next moveUDINE, ITALY FEBRUARY 15: Oumar Solet of Udinese celebrates scoring his teams first goal during the Serie A match between Udinese Calcio and US Sassuolo Calcio at Stadio Friuli on February 15, 2026 in Udine, Italy. (Photo by Timothy Rogers/Getty Images)He had been snapped up as a free agent by Udinese in January 2025, after a contract dispute with RB Salzburg, having come up through the Stade Lavallois youth academy.It means any sale would be pure profit, and the Friulani aim to make it a big sale, knowing there is no shortage of interest in the Frenchman.According to Tuttomercatoweb, Udinese have now decided that Solet will be available for 25m in the summer.Newcastle United sent scouts to view him in action over the last few weeks, while Inter have been pursuing him for quite a few months.The Nerazzurris interest might also depend on the fate of Alessandro Bastoni, because if the Italian is sold to Barcelona, then Solet would be a suitable replacement in the back three.

The NCAA announced Thursday that it will expand its two March Madness tournaments by eight teams each next season, a move that will drop more early-round games into the first week of the highly popular and lucrative showcase without substantially changing its overall form. The new 76-team brackets will jam eight extra games for a total of 12 games involving 24 teams into the front half of the first week of the men's and the women's tournaments, turning whats now known as the First Four into a bigger affair. It is the first expansion of the tournaments in 15 years, when they were bumped to 68 teams each. The 12 winners will move into the main 64-team bracket that will begin, as usual, on Thursday for the men and Friday for the women. Most of the eight new slots are expected to go to teams in the power conferences that were already commanding the lion's share of entries in thebracket. Two years ago, the SEC placed a record 14 teams in the mens bracket. Last season, the Big Ten had nine. The move is a product of the times, which include massive expansion the ACC, for instance, has grown from nine to 17 teams since 1996 and the reality that mid-major schools with top-notch players will often see those players plucked away by programs with bigger budgets and the ability to pay them through revenue sharing. Cinderella? There will still be room for those, though not a single mid-major advanced past the first weekend of either tournament the last two seasons. This hardly registers as a concern of the decision-makers anymore, who will point to the TV ratings that traditionally spell out fans preference for Duke and North Carolina over St. Peters and San Diego State, especially once the Sweet 16 starts. What matters more to the biggest schools is that their teams have a chance to compete in what remains the best postseason in college sports and that they aren't iced out by lower conference champions who earn automatic bids. "Youve got some really, really good teams who are going to end up in that 9, 10, 11 [seed] category that I think should be moved into the" 64-team bracket, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last year in discussing how he favored expansion. There is also money at stake: Conferences earn "units" which amounted to about $350,000 per unit for the mens tournament last season for placing teams in the bracket and then for every round those teams advance. The Big Ten made nearly $70 million from both tournaments, won by conference members Michigan (men) and UCLA (women). Leaders in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC have all acknowledged that the smaller teams help make March Madness what it is, all the while steadily expanding their own power in NCAA decision-making. That brings with it the tacit threat of fracturing the single thing the NCAA does best the basketball tournament. This move might forestall that. What it isn't expected to do is generate much more revenue. The current deal for the men's tournament is worth $8.8 billion and runs through 2032. Adding a few extra games between mid-level Power Four teams on Tuesday and Wednesday won't change that much. One reason this took as long as it did was the NCAA negotiations with CBS and TNT, which themselves have been in negotiations over their own ownership. The more drastic option of expanding the tournament to 96 teams or beyond would involve adding an extra week to a tournament that has thrived in part because of the symmetry of a six-round bracket that gets whittled down over three weeks. That basic shell began in 1985, with only slight tweaks, the latest of which came in 2011 when it was upped to 68. Reporting by The Associated Press.

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The Los Angeles Lakers are down 0-1 to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference playoffs, and on Thursday night, theyll be looking to tie the series.The Lakers are heavy underdogs, and though they lost the first game by nearly 20 points, they far from out of the series.May 5, 2026; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) goes up for a basket as Los Angeles Lakers forward Jake LaRavia (12) defends in the second half during game one of the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn ImagesA lot will depend on how the Lakers contain reigning MVP and favorite to repeat Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But without superstar Luka Doncic, who may not return in time for this series even if it goes seven games, theyll have to find ways to score more.View this post on InstagramA post shared by LA Sports Report (@lasportsreport)That will largely involve Austin Reaves, who recently returned from injury but before that was second on the team in scoring, behind only Doncic.In Game 1, he struggled, shooting 3-for-16 and scoring only eight points.Of course, the 41-year-old LeBron James will have to play well, too, and the Lakers will also need some contributions from players like Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton.If the Lakers take Game 2, they come back to LA with home-court advantage and real momentum.If they lose, that Game 3 could be the pivotal game of the series.Do you think the Lakers can pull off the upset Thursday night?The post Lakers Seek to Even Series vs. Thunder Thursday Night appeared first on LA Sports Report.