Author: teddoncic

Par-five scoring will decide the final Rocket Classic in Detroit. For years, Detroit Golf Club played like a sprinter’s track. Towering drives split the trees, wedges skipped beside flagsticks, and birdies arrived in noisy clusters. That familiar rhythm has disappeared. The Rocket Classic Presented by AlumniFi now unfolds across a restored 7,328-yard, par-70 layout. Architect Tyler Rae’s renovation converted Nos. 7 and 17 from reachable par fives into bruising par fours. Golfers now get just two cracks at a par five each round, and that scarcity changes the entire scoring equation. Players stepping onto the fourth tee will see a…

Hornets paint scoring now has to survive without LaMelo Ball, the passer who made Charlotte’s spacing feel almost limitless. The Hornets sent Ball to Minnesota in a four-team summer trade that brought back Naz Reid and draft capital. Soon after, they moved Miles Bridges to Phoenix for a package led by Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale. Coby White, acquired from Chicago at the February deadline, then signed a new three-year contract. That is not routine roster churn. It is an offensive handoff. Ball controlled pace, bent help defenders and delivered passes from angles few guards could see. Bridges supplied downhill…

For Charlotte, the post-LaMelo Ball era will hinge on one brutal question: which five players deserve the final five minutes? For years, that answer began with Ball. He bent defenses with passes few guards could anticipate and pull-up threes opponents had to respect from several feet beyond the arc. When possessions broke down, Charlotte placed the ball in his hands and trusted his imagination to restore order. That safety net has disappeared. By trading Ball and Josh Green to Minnesota, the Hornets removed their leading playmaker and the gravitational center of their offense. Charlotte did not replace him with another…

Portland Classic scrambling begins where the television highlight usually ends: in damp Poa annua rough, with the flag four paces away and trouble waiting behind it. The drive looked perfect, but the approach did not. Now the ball sits against the collar, deep enough that the player cannot nip it cleanly. Opening the clubface might send the wedge underneath it. Driving the leading edge into the grass could produce a chunk. Nearby, a leaderboard volunteer holds a red number that keeps getting lower while another contender rolls in a birdie somewhere across Columbia Edgewater Country Club. This course invites players…

Portland Classic contenders learn the same lesson at Columbia Edgewater: the trees can lie. The August air may feel still on the tee. Look toward the tops of the Douglas firs, though, and the branches often tell a different story. Flags pull toward one corner. A caddie tosses grass into the air and watches it drift against the direction the player expected. That uncertainty creates the tournament’s central challenge. Columbia Edgewater gives up birdies. Aki Iwai finished 24 under when she won in 2025. Moriya Jutanugarn reached 22 under the previous year, while Chanettee Wannasaen posted 26 under in 2023.…

Green reading at the Portland Classic begins with a contradiction. Columbia Edgewater gives the world’s best players plenty of chances, then asks them to solve a slightly different putting surface every few hours. Akie Iwai mastered that tension last August. She finished at 24-under 264, four shots clear of Gurleen Kaur, after closing with a bogey-free 66. Her final round required only 26 putts. She also played her last 34 holes without a bogey, a remarkable stretch at a tournament where one careless three-putt can erase two holes of attacking golf. Those numbers only tell half the story. Iwai did…

Columbia Edgewater turns driving position into the first real contest of the Portland Classic. A player can launch one high between the fir trees, find the short grass, and still leave herself blocked from the flag. The Portland Classic usually becomes a birdie race, but Columbia Edgewater does not reward aggression without direction. A drive toward the wrong edge of the fairway changes the entire hole. The next shot may need to clear a bunker, land on a downslope, or approach a tucked pin without enough green to stop the ball. A routine wedge can become a defensive swing toward…

There was a specific groan inside Barclays Center last season. It usually started when a Nets guard left his feet without a passing angle, then grew louder as the ball sailed toward an empty corner. By the time an opponent finished the break with a dunk, the crowd had already seen the ending. Brooklyn could not afford those empty possessions. The Nets finished 20-62, ranked last in scoring at 105.9 points per game and shot only 34 percent from deep. They also committed 15.8 turnovers a night. When a young team already struggles to shoot, giving away the ball means…

Nets rim protection lost its safety net when Nic Claxton left for Chicago. Picture the first possession of training camp. A guard uses a high screen, turns his shoulders and sees open hardwood. The on-ball defender trails. Day’Ron Sharpe steps toward the drive. A cutter slips behind him. For one second, the entire defense hangs on Sharpe’s choice. Claxton used to clean up those moments. He could switch onto a quick guard, absorb two hard dribbles and still recover toward the rim. Brooklyn did not always defend well around him, but his length gave teammates room to make mistakes. That…

Bench shooting will define the Nets in 2026-27 every time Julius Randle lowers his shoulder and storms into the paint. Two defenders will close around him. A third may shade down from the wing. Then Randle will snap the ball toward an open teammate as Barclays Center holds its breath. The next sound will matter. A clean swish tells the defense to stay home, while a hard clang invites another body into the lane. One result gives Mikel Brown Jr. a runway on the next possession. The other leaves him staring at a wall of arms. Brooklyn finally has players…