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Hana Wakimoto maintains lead at Toto Japan Classic

LPGA: CPKC Women's Open - Third RoundJul 27, 2024; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Ariya Jutanugarn plays her shot from the second tee during the third round of the CPKC Women’s Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

Japan’s Hana Wakimoto carded a 4-under-par 68 in Friday’s second round to maintain her lead at the Toto Japan Classic in Shinga, Japan.

Wakimoto moved to 13-under-par and sits two strokes ahead of Yealimi Noh and Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn in the no-cut event at Seta Golf Course.

Wakimoto followed back-to-back birdies at the first two holes with nine consecutive pars before two more birdies at Nos. 12-13. After a bogey at the par-3 fourth hole — her first of the tournament — she finished the round with her fifth birdie at the par-5 18th.

“I feel comfortable with my tee shots on this course and I think my game is really fit to this course,” said Wakimoto, who never lost the lead in the second round.

This is only Wakimoto’s second career start in an LPGA Tour event. She missed the cut at the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open. She has been a member of the JLPGA Tour since 2018.

Noh matched the lowest round of the day with a 7-under 65 that featured four consecutive birdies at Nos. 4-7. She also chipped in for birdie at the par-4 14th hole and completed her round with only 20 putts.

“For me, last year, I was really struggling with my putting and I just needed something new and something completely different,” Noh said. “I never even thought of trying it but my coach and my dad suggested it to me and I tried it. It helped me get over that uneasy feeling over the ball. So, that’s how it started and now using it a year after, my stroke has gotten really solid and my speed is great with the putter so it has helped me a lot.”

Jutanugarn shot 66 on Friday and is one of three players who has yet to record a birdie, along with Japan’s Yuka Saso and Saiki Fujita. Fujita (66 on Friday) is in a three-way tie for fifth place at 9-under and Saso (67) is part of a nine-player contingent tied for eighth at 8-under.

Japan’s Rio Takeda is in solo fourth at 10-under after posting a 65, highlighted by an eagle at the par-5 13th hole.

Marina Alex (67) and South Korea’s Jin Young Ko (70) are tied for fifth place with Fujita.

This is the fourth and final stop on the LPGA Tour’s four-event fall Asia swing. The 78-player field for the co-sponsored event includes 35 JLPGA members.

–Field Level Media

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Record 216 WNBA games to be broadcast nationally this season

WNBA: Washington Mystics at Los Angeles SparksAug 31, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; A Wilson EVO Nxt WNBA basketball on the court at the Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

A record 216 WNBA games and tentpole events for the upcoming 2026 season will be broadcast on national television.

The league announced its full slate of nationally televised games for the first year of its new media rights deal on Wednesday. It includes games being broadcast by returning partners in the Walt Disney Company (ABC/ESPN), Amazon Prime Video, CBS/Paramount+ and Scripps (ION).

New television/streaming partners for the 2026 season are NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock/NBCSN) and USA Network.

With two new expansion teams starting play in the upcoming season, the league will put on a record 330 regular-season games, with all 15 teams playing 44 games.

Disney will distribute 30 games this year for the league’s milestone 30th season. ABC will broadcast 13 of those — tied for its most ever — including a season-opening doubleheader May 9 which will see the Indiana Fever face the Dallas Wings and the defending champion Las Vegas Aces face the Phoenix Mercury in a rematch of last year’s WNBA Finals.

Amazon Prime will also broadcast 30 regular-season games for 30 years of the league’s existence, along with the championship game of the Commissioner’s Cup tournament.

NBC, which broadcast the first WNBA game in 1997, is back as a media partner this season and will broadcast seven Sunday games throughout the season. Peacock, in addition to streaming regular-season games, will stream every WNBA Finals game, which will also be broadcast on either NBC or USA.

USA will broadcast 48 regular-season games, trailing only ION, which will broadcast 50 games through its “State Farm WNBA Friday Night Spotlight” series.

After broadcasting the first primetime broadcast television WNBA game last season, CBS will air eight primetime games this season.

NBA TV, which is in its 24th year distributing WNBA games, has a 15-game slate it will be broadcasting.

WNBA League Pass will deliver select live games throughout the season (local blackouts may apply), along with next-day access to every matchup through the WNBA app or at WNBA.com.

–Field Level Media

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LPGA stars get another shot at major title at Chevron

LPGA: The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican - First RoundNov 13, 2025; Belleair, Florida, USA; Nelly Korda hits a shot on the ninth hole during the first round of The ANNIKA golf tournament at Pelican Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

The top five players in the women’s golf world rankings have something in common. All five have won at least one tournament since the 2026 season began, whether on the LPGA Tour or elsewhere.

Actually, that quintet of Jeeno Thitikul, Nelly Korda, Hyo-joo Kim, Charley Hull and Hannah Green shares another attribute: They’ve collected zero of the sport’s last nine major championships.

As major season kicks off at the Chevron Championship on Thursday in Houston, the world of women’s golf waits to see if one of its star players can reassert her dominance under the brightest lights the sport has to offer.

Four of the five major winners in 2025 were first-time champions, including Mao Saigo of Japan, who birdied the first hole of an unprecedented five-way playoff (featuring Kim, among others) to win the Chevron.

That was the event’s final year at the widely-panned Club at Carlton Woods in the Houston suburbs. Formerly played in the Coachella Valley and known as the Dinah Shore, Kraft Nabisco Championship and other titles, the Chevron will make a new home at Memorial Park Golf Course.

The municipal course near downtown Houston is the current home of the PGA Tour’s Houston Open, renovated less than 10 years ago with consulting from Brooks Koepka. It will play as a par-72, 6,811-yard course for the ladies this week.

“It’s definitely a second-shot golf course,” Korda said. “Greens are pretty tricked out. Just depends on how it’s going to play with all the rain that they got. It can play really long where (drives are) not going to go run out or play really soft.”

Korda is the most recent major winner of the world’s top five, having taken the Chevron crown in 2024. But in nine major starts since, she has mixed two T2s with two missed cuts and an array of also-ran finishes.

She began 2026 with a win at the season-opening Tournament of Champions, weather-shortened from 72 to 54 holes. World No. 1Thitikul won the next event in her native Thailand.

Though only 23, Thitikul has been gunning for her first major for close to five years, collecting nine top-10s without a victory.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Thitikul said. “If you in contention, if you without a win as well but you in contention for like maybe four, five week in a row, which mean your game is there. …

“If you were in contention every week, you saw your name on the top in every week, which mean your game is there and then just matter of time.”

England’s Hull has yet to capture a major, while Kim, a South Korean veteran who won back-to-back tournaments in March, hasn’t added to her major mantle since the 2014 Evian.

Green will be a popular pick this week as the Australian rides white-hot form into Houston. She’s won four tournaments since March 1, including a two-week sweep of the Women’s Australian Open and Australian WPGA Championship. On Sunday outside Los Angeles, Green putted her way into a playoff and then won her third LA Championship.

She said Tuesday that she plans to “ride this wave for as long as possible.”

“My putter has been very kind to me, so it’s nice to feel like all aspects of my game have actually been able to turn on at the same time, as to where last year I felt like one thing would go well and something would be really off,” Green said.

“That’s probably been the biggest difference, but obviously the inner belief has definitely been different, too.”

Green’s lone major title came when she won the 2019 Women’s PGA Championship.

–Field Level Media

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Nick Martinez helps Rays dispatch Reds, his former team

MLB: Cincinnati Reds at Tampa Bay RaysApr 22, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero (13) celebrates with Tampa Bay Rays third base coach Brady Williams (4) after hitting a home run during the third inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-Imagn Images

Nick Martinez allowed a run on five hits over eight innings and Junior Caminero homered to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 6-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday afternoon at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Martinez (1-1) walked one and struck out five against his former team. He threw 71 strikes in 95 pitches.

The Rays averted a sweep in the three-game series and won for only the second time in six games. Caminero drove in two runs, Yandy Diaz was 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI while Ryan Vilade was 2-for-2, scored a run, drove in a run and walked.

The Reds had their five-game winning streak snapped.

Both teams are off Thursday.

Cincinnati starter Brandon Williamson (2-2) gave up five runs on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings with three walks and three strikeouts.

The Rays capitalized on Williamson’s walks to the first two batters in the second by scoring three runs and sending eight batters to the plate. Ben Williamson singled in a run, Chandler Crawford brought in the second tally with a sacrifice fly and Diaz produced an RBI single.

Tampa Bay centerfielder Jonny Deluca ended the top of the third by leaping against the fence to haul in T.J. Friedl’s drive.

Caminero’s home run leading off the bottom of the third made it 4-0. He drove a 1-1 pitch to the opposite field, into the right-center-field stands an estimated 404 feet for Caminero’s sixth homer.

The Reds only managed a run in the fifth after loading the bases with none out. P.J. Higgins’ sacrifice fly made it 4-1. Friedl then bounced into a fielder’s choice as Spencer Steer was tagged out at home. Martinez then got Matt McLain on a flyout to end the half inning.

Vilade’s run-scoring in the fifth made it 5-1.

Friedl, playing center field, made a diving catch on Nick Fortes’ drive to right-center to end the sixth inning.

Caminero’s bases-loaded fielder’s choice in the seventh produced the final margin.

–Field Level Media

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