On Friday at Augusta National, Rory McIlroy was sublime. He made six birdies over his last seven holes to close out a seven-under 65, he opened up a six-shot lead (the largest in tournament history) and many questioned if the green jacket was already clinched.

As golf fans have witnessed so many times before, though, no lead is safe around Augusta National. And on Saturday, they got another reminder.

McIlroy, who is looking to become just the fourth golfer to win back-to-back Masters, was out of sorts during his third round, posting a one-over 73 to drop back into a tie for the lead with Cameron Young heading into the final round.

“This golf course has a way of — when you’re not quite feeling it, you struggle,” McIlroy said. “I just need to go to the range and try to figure it out a little bit.”

By “it” he, of course, means his swing. Specifically, a pesky left miss with his approach shots into greens.

Several times throughout his third round, McIlroy missed left of the green. And as he made his way through Amen Corner, those left misses cost him three dropped shots as he made double bogey on 11 and bogey on 12.

The good news for McIlroy fans? The left miss he fought is correctable — and he seems to know why it’s happening.

“For me it’s just about keeping my lower body moving,” McIlroy said. “If I can just get my lower body moving through impact, then that should sort of fix it. But I am going to go and hit a few balls on the range to neutralize the ball flight a bit.”

When the lower body slows (or stalls) around impact, your arms and hands take over and close the clubface. This is a miss that plagues everyone from casual recreational players all the way up to green jacket winners, and it’s something that can be round-wrecking if you aren’t careful.

McIlroy’s left miss makes much more sense with the added context of the type of shot he was trying to hit on some of the trouble shots. On Nos. 6 and 12, for example, he noted he was in between clubs and trying to hit a knockdown shot. When trying this three-quarter knockdown type shot, the tendency is for you to stall your turn around impact in a subconscious effort to keep the ball from going long. When you do this, however, the arms and hands take over and produce the pesky left miss.

“I had maybe awkward numbers or trying to take a little bit off and I missed those ones left,” McIlroy said. “So something to maybe go and work on tonight and, again, try to figure that out.”

If he can figure out how to guard against that miss, look for McIlroy to return to his form from the first two rounds and claim a second consecutive green jacket. If he can’t, he’ll be slipping the jacket on one of his competitors come Sunday evening.

Every team has them, but it’s time to analyze the Minnesota Vikings’ current draft droughts and oddities. In doing so, some clues may dribble out about the team’s plans on April 23rd, when the draft kicks off.

Minnesota has some unusual draft habits that could matter this month.

Interim general manager Rob Brzezinski will take on his first draft as the top guy, and these are some of the things that just haven’t happened in a while for the purple team.

The Long-Running Draft Patterns Following the Vikings

Picks and habits that have eluded Minnesota.

No TE Ever Taken in Round 1

Minnesota has drafted a few 2nd-Round tight ends in 65 years, but they’ve never taken the plunge in Round 1.

This time, they might have a chance at ending the drought, as Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq has a 50/50 chance of being on the board at Pick No. 18. Choosing Sadiq would make sense after Minnesota reworked T.J. Hockenson’s deal this offseason, enabling him to hit free agency next offseason.

No WR in Round 2 in 19 Years

Sidney Rice — he’s the last WR discovered by the Vikings in Round 2 way back in 2007. Minnesota usually just connects on 1st-Round wideouts or finds them in late rounds like Stefon Diggs in 2015 or undrafted free agency like Adam Thielen in 2013.

This year, a man like Alabama’s Germie Bernard could end the madness.

No Center in Round 2 in 47 Years

The Vikings drafted Dave Huffman in Round 2 of the 1979 NFL Draft. He didn’t last long. Since then, Minnesota has said no thanks to 2nd-Round centers.

In 2026, they could “reach” a bit for a player like Connor Lew of Auburn.

No DT Drafted in Round 1 since 2013

Remember Sharrif Floyd? The guy whose career started somewhat promising but flamed out because of injury? He was the last defensive tackle picked in Round 1 by the purple team.

In 12 days, the drought could end with Clemson’s Peter Woods or Ohio State’s Kayden McDonald.

Just One EDGE in Round 1 in Last 20 Years

In 2005, the Vikings drafted Erasmus James in Round 1 — and then stopped investing such capital in EDGE defenders. They preferred the comfort of trades — see: Jared Allen — and the middle rounds for players like Everson Griffen and Danielle Hunter.

Keldric Faulk (Auburn) and Akheem Mesidor (Miami) are in play at No. 18 in 2026.

Just One Safety in Round 2 in Last 30 Years

Like the center position, the Vikings also don’t draft safeties in Round 2. The only guy in the last three decades was Tyrell Johnson from Arkansas State in 2008.

On April 24th, Minnesota could change this tendency by picking LSU’s A.J. Haulcy or hoping Dillon Thieneman (Oregon) or Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (Toledo) fall after a Vikings trade back.

No RBs Drafted in First 4 Rounds in 5 Years

Since Dalvin Cook left the franchise after the 2022 campaign, Minnesota has opted for veteran RB fixes, including Alexander Mattison, Aaron Jones, and Jordan Mason. They had no young running back to take the baton.

This is a very strange drought because it’s not difficult to find RB talent anywhere in the draft. Thankfully, Minnesota has done its homework so far in this draft cycle, having officially met with Nebraska’s Emmett Johnson and Wake Forest’s Demond Claiborne.

ESPN’s Kevin Seifert noted on the RB need this week, “Jordan Mason, 26, and Aaron Jones, 31, are entering the final year of their contracts, and the Vikings explored moving on from Jones this spring when they bid for free agent Travis Etienne Jr. After the New Orleans Saints signed Etienne, Jones agreed to take a pay cut to return.”

“There might not be an immediate need for a running back, but it is coming soon. The 2026 class of running backs is not deep enough to feel assured that Brzezinski will have a value pick available to him in the top 100. The class offers one dominant, explosive playmaker who almost certainly will be a top-10 pick — Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love — and then a notable drop-off.”

Last year’s draft was renowned for running back depth, but Minnesota drafted zilch.

Seifert added, “At least two others appear likely to be top-100 picks: Love’s Notre Dame teammate Jadarian Price and Arkansas’ Mike Washington Jr. In a recent three-round mock draft conducted by ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., Matt Miller and Jordan Reid, Kiper matched the Vikings with Price with the No. 49 pick.”

Just One WR in Rounds 2 & 3 in Last 18 Years

Remember the Tai Felton pick in Round 3 last year? That was the first time in about two decades that Minnesota chose a wideout in Rounds 2 or 3 — basically a Friday night.

This year, Minnesota is meeting with gobs of pass-catchers who might be taken in Rounds 2 and 3. This drought feels like it’s nearing an end.

Super Eagles striker Akor Adams continued his fine scoring form in La Liga, netting his eighth goal of the season in Sevilla’s 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday night.

The match, played at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium, saw Sevilla take full advantage of a heavily rotated Atletico side to secure three vital points in their fight to avoid relegation.

Adams opened the scoring early in the 10th minute after calmly converting a penalty. The spot-kick was awarded when Álex Baena brought down a Sevilla player inside the box, leaving the referee with no choice but to point to the spot. The Nigerian forward showed great composure to send the goalkeeper the wrong way and give his side the lead.

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone made several changes to his starting line-up, resting key players ahead of their crucial Champions League clash with FC Barcelona. Among those left out was Nigerian star Ademola Lookman.

Despite fielding a youthful team, Atletico managed to respond in the 35th minute. Javier Boñar marked his early senior appearances with a well-taken header, connecting with a cross from Julio Díaz to level the score at 1-1.

However, Sevilla regained the advantage just before half-time when Nemanja Gudelj struck in added time of the first half to make it 2-1.

The victory is a major boost for Sevilla as they continue their battle to stay in the top flight, while Atletico will now turn their attention back to European competition.

For Adams, the goal further underlines his importance to Sevilla, as the Nigerian striker continues to deliver when it matters most.

Former world heavyweight champion David Haye described Tyson Fury’s win over Arslanbek Makhmudov in his comeback fight as an “optimal performance”.

Fury returned to the ring after a 15-month absence to secure a unanimous decision victory at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

It was not a vintage display, but Haye believed it was a good return considering the ring rust Fury could have been dealing with.

“Fury did exactly what he needed to do,” Haye told Netflix.

“That was the optimal performance for him. If he could pick the type of performance to put forward, it would be exactly that.

“He took all his tools out of the box and polished them up.”

Retired multiple weight world champion Andre Ward agreed with Haye’s assessment, downplaying suggestions was a soft reintroduction for Fury.

“Some will say Makhmudov is limited, but he’s good enough,” Ward said.

“You can’t take away from what you’ve seen from Tyson Fury offensively and defensively tonight.”

Four-time world champion Carl Froch said Fury “boxed well” and taking zero damage will be a positive for the 37-year-old.

“He’s been out the ring for [nearly] 16 months and he put in a 12-round performance at a good pace,” Froch said.

“The first couple of rounds were close, but then he took over against a dangerous puncher.

“He got hit with a couple of little shots, but you can see by his face he’s not marked up.”

Arslanbek Makhmudov recently caught the attention of the boxing world by wrestling a bear in Dagestan. And from the first round on Saturday night, he seemed to realise that wrestling Tyson Fury was a better option than boxing him. Yet on this occasion, that’s no comment on the wizardry that Fury can produce in the ring, but rather on Makhmudov’s flaws. The story of this fight was that, luckily for Fury, those flaws eclipsed the Briton’s own, increasingly apparent faults.

This wasn’t the triumphant return of the “Gypsy King”, see, but an underwhelming – perhaps even concerning – return to the ring from the former world heavyweight champion, as he emerged from his fifth retirement.

Sixteen months on from his second defeat by Oleksandr Usyk, Fury was back; three-and-a-half years after his last fight on home soil, he was back in Britain. The goal of this points win over Makhmudov was to set up a long-overdue duel with compatriot Anthony Joshua, who watched on from the front row, and while that contest still gets the juices flowing (just), Fury’s performance here did not.

In the cold shell of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, before a smattering of empty seats, Makhmudov came forward in laboured movements, hurling overhands that Fury could see coming before his opponent had even dreamed them up.

Yet one early entry did trouble Fury enough to elicit an echoing “ooh!” from the stands, as a right hand connected over the top. Early in the second round, there was also a nervy movement for Fury, who was arguably backing up too frequently in a passive start. Maybe there was an element of the 37-year-old simply wishing to stay mobile and remote from Makhmudov in the earliest rounds, in which the Russian is at his most dangerous, but Fury was doing little besides throwing sporadic jabs to the body.

Perhaps they were an investment for the later rounds, though, and in any case, it didn’t take long for him to shift gears. But are there as many gears as before?

Fury began to let his hands go as round two neared its conclusion, and anticipation rose when he sidestepped Makhmudov and attacked with the 36-year-old trapped against the ropes. By the third round, a trend had emerged, with Fury able to slingshot himself off the ropes at just the right moment, getting close enough to force Makhmudov to overshoot with his right hand.

Still, after continually allowing the Russian to steer him towards the ropes, Fury was caught flush by a left hook, again stirring up some nervousness in round four. However, Makhmudov’s efforts to build on the attack were messy, and although he landed another left before long, Fury again turned him against the ropes and slid a cross onto his chin – which was slack amid another deep breath.

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The rest of the round was back and forth, with both men taking a punch to land one, while a grappling-heavy round five sucked the atmosphere out of the stadium – a common feeling in Tottenham this season, courtesy of their Premier League travails. In round six, the most-interesting action was in the crowd, as a fight was broken up by security, though Fury did his best to put a dent in Makhmudov with hooks to the body.

The constant chatter in the stands was proof of a disinterested audience at this point, although two clean overhands from Makhmudov brought the fans to attention. Perhaps it was becoming clear, even this early, that Fury was not going to find a finish, despite trainer SugarHill Steward’s desperate pleas between rounds.

For as slow and one-dimensional as Makhmudov looked, Fury was off the pace as well. Two-dimensional, sure, with the occasional southpaw switch and the eventual, effective introduction of uppercuts, but not inventive enough to assert himself in the captivating manner of old – or not sprightly enough to act fully on his inventive impulses.

At one point in the ninth, Makhmudov was a sitting duck against the ropes, and rather than fire off shots at the Russian, Fury simply leaned on him. And while Fury’s uppercut started to serve him well in the later rounds, when he finally did look capable of a finish in the 11th, it appeared as much a result of Makhmudov’s tiredness as Fury’s power – or what’s left of it.

Of course, these faults in Fury could be down to ring rust. Yet they could be down to age and degradation.

The quirk is that this is okay, as long as he is paired with Joshua next. What Fury vs Joshua has always needed, as a match-up, is a sense of equality, or something close to it. Fury’s current form might just balance out with Joshua’s struggles in and out of the ring; as much as one feels guilty to factor “AJ”’s recent car crash into an evaluation of his chances in a super-fight, one also cannot ignore the grief of losing two of his teammates.

Joshua, 36, has had to reckon with the passings of Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele in recent months, while his last three results read as such: a stoppage of a YouTuber-turned-boxer, a devastating defeat, and a KO of a mixed martial artist. Meanwhile, Fury laboured to victory here, after twice being outdone by Usyk.

Go back further, in Fury’s case, and he was lucky to outpoint the same mixed martial artist that Joshua destroyed, after beating Derek Chisora in an uneven fight the year before. So, in pursuit of Fury’s last clear win, you have to venture back to 2022, and even then it was not an especially impressive result.

At least Fury’s boxing tools worked better than the microphone that was handed to Joshua, after Fury had formally called him out. But even when AJ was given a working mic and hinted that he would face Fury next, there was some room for doubt. It was telling that, when boxing supremo Turki Alalshikh beckoned Joshua’s promoter into the ring, Eddie Hearn would not budge.

Fury vs Joshua is not a done deal, but it must be made immediately, before both boxers are done. Deal?

Randers will entertain FC Copenhagen at Cepheus Park in the Danish Superliga on Sunday. Both teams are fighting to beat the drop and must finish in the top four of the relegation round to make it.

Randers vs FC Copenhagen Preview

Randers finished ninth in the regular season to qualify for the relegation round. Out of 22 matches, they won only seven, drew five times, and lost 10 matches, to end the regular season with 26 points. It was not an impressive campaign, but the hosts will be looking to conserve their place in the top flight.

Hestene had a better campaign last season, finishing fourth out of 12 teams and earning qualification to the championship round. However, they finished fourth on 48 points, 15 points shy of Copenhagen, who won the league. It has been rocky for the hosts, but they still have the chance to save their season.

FC Copenhagen are battling an underwhelming trend. More was expected from them than what they have shown so far this season, considering their impressive form last term. They finished seventh in the regular season, just below the qualification zone for the championship round.

Byens Hold are the most successful team in the league, having won the title a record 16 times, including their accolade last season. However, they will miss the opportunity to defend their title this time. Randers prevailed over FC Copenhagen 2-1 on the road in the sides’ last meeting.

Randers vs FC Copenhagen Head-to-Head and Key Numbers

• Randers have won once and lost four times in their last five matches against Copenhagen.
• Randers have won once and lost four times in their last five matches at home against Copenhagen.
• Randers have won thrice and lost twice in their last five matches at home in all competitions.
• FC Copenhagen have won once, drawn once, and lost thrice in their last five matches on the road.
• Randers have won twice, drawn once, and lost twice in their last five matches, while FC Copenhagen have won twice and lost thrice. Form Guide: Randers D-L-W-W-L, FC Copenhagen -W-L-L-W-L.

Randers vs FC Copenhagen Prediction

Randers will be fighting to avoid dropping to the bottom two spots, which is synonymous with relegation to the First Division.

FC Copenhagen are eying a ticket to a European competition. If they finish atop the table, they could qualify for the European play-off match.

FC Copenhagen are the favorites to win this match based on experience and individuality.

Prediction: Randers 1-2 FC Copenhagen

Randers vs FC Copenhagen Betting Tips

Tip 1: Result – FC Copenhagen to win

Tip 2: Game to have over 2.5 goals – Yes

Tip 3: FC Copenhagen to score first – Yes

Tip 4: Randers to score – Yes