Liverpool playmaker Florian Wirtz believes the struggles he encountered after making the move to Anfield have made him stronger.

The 22-year-old Germany international arrived in a £116m deal from Bayer Leverkusen as one of Europe’s hottest young talents but bedding into a team which underwent a £450m summer overhaul proved difficult.

Wirtz struggled with the physicality but a tailored strength and conditioning programme designed to make him more robust for the Premier League helped get him through.

After failing to score in his first 22 appearances, he enjoyed a run of six in 10 matches from Boxing Day, although he has since gone eight games without scoring.

But his overall success is not entirely in his own hands as he has created over 70 chances in the Premier League and Champions League this season but the under-performing team has failed to capitalise.

“It wasn’t an easy phase,” Wirtz, speaking about his first few months in England, told German television show Sportschau.

“It’s sometimes good that things don’t always go upwards and that you experience a dip and grow stronger because of it.

“That’s how I see it now as well – it has made me a bit stronger. I had to overcome resistance and adapt. I had to learn to become stronger and hold onto the ball.”

While his domestic form may have dipped again, he showed his quality in Germany’s 4-3 win over Switzerland on Friday – with two goals and two assists – and he credited national team boss Julian Nagelsmann with helping him during his tough transitional phase.

“The coach always supported me during the difficult phase after my move to Liverpool and always had an open ear for me,” he added.

“He gave me tips and reassured me. That has brought us closer together.”

Gary Woodland’s Cobra OPTM Max LS-K driver isn’t just a weapon off the tee, it’s also a fully armored tank!

Woodland got his long-awaited fifth PGA Tour victory Sunday, seven years after his marquee U.S. Open win, and the driver was a big reason why.

The 41-year-old, who leads the PGA Tour in driving distance and clubhead speed, was dialed at Memorial Park Sunday, leading the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in the final round on his way to a five-shot victory.

Woodland plays one of the coolest driver setups on the PGA Tour, opting for Cobra’s prototype OPTM Max LS-K driver, something Cobra Tour Rep Ben Schomin described as a “working prototype” earlier this season. It’s essentially a lower-spin, fade-biased version of Cobra’s retail Max K driver that was specifically built with Woodland in mind when he started playing Cobra’s DS-ADAPT Max-K driver last season.

“This is my 18th year on Tour and the drivers that I’ve played when I’ve driven the golf ball well have been back-weighted,” Woodland told GOLF in February, referring to the deeper CG of drivers designed for game-improvement players. “Everyone wants front weight to get the spin down and distance. But for some reason, I’ve been back with it, and I started struggling with spin last year. I went through all the drivers, and I got to their Max K driver last year, and it was low spin for me for some reason.”

With that deep CG, Woodland prefers a lower lofted head, which is why his driver measures in at just 6.4 degrees of loft. He also pairs it with a telephone pole-like Ventus Black 8-X shaft.

When Max Homa breifly switched into the prototype earlier this year, Schomin explained that because the LS-K is not a production model like the regular OPTM LS, X and Max-K, they can still make changes to it. The goal is to test design and performance concepts to potentially utilize in future production models.

Compared to the production Max-K, the LSK has a similar shape, but a lower and deeper CG to lower spin and produce a neutral-to-fade bias, Schomin said.

As opposed to the retail OPTM line of drivers, which have glossy crowns, the LS-K has a matte finish because it’s easier for the company to get it out on Tour. Woodland has been using the prototype since the PNC Championship in December.

He also pairs the prototype head with a lead pipe-esque Fujikura Ventus Black 8-X with VeloCore+, a shaft many players have in their 5/7-woods, but Woodland loves a heavy driver shaft at a shorter length to pair with his smoother tempo.

Gary Woodland’s winning driver at the 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open

Dmitry Bivol has finally had his long-awaited return to the ring confirmed.

The 35-year-old was last in action over 12 months ago when he went up against countryman Artur Beterbiev in their undisputed light heavyweight showdown back in February 2025.

It was a rematch of their clash the past October which Beterbiev had won by majority decision, but Bivol was able to gain revenge in the second meeting to dethrone his rival by the exact same outcome and become undisputed champion.

Since then, Bivol had to relinquish his WBC title which is now held by David Benavidez, but the Russian still remains in possession of the WBA, IBF and WBO belts, and is now set to compete against his mandatory challenger Michael Eifert.

Bivol had to undergo back surgery which delayed his return, and after several extensions for purse bid negotiations were granted for the bout against Eifert, a date and location has been revealed.

It was initially expected that the fight would be part of the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven card in Egypt on May 23, but that won’t be the case, after it was announced that Bivol will face Eifert in Yekaterinburg, Russia on May 30.

Eifert has won 13 of his 14 professional contests, with his most notable win coming against Jean Pascal in March 2023. He has fought only once since then, a victory over Carlos Jiminez in August 2024, meaning the German has been more inactive than Bivol.

Unified champion Bivol will be a big favourite in the bout, and if successful against Eifert, he has recently stated his desire to face Beterbiev in a trilogy contest next, before a potential fight against former rival Canelo Alvarez, or even a move up to cruiserweight.

The Columbus Blue Jackets have missed the playoffs in five straight seasons. They looked like contending for a wild card spot last year, but eventually fell two points shy of clinching it. They were hoping to equal that points tally from last season and solidify their playoff chances this year against the Boston Bruins on Sunday.

But the Blue Jackets surrendered in what looked like a routine win. Having gone up 3-0 in the first period, the Bruins mounted a spirited comeback in the third before winning the game 4-3 in a shootout. They leapfrogged the Blue Jackets into the top Eastern Conference wild card spot and left Columbus at 87 points.

Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness didn’t mince any words following his team’s fourth loss in five games (1-3-1). He called out to his players to develop a playoff mindset, as many on the roster have yet to taste playoff success in their NHL careers.

“We got away from being aggressive, and I thought we got very selfish with the puck,” Bowness said. “Some of these guys, they’ve got a lot to learn about how to play in this league at this time of year.

“It gets harder and harder and harder, and we’re going to keep reminding them and reminding them every day how hard it is to win at this time of the year, and you just can’t get away. I hate it when we play on our heels, and we were back a little bit. Give them credit. They started coming, but there’s a lot to be learned from some of these guys, and they better damn well start listening.”

Bowness’ frustrations stem from the fact that the Blue Jackets dropped their game on Saturday against the San Jose Sharks in a similar fashion. They held a 2-1 lead after the second intermission, but let the Sharks come back into the game and eventually take a 3-2 win with a winner at 18:35 in the third.

Blue Jackets players express their disappointment after surrendering 3-0 lead

Captain Boone Jenner stated during the postgame interviews that is imperative that the Blue Jackets leave the loss behind them and look to consolidate their footing in the final eight games left in the regular season.

“It’s a tough loss, obviously, and we know what’s at stake,” Jenner said. “We are where we are right now. We can’t change the games where we didn’t get points, right? We have eight huge games here the rest of the way. We have to learn from tonight and we need to get better in order to get some more wins down the stretch.”

Jenner was guilty of taking a tripping penalty with 42 seconds left in the game, which led to Pavel Zacha’s second and game-tying goal. Leading up to the goal, the Blue Jackets tried to dump out the puck, with the nervousness showing in front of the home crowd. With eight games left, that is one emotion that needs to take a back seat.

“There was a reason we were up 3-0,” Coyle said, “and it’s because we were doing the right things and playing the right way. We’ve got to stick to it. And we had the talk in between period, like, ‘Let’s stay on it.’

“They’re a good team. They’re going to push and play well and press a little bit, but it’s up to us, no matter what happens, to just stay on it. We can’t be turning pucks over like that and giving them easy transition.”

Columbus has played eight times in the last 13 days. They will get a rest day on Monday before they are off to face the division leaders, Carolina Hurricanes.