LIV Golf announced a major scoring change Wednesday on the eve of its season-opening tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

For the first time in the circuit's history, every player's score in every round will count toward his team's total score.

Last season, the best three scores were taken in the first two rounds, with all four team members' scores counting only for the final 18 holes.

LIV Golf acknowledged several potential ramifications related to the format change, including increased volatility on the leaderboard.

"It does make volatility bigger, crazier. Nobody can hide," RangeGoats GC captain Bubba Watson said. "You're going to have to be committed on every hole, every shot."

High scores will be a killer. Previously, any golfer who had a bad day in the first two rounds could hope to be bailed out by his three teammates.

"There's no more looking at the scoreboard and thinking, 'I'm OK, my team's playing well.' That definitely changes things," Stinger GC captain Louis Oosthuizen said.

Depth is now at a premium, meaning the teams with the best No. 4 players should have a greater advantage.

"I like it. I think it benefits a team like ours," Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm said. "I think we have four really strong players that are really consistent."

The change adds more pressure to LIV Golf's six new full-time players this season, four of whom are 25 or younger. They will be asked to produce immediately instead of easing into their new environment.

If all four scores had counted during 2024, six tournaments would have had different team champions and another would have required a playoff.

LIV Golf also made changes to its substitution policy.

If a player withdraws during the playing of a round, his team may select one of the available reserve players to play the remainder of the round or tournament.

If a player withdraws between the play of two holes, the reserve will begin play on the next hole. If he withdraws while playing a hole, the reserve will put his ball in play at the same spot as the original ball and complete the hole.

If a player starts a tournament but is forced to withdraw while on the course, that player can return to compete for his team at the start of any remaining rounds. But he will only compete to contribute a team score, not in the individual competition.

At least one member of the Green Bay Packers thinks they need to add a top-level receiver to their offense.

Running back Josh Jacobs, who just finished his first season with the team, openly campaigned for such an addition during multiple media appearances Wednesday at the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

"We've got a really young group of receivers; all can be really, really, really special," Jacobs told Milwaukee radio station 97.3 The Game. "But I think, personally, we need a guy that's proven to be a No. 1 already -- somebody we know that's going to be a little more consistent."

Jacobs also made a similar recommendation to former NFL quarterback Chris Simms, who hosts a show for NBC Sports. According to Simms, Jacobs said: "We need a WR -- a real WR. Love the guys we have, but we need a proven No. 1."

The Packers have not had a 1,000-yard receiver since they traded Davante Adams to the Raiders following the 2021 season.

Adams could possibly be available via trade or if he's released by the New York Jets.

Both coach Matt LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst have been fielding questions about the need for a top-tier receiver since Jordan Love took over as the starting quarterback in 2023.

Gutekunst has drafted six receivers since the start of the 2022 season but none higher than the second round. In fact, the Packers haven't drafted a receiver in the first round since they took Javon Walker at No. 20 overall in 2002. He also drafted a pair of pass-catching tight ends high in the 2023 draft: Luke Musgrave in the second round and Tucker Kraft in the third.

In his most recent session with reporters following the season, Gutekunst was asked specifically about the need for a true No. 1 receiver.

"I think we have some of those guys, and I think we don't have just one," Gutekunst said Jan. 16. "But I think historically if you look at a lot of the teams, very rarely do teams that have one receiver that's super heavy with targets, that doesn't usually play out well for playoffs and success there."

However, Gutekunst did not rule out the possibility that he could add a receiver or two this offseason.

"If there's somebody outside of our building -- whether it's the draft, free agency -- that makes some sense for us, we'll certainly look to do that," Gutekunst said. "But we're also looking for these guys to continue to grow and hopefully grow into that space."

Slot receiver Jayden Reed has led the Packers in each of the past two seasons. He caught 55 passes for 857 yards and six touchdowns this season, although the Packers' passing game was severely limited in two games that Love missed because of an early-season knee injury. As a rookie in 2023, Reed had a team-high 64 catches for 793 yards and eight receiving touchdowns.

The Packers lost deep-threat receiver Christian Watson to a torn ACL in the regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears, leaving his status up in the air for the start of the 2025 season.

Also this season, the Packers dealt with a situation involving Romeo Doubs in which the receiver was suspended for one game after skipping multiple days of practice and meetings.

There also were major issues with drops this season. The Packers had the highest drop rate (6.3%) in the NFL and ranked second in total drops with 29, according to ESPN Research. Second-year receiver Dontayvion Wicks led the league with 10 drops; Reed tied for third with eight.

The Packers' offense ranked fifth overall in the NFL, including fifth in rushing yards per game thanks in large part to the addition of Jacobs (who rushed for 1,329 yards) in free agency last offseason. They were 12th overall in passing yards per game.

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Wednesday designed to prevent people who were assigned male at birth from participating in women's or girls' sporting events.

The order, which Trump is expected to sign at an afternoon ceremony, marks another aggressive shift by the Republican president's second administration in the way the federal government deals with transgender people and their rights.

The president put out a sweeping order on his first day in office last month that called for the federal government to define sex as only male or female and for that to be reflected on official documents such as passports and in policies such as federal prison assignments.

Trump found during the campaign that his pledge to "keep men out of women's sports" resonated beyond the usual party lines. More than half the voters surveyed by AP VoteCast said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far.

He leaned into the rhetoric before the election, pledging to get rid of the "transgender insanity," although his campaign offered little in the way of details.

Wednesday's order -- which coincides with National Girls and Women in Sports Day -- will involve how his administration will interpret Title IX, the law best known for its role in pursuing gender equity in athletics and preventing sexual harassment on campuses.

"This executive order restores fairness, upholds Title IX's original intent, and defends the rights of female athletes who have worked their whole lives to compete at the highest levels," said U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina.

Every administration has the authority to issue its own interpretations of the landmark legislation. The past two presidential administrations -- including Trump's first -- offer a glimpse at the push-pull involved.

Betsy DeVos, the education secretary during Trump's first term, issued a Title IX policy in 2020 that narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and required colleges to investigate claims only if they're reported to certain officials.

The Biden administration rolled back that policy last April with one of its own that stipulated that the rights of LGBTQ+ students would be protected by federal law and provided new safeguards for victims of campus sexual assault. The policy stopped short of explicitly addressing transgender athletes. Still, more than a half-dozen Republican-led states immediately challenged the new rule in court.

"All Trump has to say is, 'We are going to read the regulation traditionally,'" said Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School.

A source who spoke with NCAA officials told ESPN the association did not oppose the executive order and welcomed federal guidance. The NCAA has struggled to comply with varying state laws on this issue and threats of lawsuits.

"We do have a situation where there is no clarity on this from a legal point of view," NCAA president Charlie Baker said in an interview in January. "You have federal judges ruling on individual cases. You have 26, 27 states with one set of rules -- a bunch of other states with a whole other set of rules. I do think we would welcome some clarity somewhere on this so everyone has a general understanding about what the rules of the game are."

How this order could affect the transgender athlete population -- a number that is incredibly difficult to pin down -- is uncertain.

"This was never about trans athletics, science or 'fairness.' It has always been about oppression," said Sadie Schreiner, a transgender woman competing in track and field at Rochester Institute of Technology. "They'll attack me all the same whether I'm on or off the track, so the only way I'll stop competing is in handcuffs."

The Associated Press reported in 2021 that, in many cases, the states introducing a ban on transgender athletes could not cite instances when their participation was an issue. When Utah state legislators overrode a veto by Gov. Spencer Cox in 2022, the state had only one transgender girl playing in K-12 sports who would be affected by the ban. It did not regulate participation for transgender boys.

"This is a solution looking for a problem," Cheryl Cooky, a professor at Purdue University who studies the intersection of gender, sports, media and culture, told the AP after Trump was elected.

Yet the actual number of transgender athletes seems to be almost immaterial. Any case of a transgender female athlete competing -- or even believed to be competing -- draws outsized attention, from Lia Thomas swimming for the University of Pennsylvania to the recently completed season of the San Jose State volleyball team.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle will be out at least two more weeks.

The team said Wednesday that an MRI taken at the Mayo Clinic showed a right adductor strain, which was confirmed when Dr. Benjamin Domb of the American Hip Institute gave his second opinion. Randle will be re-evaluated in two weeks.

Randle was pulled from the second quarter of Minnesota's Jan. 30 game at Utah with a right groin strain.

The Timberwolves went on to beat the Jazz by 25 points, then lost their next two home games, each by two points. The Wizards won 105-103 on Saturday, and the Kings followed with a 116-114 win on Monday.

Minnesota (27-23) is in seventh place in the Western Conference, one game behind the Clippers for the final guaranteed postseason spot.

The Timberwolves acquired Randle on Oct. 2 in a multi-player, three-team trade. The other headliner in the deal was Karl-Anthony Towns, who went to the Knicks.

On the season, Randle is averaging 18.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 48 games. He is second on the team in points and rebounds.

In 11 seasons and 689 games with the Lakers (2014-18), Pelicans (2018-19), Knicks (2019-24) and Timberwolves, he has career averages of 19.1 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists.

PHILADELPHIA -- Speaking for the first time publicly since the Dallas Mavericks stunningly dealt Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers over the weekend, Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving said "it's still a grieving process" for him and his teammates, while also saying he was excited about the prospect of finally getting to play alongside longtime friend Anthony Davis.

"Just really shocked," Irving said after scoring 34 points in 42 minutes in a 118-116 loss to the 76ers at Wells Fargo Center. "You just don't imagine you're going to get ready to go to sleep and then you find out news like that.

"It's still a grieving process right now. I miss my hermano."

In a surreal scene around the Mavericks in the wake of the trade that continues to reverberate across the NBA, Irving wasn't asked a single question about Tuesday's game, which saw Dallas fumble a chance to tie or win in the final seconds.

Instead, every question centered on Irving's reaction to the trade that sent Doncic to the Lakers for Davis, and on his past links to potentially playing alongside Davis. At several points, Irving made it clear that he's still sorting through his emotions over seeing Doncic leave after the two led Dallas to the NBA Finals less than a year ago.

"This is a business, it's way above my pay grade, and I've just got to adjust and be ready to welcome in my new teammates with open arms and kind of be ready to go back to Dallas, too, to speak in front of our fans," Irving said. "I know they are feeling it, too. I'm feeling it too, guys. So, yeah, it's just an adjustment period. I don't want to downplay this either, or disrespect our new guys. They're going to help us win, and help us build toward a championship, but just like everyone else at home, when you kind of see it from afar, it hurts."

Later, Irving said, "This is a weird case in NBA history to be a part of, but at the same time it's the nature of our business, and it is a ruthless business. So you've got to be ready to pick up the pieces and run towards the championship. That's the ultimate goal and why I play, and having other guys that are championship winners, too, helps.

"But at the same time, we still have to acknowledge our little Slovenian president is no longer here, and we've got to adjust."

That adjustment will include playing alongside Davis, a player Irving has been connected to for years. During the 2018-19 season, while Irving was in Boston, Davis was often rumored to be joining him with the Celtics.

Eventually, that Celtics team fell apart, despite an immensely talented roster, and Irving wound up leaving in 2019 to play alongside Kevin Durant in Brooklyn, while Davis was traded to the Lakers in a blockbuster deal to pair him with LeBron James.

Irving, though, explained that the plan was not just for he and Durant to team up, but for he, Durant, Davis and Jayson Tatum to eventually all play together in Boston.

"Yeah. That has no foreshadowing either, on anything, guys. Just letting you know right now," Irving said with a laugh, referring to speculation swirling around Durant, who is now with the Phoenix Suns, ahead of Thursday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline. "We were discussing in 2018, just for everybody at home that's watching, because I know all of these words are going to be looked at.

"But yeah, in 2018, it was a dream for Kyrie, AD, KD to be on one team and still keep JT and let him grow and then see how it goes. But back then, those young guys weren't ready to be in trade rumors, man. Our locker room splintered after that once they found out. It wasn't [Jaylen Brown] or JT, but our locker room splintered once they started figuring out the trade rumors, and our season started going in a whole different way."

While that Celtics team fell apart for various reasons, including Irving repeatedly calling out the younger players, the focus for Irving now is on trying to bring along Davis, and leading Dallas to an NBA championship.

The Mavericks are headed to Boston for an NBA Finals rematch Thursday night. When the schedule came out last summer, no one would have imagined this game wouldn't have Doncic as part of the Dallas roster.

But now that the shock of the trade is beginning to wear off, Irving said he believed the talent was in place for Dallas to make another deep playoff run this spring.

"We're putting the pieces together," he said. "And the tone is improving, just because everybody had questions, a little confusion, and that's about it. We're just talking to each other, making sure we're all good, and putting the game first and in a capacity where we can prepare and then off the court in practices and some dinners that we'll have, make sure we connect and make sure we do all the things to have the qualities of a championship team.

"So, same vision, just guys in the locker room are a little bit different. We're going to have to adjust, but we'll be fine."

LOS ANGELES -- When LeBron James subbed out of the first quarter of Tuesday's eventual 122-97 win over the Clippers and marched to his customary seat toward the end of the Lakers' bench, there was a new superstar teammate sitting next to him in the spot Anthony Davis occupied for years.

The NBA's turnstile of talent landed Luka Doncic in Los Angeles over the weekend in a trade that sent shockwaves through the league. Only now -- after initially believing the three-team trade among the Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz was a "hoax," and after processing not having Davis by his side after six seasons as teammates -- is reality finally starting to set in for James.

"It still pretty much didn't seem real until I saw Luka today and I saw a clip of AD at the Dallas shootaround," James said after the game. "That's when it finally hit me, like, 'Oh s---, this is real.'"

The fact that James was making his first public comments about the trade in the Lakers locker room at Intuit Dome, the 22-year-veteran explained, was evidence of his acceptance of it.

"If I had concerns about it, I'd waive my no-trade clause and get up out of here," James said. "I'm here right now. I'm here right now. I'm committed to the Lakers organization.

"As the leader of the team, as one of the captains of the team, it's my job to make it as seamless as possible [for the new acquisitions]."

James detailed his late-night dinner after the Lakers' win at the New York Knicks on Saturday, when he first heard the news of the team sending out Davis, Max Christie and Jalen Hood-Schifino and a future first-round pick to bring in Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris.

"My emotions were all over the place, obviously," James said. "We had just come off a big win, a huge win in the Garden. I was out. I mean, you guys have seen the report. I was out with my family at dinner and got the news, and the first time I heard it, I thought it was for sure fake. I thought it was a hoax, people messing around or whatever. But then when AD called me, AD FaceTimed me and I talked to him for quite a while, and even when I got off the phone with him, it still didn't seem real."

Asked about the video call with Davis, James said: "It was definitely a weird, uncomfortable, truth moment for us. Just knowing that he was going to be gone, that was very, very difficult. Very challenging. I can see how in shock he was, obviously. And he probably saw it from my face as well."

James said the unprecedented swap initially caught him off guard -- it was the first time in history two current All-NBA players were traded for each other midseason -- but that he could understand the motivation for the Lakers.

"It was shocking when I heard the news, but at the end of the day, I understand the business of basketball," he said. "But I didn't make the decision."

James' chemistry with Davis was apparent from the start, as they won a championship together their first season in 2019-20.

While some have suggested there will be a redundancy in positional responsibilities between him and Doncic, James scoffed at the notion.

"[We can be] whatever we want it to be," James said. "It won't take long. I can play with anybody, and I think he can as well. So we'll work well together."

James' former coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Tyronn Lue of the Clippers, said the same.

"I don't see it's going to be a problem at all," Lue said. "[Lakers coach] JJ [Redick] will do a good job of staggering those guys, kind of like we did with Kyrie [Irving] and LeBron for three quarters and then close games together.

"It's a not a tough problem to have."

It's the Lakers causing problems for opponents right now, with wins in nine of their past 11 games to climb to a game behind the No. 4 Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference standings. And that surge will soon feature the 25-year-old dynamo in Doncic, with sources telling ESPN that Doncic is "trending towards" making his Lakers debut Saturday against the visiting Indiana Pacers.

"Luka's been my favorite player in the NBA for a while now," James said. "I think you guys know that. And I've always just tried to play the game the right way and inspire the next generation. And Luka happens to be one of them. And now, we're teammates. So it'll be a very seamless transition."