Quick Note
The puzzle isn’t brutal today. Not even close. Unless you’re blind to Utah sports, it’s pretty straightforward.
But wait.
The purple group? Tricky as always. That’s just how the game is played.
Before you dive in—know this: Connections: Sports Edition runs through The Athletic app, not the standard NYT Games bucket. You can play free online too, of course.
Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta
Hints for the Groups
Ranked from easiest (yellow) to headache-inducing (purple):
- Yellow : Get better at something.
- Green : The Beehive State teams.
- Blue : They called the shots on the field.
- Purple : Starts with a golf scoring word. Fore sake, really.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Most Popular English Letters
The Answers
Yellow
Theme: Hone one’s skills
Exercise, Practice, Train, Work Out
Easy stuff. Warm up with this one.
Green
Theme: Utah Teams
Jazz, Mammoth, Royals, Utes
If you live near the Great Salt Lake, this should have popped into your head instantly. If not, good luck.
Blue
Theme: Hall of Fame Baseball Managers
Leyland, Mack, Stengel, Weaver
Legends of the dugout. Serious baseball history here.
Purple
Theme: Starts with a golf scoring term
Acela (Ace), Bogeyman (Bogey), Eagle-eyed (Eagle), Paradise (Par)
This is the trap. You don’t think of golf terms at first. You just see random nouns and verbs until the pattern hits you like a errant drive into the woods.
“Paradise” is “Par” + “adise.” “Acela” is “Ace” + “la.” Clever, really. A little annoying, mostly.
Toughest Categories Ever
The difficulty depends entirely on who’s playing. My husband crushes F1 questions. My friend lives for hockey stats. I? I can name every Minnesota team franchise that ever drew breath.
But some groups just break people.
- Serie A Clubs : Atalanta, Juventus, Lazio, Romans. If you don’t follow European football, forget it.
- WNBA MVPs : Catchings, Delle Donne, Cowles, Stewart. Niche. Respectable. Hard.
- Premier League Nicknames : Bees, Cherries, Foxs, Hammers. Who are the Cherries? Exactly.
Do you have a soft spot for one sport and a void of knowledge for another? You’re not alone. Most of us just guess and pray the yellow box clears before the clock runs out. Or until our pride takes over and we refuse to look it up.
