Tiger Woods will return to play in the Masters, he said in a statement today. It will be Woods’ first golf tournament and second public appearance since his post-Thanksgiving car crash and ensuing sex scandal.
In a statement Woods said, “The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I’m ready to start my season at Augusta.” He also said he has “undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy,” but “I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life.”
The world’s preeminent golfer has not played since he won the Australian Masters on November 15, 2009. Woods was not seen for months until Getty captured pictures of him running in mid-February, several days before his public apology.
England received a huge blow to their rapidly dwindling hopes of winning the World Cup yesterday,In pure football terms, emotionless as it sounds, Beckham’s injury is no more relevant than a similar fate befalling Matthew Upson or Michael Carrick. In pure football terms, we should not be holding the back page, never mind the front. Yet no other player would have received the same depth of coverage and type of sympathy in such circumstances. This is Beckham, a national institution, and inevitably he is splashed all over today’s papers.
However, as Beckham’s chances of adding to his 115 caps. He has frequently shown a remarkable fighting spirit, particularly when he was ostracised by Steve McClaren and then by Capello in the 2006-07 season, but surely another comeback will be beyond even him. He is 35 in May, he made no attempt to hide the fact that a fourth World Cup has been his principal motivation over the last couple of years, and the prospect of another season with LA Galaxy is unlikely to push even this most dedicated of professionals to those brutally hard yards in rehabilitation over the next six months.
Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, who helped lead the Ducks to the Pac-10 Conference title and a Rose Bowl berth last season, faces a burglary charge in connection with a theft at a campus fraternity house in late January.
The Lane Country district attorney’s office says Masoli and former Oregon receiver Garrett Embry were each charged Wednesday with one count of burglary in the second degree.
Masoli and Embry were scheduled to be arraigned in Lane County Circuit Court on Friday afternoon.
A fraternity member reported that Masoli and Embry stole two computers and a guitar from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house on Jan. 25.
The Ducks announced in early February that Embry had been dismissed from the team a month before for violating team rules unrelated to the alleged theft.
Masoli, who came to the Ducks as a junior college transfer out of Daly City, Calif., threw for 2,147 yards and 15 touchdowns last season. He also rushed for 668 yards and 13 touchdowns
Blackburn striker Diouf was charged with wounding with intent when he appeared in court in Senegal last Friday. John Williams, Club chairman, was still trying last night to verify the story after the Daily Express told him of the charges.
Diouf, received a three-month suspended prison term when found guilty of a similar charge in 2006, but this time he faces a potential two-year sentence, if the case comes to trial at Dakar’s district court.
Blackburn had given Diouf permission to travel to Senegal to attend a benefit concert for the Haiti earthquake victims, which was personally requested by the president of the country. However, he was charged in relation to an incident alleged to have happened at 6am on June 28, 2009 at the Casino du Cap Vert at coastal Almadies.
On July 2 last year, local woman Khady Sy told police the player had beaten her up in a fight in the casino, with another man Cheik Sadibou Boye – a professional wrestler who heads up Diouf’s security team – also allegedly involved.
Sy had a doctor’s certificate stating she was too badly injured to work for 20 days. Diouf escaped jail after the 2006 incident when he attacked Aicha Ba, ex-wife of his former international and club team-mate Khalilou Fadiga, and pleaded guilty to assault in the UK after being accused of spitting at Celtic fans in 2003.
The news is a big blow for Owen, who has been plagued by hamstring injuries throughout his career, and ends any slim hopes he had of making a late charge into Fabio Capello’s England World Cup squad.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was quick to point the finger of blame at the Wembley turf, which was heavily criticised by both sets of players after the Carling Cup final, though Ferguson also admitted there was an element of bad luck involved in the injury.
Owen has experienced a mixed first season at Old Trafford, only managing five league starts and finding himself, more often than not, on the United substitutes bench.
But a winning goal in the Manchester derby against Manchester City endeared him to the United faithful and a hat-trick against Wolfsburg in the Champions League proved that the striker, who has scored 40 golas in 89 internationals for England, still possesses the quality to play at the top level.
It is believed the Ravens sent third- and fourth-round picks to the Cardinals in exchange for Boldin and a fifth-round pick. According to ESPN, Boldin has agreed to a new four-year, $28 million contract.
“The Ravens just got better,” coach John Harbaugh said. “Anquan is a significant addition for us. He fits the personality of our team with the hard-nosed, physical way he plays. We love the way he competes. Our fans will enjoy watching him compete and his teammates will be excited to have him with us.”
He requested a trade following the 2007 season when his fellow wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald signed a four-year, $40 million contract extension. The Cardinals declined to renegotiate Boldin’s contract, which caused trade rumors for the past couple of seasons.
Officials ejected Brittney Griner, a freshman from Nimitz, after the freshman punched Texas Tech’s Jordan Barncastle in No. 14 Baylor’s 69-60 win over the Lady Raiders on Wednesday night.
Baylor was up 55-39 when Barncastle fouled Griner while guarding her under the Lady Bears basket. As the Tech player was moving away and untangling her arm from Griner, the Baylor standout swung and landed a punch with her right hand on Barncastle’s face.
See the Punch, play that led to it …
The match is about more than a winnerr or loser. Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley were at the Nokia Theater in Times Square Tuesday to promote their mega match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 1. After some pushing, shoving and hand-fighting during a staged stand-up on a fog-shrouded stage, they seem ready to turn convention on its head. If this fight is as successful as the promoters and TV executives believe it will be, it will go a long way toward determining what the future holds for the sport in the U.S. And for a sport that continues to fall deeper into the niche realm, moving forward is very important. Nothing will move it out of that realm faster than a strong product in the ring. That means it must be a meaningful match between two highly skilled, equal competitors. And that is what Mayweather-Mosley is.
WATCH MAYWEATHER CLOWN MOSLEY
This could be the end of Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, delivered this knee-buckling assessment for boxing fans already distraught by the failed Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. negotiations. “This could be our last fight,” Roach said last week, as Pacquiao heads into the final days of training for his March 13 welterweight world title bout against Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium outside Dallas. Roach’s sobering speculation about boxing’s biggest star is based on a chain of events that could occur. Pacquiao, 31, is running for a congressional seat in his native Philippines. If elected in May, he’ll represent a community of about 400,000 people in need of improved healthcare, education and employment that the boxer himself was deprived of while being raised in poverty.
