Woods' son tries PGA Tour pre-qualifier
The 15-year-old son of Tiger Woods is taking the first step toward trying to play on the PGA Tour. Charlie Woods is entered in a pre-qualifier for the Cognizant Classic.
The pre-qualifier for Woods is today at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla.. The top 25 and ties advance to the Monday qualifier, where four players earn a spot in the field.
The PGA Tour said on its website Woods will play alongside Olin Browne Jr. and Ruaidhri McGee. Browne, whose father is a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, played in the U.S. Open last year at Los Angeles Country Club.
Charlie Woods is no stranger to the stage. Tiger Woods has played with his son four times in the PNC Championship, a 36-hole tournament in which a major champion or a Players Championship winner teams up with a family member.
• Joaquin Niemann competed outside LIV Golf in his offseason and got something money can't buy. He was among three players given a special invitation to play in the Masters.
Augusta National also invited 21-year-old Ryo Hisatsune, the first Japanese player to be European tour rookie of the year, and Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark.
Nieman had said when he won the LIV Golf opener in Mexico, “I want to win majors, but I've got to get in first.” The 25-year-old from Chile had fallen well outside the top 50 in the world ranking because LIV does not get world ranking points. The Masters is April 11-14. Niemann was the only player from the Saudifunded LIV Golf to receive the invitation, which was more about his victory in the Australian Open and his willingness to play tournaments outside the LIV Golf League in a bid to get ranking points.
Augusta National did not offer an invitation to Talor Gooch, who has won three times in the LIV Golf League since the Masters was last played. The club typically reserves special invitations for international players who are not PGA Tour members and don't have access to all the criteria, such as winning or reaching the Tour Championship.
In its announcement, Augusta National mentioned only Niemann's win in the Australian Open and his two other top 10s in European tour-sanctioned events. The club did not cite his win at LIV Golf Mayakoba.
Gauff gets mad, then gets farther in Dubai
Coco Gauff rallied from a slow start and a secondset argument with the chair umpire to beat Karolina Pliskova 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 and reach the quarterfinals of the Dubai (UAE) Championships. The third-seeded Gauff ended Pliskova's 11-match winning streak.
The 19-year-old American built a 4-2 lead in the second set before a lengthy back-and-forth with chair umpire Pierre Bacchi. Gauff complained to Bacchi that he called her serve at deuce out only after Pliskova returned it into the net.
Gauff had to repeat her first serve and went on to hold for a 5-2 lead. The U.S. Open champion said the argument “fueled” her.
Gauff will next face Anna Kalinskaya after the Russian beat ninth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 7-5.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek moved to the last eight, beating two-time Dubai champ Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-4.
Fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina had a tougher time reaching the quarterfinals. She outlasted Magdalena Frech 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4.
Swiatek will next play sixth-seeded Qinwen Zheng, who eliminated Anastasia Potapova 6-3, 6-2. Rybakina has a quarterfinal match against Jasmine Paolini. The Italian defeated eighth-seeded Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-2.
The other quarterfinal match is seventh-seeded Marketa Vondrousova against Sorana Cirstea.
• João Fonseca became the first player born in 2006 to win an ATP tour-level match when the 17-yearold Brazilian beat seventhseeded Arthur Fils 6-0, 6-4 at the Rio Open.
Fonseca defeated the No. 36-ranked Frenchman in front of raucous fans at the clay court event in Rio de Janeiro. He knelt on the court in tears to celebrate.
Ryu returning to Korea
Pitcher Hyun Jin Ryu looks set to return to South Korea after 10 years in Major League Baseball, South Korean media reported.
Ryu, 36, nicknamed “Korean Monster,” is expected to return to his former club Hanwha Eagles. The Eagles offered him a four-year contract worth at least $12.7 million, which would make him the highest-paid player in the Korean Baseball Organization league, Yonhap news agency reported.
The left-hander pitched six seasons for the Dodgers and spent four years with the Toronto Blue Jays. Ryu compiled a 78-48 regular-season record with a 3.27 ERA in 186 outings in 10 major league seasons. With the Dodgers, he was 54-33, winning 14 games three times.
Ryu started his pro baseball career with the Eagles in 2006. In his debut season, he won both the MVP and Rookie of the Year titles. Ryu was 98-52 with a 2.80 career ERA in seven seasons in South Korea.
He pitched for his country on teams that won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and reached the championship game of the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
Bears hire their first female assistant coach
The Chicago Bears hired Jennifer King as their first female coach in franchise history working as an offensive assistant with running backs.
Chris Beatty will coach wide receivers with Torrance native Chad Morton (USC) in charge of running backs. Thomas Brown will be the offensive passing game coordinator, Jason Houghtaling the assistant offensive line coach and Robbie Picazo an offensive assistant working with quarterbacks and receivers.
King became the first Black female in NFL history to serve as a primary position coach in 2021 with Washington. She first was hired by Washington in 2020 as an offensive intern, and she spent the past three seasons as an assistant running backs coach.
She played 12 seasons as a seven-time All-American quarterback and wide receiver for the Carolina Phoenix women's tackle football team from 2006-17.
Brown was offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers in 2023 after working the three previous seasons with the Rams.
Beatty is a former CFL player who was wide receivers coach for the Chargers the past three seasons.
A seven-year NFL veteran, Morton spent the previous 10 seasons in various roles for the Seattle Seahawks. He has coached 15 seasons in the NFL. Picazo has coached 11 years, the past two with Seattle and Houston.
Houghtaling spent the past three seasons with the Tennessee Titans, the final as offensive line coach.
• The Detroit Lions have reshaped their staff on defense by hiring Deshea Townsend to coach defensive backs, Terrell Williams to lead the line and Jim O'Neil as an assistant.
Garber: MLS is `very prepared' for ref lockout
Lionel Messi's first full season in Major League Soccer was beginning with replacement officials Wednesday when Inter Miami played host to Real Salt Lake, and Commissioner Don Garber said the league is not sure what will happen next.
The Professional Soccer Referees Association overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement with the Professional Referee Organization — which supplies match officials to MLS, the NWSL and other leagues.
Garber said MLS remains hopeful that an agreement is struck, and said he was left to wonder if the rejection of the deal suggests “a disconnect between the members and their elected negotiators.”
“It almost seems as if this was intentional,” Garber said. “I don't know how you get to a point where there's a work stoppage and not know what it is that you're disagreeing about. That's frustrating.”
“I will tell you that we are very prepared and are more than willing to manage this in a way that's in the best interest of our players, our teams, the best interest of our fans.”