Tiger set to enter a plea bargain for DUI arrest
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. » The diversion program for intoxicated drivers that Tiger Woods is expected to enter Friday is one of several across the country aimed at reducing the number of repeat offenders and backlogs of court cases.
The 41-year-old superstar golfer is scheduled to plead guilty at a court hearing to reckless driving, a less severe charge than driving under the influence, as part of a Palm Beach County, Florida, program that has graduated almost 2,500 first-time offenders since it began four years ago.
Deputy State Attorney Richard Clausi, who oversees the county’s misdemeanor prosecutions, said that less than 1 percent of the program’s participants have reoffended.
In the diversion program, Woods will spend a year on probation and pay a $250 fine and court costs. He also must attend DUI school, perform 20 hours of community service and attend a workshop where victims of impaired drivers detail how their lives were damaged. PEBBLE BEACH » The USGA said the U.S. Women’s Open will be held at Pebble Beach in 2023, making good on a decadeold pledge to hold the biggest event in women’s golf on one of the most famous courses in America.
The USGA also said Pebble Beach will host the U.S. Open for the seventh time in 2027, giving California four U.S. Opens in a nine-year stretch starting in 2019.
Iditarod engulfed in dog-doping scandal
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA » Dogsledding has become the latest sport to be engulfed in a doping scandal, this one involving the huskies that dash across the frozen landscape in Alaska’s grueling, 1,000-mile Iditarod.
The governing board of the world’s most famous sled dog race disclosed that four dogs belonging to four-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey tested positive for a banned substance, the opioid painkiller Tramadol, after his second-place finish last March.
It was the first time since the race instituted drug testing in 1994 that a test came back positive.
Seavey strongly denied giving any banned substances to his dogs, suggesting instead he may have been the victim of sabotage by another musher or an animal rights activist. He accused the Iditarod of lax security at dog-food drop-off points and other spots.
Race officials said he will not be punished because they were unable to prove he acted intentionally.
Soccer: Anne Frank diary to counter anti-Semitism
ROME » Anne Frank’s diary will be read aloud at all matches in Italy this week, the Italian soccer federation announced after shocking displays of anti-Semitism by fans of the Rome club Lazio.
Lazio supporters on Sunday littered the Stadio Olimpico in Rome with images of Anne Frank — the young diarist who died in the Holocaust — wearing a jersey of city rival Roma. The ultra right-wing fans of Lazio associate their Roma counterparts with being left-wing and Jewish, and had hoped to incite Roma fans, since the teams share the same stadium. CHICAGO » Dave Sarachan, the top assistant to Bruce Arena, will be the interim coach for the United States when the Americans play an exhibition at European champion Portugal on Nov. 14. Arena quit Oct. 13, three days after the Americans failed to qualify for next year’s World Cup.
Tennis: Venus wins
SINGAPORE » Venus Williams needed three match points and more than three hours to defeat Jelena Ostapenko 7-5, 6-7 (3), 7-5 at the WTA Finals on Tuesday.
The match, lasting 3 hours, 13 minutes, featured 20 service breaks, with neither player finding much confidence on their service games.
By contrast, Karolina Pliskova capitalized on a fourth match point to easily beat Garbine Muguruza 6-2, 6-2. BASEL, SWITZERLAND » Top-seeded Roger Federer eased past United States teenager Frances Tiafoe 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors on Tuesday.