Kuchar leads, Woods 9 back at Riviera

Matt Kuchar made a mess of the easiest hole at Riviera. He couldn't find the fairway and felt he was on the defensive Friday in the Genesis Invitational.

He was good enough with the short irons that Kuchar still managed a 2-under 69 and built a two-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and two others going into the weekend.

“It definitely wasn't my best stuff today,” Kuchar said. “Two under was an awfully good score for the way I drove it.”

Tiger Woods happily would have taken a score like that. Instead, he made his bid for a first victory at Riviera and a record 83rd title on the PGA Tour a lot tougher.

Two swings with a wedge wound up costing Woods three shots, and his 73 left him nine shots behind.

“I made some pretty bad mistakes out there,” Woods said.

■ Tiger Woods is among four players from the top 10 who are skipping the Mexico Championship next week, a World Golf Championships event with no cut and a $10.5 million purse. Brooks Koepka is skipping the event for the second time in three years, the first time by choice. He had a wrist injury in 2018, and Koepka will be playing his hometown Honda Classic the following week. Also skipping Mexico City from the top 10 are Justin Rose for the second straight year and Patrick Cantlay, who is having elective surgery on his septum next week ... Two men’s golf tournaments co-sanctioned by the European and Asian tours were postponed because of the coronavirus. The tournaments are the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from April 16-19 and the China Open in Shenzhen, China from April 23-26.

Football: The Redskins released CB Josh Norman with one year left on a $75 million contract he signed in 2016, and WR Paul Richardson after two injury-plagued seasons . ... Ravens OL James Hurst has been suspended for the first four games of the 2020 season for violating the NFL policy on performance enhancers.

Soccer: English Premier League champion Manchester City was banned by UEFA from the Champions League for two seasons on Friday for “serious breaches” of spending rules. The Abu Dhabi-owned team was also fined $33 million.