AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods hasn’t been playing very well.
At Augusta National, it may not matter.
“Yeah, someone like him or Phil, I’d never take them out at a place like this,” said Justin Thomas, who played a practice round with Woods, Fred Couples and Bryson DeChambeau on Monday. “I think this course is so unique that you don’t need to play great to have a chance to win. I think you just need to be playing OK if you know the golf course.”
Woods ticks both boxes. With just one top-10 finish in the 2020 calendar year – a T9 at the Farmers Insurance Open – he’s playing just OK. And this being his 23rd Masters, he knows the course. He edged Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele to win his fifth green jacket and complete one of the most improbable comeback stories in sports 19 months ago.
Since then, it’s been a mixed bag. He won the inaugural ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan in the fall and helped the U.S. Presidents Cup team as player-captain in December. Then he went flat, and when the pandemic came he went dormant, not wanting to rush back.
“I haven’t put all the pieces together at the same time,” said Woods, who will turn 45 next month and has made just eight starts since January, most recently a T72 at the ZOZO defense and a missed cut at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.
Part of that has been his surgically fused back; he didn’t realize until the end of 2019 quite what the year had taken out of him. He skipped the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, on a course where he’s won eight times; The Honda Classic, his hometown tournament; and THE PLAYERS Championship, where he is a two-time champion.
Then came the pandemic.
“This year with COVID and trying to be safe, I was hesitant to come back and start playing,” he said after limiting himself to chipping and putting Tuesday. “And that’s why I waited as long as I did and came back at Memorial (T40). From there, I really haven’t, as I said, I haven’t put all the pieces together, and hopefully that will be this week.”
Thomas said he wouldn’t bet against him. Not here.
“You have to be chipping and putting well,” Thomas said, “but you can be hitting it OK and get it around this place more than OK. You know where to hit it, you know where not to hit it.
“There are certain holes,” he continued, “if you’re not hitting it well, it’s like OK, as long as I hit it over here, I’ll be all right. And no one knows that better than Tiger.”
What’s more, he added, while this week’s forecast calls for rain, it also calls for mostly warm weather. That bodes well for those with brittle backs, like Couples and especially Woods, who was preparing to host the Champions Dinner on Tuesday night.
The biggest news of this week so far has been that trailblazer Lee Elder will join Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as an honorary starter at the 2021 Masters next April. Elder received death threats when he became the first African American to play in the Masters in 1975.
Woods was asked if he could foresee a day when he and Phil Mickelson – with eight Masters titles between them – are honorary starters.
Woods laughed. “Hopefully that will be us one day, and I’ll be hitting bombs past him,” he said.
But be careful with any suggestions that he’s already a ceremonial golfer. Nicklaus, he noted, contended for the ’98 Masters at age 58.
“Do I expect to contend?” Woods said. “Yes, I do.”
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
