GOLF
U.S. captain Tiger Woods used one of his four wild-card selections on himself Thursday and will become the first playing captain in the Presidents Cup since Hale Irwin in the inaugural edition 25 years ago.
The decision was hardly a surprise.
Woods is the Masters champion and two weeks ago tied the PGA Tour record with his 82nd career victory at the Zozo Championship in Japan. He is No. 6 in the world ranking.
He also took Tony Finau, U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland and Patrick Reed.
“It’s going to be a lot of work, but something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time,” Woods said.
The Presidents Cup is Dec. 12-15 at Royal Melbourne.
EUROPEAN: Tom Lewis and Matthias Schwab shared a one-shot lead after the first round of the Turkish Airlines Open at Antalya, Turkey.
Lewis and Schwab both carded 7-under 65 to lead by one shot over David Lipsky, Thomas Pieters and Alex Noren.
CHAMPIONS: Jeff Maggert used a hot new putter to take the first-round lead in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix, and Bernhard Langer, Jerry Kelly, Retief Goosen and Colin Montgomerie made moves to catch Scott McCarron in the season standings.
Maggert shot an 8-under 63 in perfect conditions to take a one-stroke lead over Langer, with Miguel Angel Jimenez, Paul Goydos and Steve Flesch another shot back, and Kelly and Goosen at 66 with Lee Janzen and Scott Parel.
SOCCER
U.S. MEN: Goalkeeper Zack Steffen is hurt and will miss the United States’ Nations League games against Canada and Cuba.
The U.S. plays Canada in Orlando, Florida, on Nov. 15 and meets Cuba four days later at George Town, Cayman Islands.
MLS: The head of the Major League Soccer Players Association said players are prepared to strike if they can’t negotiate an acceptable collective bargaining agreement with the league.
The current collective bargaining agreement expires on Jan. 31.
U.S WOMEN: The World Cup champion U.S. women’s team will head to Houston in January to open the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament.
The United States is hosting the tournament, which will take place from Jan. 28 to Feb. 9.
BASKETBALL
NBA: Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons will miss Friday’s game at Denver because of sprained AC joint in his right shoulder.
• The NBA has fined the Los Angeles Clippers $50,000 for statements made by Coach Doc Rivers and others that were “inconsistent with (Kawhi) Leonard’s health status.”
Leonard sat out the Clippers’ 129-124 home loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.
The NBA announced the fine in a statement, saying:
“Following additional review of the LA Clippers not playing Kawhi Leonard in last night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, the NBA has confirmed that the team’s decision to sit Leonard for management of an injury was consistent with league rules. The team has reasonably determined that Leonard is suffering from an ongoing injury to the patella tendon in his left knee and has been placed by the team at this time on an injury protocol for back-to-back games. The NBA has fined the Clippers $50,000 for statements, including by head coach Doc Rivers, that were inconsistent with Leonard’s health status.”
TENNIS
NEXT GEN FINALS: Top-seeded Alex de Minaur, second-seeded Frances Tiafoe and Miomir Kecmanovic all advanced to the semifinals with straight-set wins at Milan.
De Minaur, who finished runner-up last year in the season-ending tournament for the top under-21 players, beat Casper Ruud 4-1, 4-0, 4-2 in just 61 minutes to finish 3-0 in Group A.
De Minaur’s semifinal opponent will be Tiafoe, who defeated Mikael Ymer 4-2, 4-2, 4-2.
Kecmanovic beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 4-1, 4-1, 4-3 (6) and will face Italian teenager Jannik Sinner for a spot in the final.
BASEBALL
MAJORS: Astros president Reid Ryan is shifting to a lesser role in the organization and owner Jim Crane’s son is joining the executive team, moves announced 11 days after Crane apologized to a Sports Illustrated reporter and retracted a statement by the club accusing her of trying to “fabricate a story.”
Crane said he was bringing in his son, Jared, to get more experience and to help the organization. Crane maintained the moves were not related to the incident with SI or the firing of an assistant general manager. The owner turns 66 in January.
• The Seattle Mariners have made a trio of promotions to fill out the major league coaching staff for next season.
Manager Scott Servais announced Pete Woodworth would be the new pitching coach, Carson Vitale will be the field coordinator and Jarret DeHart will be the assistant hitting coach.
Manny Acta goes from bench coach to third-base coach. Jared Sandberg will move from field coordinator to bench coach. Brian DeLunas will return to bullpen coach after serving in a different role last season.
• Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis refused an outright assignment to Triple-A Buffalo and elected to become a free agent.
• Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts and shortstop Xander Bogaerts won American League Silver Slugger awards, which are awarded annually to the best offensive player at each position in both leagues.
DOPING
RUSSIA: Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov says there has been no manipulation of doping data, hardening the country’s line on an issue that could threaten its participation at next year’s Olympics.
Russia handed over a vast archive of data from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory to the World Anti-Doping Agency in January. WADA hoped that would expose years of past doping cover-ups, but instead found the data showed signs of editing.
Kolobkov says Russia’s position is there were no “deletions” or “manipulations” and that “a purely technical issue” can explain any discrepancy.
International sports officials have previously said the discrepancies aren’t random and there are signs that specific athletes’ test results were changed.
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