GOLF
Tiger Woods made it official Wednesday by announcing he would return to competition as part of the 20-man field at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
Woods is the tournament host of the unofficial event on Dec. 1-4 at Albany Golf Club, where the tournament has been played since 2015.
Woods has not played competitively since he missed the cut in the British Open at St. Andrews in July. It was only his third tournament in 2022, all of them majors.
The Hero World Challenge is the start of a busy month for Woods, who also has agreed to play in a made-for-TV exhibition on Dec. 10 with Rory McIlroy as his partner in a 12-hole match against Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
Woods also is expected to play in the PNC Championship a week later with his son, Charlie. They were runners-up a year ago in Orlando, Florida.
HOCKEY
NHL: Edmonton Oilers forward Evander Kane will miss three to four months after being cut on the left wrist by a skate blade during a 3-2 win Tuesday at Tampa Bay.
Kane got tangled with Lightning defenseman Philippe Myers just inside the Edmonton defensive zone, and while on the ice was cut by Tampa Bay forward Pat Maroon’s skate blade. He was transported to a hospital and underwent a procedure Tuesday night. The team placed him on long-term injured reserve on Wednesday.
• Montreal Canadiens rookie forward Juraj Slafkovsky was suspended by the NHL for two games for boarding Matt Luff of the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night.
The 18-year-old Slafkovsky, the first overall pick in the 2022 draft, was assessed a major and game misconduct for driving Luff head-first into the boards with a check from behind.
TENNIS
BILLIE JEAN KING CUP: Coco Gauff and Caty McNally beat the Polish pair of Magda Linette and Alicja Rosolska 6-1, 6-2 to give the United States a 2-1 win in Glasgow, Scotland.
Earlier, Linette beat Madison Keys 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to force the deciding doubles after Danielle Collins gave the Americans a 1-0 lead in the opening singles against Magdalena French with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (2) win.
NEXT GEN ATP FINALS: Seventh-seeded Dominic Stricker upset tournament favorite Lorenzo Musetti in five sets in Milan to become the first player to qualify for the semifinals.
SOCCER
MLS: Ben Olsen was hired as coach of the Houston Dynamo.
Olsen replaces Paulo Nagamura, who was fired on Aug. 8. Dynamo 2 coach Kenny Bundy served as senior team interim coach for the rest of the season.
Olsen, 45, played for D.C. United from 1998 to 2009 and took over as head coach in 2010. The team had 113 wins, 137 losses and 84 draws during his tenure and made the playoffs in five of the last six years. He was voted MLS Coach of the Year in 2014.
WORLD CUP: Senegal forward Sadio Mane is in doubt for the World Cup after Bayern Munich said he would miss the last German league game before the tournament because of a leg injury.
Bayern said the two-time African player of the year has an injury to the head of the fibula bone in his lower right leg. Bayern didn’t specify how serious the injury might be, saying only that Mane would not be available to play against Schalke on Saturday.
SPAIN: Real Madrid Manager Carlo Ancelotti defended Karim Benzema from accusations he is not playing with his club team so that he’ll be ready for the World Cup, saying the France striker is upset about his lack of minutes going into Qatar.
The 34-year-old Benzema, who has been dealing with muscle fatigue, will miss his sixth straight start when Madrid hosts Cadiz in the Spanish league on Thursday. It will be the club’s last match before the World Cup break.
Since winning the Ballon d’Or for best player of the year three weeks ago, Benzema has missed matches against Sevilla, Leipzig, Girona and Rayo Vallecano. He played less than 30 minutes after coming off the bench in a 5-1 rout of Celtic in the group stage of the Champions League. His most recent start was in a 3-0 win at Elche in the Spanish league on Oct. 19, when he scored his last goal.
RUGBY
WORLD CUP: French financial prosecutors raided the headquarters of the 2023 Rugby World Cup organizing committee as part of an investigation into possible management irregularities, organizers said.
The searches took place after the French government asked this summer for an audit by France’s top financial watchdog into possible wrongdoing at the committee, which was then headed by Claude Atcher.
The chief executive was fired last month following a separate investigation by French labor inspectors into his workplace conduct.
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