Knee rehab to keep Woods out of Memorial
Tiger Woods decided yesterday not to play in the Memorial as he recovers from knee surgery, meaning he likely will go to the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego without having played a tournament in 2 months.
Tiger Woods
decided yesterday not to play in the Memorial as he recovers from knee surgery, meaning he likely will go to the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego without having played a tournament in 2 months.
Woods, who had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee April 15, had hoped to play before the U.S. Open. His office notified the PGA Tour he would not enter the Memorial, a tour official said.
This is the second time in 3 years that Woods has had a 2-month layoff before a major championship. He missed 9 weeks in 2006 while coping with his father's death, returning to the U.S. Open at Winged Foot and missing the cut for the only time at a major.
The only other tournament before the U.S. Open is the Stanford St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn., although Woods never has played the week before a U.S. Open and never played in Memphis.
The tournament, which starts Thursday at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, still has eight of the top 10 in the world rankings.
Woods last played at the Masters, where he finished three shots behind Trevor Immelman. He had surgery 2 days later, the second time in 5 years on his left knee, to clean out some cartilage.
In other golf news:
* Five-time PGA Tour Tom Purtzer shot a 3-under-par 67 to take a one-stroke lead over Jay Haas after two rounds of the Senior PGA Championship in Rochester, N.Y. Nick Price withdrew with a back injury.
* Phil Mickelson shot a 2-under 68 in the second round to take a one-stroke lead over Matt Kuchar, Brian Gay and Johnson Wagner at the Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas.
* Dina Ammaccapane shot her second straight 69 to gain a one-stroke lead over Erica Blasberg, Janice Moodie, Wendy Ward and Katie Futcher after two rounds of the LPGA's Corning (N.Y.) Classic.
Olympics
* Olympic gold medalist Paul Hamm has a broken bone in his right hand and will miss the Olympic trials in Philadelphia from June 19 to 22, though he likely will be granted an exemption and will make the Olympic team. He was hurt in a fall on the parallel bars Thursday night during the U.S. championships in Houston.
* Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele ruled out attempting to win both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the Beijing Olympics, a feat he nearly accomplished at the Athens Games in 2004.
Colleges
* Justin McClanahan had two home runs, including a grand slam, to lead fourth-seeded Louisville to a 13-6 win against eighth-seeded Villanova in the Big East semifinals Clearwater, Fla.
* Montana offensive lineman J.D. Quinn was arrested on charges of drunken driving, his second DUI charge in less than a year.
* Jack Mildren, a former lieutenant governor and the first quarterback in Oklahoma's vaunted wishbone offense, died at 58. He was undergoing treatment for stomach cancer.
* Memphis guard Antonio Anderson withdrew from the 2008 NBA draft and will return to school for his final season.
Philly File
* Casey Dickson, who compiled a 55-68 record during her three seasons as Temple's softball coach, resigned her position.
Sport Stops
* Former Georgia Tech basketball player Anthony Akins tested positive for marijuana and was suspended for a year by the Croatian basketball federation.
* Kentucky Speedway, located about halfway between Louisville, Ky., and Cincinnati, will not have a NASCAR Sprint Cup race in 2009, despite gaining new ownership intent on bringing a race there next season. *