World Best Sports

Tennis star Roger Federer has revealed he has been in touch with Tiger Woods and hopes the world’s number one golfer will be back competing soon.

Woods has announced he is taking an indefinite break from professional golf after admitting to “infidelities”.

Federer is one of the few to speak to Woods since the media furore over the American’s private life erupted.

“I wish him all the best getting back, hopefully on the golf course, resolving his problems,” said the 28-year-old.

The 15-time Grand Slam winner, who has appeared with his friend Woods in TV commercials, refused to be drawn further on the scandal surrounding the American, saying he had only followed events “from afar”.

Woods’s personal life hit the headlines last November when he crashed a car into a tree outside his Florida home.

After weeks of press speculation, the 14-times golf major winner then released a statement on his website admitting to “infidelity” and has not been seen in public since the car accident. continue reading…

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Champions Tour players John Cook and Olin Browne meet Matt Bettencourt.

Cook and Browne shot 6-under 66s at Del Monte Golf Course on Thursday to share the first-round lead in the Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational. Cook, coming off a win Nov. 1 in the Champions Tour’s season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, had six birdies in his bogey-free round.

Browne, who won the Pebble Beach Invitational in 2001, opened with an eagle, shot 31 on the front nine and had four birdies while playing one group ahead of Cook.

Bettencourt, who was raised in Modesto but lives in South Carolina and was 10th in the U.S. Open, shot a 67 at Del Monte to trail by one.

• LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP, at Richmond, Texas — Michelle Wie is gone, putting all the attention on Lorena Ochoa’s player of the year fight with Jiyai Shin at the LPGA Tour Championship. Wie withdrew from the season-ending event Thursday because of a sprained ankle. Ochoa shot a 6-under 66 to take a 1-shot lead over Reilley Rankin.

Wie, 20, was fresh off her first LPGA Tour win last week at Ochoa’s tournament in Mexico. Drawing the largest galleries, she limped through her round of 72 on a gimpy ankle that she originally sprained at the Solheim Cup in August. She was treated but withdrew an hour later. continue reading…

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Lorena Ochoa shot a 66 and has a one-shot lead over Reilley Rankin after the first round of the US LPGA’s season-ending Tour Championship yesterday. Michelle Wie, fresh off her first US LPGA victory last week, shot a 72. She limped through her round on a sprained left ankle that she first injured at the Solheim Cup in August. Darkness interrupted some rounds.

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Virtually every week, from January through November, the Professional Golfers Association – the PGA – holds a tournament. Whether on a desert course or on cliffs overlooking the ocean, over rolling hills or down tree-lined fairways, throngs of golf fans crowd the course to watch their favorite players. With narrowed eyes and furrowed brows, golfers study their approach shots intently, and fidget over long putts that could make or break their careers.

As the golfers compete for thousands of dollars in prize money on the course, behind the scenes, thousands of dollars are being raised for local charities; nearly $1.4 billion since 1938. Tournament by tournament, week by week, funds flow into mostly local charities. At the Children’s Miracle Network Classic, however, the set-up is a little different. At this tournament, played on two courses at the Walt Disney World resort outside Orlando, the sponsor is the charity.

Rick George, chief of operations for the PGA Tour, says he knows why a charitable foundation hoping to raise money would pay money to attach its name to a sporting event. “They’re receiving a lot of publicity. They’re on Golf Channel for four days, it’s distributed into 200 countries around the world.” continue reading…

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