Tiger Woods will miss this week’s Players Championship after failing to meet the strict qualification criteria for the PGA Tour’s flagship event.
The 15-time major winner is currently recovering from a seventh back operation but was not permitted to enter the field at TPC Sawgrass regardless of his fitness.
Unlike golf’s four traditional majors, the prestigious Florida tournament does not grant automatic lifetime exemptions to its past champions.
Strict qualification criteria
Participants must have secured at least one PGA Tour victory since the previous championship or won a major within the last five years.
Golfers can also qualify if they sit inside the top 10 of the FedEx Cup points standings prior to the opening round.
The American icon’s last triumph came in 2019, the same year he completed a stunning career comeback to claim his fifth green jacket at The Masters.
Furthermore, the event remains the only signature competition on the PGA Tour that strictly forbids sponsor invitations.
Fellow professionals express surprise
The forced absence of the two-time tournament winner prompted astonishment from several high-profile names in the field.
European Ryder Cup star Tommy Fleetwood admitted he was completely unaware of the stringent entry regulations.
“Is Tiger not eligible for this event? That’s unbelievable.”
When asked if he would welcome the former world number one into the competition, the Englishman was emphatic.
“I would love Tiger Woods to play. I can’t believe he’s not eligible,” Tommy Fleetwood said.
“I wasn’t really sure what criteria goes into this tournament, but if Tiger Woods wants to play anywhere in the world, I think Tiger Woods should be able to play.”
Two-time major champion Justin Thomas echoed those sentiments, arguing that the veteran’s presence benefits the entire sport.
“I think for the betterment of golf and the tournament, I don’t think there’s anybody that would be against it,” Justin Thomas noted.
Masters return remains possible
Despite missing the event widely dubbed the ‘fifth major’, an impending return to competitive action remains a realistic prospect for the golfing legend.
During an appearance at the Genesis Invitational in February, he refused to rule out competing at Augusta National next month.
When asked directly if The Masters was completely off the table, his immediate response was a defiant ‘no’.
The National Women’s Soccer League kicks off its 2026 season this weekend across the United States, featuring two new expansion franchises and significant roster shifts among the title contenders.
The American top flight returns with Denver Summit FC and Boston Legacy FC making their highly anticipated debuts.
Defending champions Gotham FC lifted the championship trophy last November, but the broader competitive landscape has shifted dramatically over a busy winter break.
Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman dominated early headlines after her contract negotiations quite literally forced the league to amend its rules to keep the star in North America.
Expansion sides make immediate impact
The newly formed Denver Summit have already announced they will set a new league attendance record during their inaugural campaign.
The Colorado-based club also secured a marquee statement signing by acquiring United States national team captain Lindsey Heaps.
Meanwhile, fellow newcomers Boston Legacy have spent the pre-season attempting to recover from a heavily criticised initial brand launch.
Kansas City target continued dominance
Last year’s Shield winners Kansas City Current enter the new campaign as the overwhelming favourites to finish top of the regular-season standings.
The record-setting Midwestern outfit have appointed former United States men’s international Chris Armas as their new head coach.
Armas replaces Vlatko Andonovski, who transitions to a global sporting director role after leading the side to 65 points and a first-place finish in 2025.
This move marks the first managerial venture into professional women’s football for the former New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC boss.
Major midfield restructuring
The Current have overhauled their central options by bringing in 2024 Rookie of the Year Croix Bethune from Washington.
Her arrival offsets the high-profile departure of 20-year-old defensive prospect Claire Hutton to Bay FC.
The reigning regular-season champions have also lost established international talent, with Bia Zaneratto, Nichelle Prince and Hailie Mace exiting the club.
Despite these exits, the combination of Bethune’s creativity and Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga’s clinical finishing promises to maintain a terrifying attacking threat.
However, early fitness concerns remain over Chawinga, who ended the previous campaign sidelined with injury, alongside lingering selection doubts regarding Bethune and Michelle Cooper.
Former manager Harry Redknapp has revealed that recently ousted chairman Daniel Levy would have appointed him as Tottenham Hotspur’s interim boss to save their season.
The 77-year-old made the admission on Thursday amid growing speculation that the North London club are preparing to sack current head coach Igor Tudor.
The Croatian tactician only replaced Thomas Frank at the helm in February but has endured a catastrophic start to his tenure.
Record-breaking slump under Tudor
The struggling Lilywhites have lost all four of their matches under their new boss across both domestic and European competitions.
They have conceded a staggering 14 goals during that brief period to leave them hovering just one point above the Premier League relegation zone.
A recent defeat to Atletico Madrid marked their sixth consecutive loss in all competitions, an unwanted first in the club’s long history.
Furthermore, their dismal run of 11 top-flight games without a victory represents their worst ever sequence in the Premier League era.
Surprise phone call from former chairman
Reports suggest that the club’s hierarchy are already exploring options for a second interim appointment following this disastrous sequence of results.
Speaking to Talksport, the experienced English coach claimed he received a surprise telephone call from the former Spurs chief last week.
“I got a phone call last week from Daniel, funnily enough,” Redknapp explained.
“I thought ‘that’s strange’ and I was on the phone to him for about half an hour, chatting to him and he was explaining what happened to him, and how he got marched out of there.”
“And he did say to me ‘If I was there now, and I’m not just saying it, I would bring you back in until the end of the season, Harry’.”
Desperate search for Premier League survival
The veteran manager has publicly stated he would gladly accept the challenge of keeping the struggling side in the division if approached by the current board.
Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker has also suggested that another immediate change is required to prevent an unthinkable relegation to the Championship.
Tottenham must now decide whether to persist with their struggling firefighter or take another drastic gamble to secure their top-flight status.
Iran’s sports minister has declared the nation cannot participate in the upcoming 2026 World Cup in North America due to escalating military conflict with the United States.
The flagship tournament, hosted jointly by the USA, Canada, and Mexico, faces unprecedented geopolitical disruption ahead of crucial preliminary events.
Global conflicts have cast a severe shadow over the international football competition, with the Middle Eastern nation explicitly citing recent hostilities as a barrier to entry.
“Since this corrupt government assassinated our leader, we have no conditions under which we can participate in the World Cup,” stated Iranian sports minister Ahmad Donyamali.
The government official added that recent military actions taken against his country made their sporting involvement in the host nation impossible.
US political response
The prospect of an Iranian withdrawal has drawn a swift and dismissive reaction from American political figures.
“I really don’t care,” President Donald Trump stated when questioned about the potential absence. “I think Iran is a very badly defeated country. They’re running on fumes.”
Despite the definitive rhetoric from global leaders, sporting analysts note the national squad did not withdraw from previous group matches even when their domestic infrastructure was allegedly targeted.
A history of tournament boycotts
Global conflict has heavily impacted the international football calendar on several notable occasions.
The competition was cancelled entirely in 1942 and 1946 due to the Second World War, returning only when Brazil hosted the 1950 edition.
Unilateral boycotts are also well-documented throughout the quadrennial event’s long history.
The entire African continent boycotted the 1966 tournament over qualification disputes, while the Soviet Union famously refused to play Chile in a 1974 playoff fixture.
World football’s governing body, Fifa, is currently preparing an official statement regarding the unfolding geopolitical crisis.
Collin Morikawa has withdrawn from The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass after just one hole of his opening round due to a back injury.
The FedExCup leader was among the pre-tournament favourites for the PGA Tour’s flagship event.
He began his Thursday round on the 10th hole alongside Ludvig Åberg and Si Woo Kim, opening with a routine two-putt par.
However, the two-time major champion experienced severe discomfort ahead of his second hole of the day.
Treatment on the tee
After making a practice swing on the par-five 11th tee, the American immediately clutched his lower back.
Medical personnel provided treatment next to the tee box before he was transported off the course in a buggy.
This marks only the second mid-round withdrawal of his professional career, following an early exit from The Memorial in 2023.
The Californian had been in scintillating form, securing victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last month before adding two consecutive top-seven finishes.
“He would have had such high hopes this week, with the form he had coming in,” said broadcaster Nick Dougherty.
McIlroy faces nervous wait
Åberg and Kim were left to complete the remainder of their opening round as a two-ball.
The 27-year-old was not the only morning casualty, with New Zealand’s Ryan Fox pulling out through illness before striking a ball.
Meanwhile, defending champion Rory McIlroy remains a significant injury doubt heading into his title defence.
The world number two is nursing a back issue of his own and faces a late fitness test to determine if he can compete.
McIlroy only arrived at the Florida venue on Wednesday afternoon for a limited practice session, leaving him without a full preparation round.
Tottenham Hotspur risk suffering Premier League relegation as interim manager Igor Tudor struggles to correct a disastrous run of form driven by his tactical principles.
The North London club have endured a sharp decline in results since the Croatian took temporary charge of the first team.
BBC football tactics correspondent Umir Irfan has analysed the underlying causes of this slump, highlighting significant structural flaws.
His findings suggest that specific systemic choices by the interim coaching staff are directly contributing to their perilous league position.
Exposing systemic vulnerabilities
The former Marseille boss is renowned for implementing an aggressive, man-to-man defensive structure across the pitch.
However, this demanding system appears fundamentally ill-suited to a squad lacking the necessary confidence for a sudden relegation battle.
Opponents have consistently exploited the vast spaces left behind by an over-committed defence, punishing positional errors with alarming frequency.
A fight for top-flight survival
Tottenham now face immense pressure to secure vital points in their remaining fixtures to avoid a catastrophic drop to the Championship.
Irfan concludes that a pragmatic shift in strategy may be the only viable solution to arrest this alarming slide down the table.
Time is rapidly running out for the coaching setup to abandon their rigid ideals and establish a functional, results-driven balance.
American cross-country skier Jake Adicoff has made history at the Milan-Cortina Games by becoming the first out gay man to win an individual Winter Paralympic gold medal.
The 30-year-old secured his momentous milestone by triumphing in the men’s sprint classic on Tuesday.
He followed that success just 24 hours later by dominating the 10km classic interval start, finishing nearly two minutes ahead of the field.
With two victories already secured, the visually impaired athlete is halfway towards his ambitious target of four titles in Italy.
Paving the way for LGBTQ+ athletes
Adicoff is one of only a small number of openly gay competitors participating at these Winter Games.
The Idaho native highlighted the scarcity of LGBTQ+ representation at the elite levels of competition.
“The higher you get in sport, the less out people that you see,” Adicoff told Outsports.
“And I think going to the Paralympics, being a gay athlete there, showing that it’s possible to reach this upper echelon of sport as an out athlete and as a Para-athlete, that’s super important to me.”
Seizing a golden opportunity
The American has competed in four consecutive Paralympics, making his debut as a high school student at Sochi in 2014.
He briefly retired after taking silver behind Canadian legend Brian McKeever at Pyeongchang 2018, before returning to claim team relay gold and two more individual silvers at Beijing 2022.
Following the retirement of 16-time champion McKeever, the visually impaired division was left wide open for a new dominant force.
The Sun Valley skier seized his chance emphatically, stringing together World Cup and World Championship victories before arriving in Cortina.
Bolstered by family support
Unlike the restricted Beijing Games, athletes in Italy are competing in front of enthusiastic crowds of friends and family.
The champion’s supporters have made their presence felt at the Tesero Cross-Country Centre, waving giant cut-outs of his face alongside guides Reid Goble and Peter Wolter.
“To have so many people that came out and supported us and are going to continue to support us throughout the week… it’s so nice having friends and family here,” he said.
He will have another chance to celebrate with his entourage in Saturday’s 4×2.5km mixed relay before tackling the gruelling 20km event on Sunday.
Quarterback Kyler Murray and offensive tackle Rasheed Walker lead the list of high-profile players still available following the opening of the 2026 NFL free agency window.
While a flurry of lucrative deals were struck when the market officially opened on Wednesday, several highly coveted talents remain unsigned.
Franchises across the league are carefully weighing positional value, age, and scheme versatility as they consider their next major roster additions.
Murray seeks new start after injury-hit campaign
The Arizona Cardinals released their former franchise quarterback at the start of the new league year to clear salary cap space.
The 29-year-old was limited to just five appearances last season because of a severe foot injury.
However, the dual-threat signal-caller boasts 121 passing touchdowns and over 3,000 rushing yards across his seven-year career, guaranteeing he will command significant interest from quarterback-needy teams.
Walker paces the offensive line market
Former Green Bay Packers tackle Walker is currently regarded as the premier pass protector still on the board.
The 26-year-old recorded an impressive 93.8% pass block win rate last season, showcasing elite mobility to counter rapid edge rushers.
Veteran Taylor Decker is another premium option, having requested his release after a decade of service with the Detroit Lions.
Veteran receivers remain in demand
Teams looking to bolster their receiving corps have intriguing options in established route-runners Stefon Diggs and Jauan Jennings.
Diggs caught 85 passes for over 1,000 yards during his single season with the New England Patriots.
Meanwhile, Jennings arrives on the open market after scoring nine touchdowns for an injury-plagued San Francisco 49ers offense.
Other notable names currently evaluating their futures include Buffalo Bills edge rusher Joey Bosa alongside veteran quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins.