Tiger Woods to own and play for Jupiter Links GC

Mike McCarley, founder and CEO of TMRW Sports, and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland during a press conference prior to the TOUR Championship on Aug. 24, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. TMRW Sports is the sports and entertainment company behind TGL. (File/Getty Images via AFP)
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Updated 08 November 2023
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Tiger Woods to own and play for Jupiter Links GC

  • Woods, Rory McIlroy and former Golf Channel president Mike McCarley are founding partners in TMRW Sports, the sports and entertainment company behind TGL
  • Play starts Jan. 9. The two-hour matches — two teams at a time — will be televised on ESPN on Mondays and/or Tuesday, ending before the Masters

NEW YORK: Tiger Woods couldn’t be more involved with prime-time TGL unless he had built the arena. He helped develop the tech-infused golf league. He’s playing in it. And now he’s a team owner.

Woods and his TGR Ventures and David Blitzer, the investor who has ownership in all four major US sports leagues, were announced Tuesday as owners of Jupiter Links GC, the sixth and final team for the first-of-its-kind golf league that starts in January.

Woods, Rory McIlroy and former Golf Channel president Mike McCarley are founding partners in TMRW Sports, the sports and entertainment company behind TGL.

“Having the opportunity to not only compete, but also own a team to represent Jupiter is an exciting next chapter for me,” Woods said Tuesday.

Woods referred to TGL as a “modern twist of traditional golf” that ultimately will make it more accessible by leaning the glitz of technology. Key to the modernization is playing in SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, an arena that holds some 1,600 spectators.

Teams will go head-to-head for nine holes of alternate shot and six holes of singles, starting off by hitting shots from real turf into a screen 20 times larger than a standard simulator, and then shifting to actual shots from 50 yards or closer to a green complex that can turn 360 degrees to create different angles. They putt on a synthetic surface in which contours can change.

Play starts Jan. 9. The two-hour matches — two teams at a time — will be televised on ESPN on Mondays and/or Tuesday, ending before the Masters. The prize fund is $21 million, with $9 million going to the winning team and players eventually getting equity in the league.

Technology is one thing. Woods also said the two-hour window is key to attracting fans.

“Generally, golf takes about five or six hours to play. In today’s world, with all of our smartphones, it is hard for anybody to go five to six hours without looking at their phones. So the shorter the time, the better it is.”

Three players from the four-man teams compete in each match. Woods hasn’t competed since the Masters because of lingering leg injuries from a February 2021 car crash outside of Los Angeles. But he expects to be front and center for TGL.

“It’s exciting that this group of guys is coming together for a two-hour window and we’re just going to basically hit balls, talk a lot of (trash) and people are going to be gambling on absolutely everything, each and every shot. Every shot there’s going to be a wager.”

McCarley, the CEO of TMRW Sports and TGL, said a gaming partner and international media rights are being negotiated ahead of the January debut. Also to be completed is other team names and branding, along with filling out team rosters.

McIlroy is part of Boston Common, led by Fenway Sports Group, and is joined by New England native Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott and Tyrrell Hatton.

The other teams are Atlanta Drive, led by Arthur Blank of the Atlanta Falcons; Los Angeles Golf Club, led by a group fronted by Alexis Ohanian, Serena and Venus Williams and limited partners that include Alex Morgan and Michelle Wie West; New York, led by Steven Cohen of the New York Mets; and San Francisco, led by Avenue Sports Fund with private equity executive Marc Lasry and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.

Blitzer adds to the roster of high-end investors for the six teams.

He is the first person to hold equity in five North American sports teams — co-managing partner of the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) and New Jersey Devils (NHL), along with owning a 25 percent stake in the Cleveland Guardians (MLB) and a minority stake in the Washington Commanders (NFL). He also is a stakeholder in Real Salt Lake (MLS), along with being general partner in Crystal Palace FC in the Premier League.

Blitzer is a self-described sports fanatic, though he once was quoted as saying he would “never make an investment just for the fun side of the equation.”

“At the end of the day, I’ve got to believe there’s a return, that the investment makes a lot of sense. The fun comes along with it,” Blitzer said Tuesday.

“The idea of really creating the next evolution of professional golf rang really clearly to me,” he said. “And when I think about what’s happening today in technology, and the innovations they’re bringing here ... I was sold very quickly.”

The concept of team play — outside of the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup — was introduced last year by Saudi-funded LIV Golf and its 12 teams. Woods believes TGL will be easier to follow in part because there is only a team competition, and because some players will have a connection to the city, such as Collin Morikawa with Los Angeles and Bradley in Boston.

“Some of the stuff I’ve seen in LIV ... I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on,” Woods said. “Here it’s very simple.”


Bayern score late to see off Celtic in Champions League

Updated 19 February 2025
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Bayern score late to see off Celtic in Champions League

  • Bayern started the playoff second leg leading 2-1 from the first game in Glasgow but the visitors canceled out that lead after 63 minutes

MUNICH, Germany: Alphonso Davies scrambled the ball in with seconds left to give Bayern a 3-2 aggregate victory over Celtic and a place in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Bayern started the playoff second leg leading 2-1 from the first game in Glasgow but the visitors canceled out that lead after 63 minutes.
Nicolas Kuhn, a former Bayern reserve team player, pounced on an error by Kim Min-jae to sweep the ball home.
Bayern dominated and peppered the Celtic goal but could not beat Kasper Schmeichel, until, with regular time almost up, the goalie could only parry Leon Goretzka’s header to substitute Davies. The ball bounced in off the Canadian’s shin to give Bayern a 1-1 draw in the match.


Ancelotti downplays Guardiola’s suggestion Man City have 1 percent chance of eliminating Madrid in playoffs

Updated 18 February 2025
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Ancelotti downplays Guardiola’s suggestion Man City have 1 percent chance of eliminating Madrid in playoffs

  • “He doesn’t really think that,” Ancelotti said on Tuesday in a pre-match news conference
  • Guardiola later said he lied a bit when he talked about the 1 percent, and that he knows City’s chances of reversing the first-leg defeat are higher than that

MADRID: Coach Carlo Ancelotti is not buying Manchester City rival Pep Guardiola’s suggestion that his own side have only a 1 percent chance of eliminating Real Madrid in the Champions League playoffs on Wednesday.
Madrid rallied late to win the first leg 3-2 last week in England to seize control ahead of their home match at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
After City’s 4-0 win over Newcastle in the Premier League on Saturday, Guardiola said his team would arrive in the Spanish capital with a “1 percent” chance of going through to the round of 16.
“He doesn’t really think that,” Ancelotti said on Tuesday in a pre-match news conference. “Tomorrow I’ll ask him before the match if he really thinks that they only have a 1 percent chance. He thinks he has more than that, just as we don’t think that we have only a 99 percent chance. We know that we have an advantage, and we have to make the most of it.”
Guardiola later said he lied a bit when he talked about the 1 percent, and that he knows City’s chances of reversing the first-leg defeat are higher than that.
“You have to play an almost perfect game,” he said. “The result was not so good, we usually come into the second leg with a better result, so it is not the perfect situation. We have to attack, we have to score goals. We want to win, so let’s see if we can adjust some things that didn’t work in the first leg.”
Ancelotti said he was not one of those coaches who liked to fully downplay his team’s advantage.
“It’s foolish to say that we will prepare for the game as if we were tied 0-0,” he said. “Nobody will believe you because it’s a fact that we scored three goals and City two. You can’t change that. We have to try to play the same way as we played a week ago, but without forgetting that we have an advantage.”
Guardiola has never failed in 16 seasons of coaching — four at Barcelona, three at Bayern and nine in Manchester — to take his team to the last 16. The 2012-13 season was the last time City did not play at that stage.
City have been struggling recently, though, and Guardiola said that has to be taken into consideration.
“This season the reality is we have been miles, miles away,” he said. “The results have been poor.”
Madrid got the better of City in the quarterfinals last year, and with a 3-1 win in extra time in the semifinals in 2022. Each time Ancelotti’s team went on to win the title, extending the club’s record to 15 Champions League trophies.
Ancelotti can count on central defender Antonio Rüdiger, who has recovered from the muscle injury that has kept him out in recent weeks. Against City last week, Ancelotti fielded an improvised back line who played together for the first time.
Ferland Mendy, youngster Raúl Asencio and midfielders Aurélien Tchouaméni and Federico Valverde played at the back in England.
Ancelotti said Rüdiger can start on Wednesday, though he didn’t say whether the central defender would replace Tchouaméni or the 22-year-old Asencio.
It is the fourth consecutive season in which the teams are facing each other in the Champions League, with City prevailing in the semifinals two seasons ago on their way to winning the European title for the first time.


Feyenoord knock out 10-man AC Milan to reach Champions League last 16

Updated 18 February 2025
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Feyenoord knock out 10-man AC Milan to reach Champions League last 16

  • Julian Carranza thumped home the winning header in the 73rd minute
  • Argentine attacker Carranza struck for Feyenoord shortly after coming on as substitute

MILAN: Feyenoord reached the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday after a 1-1 draw at 10-man AC Milan which took them past the seven-time kings of Europe 2-1 on aggregate.
Julian Carranza thumped home the winning header in the 73rd minute at a frigid San Siro, canceling out Santiago Gimenez’s first-minute opener for Milan and sending the Dutch through to meet either Inter Milan or Arsenal.
Argentine attacker Carranza struck for Feyenoord shortly after coming on as substitute as the away side pushed to reach the next round, while Milan struggled following Theo Hernandez’s sending off early in the second half.
Already on a booking for a needless foul on Anis Hadj-Moussa just before half-time, Hernandez was ruled by referee Szymon Marciniak to have dived in the penalty box when under pressure from Givairo Read.
The France full-back was dismissed, leaving Milan on the back foot after having dominated up to that point.
Hernandez’s sending off and Carranza’s tie-winning header ruined what looked to be Gimenez’s night when he nodded home the opener against his old team after just 36 seconds.
Mexico forward Gimenez has already scored three times for Milan since signing from Feyenoord during the winter transfer window but his sixth goal in the Champions League this season was also his last.
Sergio Conceicao’s Milan are by no means assured of a spot in next year’s tournament as they sit seventh in Serie A, five points off the top four with a game in hand.


Medvedev edges Khachanov in windy Qatar Open

Updated 18 February 2025
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Medvedev edges Khachanov in windy Qatar Open

  • Medvedev, who won the tournament in 2023, scored his first victory over a top-30 player in 2025
  • In match of long rallies, Medvedev did not carve out a break point until the 12th game of the second set

DOHA: World No.6 Daniil Medvedev eliminated compatriot and defending champion Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the second round of the ATP Qatar Open on Tuesday.
Medvedev, who won the tournament in 2023, scored his first victory over a top-30 player in 2025.
Medvedev, the former world No.1, has not won a tournament since the Rome Masters in spring 2023. He was knocked out in the second round of this year’s Australian Open by teenage American Learner Tien.
In match of long rallies, Medvedev did not carve out a break point until the 12th game of the second set, by which time he was a set down. He took his chance and then went on attack in the third set to win in two hours 30 minutes.


A third Russian former champion, Andrey Rublev, the fifth seed, beat Alexander Bublik 6-3, 6-4.
Alex de Minaur celebrated his birthday by beating Russian Roman Safiullin 6-1, 7-5, even though the Australian did not enjoy the weather.
“They’re tough days, these ones,” said De Minaur. “It’s cold, it’s windy, you probably don’t want to get out of bed. But once you step on court, you have to do everything you can to win. Whether it’s ugly or pretty tennis, you just put the ball in the court, and that’s what I did today.”
“Out went any sort of tactics you had for the match and it was all about surviving more than anything.”
In the evening matches, Novak Djokovic was making his comeback against Matteo Berrettini after his Australian-Open semifinal injury.
Earlier in the day, Djokovic said that Andy Murray would continue as his coach “indefinitely.”
“I expressed my desire to continue the collaboration with him so I am really glad he did accept,” said Djokovic.


F1 drivers gather in London to launch 75th anniversary season

Updated 18 February 2025
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F1 drivers gather in London to launch 75th anniversary season

  • The F1 75 Live event at London’s O2 arena marks a new approach by the series
  • Teams will present their 2025 liveries, but don’t have to show off the actual cars they’ll race this season

LONDON: All 20 Formula 1 drivers and the 10 teams are expected in London on Tuesday to kick-start the 2025 season with a new live launch show.
The F1 75 Live event at London’s O2 arena marks a new approach by the series. It’s the first time the sport is hosting its own large-scale launch event, rather than leaving it to the individual teams to present their drivers and cars.
The televised two-hour show includes musical acts like country singer Kane Brown, British band Take That and American rapper MGK, also known as Machine Gun Kelly.
Teams will present their 2025 liveries, but don’t have to show off the actual cars they’ll race this season. Teams are still allowed to hold their own launch events to present their 2025 cars, as McLaren and Williams did last week.
It comes at a time when F1 is keen to expand beyond a sports audience, with races in cities like Miami and Las Vegas, a movie called “F1” starring Brad Pitt releasing in June, and the ongoing popularity of the “Drive To Survive” series on Netflix.
“To have this many fans out shows that we bring the sport together away from the racetrack. There’s a lot of excitement,” McLaren chief executive Zak Brown said Tuesday.
“The Brad Pitt movie will no doubt create a huge amount of awareness for the sport. Netflix, I’m sure, knowing what happened last year, will be a drama-filled television show again, which has been great for all of us. So I think the sport’s going from strength to strength.”
Drivers broadly welcomed the new launch show, though two-time champion Fernando Alonso warned it could be “a little bit of distraction” at a time when drivers and teams are fine-tuning their approach to the season.
F1’s preparations for the new season — which marks the series’ 75th anniversary — continue with preseason testing next week at the Bahrain International Circuit. The first race is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 16.