Tiger Woods won’t play in the Masters for the third time in the last four years because he says he is not tournament ready.
Woods announced Friday night on his website that he did everything possible to try to play. He says his back rehabilitation simply didn’t allow him enough time.
He said there was no timetable for his return.
Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic in early February after shooting a 77, claiming back spasms. Since then, he has sat out his own tournament at Riviera, the Honda Classic and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He even withdrew from a press conference in Los Angeles.
This is the 20-year anniversary of Woods winning his first Masters by a record 12 shots. He last won the Masters in 2005.
Kang Sets Houston Open Mark
Humble, Texas
After shooting a 65 on Thursday, Kang was at 16-under 128 through two rounds, setting the 36-hole tournament record of 129 by a stroke, set previously by Blaine McCallister in 1993 and Curtis Strange in 1980.
The 29-year-old South Korean, who entered the week ranked No. 202 in the world, bested the tournament course record at the Golf Club of Houston by three strokes, topping Johnson Wagner’s 132 in 2008. Strange and Wagner went on to win those respective tournaments, while McCallister settled for a third-place finish.
Kang’s 9-under on Friday matched the 18-hole tournament course record and helped him take the largest 36-hole lead in tournament history, topping the previous record by two strokes.
Hudson Swafford and Russell Henley were at 10-under after both shooting 5-under 67.
Nadal in Miami Open Final
Key Biscayne, Fla.
Chasing a shot in the second set of Friday’s semifinal, Nadal lost his right sneaker — and the point. But he quickly regained his footing and beat unseeded Fabio Fognini, 6-1, 7-5.
Nadal is 0-4 in finals at Key Biscayne, losing in 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014. He’s playing in the tournament for the 13th time, making it his longest title drought at any event.
His opponent on Sunday will be the winner of Friday night’s late match between Roger Federer and Nick Kyrgios. There will be a first-time Key Biscayne women’s champion today when Caroline Wozniacki plays Johanna Konta.
FIFA Forwards Probe Info
Geneva
However, FIFA said on Friday it was legally barred from publishing the full reports or commenting on the evidence or conclusions.
The documents complete a 22-month probe by legal firm Quinn Emanuel, which FIFA retained in the fallout from United States and Swiss federal prosecutors revealing their sprawling investigations of soccer corruption in May 2015.
FIFA has said the U.S.-based law firm, whose hiring helped add $30 million to its published legal costs in 2015, is key to helping retain its institutional status as a victim of corruption and not an accomplice.
“FIFA understands and has agreed that the reports will also be made available to the U.S. authorities,” FIFA said in a statement.
In a case identified with former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the FIFA-commissioned reports will arrive at the U.S. Department of Justice and Brooklyn federal prosecution under new leaders in President Donald Trump’s administration.
Switzerland attorney general Michael Lauber remains in control of his office’s investigation, which already opened proceedings for suspected criminal mismanagement against former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and his former right-hand man, Jerome Valcke.
Blatter and Valcke, FIFA’s CEO-like secretary general since 2007, were both suspended from office in September 2015 and later banned from soccer by the FIFA ethics committee.
It is unclear which other senior FIFA staffers or soccer federation leaders worldwide could be implicated and ultimately indicted on the basis of the investigation reports.
In an interim finding last year, FIFA accused Blatter, Valcke and long-time finance director Markus Kattner of self-dealing in agreeing to each others’ contracted salaries and World Cup bonuses totaling $80 million. FIFA fired Kattner last May.
In the documents, FIFA does not make a judgment on which individuals could or should be prosecuted, according to a person briefed on the contents. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the reports are confidential, also said some key witnesses refused to speak.
Still, Lauber’s office has “acknowledged FIFA’s close and consistent cooperation,” FIFA said in its statement.
Lauber is also key to sealing the contents of FIFA’s more than 1,300 report pages and more than 20,000 pages of evidence to preserve the integrity of his team’s investigation.
The Swiss lawyer’s office criticized the German soccer federation last year when it released in full a 361-page report into suspected corruption linked to organizing the 2006 World Cup. By publishing so much evidence, the “risk of collusion” by suspects, including soccer great Franz Beckenbauer, was increased, the Swiss federal department said then.
The Swiss investigation of Germany’s World Cup organizers spun off the broader FIFA case, which was formally launched in Switzerland in November 2014. Then, Blatter and FIFA ethics committee judges sent Lauber reports from an investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests led by former U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia.
Swiss prosecutors have examined at least 172 suspected money-laundering transactions through Swiss banks in a case that Lauber’s office has said proceedings could take up to five years.
The U.S. case was launched years earlier and had a first star witness in former FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer, the most senior American in world soccer during Blatter’s presidency. Blazer ran CONCACAF, the North American soccer body, from apartments in Trump Tower in Manhattan and rarely filed tax returns.
U.S. federal authorities have indicted or taken guilty pleas from more than 40 soccer and marketing executives, and marketing agencies, including several former FIFA vice presidents from the Americas.
The case mostly involves bribery linked to regional tournaments and World Cup qualifying games in Latin America, plus a direct link to FIFA in payments totaling $10 million through its accounts, signed off by Valcke in 2008.
Prosecutors using Blazer’s testimony allege the money was bribes funneled from South African organizers of the 2010 World Cup in exchange for hosting votes from CONCACAF delegates on the FIFA executive committee.