Tiger Woods

Phil Mickelson has agreed to compete in the LG Skins Game, the first time in 5 years the three-time major champion will play in the event. Mickelson, the No. 2 player in the world and a two-time winner on the PGA Tour this year, joins a four-man field that includes two-time defending champion Stephen Ames. The other two spots will be filled out this summer, although an invitation has been offered to Sergio Garcia as winner of The Players Championship. The LG Skins Game, which began in 1983, will be played Nov. 29-30 at Indian Wells Golf Resort in California.

Tiger Woods' father, angry at not being invited to the Ryder Cup by the PGA of America, said he would skip the three-day golf competition between the United States and Europe. "This is my protest at the way they treat the parents," Earl Woods was quoted as saying in yesterday's The Mail on Sunday of London. "It makes no sense, and it's not justified. Tiger is only 21 and does not have a girlfriend, but they don't think enough of the parents to invite them instead. " The PGA of America pays the expenses of wives or girlfriends of the 12 U.S. golfers to the biennial event, which begins Friday in Spain.

As he strode up to his first post-scandal round of competitive golf before Philadelphia's notoriously emotive sports fans, Tiger Woods was resoundingly - applauded. So much for one fan base's crabbid reputation. At least when it comes to the most famously gifted golfer of his generation. "Golfing has overwhelmed any personal issues," said Jim Tatlow, 56, of Malvern, a few yards from the 10th fairway crowd that, like most, cheered Woods on Thursday without hesitation. On the bent grass of the Aronimink golf course, where he spent much of the day hitting solid drives and struggling to putt consistently, Woods was received warmly by a crowd of hundreds that tracked him fervently for the first round of the AT&T National Pro-Am tournament.

Tiger Woods has started to hit balls with short irons and says he is able to stabilize his rebuilt left knee. The 14-time major champion says he is on schedule to play the Masters. Woods had reconstructive surgery a week after winning a playoff for the U.S. Open title in June. His news conference in Thousand Oaks, Calif., yesterday was his first since that victory. Six months after surgery to repair a ruptured ligament - his third operation in six years - Woods said he was excited: "Everything has been right on schedule.

Is Tiger Woods as good as he was in 2000? Could he be even better? Can he win his third major of the year? As Woods and a phalanx of would-be pursuers prepare for tomorrow's start of the PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club, these loom as the biggest questions in golf. In 2000, when he won three majors in a year, it seemed that Woods couldn't possibly be any more dominating and intimidating. And he didn't just win; he humbled the field in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15 shots, he cruised to an 8-shot victory in the British Open at St. Andrews, and he closed the deal at the PGA Championship at Valhalla by nipping Bob May in a playoff.

Activity in the fan zone located to the left of the fairway on the mammoth par-5, 605-yard ninth hole at Aronimink Golf Club came to a standstill when Tiger Woods stepped up to the tee Sunday in the final round of the AT&T National. It's good they were paying attention because Woods' drive was coming their way. The crowd scattered, then scrambled to see where the ball landed while roving marshals shooed them away and began to make a clearing. The ball came to a stop in front of a photo vendor on dirt packed so tightly it may as well have been concrete.

Golf superstar and all-around nice guy Tiger Woods has become engaged to his Swedish sweetie, Elin Nordegren. "She called this morning and was incredibly happy," Nordegren's father, Thomas, told the Swedish newspaper Expressen. "I only spoke shortly with them on the telephone, but they were happy and I congratulated them. " A spokesman for the Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa said Woods, 27, proposed to the 23-year-old model Tuesday during a walk at the game park outside Port Elizabeth.

TIGER WOODS was never a child. He was a robot programmed to play golf by a demanding father much like Joe Jackson did with Michael. This programming reminds me of the East Germans and Soviet Union, which dominated the Olympics by separating their youth from their parents and sending them to a sports gulag. Remember that Andre Agassi recently admitted his hatred of tennis but was forced into it by a demanding parent. When children, like many child stars now living in misery, are forced to become adults, they then become children when they're adults.

Bill Lyon is the author of Deadlines and Overtimes: Collected Writings on Sports and Life . Once, his stride down the fairway was bold, forceful, confident, that of a man clearly on a mission, hurrying to an appointment with greatness. Now, he totters along, gimping and limping, propped on crutches, one leg encased in a walking boot, his gait hesitant and uncertain, and so it is that there occurs to you this thought, sudden and jarring: He walks like an old man. He is 35. Once, the man named Eldrick held us in thrall.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. ? The top two players in the world couldn't come up with a single birdie between them Thursday in the opening round of the U.S. Open at the sun-drenched Pebble Beach Golf Links. But while Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson struggled to make putts, birdies were no problem for Shaun Micheel (No. 200 in the world) and Brandon De Jonge (No. 169), who joined Paul Casey (No. 9) in a tie for the lead after the opening 18. Playing in the afternoon, when the course was firmer and faster, the three pacesetters each carded 2-under-par rounds of 69. Micheel and Casey birdied the 18th hole to share the top spot, while De Jonge got there with the help of a pitch that fell for an eagle at the par-5 14th.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Matt Kuchar avoided the big mistakes that slowed so many other contenders - starting with Kevin Na - and kept out of the water on the TPC Sawgrass to close with a 2-under 70 for a 2-shot win in the Players Championship Sunday. Martin Laird made a strong run until a bogey on the 18th left him with a 67 and a four-way tie for second. Rickie Fowler missed an eight-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole and shot 70. Ben Curtis and Zach Johnson each had 68. Tiger Woods shot 40 on his front nine and rallied for a 73, at least finishing under par. He tied for 40th, the first time in his career that he has finished no better than 40th in three straight tournaments.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Kevin Na didn't feel comfortable about anything Saturday except his name atop the leader board at the Players Championship. Na rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for one of only three rounds without a bogey on a tough day at the TPC Sawgrass. It gave him a 4-under 68 and a 1-shot lead over Matt Kuchar as he goes after the richest prize on the PGA Tour - a five-year exemption and a spot in all the majors. For all his practice swings and waggles, even purposely missing the ball so he could start over, Na pieced together a brilliant round free of bogeys.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - The Players Championship still lacks some definition going into the weekend. At least it still has one of golf's star attractions. In what looks to be a neighborhood block party, Sea Island residents Matt Kuchar and Zach Johnson steered clear of trouble Friday and shared the 36-hole lead with Kevin Na. They had a 1-shot lead over Harris English, a PGA Tour rookie who also lives 100 miles to the north at Sea Island. The attention shifted to Tiger Woods, who with one burst of birdies went from a guy struggling to make the cut to being on the periphery of contention.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Ian Poulter ran off four birdies around the turn and Martin Laird was the only player without a bogey on his card. That was enough for them to share the lead Thursday in The Players Championship at the TPC Sawgrass. Poulter birdied all of the par 5s on his way to a 7-under 65. Laird played in the afternoon and relied on his putting for some critical par saves to match Poulter. They were a shot ahead of Blake Adams. Phil Mickelson, inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Monday, had a 71. Rory McIlroy hit in the water on the island-green 17th for double bogey and shot even par 72. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods shot a three-over 74. Woods once went nearly eight years without missing the cut. Now he's in danger of missing the cut for the second straight week.

Webb Simpson chipped in from 35 yards in front of the par-4 eighth green for eagle, and then made Tiger Woods shake his head and smile when he holed a 60-foot birdie putt at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C. It led to a 7-under 65 for a share of the lead on Thursday with Stewart Cink and Ryan Moore at Quail Hollow - about one mile from Simpson's home. Woods failed to take advantage of fine weather conditions - about one-quarter of the field shot in the 60s, and half broke par. In his first tournament since a tie for 40th at the Masters - his worst performance as a pro at Augusta - Woods made too many mistakes early and had to one-putt three of the last four greens for a 71. Former PGA Championship winner Shaun Micheel is hoping a new putter will help end a nine-year winless drought after a 5-under 67 at the 100th Spanish Open.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The only questions Tiger Woods fielded before his next tournament came from his fans. Instead of a news conference before this week's Wells Fargo Championship, Woods answered 19 questions Monday in a 15-minute video posted on his website. The questions were submitted through Facebook and Twitter. The timing of the decision was peculiar. Woods is coming off his worst performance ever at the Masters, a tie for 40th in which he finished 15 shots behind and was roundly criticized for kicking his 9-iron in disgust in the second round after a poor tee shot on the par-3 16th hole.

SAVE THE fitness trailer for the rest of the PGA Tour, Carl Pettersson knows he's fine the way he is. Petterson used another fast start for a 2-under 69 and a five-shot victory over Zach Johnson on Sunday at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Pettersson has never fit the tapered, powerful build made popular by Tiger Woods and copied by scores of young players. The one time the 34-year-old Pettersson did slim down and lost 30 pounds, he also lost his winning golf swing.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - The next major is two months from now, when the U.S. Open goes back to the Olympic Club in San Francisco. The last time it was there, in 1998, Tiger Woods tied for 18th as a 22-year-old. This time he will be heading there as a guy who hasn't added any legs of the Grand Slam to his resume since getting his third national championship in 2008. He came here with great expectations, after getting his first PGA Tour victory in 21/2 years just two weeks ago. The four-time Masters winner leaves on a renewed quest for more answers.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - The next major is 2 months from now, when the U.S. Open goes back to The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The last time it was there, in 1998, Tiger Woods tied for 18th as a 22-year-old. This time he will be heading there as a guy who hasn't added any legs of the Grand Slam to his resume since getting his third national championship in 2008. He came here with great expectations, after getting his first PGA Tour victory in 2 1/2 years just 2 weeks ago. The four-time Masters winner leaves on a renewed quest for more answers.