Tiger Woods yesterday announced that he has "committed to the Farmers Insurance Open" at Torrey Pines in San Diego beginning Jan. 24 (ESPN.com, 1/9). In West Palm Beach, Greg Stoda notes the Sony Open, which began today in Honolulu, represents the “first full-field event of the PGA Tour season" and both Woods and Rory McIlroy “will be absent.” There is “nothing wrong with that, but the extent to which McIlroy vs. Woods moves the professional golf needle will be apparent next week when they both compete on the European Tour in Abu Dhabi.” The two “best players in the world ... likely will play in the same event no more than a dozen or so times this year.” A “reinvigorated Woods against a confident McIlroy would be the best storyline imaginable for the PGA Tour season” (PALM BEACH POST, 1/10).
NOT-SO-GRAND PRIX? In Toronto, Norris McDonald asked regarding ongoing political turmoil, “Why is F1 still planning to race in Bahrain in 2013?” F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone, FIA President Jean Todt and other officials “have had a year to figure out a way to not go there and they haven’t done a thing.” The officials “sat on their hands and they should be ashamed.” McDonald: “Where is the leadership today? Are not Ecclestone and Todt aware of what’s happening in Bahrain? And if not, why not?” The Bahrain Grand Prix will be a “much bigger story this year than it was last and the people who run F1 are courting disaster by still planning to go ahead” (THESTAR.com, 1/9).
SWITCHING FIELDS: The CP noted soccer player Christine Sinclair “leads the list of 16 Canadian internationals headed to the fledgling National Women’s Soccer League with the Canadian Soccer Association picking up their tab.” The league’s int’l players “will be assigned teams on Friday.” All but one of the league’s eight teams “will receive three U.S. internationals,” with each club getting two Canadian and two Mexican internationals (CP, 1/9).
