Tiger Woods mentioned drones over home and car, ‘president’ in remarks after crash, filing shows

Tiger Woods told police he had taken multiple prescription medications, including Vicodin, on the day of a crash that led to his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to court filings released on Wednesday.The filing, submitted by prosecutors in Florida as part of routine pretrial discovery and obtained by the Guardian, also details a series of unusual remarks Woods made to officers at the scene of the 27 March crash in Hobe Sound, including references to drones flying over his home and a claim that he had spoken to “the president”.Woods told investigators he takes medications for high blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as ibuprofen and Vicodin, and said he had taken all of them earlier that day when asked. He denied drinking alcohol.A breath test showed no alcohol in his system, but Woods refused a urine test for drugs, the filing states

LIV and let die: golf rebels count cost of Saudi cutbacks and other sports fear worst | Matt Hughes

Public Investment Fund withdraws support for rebel tour and other sports could be hit too with Newcastle United uncertainThe reverberations of an unscheduled meeting of LIV Golf executives in New York this week have been felt way beyond their swanky offices in Hudson Yards, on the west side of Manhattan.A slowdown in Saudi Arabia’s lavish spending on sport, which is conservatively estimated to have cost the kingdom more than $10bn in the past five years, had been expected, but its Public Investment Fund’s withdrawal of financial support for the rebel tour – which was first mooted to LIV execs on Monday – has caused shockwaves throughout the wider industry.Significantly, the possibility of PIF’s withdrawal was not even addressed in an email sent by the LIV chief executive, Scott O’Neil, to his staff on Wednesday evening, which has left many of them more fearful for their jobs. Such concerns are not limited to golf, with other sports administrators fearful that similar cuts in Saudi’s budget could be coming their way.While LIV was the primary vehicle through which Saudi launched their ambitious attempt to become a leading global sports destination and promoter five years ago, with more than $5bn invested on the rebel tour, the arch disruptors were by no means the sole beneficiaries

Portcullis gets royal breeders dreaming at Newmarket’s ancient first rite of spring

Captain Cook was a few months away from landfall after his first circumnavigation of the earth when the first ­Craven meeting was held on Newmarket heath in the spring of 1771.It is older than any of the Classics, and old enough too to have the great Potoooooooo – who got his name when a stable lad was unsure how to spell potatoes – on the Craven Stakes’s roll of honour in 1782. For a quarter of a millennium250 years, the first meeting of the year on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket has been Flat ­racing’s first rite of spring.“It’s what keeps everybody going,” Jason Singh, the marketing director of the famous bloodstock auction house Tattersalls, said here on Thursday, “and I speak as a breeder and racehorse owner myself as well as a sales company employee.“Every year, at this time of year, everybody has got hopes that the next horse they’ve bought is going to be the next superstar, and until it’s not, it could be

LIV golf stars face career limbo with Saudi investment expected to end in 2026

Several of golf’s leading names are facing career limbo at the end of 2026 amid expectation Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will withdraw backing for the LIV Tour.While the likelihood is Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm will be afforded a pathway back to the PGA Tour, the future for others who made lucrative switches to LIV is far more uncertain.LIV’s executives, who were in bullish form over the circuit’s future at last week’s Masters, subsequently attended a summit with the PIF in New York. There the financial impact of the Middle East crisis is believed to have been cited for a sudden and dramatic change in the fund’s approach.Insiders believe the PIF will seek to apply force majeure as a means to extricate itself from contracts beyond the end of this year

Chris Westwood obituary

My husband, Chris Westwood, who has died aged 82, had an overriding passion for sailing. Learning in a homemade Mirror he became adept at reclaiming dinghies, and regularly raced on the River Medway in Kent. Chris’s appetite for mastering sailing techniques was noticed at Deptford Sailing Centre in south London, where he taught Inner London Education Authority-funded evening classes for 10 years from 1975, while working as a civil servant.He was a member of many sailing clubs on the River Thames and Medway, and a dinghy captain and secretary at Greenwich Yacht Club, where he and I met in 1988; Chris also supported disabled people, helping them to sail on the tideway. He later became a committee member at Erith Yacht Club

Gout Gout may be bigger than Cathy Freeman, but he alone is not athletics’ elixir

The video – watched millions of times across social media – is irresistible, showing Gout Gout recording the fastest 200m time by a teenager, ever, on Sunday at the national athletics championships in Sydney. Witness the moment in person, and it was one of Australian sport’s unforgettable days.Yet look at the background behind the teenager, and you see an almost empty grass hill. As Gout turns and celebrates, saluting the crowd, he does so to a half-empty grandstand.This was the highlight of the annual athletics calendar, a pleasant autumn afternoon in the middle of school holidays in Sydney, at a venue next door to the Royal Easter Show well serviced – on this day at least – by public transport