Tiger Joins Skins Game for First Time Since ’97

Tiger Woods will join Greg Norman, Jesper Parnevik and defending champion Colin Montgomerie in the 19th Skins Game at Landmark Golf Club in Indio, which for the first time will require players to post the low score on successive holes to earn money.

Woods will play the Thanksgiving weekend event for the first time since 1997 as part of his endorsement deal with Disney, which owns ABC Sports.

All four players have agreed to donate 20% of the $1-million purse to the victims of the terrorist attacks.

Pro Basketball

Allen Iverson won’t release his rap album, which drew criticism from civil rights groups and earned him a reprimand from NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Iverson was criticized for the lyrics when a single cut from the album was released a year ago.

Gregg Popovich, coach and general manager of the San Antonio Spurs, agreed to a three-year contract extension through the 2005-06 season.

Tennis

The Kremlin Cup opened at Moscow without Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport, who withdrew in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In first-round women’s action, wild-card entry Anastasia Myskina beat Magui Serna of Spain, 6-2, 6-2, Francesca Schiavone of Italy defeated Nadia Petrova of Russia, 6-4, 6-2, and Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic eliminated Cristina Torrens-Valero of Spain, 6-0, 6-3.

On the men’s side, sixth-seeded Fabrice Santoro breezed into the second round by beating Galo Blanco, 6-2, 6-1, in less than an hour.

Miscellany

The Los Angeles Marathon will have a flatter course next year, reflecting runners’ desire for a course more like those of other major marathons.

The new start line at Grand Avenue, atop Bunker Hill, will also be the highest point, at 405 feet. From there, the course will go downhill to 112 feet past mile 9. The biggest hill will be a gradual climb from 115 to 210 feet between miles 17 and 20.

Next year’s race is scheduled for March 3 and is expected to draw more than 23,000 participants.

Center Stephen Weiss, the fourth overall pick in the NHL draft, was returned to his junior team by the Florida Panthers.

The Supreme Court refused to hear Mary Slaney’s challenge of drug-testing rules, ending her hope of reclaiming the 1997 world championships silver medal she lost after having been accused of doping.

The distance runner had claimed that birth control pills might have led to the only positive test in her 25-year career.

Defender Eddie Pope was put on the roster for the U.S. soccer team’s World Cup qualifier against Jamaica. The game will be played Sunday in Foxboro, Mass., and the Americans finish qualifying Nov. 11 at Trinidad and Tobago. The United States needs to win both games to have a shot at its fourth consecutive appearance in the World Cup.

On the advice of doctors, Olympic slalom champion Hans Petter Buraas of Norway will miss the ski season and the Salt Lake City Games because of a neck injury he suffered last spring.

Jean-Marc Plante, a former Alabama Huntsville hockey player and pro hockey executive, collapsed and died Sunday of an apparent heart attack at Huntsville, Ala.. He was 31.

Passings

Benny Goldberg, a contender for the bantamweight boxing title in the 1940s, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 82.