The Sports Report: Tiger Woods is happy to be at British Open

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Sam Farmer: Gusting winds rippled the roof of the supermarket-sized media tent Tuesday, creating an intermittent thunder effect as Tiger Woods discussed his sixth — and maybe most significant — Open Championship on these hallowed St. Andrews grounds.

He knows just how hard this course can be when the weather turns.

“You get winds like we did today, it’s a helluva test,” said Woods, who won two of his three Claret jugs here, in 2000 and 2005. “On 10, I hit a six iron from 120 yards it was blowing so hard. You don’t have opportunities to hit shots like that anywhere else. Then again, if you get a calm day on this golf course, you can see players probably have four to five eagle putts.”

Woods, 46, has survived more than his share of personal storms, the most recent being the rollover accident in 2021 on a steep stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

First, he regained his ability to walk. Then, astoundingly, to compete. He has played in two tournaments this year, finishing 47th at the Masters and withdrawing after the third round of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, struggling with foot and leg pain.

Now, he has returned to his favorite course and feels as well as he has, post-accident, acknowledging: “My body certainly can get better, but realistically, not a whole lot.”

“For the most part of my rehab, I was just hoping I could walk again, you know, walk normal and have a normal life and maybe play a little hit-and-giggle golf with my son or my friends at home,” he said.

“But lo and behold, I’ve played championship golf this year. And once I realized that I could possibly play at a high level, my focus was to get back here at St. Andrews to play in this championship, [it] being the most historic one we’ve had. I just didn’t want to miss this Open here at the home of golf.”

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British Open players sound off on Greg Norman and LIV Golf

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: It was one of the Dodgers’ best stretches of the season. Yet, it featured a troubling trend that continued Tuesday night.

Yes, the Dodgers won all seven games they played last week.

But in six of those contests, they had to come from behind.

On Tuesday against the St. Louis Cardinals, a similar script played out again. The Cardinals built a big, early lead. The Dodgers mounted a late-game rally that kept them in it to the ninth.

This time, however, their latest slow start had left them too far adrift. In a 7-6 defeat at Busch Stadium, they’d finally faced a hill too steep to climb.

Down 6-1 at the start of the fifth, the Dodgers scored two runs in the fifth, another in the sixth and one more in the seventh, drawing back to within 6-5.

Later in the seventh, they had the bases loaded with no outs, seemingly on the verge of taking the lead for the first time.

But Cardinals reliever Packy Naughton extinguished that threat. The top of the Dodgers order came up empty in the eighth. And an insurance run from the Cardinals helped them hold on in the ninth, snapping the Dodgers’ seven-game winning streak and leaving them 56-30 on the season.

“[We] set it up to add some runs there, to tie the game up or to go ahead,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We just didn’t execute.”

ANGELS

From Sarah Valenzuela: Angels general manager Perry Minasian said he still sees a way in which this team can win with both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani under contract.

“There’s definitely a formula to win around them and it’s a deeper team,” Minasian said before the team’s series opener against the Houston Astros at Angel Stadium on Tuesday.

Making trades, getting players in free agency and drafting for their future were the three ways he listed as building that depth.

The first day of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft is Sunday, the trade deadline this year is Aug. 2 and eligible players become free agents after the World Series.

“I definitely see a roadmap to putting a competitive team on the field with those guys,” Minasian said. “They’re great players, they’ve really performed well. I think they deserve all the accolades they get daily. I’m looking forward to watching both of them in the All-Star Game.”

SPARKS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: There’s a reason why Nneka Ogwumike was the Sparks’ only All-Star this year.

With the star forward out because of a non-COVID illness on Tuesday, two days after starting in her seventh All-Star Game, the Sparks lost 94-81 to the Washington Mystics on Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena.

Ogwumike, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder with 18.8 points and 7.2 rebounds, was added to the team’s injury report about 75 minutes before tip-off after she was not seen at practice on Monday and missed shootaround Tuesday morning.

Without their team captain, the Sparks, the second-best paint-scoring team in the league, were outscored 40-26 in the paint. Liz Cambage had just eight points and three rebounds on three-of-nine shooting. She took only four free throws. Chiney Ogwumike stepped into the starting lineup for her older sister and scored 10 points with 10 rebounds for her second double-double in her last three games.

Mystics star Elena Della Donne, who was recovering from back surgery for the past two seasons, played in L.A. for the first time since 2019 and dropped 26 points in 27 minutes on clinical 10-of-14 shooting. The former most valuable player drained a corner three-pointer with 5:49 to remaining in the fourth to stymie a comeback attempt after the Sparks cut the deficit to five.

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1881 — William Renshaw sets the record for the shortest men’s championship match by time and games by beating John T. Hartley 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 in 37 minutes at Wimbledon.

1934 — Babe Ruth hits his 700th career home run against Detroit.

1941 — The PGA tournament is won by Vic Ghezzi with a 1-up 38-hole victory over Byron Nelson. at Cherry Hills CC Denver

1943 — The first night game in All-Star history is played at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. Boston’s Bobby Doerr provides the big blow, a three-run homer, for the AL’s 5-3 win.

1963 — Early Wynn wins his 300th and last MLB game at 43.

1968 — Gary Player wins the British Open by two strokes over Bob Charles and Jack Nicklaus. It’s the second Open championship for Player and his fifth major title.

1971 — Reggie Jackson hits a mammoth home run off the power generator on the right-field roof at Tiger Stadium to highlight a barrage of six homers — three by each team — as the AL beats the NL 6-4 in the All-Star game.

1972 — Robert Irsay buys the stock of the Los Angeles Rams for $19 million and swaps the franchise for the Baltimore Colts. The players and coaches are not affected.

1980 — Amy Alcott shoots a record score of 280 to win the U.S. Women’s Open by nine strokes over Hollis Stacy.

1996 — Cigar matches Citation’s modern North American record of 16 consecutive wins, pulling away to take the $1.05 million Arlington Citation Challenge by 3½ lengths.

1997 — Alison Nicholas holds off Nancy Lopez for a one-stroke victory in the U.S. Women’s Open. Nicholas shoots a 72-hole total of 10-under 274, the most under par in the 52-year history of the event.

2003 — Beth Daniel becomes the oldest winner in LPGA Tour history, birdieing the final two holes to beat Juli Inkster by a stroke in the Canadian Women’s Open. At 46 years, 8 months and 29 days, Daniel breaks the age record set by JoAnne Carner in 1985.

2011 — Abby Wambach breaks a tense tie with a thunderous header in the 79th minute, and the United States earns its first trip to the Women’s World Cup final since winning it in 1999 with a 3-1 victory over France. Japan upsets Sweden 3-1 in the other semifinal.

2014 — Mo Martin hits the best shot of her life to become a major champion in the Women’s British Open. Martin hit a 3-wood that hit the pin on the par-5 closing hole at Royal Birkdale, settling 6 feet for an eagle. Martin closes with an even-par 72 and finishes at 1-under 287 for a one-shot win over Inbee Park and Shanshan Feng.

2017 — Venus Williams reaches her ninth Wimbledon final and first since 2009, turning in her latest display of gutsy serving to beat Johanna Konta 6-4, 6-2. At 37, Williams becomes the oldest finalist at the All England Club since Martina Navratilova was the 1994 runner-up at that age. She also stops Konta’s bid to become the first woman from Britain in 40 years to win Wimbledon. In the opening semifinal, Garbine Muguruza overwhelms Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-1 in just over an hour.

Compiled by the Associated Press

And finally

Reggie Jackson hits a mammoth home run in the 1971 All-Star game. Watch and listen here.