Woods part of elite field at Firestone
AKRON, Ohio, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Tiger Woods returns to a course on which he has dominated for the opening round of the Bridgestone Invitational Thursday.
Woods, however, has been a long way from being a dominating player this year, following the sex scandal that rocked his marriage.
This World Golf Championship event will be the eighth tournament of the year for Woods, who has finished as high as fourth (at both the Masters and U.S. Open), but who has also missed the cut, withdrawn once because of injury and wound up tied for 23rd at the British Open last month in his most recent appearance.
The Bridgestone will be played at the Firestone Country Club, where Woods has won seven times.
Anthony Kim will also be a part of the elite 88-player field. He has been out of action with an injury since early May.
Kim admitted this week that prior to the British Open he had never heard of Louis Oosthuizen, who ran away with that tournament at St. Andrews. Now Kim and Oosthuizen will be paired together for the first two rounds at Firestone.
As has been the case at other tournaments this year, Woods finds himself in danger of losing his world No. 1 ranking.
"It would mean a lot to me (to be No. 1)," said Phil Mickelson, one of those who has a chance to pass Woods this week.
"Coming down the stretch (in the golf season), there are a lot of cool things that can happen. It's not just myself who has a chance to be No. 1. Lee Westwood (runner-up to Mickelson at this year's Masters) does as well.
"We have a lot of guys fighting to get on the Ryder Cup, guys that have a possibility to be Player of the Year, guys that have won multiple times on the tour.
"It's been an interesting year in golf. It's going to come down to these last two months. I think there will be a lot of excitement."
Roethlisberger says cooperating with NFL
LATROBE, Pa., Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger says he has met the NFL's requirements for reducing his upcoming six-game suspension.
Roethlisberger was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a Georgia nightclub this year and although no charges were filed in the incident, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended him for six games for violating the league's personal conduct policy.
The Pittsburgh signal-caller will begin serving the suspension once the season starts. But it could be reduced to four games if he meets all the requirements of his punishment and shows good behavior.
Roethlisberger told reporters at the Steelers' Latrobe, Pa., training camp he expected to meet Goodell there Thursday and that he's convinced he has met the requirements to reduce the suspension.
"I think he does know some of the things I want him to know. I have done everything he has asked, and I've tried to go above and beyond," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Goodell, who was visiting the Baltimore Ravens' camp Wednesday, said Roethlisberger had done everything that was asked of him "and more," the Baltimore Sun reported.
Court: Cuban's bid for Rangers higher
FORT WORTH, Texas, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- An ownership group that includes Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made the highest bid at a Wednesday auction for the Texas Rangers, court officials said.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court officials in Fort Worth, Texas, announced that Cuban and his partner, Houston businessman Jim Crane, had submitted a bid $25.3 million higher than that of a group composed of Rangers President Nolan Ryan and Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The announcement elicited an angry response from attorneys for the Ryan-Greenberg group, who complained they hadn't seen the details of the Cuban-Crane bid and so couldn't counter it.
Earlier in the day, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Russell Nelms had declared the Cuban-Crane bid legitimate and allowed it to be presented over objections that had been raised.
The Morning News said the two sides disagree on the value of the bid, which includes discounts calculated by the drop in the team's value in between the time of the bankruptcy and the future sale closing, which must be approved by Major League Baseball.
"It's the grand Cuban strategy ... to slow this down and kill our financing," Greenberg told the newspaper.
Jimenez equals team record with 17th win
DENVER, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Ubaldo Jimenez won his 17th game Wednesday, tossing seven solid innings in the Colorado Rockies' 6-1 win over San Francisco.
Jimenez (17-2) held the Giants to one run on four hits, tying the Rockies' franchise record for wins in a season.
He joined Kevin Ritz (1996), Pedro Astacio (1999) and current teammate Jeff Francis (2007) as Rockies with as many as 17 wins in a single year.
Carlos Gonzalez belted a pair of homers and drove in three runs, and Troy Tulowitzki added a solo blast for Colorado, which split a two-game series at with the Giants at Coors Field and snapped San Francisco's four-game winning streak.
Giants starter Madison Bumgarner (4-4) lasted only four innings, yielding four runs on nine hits.
