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Golf News: Tiger Woods to attend Champions Dinner ahead of Masters

By Tom LaMarre, The Sports Xchange
Tiger Woods signs a copy of his book, "The 1997 Masters: My Story", at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in New York City on March 20, 2017. The book is a reflection on his historic Masters win in honor of its upcoming twentieth anniversary. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
Tiger Woods signs a copy of his book, "The 1997 Masters: My Story", at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in New York City on March 20, 2017. The book is a reflection on his historic Masters win in honor of its upcoming twentieth anniversary. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

--Tiger Woods will attend the Champions Dinner on Tuesday night before the Masters next week, but he still hasn't decided if he will make it to the first tee at Augusta National on Thursday.

Woods, a four-time Masters champion, said his ailing back is feeling better and he is working hard in hopes of playing the first major of the year on the PGA Tour.

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He missed the Masters in 2014 and 2016 because of back problems, and he tied for 17th in 2015.

"I do have a chance (to play)," Woods told USA Today Sports in an exclusive interview. "I'm trying everything I possibly can to get to that point. I'm working, I'm working on my game. I just need to get to a point where I feel like I'm good enough and I'm healthy enough to do it. ...

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"I've been a part of so many Masters over the course of my career, I know exactly what it takes to get ready for that event. Now it's my job to go out there and get ready. I hope I can. ...

"I will be at Augusta either way."

Woods played for the first time in 16 months, after the latest of three back surgeries, in December at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. He posted a tournament-best 24 birdies even though he finished 15th among 18 players.

In January, he made his first start on the PGA Tour since a tie for 10th in the 2015 Wyndham Championship in August 2015, but he shot 76-72--148 and missed the cut in the Farmers Insurance Open.

In early February, Woods withdrew from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic before the second round because of back spasms, and he has not played since.

--Costco Wholesale Corp. filed a suit against Titleist, manufacturer of the top-selling golf ball on the market.

In the lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Costco asked for a declaratory judgment against Acushnet Holdings Corporation, which owns Titleist, related to the store's sale of a ball under its Kirkland Signature brand.

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Costco asked the court to rule that the ball doesn't infringe on any valid patent rights owned by Acushnet and that it has not engaged in false advertising in reference to the ball.

"We have asked the Court to protect our right to continue to sell our Kirkland Signature golf ball against challenges made by Acushnet under patent and advertising laws," Costco said in a written statement. "The success of the ball with our members and the favorable comments it has received from reputable reviewers apparently have caused Acushnet to believe that our ball directly competes with the Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls. ... Our golf ball will go back on sale in early April, but supplies are limited."

Costco made news last year when it introduced the Kirkland Signature ball, a four-piece, urethane-cover product similar in construction to many tour-caliber balls. The price, however, was only $15 a dozen.

Golfers, informed of the new golf ball by intense media coverage, snapped up the product, and apparently liked the way the Kirkland Signature ball performed.

However, Costco could not keep up with demand and sold out the new golf balls.

Attorneys and spokesmen for Costco and Acushnet declined to comment to media outlets.

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--Chris Gilman is headed for Canada.

The 30-year-old Gilman, who lives in Yorba Linda, Calif., and played for the University of Denver, closed with a 1-under-par 71 to win Mackenzie-PGA Tour Canada Qualifying School by four strokes over Matt Picanso and Preston Valder at Carlton Oaks Country Club in Santee, Calif.

"It's massive," said Gilman, the 2014 California State Open champion who has played on the Web.com Tour and PGA Tour Latinoamerica. "Obviously the goal is to be the Order of Merit winner (for 2017), and I'm going with guns blazing and we'll see what happens."

Gillman posted a score of 66-69-71-71--277, 11 under, while Picanso, the 2015 Monterey Open winner from Vista, Calif., and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, totaled 71-70-75-65--281. Valder, of Yorba Linda and UCLA, wound up at 70-73-72-66--281.

Cody Blick of Danville, Calif., and San Jose State, the 2012 San Francisco City champion, shot 71-72-67-72--282 to tie for fourth with Sean Walsh of Keller, Texas, and Gonzaga, who wound up at 69-71-71-71--282.

Rico Hoey of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., a senior at USC and the 2016 Southern California Golf Association Amateur champion, carded a score of 67-68-75-73--283 to tie for sixth with Robby Ormand of Austin, Texas, and TCU, who finished at 68-72-71-72--283, and Nathaniel James of Fort Worth, Texas, and Washington & Lee, who came in at 66-73-73-71--283.

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Eric Hawerchuk, 2016 Canada Cup champion and the son of hockey Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk, tied for 15th at 73-73-71-73--290.

--Betsy King won six major championships among her 34 LPGA titles and was inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1995.

However, her greatest accomplishments have come off the course.

Recently on World Water Day, King announced a personal commitment of $1.3 million toward a goal of raising $10 million to continue the work of providing clean water to 220 villages in Africa.

"If there was just one thing you could do that would really change the world, it would be to bring clean water to everyone," said King, who is donating $100,000 a year for the next 10 years.

"If the last 10 percent of the world had access to clean water, we would save nearly 1,000 kids' lives every day. Girls would miss school 50 percent less often and women would have more economic opportunities because of time saved not having to walk for water."

King established the non-profit Golf Fore Africa on 2007, with the sole mission being to provide clean water, agricultural support, education and improved health care to impoverished regions of the second largest continent in the world.

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Among the LPGA Tour stars who have accompanied King on her annual trips to Africa designed to improve living conditions in impoverished villages are Juli Inkster, Stacy Lewis and Cheyenne Woods.

Golf Fore Africa has partnered with World Vision in an effort to end the global water crisis by 2030. According to UNICEF, there are 663 million people in the world, more than twice the population of the United States, who lack access to clean water.

--Members of Kasumigaseki Country Club near Tokyo, faced with the possibility losing the men's and women's golf competition at the 2020 Olympic Games, voted to admit female members for the first time.

The club, which opened in 1929, had allowed women to play on the course at times and provided lower forms of membership. Women also were not allowed to play on Sunday.

"I'd like to extend my gratitude to the members of the club for their understanding and cooperation," said Yoshiro Mori, president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, which had threatened to move the golf tournaments.

The club's vote satisfied calls from Tokyo's governor, the International Golf Federation and the International Olympic Committee to make the change.

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The decision came about a week after members at Muirfield Golf Club in Scotland voted to make a similar change to be allowed back in the rotation for the Open Championship.

"As we have said all along, gender equality is a fundamental principle of the Olympic Movement and an important part of Olympic Agenda 2020, and we believe this decision now reflects this," International Olympic Committee vice president John Coates said.

"While we had made our position on non-discrimination clear as soon as we became aware of their rules, it was important that the members of the club be given the opportunity to make the change in their good time.

"It is their club and at the end of the day we had to be welcomed by them."

Other famous clubs who have voted to change their policies banning women members in recent years include the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Scotland and Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., home of the Masters.

--Maverick McNealy of Stanford, the top-ranked amateur in the world, was named as one of five finalists for the Byron Nelson Award.

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McNealy, a two-time All-American from Portola Valley, Calif., captured the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational in October at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, to tie the Stanford record of 11 career victories, set by Tiger Woods in 1996 and tied by Patrick Rodgers in 2014.

The other finalists are Jared du Toit of Arizona State, Mack Farley of St. John's in Minnesota, Matt Gilchrest of Auburn and Jimmy Stanger of Virginia.

Candidates for the Nelson Award must be graduating seniors, and the selection committee considers a nominee's college academic and golf career as well as his character and integrity.

McNealy also was selected to the United States team for the Arnold Palmer Cup for the third consecutive year. The event will be played on June 9-11 at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

Also selected to the United States team were Stanger, Collin Morikawa of Cal, Sean Crocker of USC, Sam Burns of LSU, Chandler Phillips of Texas A&M, Norman Xiong of Oregon, John Coultas of Florida Southern, Nick Hardy of Illinois and Doug Ghim of Texas.

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