Asslociated Press
RENO, Nev. ó Fresh off a disqualification on the LPGA Tour, Michelle Wie has decided to tee it up against the men, again.
Wie will play next week in the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open, the first time she’ll play on the PGA Tour this year, tournament organizers said.
It will be her eighth time playing on the PGA Tour, and she has yet to make a cut. The only time Wie has made money playing against the men was on the Korean Tour, in 2006, at the SK Telcom Open.
“It’s not every day that a woman is given the opportunity to play on the greatest tour in the world,” Wie said in a statement. “This is a tremendous opportunity for me to learn from these great players and take those lessons into the future to becoming the best player I can be on any tour. This is another step in the process of making me a better player.”
Wie, who is 18 and attends Stanford part time, has no status on any tour. She has only one sponsor’s exemption left this year. She will be playing her seventh and final LPGA Tour event of this year at the CN Canadian Women’s Open in August.
JONES UPDATE
WASHINGTON ó Disgraced Olympic track star Marion Jones has asked President Bush to commute her six-month prison sentence for lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and a check-fraud scam.
The Justice Department confirmed Monday that Jones is among hundreds of convicted felons who have applied for presidential pardons or sentence commutations.
SOCCER
NEW YORK ó Injured U.S. soccer star Abby Wambach hopes to return in time for the debut of the new Women’s Professional Soccer league in the spring.
The national team’s leading scorer said she knew the moment she collided with Brazilian defender Andreia Rosa last Wednesday that her leg was broken and she’d miss the Olympics.
“I looked down and my knee was pointing up and my foot was pointing in a little bit different direction,” Wambach said Monday on a conference call.
She underwent surgery Thursday to have a titanium rod inserted in her lower left leg after fracturing the tibia and fibula. Wambach, who attended her first physical therapy session Monday, is optimistic she’ll be playing again in about six months.
BASEBALL
SAN FRANCISCO ó Ray Durham wore a Giants uniform for the last time, then packed up his locker and went to join the Milwaukee Brewers on the other side of the ballpark before leaving town with his new team.
San Francisco traded the veteran second baseman to the Brewers for two minor leaguers.
– NEW YORK ó The New York Yankees placed Jorge Posada on the 15-day disabled list Monday with an injured right shoulder, leaving the All-Star catcher’s season in doubt.
– CHICAGO ó Jerome Holtzman, a longtime baseball writer who made the Hall of Fame, created the saves rule and later became Major League Baseball’s official historian, has died. He was 82.
TENNIS
CARSON, Calif. ó Serena Williams plans to keep playing through a left knee injury despite advice from a doctor and her father that she rest with less than three weeks before the Beijing Olympics.
She figures her injured knee “will be old news” by the time the Olympic tennis competition begins Aug. 10.
Williams withdrew from Saturday’s semifinals of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford after injuring her knee. She said that an MRI exam afterward revealed an inflamed joint.
HOOPS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ó Former University of Tennessee star Chris Lofton has signed a one-year contract with a professional basketball team in Mersin, Turkey.