Tiger Woods won't be playing in the Bahamas next week at the Hero World Challenge as he recovers from a sixth back surgery he had in September.
In announcing Monday on social media he won't be playing, Woods said the 20-man field for his holiday tournament will be filled out by Justin Thomas, Nick Dunlap and Jason Day.
Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion.
Woods was unlikely to play in the Bahamas since disclosing Sept. 13 he had yet another surgery on his lower back — his sixth in 10 years — that he hoped would relieve some of the spasms he had experienced this year.
He described it as a microdecompression surgery of the lumbar spine for nerve impingement, and the recovery time typically is eight to 12 weeks. Woods said while he was disappointed not to play, he looked forward to his role as the tournament host.
Woods finished 18th in the 20-man field a year ago.
Thomas is a two-time PGA champion whose wife gave birth to their first child a week ago, a daughter they named Molly Grace. He has played only once since the Tour Championship.
The newcomer to the unofficial event — its gets world ranking points but not official money — is Dunlap, who won a PGA Tour event as an amateur, left Alabama to turn pro and picked up a second win. Dunlap joins Woods as the only players to win the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur.
Woods, meanwhile, is far more likely to play the PNC Challenge on Dec. 14-15 in Orlando, Florida, a 36-hole event with his son, Charlie. Woods is allowed to ride a cart that week because it is sanctioned by the PGA Tour Champions.
A year ago at the Hero World Challenge, Woods spoke about his hopes of playing a big tournament every month. But he withdrew after one round at Riviera and did not play again for nearly two months. He finishes the year completing only 11 rounds.
He set a Masters record by making his 24th consecutive cut, and then Woods missed the cut in the other three majors.
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FILE - Tiger Woods watches his son Charlie Woods during the second round of stroke play at the U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Championship on July 23, 2024, in Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Connecticut couple has been charged in Minnesota with being part of a shoplifting ring suspected of stealing around $1 million in goods across the country from the upscale athletic wear retailer Lululemon.
Jadion Anthony Richards, 44, and Akwele Nickeisha Lawes-Richards, 45, both of Danbury, Connecticut, were charged this month with one felony count of organized retail theft. Both went free last week after posting bail bonds of $100,000 for him and $30,000 for her, court records show. They're due back in Ramsey County District Court in St. Paul on Dec. 16.
According to the criminal complaints, a Lululemon investigator had been tracking the pair even before police first confronted them on Nov. 14 at a store in suburban Roseville. The investigator told police the couple were responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses across the country, the complaints said. They would steal items and make fraudulent returns, it said.
Police found suitcases containing more than $50,000 worth of Lululemon clothing when they searched the couple's hotel room in Bloomington, the complaint said.
According to the investigator, they were also suspected in thefts from Lululemon stores in Colorado, Utah, New York and Connecticut, the complaint said. Within Minnesota, they were also accused of thefts at stores in Minneapolis and the suburbs of Woodbury, Edina and Minnetonka.
The investigator said the two were part of a group that would usually travel to a city and hit Lululemon stores there for two days, return to the East Coast to exchange the items without receipts for new items, take back the new items with the return receipts for credit card refunds, then head back out to commit more thefts, the complaint said.
In at least some of the thefts, it said, Richards would enter the store first and buy one or two cheap items. He'd then return to the sales floor where, with help from Lawes-Richards, they would remove a security sensor from another item and put it on one of the items he had just purchased. Lawes-Richards and another woman would then conceal leggings under their clothing.
They would then leave together. When the security sensors at the door went off, he would offer staff the bag with the items he had bought, while the women would keep walking out, fooling the staff into thinking it was his sensor that had set off the alarm, the complaint said.
Richards' attorney declined comment. Lawes-Richards' public defender did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.
“This outcome continues to underscore our ongoing collaboration with law enforcement and our investments in advanced technology, team training and investigative capabilities to combat retail crime and hold offenders accountable,” Tristen Shields, Lululemon's vice president of asset protection, said in a statement. "We remain dedicated to continuing these efforts to address and prevent this industrywide issue.”
The two are being prosecuted under a state law enacted last year that seeks to crack down on organized retail theft. One of its chief authors, Sen. Ron Latz, of St. Louis Park, said 34 states already had organized retail crime laws on their books.
“I am glad to see it is working as intended to bring down criminal operations," Latz said in a statement. "This type of theft harms retailers in myriad ways, including lost economic activity, job loss, and threats to worker safety when crime goes unaddressed. It also harms consumers through rising costs and compromised products being resold online.”
Two Minnesota women were also charged under the new law in August. They were accused of targeting a Lululemon store in Minneapolis.
FILE - The Lululemon logo is displayed on a Lululemon store in Pittsburgh, June 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
