PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) — Yes, that really was Tiger Woods‘ name atop the leaderboard.

In his first tournament since his divorce, Woods finally looked like the No. 1 player in the world Thursday at the Barclays when he opened with a 6-under 65, his lowest score of the year, to share the lead with Vaughn Taylor. It was his first time leading after any round on the PGA Tour since the Tour Championship last September.

“It’s exciting to hit the ball flush again,” Woods said. “It’s something I’ve been missing all year.”

He didn’t miss much at Ridgewood Country Club. Woods hit all but one fairway and putted for birdie on all but two holes. And while he hit his driver only twice, they were two of his best shots of the day — including on the 291-yard fifth hole, where his drive landed pin-high and settled 15 feet away.

Was it just a coincidence that his game showed up so soon after his marriage was dissolved?

“I can’t really say that’s the case,” he said. “As far as golf, it was nice to put it together.”

Scott endured a long day in the pro-am Wednesday and didn’t think Ridgewood would serve up a 65 to anyone.

The Washington Nationals will shut down pitcher Stephen Strasburg regardless of the results of a second MRI exam scheduled for Thursday, according to a report on SI.com.

Strasburg, who came out of his most recent start on Saturday in Philadelphia with what has been initially diagnosed as a strained flexor tendon in his right forearm, is set to have an arthogram, an enhanced MRI examination in which dye is injected into the area of the injury, so that doctors can better tell if there is more extensive damage.

The 22-year-old phenom has been handled with extreme caution by the Nationals since they selected him No. 1 overall in last year’s draft, especially with the club floundering in last place in the NL East.

Exactly two years after Rachelle Leah appeared on the cover of Playboy, Arianny Celeste will become the second UFC Octagon girl to grace the cover of the adult magazine.

“Yeah, it’s true,” UFC president Dana White revealed Wednesday to MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani. “She’ll be on the November cover of Playboy.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — His quarterback is completing more tasks in practices, commanding more in preseason games and is looking fit and aware. But Jeff Fisher, the Tennessee Titans coach, always keeps this in mind.

“He’s young,” Fisher said.

Excuse him, he asks, for the unintended play on words.

Fisher’s message is honest and resolute about Vince Young.

“He’s young in this league,” said Fisher of Vince Young, who is 27 and enters his fifth NFL season. It seems, though, like he has been around longer. Big plays mixed with big troubles and a spotlight that has caught him in charitable ways but also in unsuitable incidents have made Young more familiar, more public, more prone to be kicked around.

But Young looks ready now. He looks primed for something big, something distinguishing this season. You could see it here on Monday night in his preseason game work against the Arizona Cardinals. It was evident here on Wednesday as the Cardinals stuck around for a joint practice.

Fisher says: “We have the best group around him we have ever had. And they’re all coming on, just like he is.”

Don Fehr, the former longtime head of baseball’s players union, has been tapped as the next chief of the of the National Hockey League Players’ Association, Sports Business Daily reported Wednesday night.

Citing unnamed sources, the publication said other candidates have been informed they are no longer in the running for executive director of the NHLPA. The players’ union has lacked a full-time chief since Paul Kelly was fired last August.

The decision by the selection committee would still have to be confirmed by the executive board made up of a player rep from each of the 30 NHL teams, a process that could take several weeks.

NHLPA spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said the union would have no announcement Wednesday night.

Denver Nuggets shooting guard J.R. Smith was involved in an altercation at the team’s practice facility on Aug. 13, when police arrived after a player not associated with the Nuggets claimed to have been attacked by the mercurial 24-year-old.

After numerous sources told FanHouse of the incident, the Denver Police Department confirmed it on Wednesday afternoon.

“We did have a report of an altercation that took place at the Denver Nuggets‘ practice facility,” Detective John White of the Denver Police Department told FanHouse by phone. “That case was investigated and ultimately presented to the district attorney’s office. … Ultimately, the district attorney’s office, after being presented with the findings by the Denver Police Department, decided not to pursue charges.

“We were called to that location about an incident possibly involving Mr. Smith. When we got there, the officers conducted their investigation. It did involve Mr. Smith.”

It looks like we’ll finally get a chance to find out if all there’s fire behind all the smoke when it comes to interest in Manny Ramirez.

A baseball source confirmed to FanHouse’s Jeff Fletcher that the Dodgers have placed the outfielder on waivers on Wednesday, which means teams have until Friday to put in a claim. If someone does claim Manny, the Dodgers have until Tuesday to decide whether to let him walk, pull him back or work out a trade with the claiming team.

With the Dodgers now well out of the race in the NL West, you can expect that they’ll be seriously looking at that final option. Picking up even a low-level prospect for Manny makes sense for a team that has an uncertain financial future. Failing that, they may just let him walk away to save a little bit of money now.

National Football League owners gathered Wednesday in Atlanta, in part, to give their stamp of approval to an 18-game regular season schedule, starting next season. Ray Lewis thinks it’s a bad idea.

Lewis, the Baltimore Ravens linebacker, thinks the current 16-game schedule is sufficient, even if the addition of two regular season games would mean more money for all parties concerned.

“Sixteen games are enough,” Lewis said. “I mean, you’re talking to someone who has been in this business for 15 years. We’re not automobiles. We’re not machines. We’re humans.”

The idea of an 18-game regular season, to be preceded by a two-game exhibition season, has been floated for years, but has picked up steam recently. While owners have generally expressed approval for the change, players, like Lewis, a seeming lock for enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, have largely been opposed, citing concern that a longer schedule will lead to more injuries.

In this five-part series, Adam Gretz looks at the growth of USA Hockey and the number of “non-traditional” cities and regions that are now producing players in the wake of NHL expansion. This week, we’ll run a new installment every day.

Just two years removed from playing in the Stanley Cup Final, the Minnesota North Stars left one of the United States’ top hockey hotbeds for the relatively uncharted territory (in hockey terms) of Dallas, Texas. It was the same season the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning joined the NHL as expansion teams, and it was all part of the league’s experiment that put professional hockey in the South.

The Stars have easily been the most successful franchise of the three, having been a consistent contender in the Western Conference since arriving in Dallas, playing in two Stanley Cup Finals and winning one (1999). Because of the success, they’ve been able to build a healthy fanbase, while also creating an entirely new market for potential players.

Simmering beneath the success of the Vikings‘ 2009 season was tension between coach Brad Childress and quarterback Brett Favre, who often seemed to be biting their tongues when talking about each other, and were reportedly at odds about how to run the offense.

Now Favre has returned to the Vikings for the 2010 season, and there’s already talk that Childress and Favre can’t get along. Or, to say it more pointedly, that Favre thinks Childress is an idiot.

Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports quotes some unnamed Vikings saying some things that no coach wants to hear that his quarterback thinks about him.

“Brett thinks Childress has no clue about offense,” one Vikings player said.

“Brett just doesn’t trust him,” another said.

Frankly, Favre has more power than Childress in the Vikings’ locker room. Favre is the legendary future Hall of Famer who’s coming off a phenomenal season, while Childress is the coach who has never accomplished much of anything without Favre as his quarterback. Many of the guys in the Vikings’ locker room are in their 20s and grew up idolizing Favre, while probably not even knowing who Childress was. If a young player hears one thing from Favre and something different from Childress, who do you think he’s going to listen to?