MANCHESTER, England -- Manchester United were denied a morale-boasting victory by a late Liverpool equaliser as the visitors' winning run came to an end with a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.

Marcus Rashford's first-half goal had looked like giving United their first league win for more than a month only for substitute Adam Lallana to score five minutes from time.

Victory for Jurgen's Klopp's side would have matched Manchester City's record 18 consecutive top-flight victories but instead dropped points for the first time this season as their lead at the top of the table was cut to six after Manchester City's win at Crystal Palace 24 hours earlier.

A draw means it is officially United's worst start to a season since 1986 -- when Alex Ferguson replaced Ron Atkinson -- but it will feel like far more than that for United, who eased the pressure on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

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Positives

Rashford has a knack of scoring against the big six and he did it again. It's not a United team that creates a lot of chances so it's important he takes the ones he gets.

It was a well-timed run to get in between Liverpool's centre-backs and get on the end of Daniel James' whipped cross from the right as United broke quickly. It wasn't the cleanest finish but he won't care as he got his first goal from open play since the opening day against Chelsea.

Negatives

Axel Tuanzebe was named in Solskjaer's original team but was forced out after suffering up a hip strain in the warm up.

Injuries have been a key reason behind United's poor start and Tuanzebe is the latest to pick up a muscle problem.

The squad is thin, particularly in midfield and up front, and Solskjaer cannot afford to have players on the treatment table. They have had a lot of muscle injuries since the Norwegian took over and he needs to get to the bottom of it quickly.

Manager rating out of 10:

8 -- It was bold of Solskjaer to start with a back three in such a big game but it paid off.

Wing-backs Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Ashley Young put pressure on Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold while in the first half Andreas Pereira stopped Fabinho getting the space to dictate the flow of the game.

Fabinho had more joy in the second half but the change in system still seemed to give Klopp problems.

Player ratings (1-10; 10 = best. Players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating)

GK David De Gea, 6 -- Declared himself fit after suffering a groin injury on international duty. Might have expected to have a busier day.

DF Aaron Wan-Bissaka, 7 -- Back after missing three games. Stopped Andy Robertson getting forward but wasn't close enough when the Liverpool full-back crossed for the equaliser.

DF Ashley Young, 7 -- Gave Alexander-Arnold a tough afternoon down Liverpool's right but will be disappointed Lallana ghosted past him to score a late equaliser.

DF Harry Maguire, 7 -- Passing was not as accurate as it can be but he won a lot in the air. Played through the final 20 minutes with a knock to his right hip.

DF Victor Lindelof, 6 -- Involved in the goal with a contentious challenge on Divock Origi. Lucky that VAR ruled out Sadio Mane's goal after getting the wrong side of the Liverpool forward.

DF Marcos Rojo, 7 -- In the team after Tuanzebe picked up an injury in the warm up. Barely gave the Mane a kick in the first half but got dragged away for Lallana's goal.

MF Scott McTominay, 7 -- Had one burst past Origi in the first half to force a save out of Alisson with a shot from 20 yards.

MF Fred, 6 -- Battled away but was guilty of giving the ball away too often. Curled a shot wide of the far post that had Alisson scrambling.

MF Andreas Pereira, 8 -- Played a key role in the first half by keeping Fabinho off the ball. Lots of bite and loads of energy. One of his best games for United.

FW Daniel James, 8 -- Playing as a forward with Rashford, he had been quiet before racing away down the right and swinging in a fantastic cross for his strike partner to score the opener.

FW Marcus Rashford, 8 -- Pace and movement caused Liverpool's defence a lot of problems and capped his performance with a goal.

Substitutes

FW Anthony Martial (for Marcus Rashford, 83) -- N/A

DF Brandon Williams (for Andreas Pereira, 93) - N/A

On the eve of his 24th birthday, it was Navin Param who gifted a thrilling victory to his Singapore teammates with a brilliantly crafted 72 not out off 41 balls that helped his team come from behind and stun Bermuda.

A core feature of Param's innings was his use of sweeps, reverse sweeps, scoops, ramps to score the bulk of his seven fours and four sixes behind square. The middle-order batsman said afterward that his background as a hockey player growing up enabled him to have the confidence in his unorthodox arsenal.

"It's fortunate that I actually started off playing hockey first before I played cricket," Param said after the win. "So growing up, I kind of use what I've learnt in hockey, the strong wrists and manipulation of the ball when you play hockey, so I just transfer those skills over to cricket which makes my cricket technique not as orthodox.

"So given that, over the years that I've worked with my coaches as well and my mentors, that's where I have got that 360 [degree] sort of gameplay. Today was just one of those days where it really clicked and all the hard work paid off. Basically when I bat, it's just looking at where the gaps are and putting the ball into those gaps."

Param entered at No. 6 at the fall of star batsman Tim David, who was dismissed cheaply for the second match in a row. Yet, Singapore has not fallen apart on either occasion thanks to contributions from the likes of Param. In and out of the team since making his senior debut as a 19-year-old in 2014, Param had gone two years since his last appearance before being recalled in September for Cricket World Cup Challenge League in Malaysia. He scored 66 in a win over the hosts and carried that form into this event.

"In our team, everyone has their own responsibilities and their targets to meet," Param said. "So I understand for my role, if I were to just hit my target, I know that eventually the team would get the desired result.

"When you look at it that way, it's a different mindset going into the game. You just do what you need to do as batsman. When you're in the game, you're just trying your best to get the singles and doubles and the odd boundary will come because bowlers will make mistakes at some point in the game because they are under pressure too."

Param also said the team has been galvanised by the efforts of his roommate on tour, Janak Prakash. The 19-year-old allrounder was struck in the head in his follow-through by a drive from Kyle Coetzer in Singapore's opening match, creating a gash on his forehead. But after being escorted off the field, Prakash only missed 17 balls before coming back to help Singapore to victory. He took three wickets against Bermuda at the death on Sunday too, not to mention hitting the winning boundary over mid-on to seal the chase after Param's legwork.

"When he first got hit, everyone got shocked," Param said. "But seeing him coming back on the field, not after 10 or 15 overs but immediately after only 10 minutes, he just got it wrapped up and came back, that's fantastic. That boosts the morale of the team drastically and that pushes us forward as a team because we understand that regardless of injuries, we are not one man down and he did show up and did perform.

"It just feels fantastic to have a team player like that and a friend of mine, who is also my roommate. So with that, the team morale has been fantastic and of course after this win I'm sure that God willing we can take this attitude of the team forward and win the rest of the matches and hopefully to win the tournament."

DETROIT -- Matthew Stafford became the fastest player to eclipse 40,000 passing yards in NFL history on Sunday with a 36-yard completion to Danny Amendola in the first quarter against the Minnesota Vikings.

Stafford needed 87 yards entering the day to reach the mark, which he did in game No. 147 of his career. That's four better than the former record-holder, Matt Ryan, who passed the 40,000-yard mark in 151 games.

Stafford, after that reception, had 40,010 career passing yards.

"When you step back and look at stuff like that, I think it's pretty amazing," Lions coach Matt Patricia said last week. "I think it goes to his resiliency and his drive and his competitiveness that he shows every single day.

"We were just having a conversation and comparing some notes on Minnesota; it just takes me back a minute every single time that he and I have those conversations of just how hard this guy works, how competitive he is, how much he wants to win, how much he just continually leads this team. That's why when you hear something like that or a stat like that, you're like, 'It's super impressive and it's super amazing,' but I also kind of step back and I look at it and I go, 'Yeah, that's about right,' because that's just who this guy is."

He's the only quarterback to accomplish the feat in under 150 games and only the sixth to do it in under 160 games, joining Ryan, Drew Brees, Dan Marino, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers.

Stafford, who also holds multiple other fastest-to markers (15,000 yards; 20,000; 25,000; 30,000), is No. 21 on the NFL's all-time passing list with Johnny Unitas next at No. 20 with 40,239 yards and Joe Montana at No. 19 with 40,551.

Stafford, 31, shrugged off the milestone last week, which is basically how he's handled almost every accolade he's hit in his career.

"I hope 40,000 isn't the last number I hit," Stafford said earlier this week. "I'd like to keep playing and play well. The biggest thing for me is I just want to get the bad taste out of my mouth of losing two in a row. I just want to win a game.

"If I throw for 86 and we win, I'll be happy as hell."

Ohio State edged past Clemson to No. 3 in The Associated Press college football poll and Wisconsin dropped to 13th after being upset ahead of its showdown with the Buckeyes.

Alabama remained No. 1 on Sunday in the AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank, receiving 24 first-place votes. No. 2 LSU held its place and received 16 first-place votes. The Buckeyes had 13 first-place votes and No. 4 Clemson, the preseason No. 1 team and defending national champion, received nine.

The Buckeyes and Tigers both were coming off conference blowouts on the road. Ohio State beat Northwestern 52-3 Friday night. Clemson defeated Louisville 45-10.

The point margin between the No. 1 and No. 4 in this week's Top 25 is 78, the smallest it has been this season. Alabama received 1,486 points while LSU had 1,462, Ohio State had 1,429 and Clemson had 1,408.

Oklahoma remained No. 5, but Penn State moved up to sixth after Wisconsin's first loss of the season. The Badgers were beaten Saturday by 30-point underdog Illinois in the season's most significant upset so far.

Florida, Notre Dame, Auburn and Georgia round out the top 10, giving the Southeastern Conference five of the top 10 teams.

POLL POINTS

Preseason No. 1 teams commonly relinquish the top spot without losing, but the extent of Clemson's fall is unusual. The last preseason No. 1 to drop as far or farther without a loss or tie was Oklahoma in 1977. The Sooners slipped from first to fifth after opening the season with a 25-23 victory over Vanderbilt. Oklahoma started climbing the very next week and reached No. 1 again before losing its fifth game of the season to Texas in mid-October.

One has to go all the way back to 1971 to find a similar drop to Clemson's for a preseason No. 1. Notre Dame started that season top ranked and won its first five games, slipping to No. 7 while doing so. Maybe voters' suspicions of the Irish were justified: Notre Dame lost twice in the second half of the regular season to finish 8-2 and ranked No. 13.

That Notre Dame team seemed to suffer from a schedule perceived to be not so rigorous and one very close victory. None of the Irish's first five opponents was ranked at the time of the game and Notre Dame beat Purdue 8-7. Those Boilermakers went on to finish 3-7.

Clemson has played just one team that was ranked at game time, then-No. 12 Texas A&M, which has since dropped out of the rankings. And the Tigers had a one-point victory at North Carolina, which is currently 3-4.

IN

No teams are making their season debut in the Top 25 this week, but a couple re-entered.

• No. 23 Iowa State (5-2) is back after winning three straight games.

• No. 25 Wake Forest (6-1) returns after a one-week hiatus. The Demon Deacons bounced back from their first loss of the season last week to beat Florida State on a late field goal.

OUT

• Missouri is the latest team to lose its first game after moving into the rankings. The Tigers fell out after getting upset at Vanderbilt.

• Washington is out again after losing a thriller to No. 11 Oregon.

CONFERENCE CALL

Big Ten -- 6 (Nos. 3, 6, 13, 17, 19, 20)

SEC -- 5 (Nos. 1, 2, 7, 8, 10)

Big 12 -- 4 (Nos. 5, 14, 15, 23)

Pac-12 -- 3 (Nos. 11, 12, 24)

American -- 2 (Nos. 16, 18)

ACC -- 2 (Nos. 4, 25)

Mountain West -- 1 (No. 22)

Sun Belt -- 1 (No. 21)

Independent -- 1 (No. 8).

RANKED vs. RANKED

• No. 13 Wisconsin at No. 3 Ohio State. Big game lost a lot of luster because of what happened in Champaign, Illinois.

• No. 8 Notre Dame at No. 19 Michigan. Wolverines face a top-10 opponent for second straight week.

• No. 9 Auburn at No. 2 LSU. SEC West survivor series begins.

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will miss Saturday's game against Arkansas after undergoing surgery to help repair a high-ankle sprain he suffered against Tennessee.

Tagovailoa suffered the injury during last night's win over the Volunteers. He had surgery Sunday morning.

"Our physicians performed a successful tight-rope procedure on his right ankle this morning," Alabama coach Nick Saban said in a statement. "This is the same injury, but the opposite ankle that Tua injured last season. Tua will miss next week's game against Arkansas, but we expect a full and speedy recovery."

Tagovailoa, who currently leads the FBS in QBR (95.6), has thrown 27 touchdowns and just two interceptions.

The junior from Hawaii had the "tightrope" procedure on his other ankle following the SEC Championship Game last season and returned in time to compete in the College Football Playoff.

Dr. Norman Waldrop, who was part of the team that performed the procedure on Tagovailoa a year ago, explained how it creates a more stable ankle and allows the ligaments to heal in their natural position.

"What we do is we drill a hole from the fibula into the tibia and cast these tightropes through the bone and synch it down and tighten it," Waldrop told ESPN in 2018.

"What these tightropes do are stabilize the ankle. It holds that little bone in its home. It holds it still and stable enough that the bones don't want to spread apart."

With Tagovailoa sidelined, Alabama will once again turn to former backup Mac Jones. The redshirt sophomore from Florida came on in relief of Tagovailoa against Tennessee and completed 6 of 11 pass attempts for 72 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions.

No. 1-ranked Alabama hosts Arkansas on Saturday. It will then have the week off before No. 2 LSU comes to Tuscaloosa.

A year ago, after Tagovailoa had the same surgery on his left ankle, it was 13 days before he returned to practice, and even then it was on a limited basis.

Tagovailoa suffered the injury on Dec. 1 in the SEC championship game win over Georgia, and the College Football Playoff semifinal game against Oklahoma was on Dec. 29. Tagovailoa acknowledged going into that game that he wasn't 100 percent and probably only "80 to 85 percent."

The LSU game this year (Nov. 9) would be 20 days after Tagovailoa's latest surgery, which is seven days earlier than he returned to play a year ago against Oklahoma. The recovery didn't seem to hurt Tagovailoa against the Sooners. He was 24 of 27 for 318 yards and four touchdowns.

The demise of the New York Yankees can be traced to a conference room at the old Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, where baseball's barons met in 2011 to realign divisions, expand the postseason and approve the $615 million sale of the Houston Astros to Jim Crane, who was awarded the club, at a $65 million discount, on one condition:

That his team becomes a card-carrying member of the American League.

The Astros had spent more than a half century in the National League before moving in 2013, and they trudged off to the AL West lugging with them a most uninspiring past. The Astros had won three playoff series and no World Series titles since they were born, as the Colt .45s, in 1962. The Yankees had won 30 playoff series and eight of their 27 World Series titles in those same 51 years.

In other words, after back-to-back seasons of more than 105 losses, the Astros were nowhere to be found on the House of Steinbrenner's list of top 105 concerns for the balance of the decade. And yet there the Yankees were in Houston on Saturday night, down and out after Jose Altuve's walk-off homer off Aroldis Chapman, eliminated from the MLB playoffs by the Astros for the third time in the last five years.

This six-game American League Championship Series verdict was framed by profound big-picture implications. The Yankees have failed to reach the World Series for the 10th consecutive season, a biblical drought by any Bronx measure. The last time the Yanks had completed a decade without making a single World Series appearance, a man born almost five years before the start of the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson, was sitting in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, the Astros are heading to the Fall Classic for the second time in three years, looking to make the case that they will soon reign as the sport's latest dynasty.

The Process > The Pinstripes.

Here's the thing about this ALCS: The Yankees weren't just beaten by a better team; they were beaten by a better program. Years after making a $15,000 investment in a 5-foot-6 Venezuelan teenager named Jose Altuve, the Astros built their program around first-round draft picks -- George Springer, Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman -- and their commitment to landing the two available starters, Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, who might have made the Yankees unstoppable.

Hal Steinbrenner didn't want to take on Verlander's money in the summer of 2017, and his general manager, Brian Cashman, didn't want to trade Miguel Andujar and Clint Frazier for Cole, the former Yankees draft pick, in January of 2018. Those are two conspicuous reasons why today's Yankees are looking a bit like yesterday's Knicks, the consistent playoff participant that lost all five series it played against Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls between 1989 and 1996. (The Knicks beat the Jordan-less Bulls in 1994.) Jordan eliminated four different Knicks coaches in that period. His dominance of New York, of course, was easy to see coming.

The Astros' dominance of New York? Not so much. They went 51-111 in 2013 to run their loss total to 324 games over three seasons, perfecting the art of tanking before Sam Hinkie could get his process-trusting hands on the Philadelphia 76ers. While torturing their fan base, the Astros drafted and developed enough talent to finally post a winning record in 2015, at 86-76, and to claim that extra wild-card spot added that same 2011 day the team was officially sold to Crane and booked for the AL.

Houston defeated the No. 1 wild card, the Yankees, in Yankee Stadium, with Dallas Keuchel and three relievers combining for the shutout that opened a one-way passion play that continued Saturday night. The Astros have now beaten the Yankees in a sudden-death wild-card game, in a Game 7 of the ALCS after being down 3-2 in the series, and in a Game 6 of the ALCS after being up 3-1 in the series. The Astros have now beaten the Yankees with Keuchel as their ace (2015), with Verlander as their ace (2017) and with Cole as their ace (2019).

The Astros have now beaten two Yankees teams managed by Joe Girardi and one managed by Aaron Boone.

"Damn Yankees" was a Broadway musical and movie. It doesn't matter that "Damn Astros" doesn't have the same ring to it.

The end result in this latest series seemed inevitable a couple of nights ago. After Thursday's Game 4 disaster, shaped by a series of Little League errors and CC Sabathia's grim farewell, the Yankees appeared to be waiting for the local coroner to declare them dead. Inside a home clubhouse about as still as a church at midnight, Aaron Judge quietly addressed reporters under a big-screen TV that relayed a message to players to report the following day at 3:30 p.m. "TRAVEL ATTIRE: TRACK SUITS," the rest of the bulletin read.

Truth is, the Yankees didn't look like they were preparing to play baseball in Houston. They looked like they were preparing to play golf back home.

Out of left field, they smacked two first-inning homers off Verlander in Game 5, sparing themselves the indignity of losing all three ALCS games in the Bronx and breathing life into Boone's post-Game 4 forecast that "stranger things have certainly happened. A lot stranger." Like the 2004 Yankees making history -- a year after Boone's Game 7 dagger against Boston -- by losing four straight ALCS games to the haunted Red Sox, who exorcised more than eight decades' worth of demons and doubts.

But Game 6 brought the 103-win Yankees back to reality in the company of the 107-win Astros. The bullpen game didn't go to the visitors who were said to have the best bullpen in creation. Altuve dramatically beat the Yankees' closer after DJ LeMahieu dramatically beat the Astros' closer, and the same Houston team that defeated New York in the regular season series, 4-3, finished off the postseason series, 4-2.

"I feel like we are on equal footing with them," Boone said when it was over. Not quite.

Maybe someday the Yanks will flip the script on the Astros the way Boston flipped the script on them. Until then, fed-up New Yorkers can blame the former commissioner, Bud Selig, and baseball's owners for forcing Houston to leave the six-team NL Central for the four-team AL West to balance out the leagues. Before the deal was done, Selig tweeted that the move "would create more fairness in baseball." Crane didn't really want to make the switch, nor did many of his employees. Astros fans were angry about the added West Coast start times, and players were concerned about travel. At the time former Astros star Lance Berkman, then with the Cardinals, called the decision a "travesty."

Selig pressed ahead, described the approved realignment as "monumental" and "historic," and reminded people that the change would create -- in the form of the in-state Rangers -- a natural rival for a franchise that didn't have one. As it turned out, Houston would find a natural rival in a ballpark nowhere near Arlington, Texas.

The Yankees are much like the Astros in that they have gifted young stars, and a very good general manager, manager and player development system. But until the Yanks figure out how to beat this juggernaut, Selig's decision to ship the Astros out of the NL will keep hurting New Yorkers more than his decision to cancel the 1994 World Series, during the players' strike, with Buck Showalter's Yankees owning an AL-best 70-43 record.

The Astros are not going back to the National League any time soon. They are, however, going back to the World Series, a place the Yankees haven't visited in a very long time.

Andy Murray broke down in tears after winning his first singles title since career-saving hip surgery by beating Stan Wawrinka at the European Open.

The Briton, 32, launched a stunning comeback from a set and a break down to win 3-6 6-4 6-4 in Antwerp to take his first title for over two years.

Murray had surgery in January and was playing in just his seventh tournament since returning to singles.

It is Murray's first title since March 2017 and the 46th of his career.

More to follow.

SEATTLE — Brian Devincenzi could sense a different vibe this time.

The political climate in his corner of Arizona was more agreeable, more cooperative and more receptive to his hosting the Kingman Route 66 Street Drags than it was when he last staged the event in 2011.

Crafting a textbook example of how state, city and local officials can partner with the business community and residents for fun and tourism-boosting, Devincenzi and his steering committee are bringing back the eighth and biggest edition of the event Oct. 25-27.

The Kingman Route 66 Street Drags once again will block off a section of the historic highway for three days of street racing — the legal way. All of the safety equipment and personnel spectators expect to see at a purpose-built drag strip will be in place.

With an old-fashioned flag starter urging on every pair Friday, the test-and-tune action in Grudge, Unlimited, Pro Street, Hot Rod, Pure Street, Sport Compact, Truck, Motorcycle and Jr. Dragster classes will run from noon to 9 p.m. (Gates open at 11 a.m. Friday.)

Racers will use a full timing system on the track and stage their cars with the normal staging beams, with yellow lights on top, but on Friday only, the Christmas Tree will have no other lights.

The unique event will continue Saturday with gates opening at 8 a.m. and time trials from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. A Celebrity Challenge will pit the mayors and police chiefs of nearby Bullhead City and Lake Havasu during Saturday’s lineup. Each racer will have two passes to make the Quick 8 in every class. Those Quick 8 will square off in Sunday’s 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. eliminations, vying for the champion’s cash prize and custom-designed trophy.

Those who didn’t make the Quick 8 will compete Sunday in the Grudge class, which allows them to match up against racers from different classes.

Tickets — priced at $10 Friday, $15 Saturday and $15 Sunday — will be sold at the gate. (The only tickets available for advance purchase are for the hospitality suite.) Grandstand seating will accommodate about 4,000.

NAPA Auto Parts is the presenting sponsor, but a host of local sponsors and dozens of volunteers are contributing.

Devincenzi said, “The attitude seems to be, ‘We used to have these things. We would like them to be back.’ That was the attitude of the city. They want you to know that this was a really good thing. This was good for us and it was a good thing for the entire community. We should bring this back. And I was the guy for the last eight years reaching over and tapping somebody on the shoulder or reminding them about it. They finally said, ‘You know what? We not only want it back. We want it back as an annual event.’

“It took a good seven years of trying to get their attention, trying to get them to readdress it,” he added. “One of the new city councilmen … seemed to champion the cause and took it to the city. We’ve got a city manager who has done event production, so he understands what events do. And his whole philosophy was, ‘Our community needs these. We need good things to happen.’ He was totally supportive.”

The assumption is that blocking off a section of a famous and historic highway would present special problems. Devincenzi said, “It didn’t, because everybody has embraced the effort.”

By “everybody,” he meant the city’s staff, which includes the Arizona Department of Transportation, the sheriff’s department, the police department, the fire department and the city works.

He said they see the incredible detail that he, budget manager Dana Marino and Dicken Wear, a motorsports journalist and well-entrenched automotive-industry engineer and entrepreneur, have gone to. Devincenzi said, “We have done an incredible amount of behind-the-scenes detailed work to make sure that we dot every i and cross every t,  and that’s why it’s working. That’s why the city is comfortable with it.”

Marino, who teasingly calls herself “the bad guy” for holding costs to a reasonable level, said, “In the past it has been a little, ‘Well, I don’t know if we can do that. I don’t know.’ Now it’s like, ‘What do you need?’ Everyone has just bent over backward to help us put this together. It definitely is a huge team effort. And I’m really, really proud of Kingman for standing up and seeing the vision that we have for this.”

Kingman has the longest original intact strip of Route 66 anywhere in the country and four-lane Andy Devine Road overlaps it. So it’s no small undertaking, shutting down a major artery for the three days of the race, plus time to establish the course and break it down again.

The bottom line is after this concerted effort, several hundred drag racers will be ready (as Nat King Cole sang) to get their kicks on Route 66.

As Tiger Woods gets set to return to the spotlight, he'll do so in the unfamiliar position of longshot.

Woods headlines the four-man field in for The Challenge: Japan Skins, which will be played Monday afternoon in Japan and will be broadcast in the U.S. on Golf Channel beginning Monday at 12 a.m. ET. Woods has not played competitively since the BMW Championship in September, and according to oddsmakers at the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook he's least likely to walk away with the most skins money.

The betting favorite for the 18-hole exhibition is world No. 2 and reigning FedExCup champ Rory McIlroy, who is listed at 2/1. Crowd-favorite Hideki Matsuyama is next at 5/2, with Australia's Jason Day at 3/1 and Woods at the back of the pack at 7/2. Matusyama and Day are coming T-3 and T-31 performances at the CJ Cup. McIlroy last played at the Alfred Duhill Links, and Woods, who is coming off knee surgery, will be making his first competitive appearance since August.

The exhibition will be held at Narashino Country Club, which will also host the inaugural Zozo Championship beginning Thursday. Skins on hole Nos. 1-6 will be worth $10,000 each, with Nos. 7-12 at $15,000 each and Nos. 13-17 at $20,000 each. There will then be a "super skin" on the final hole worth $100,000. Certain holes will also include twists, with additional money going to support charitable partners.