With the exception of hockey which seems to have declined steadily (regardless of economic conditions), the overall health of sports teams seems to be fine. We haven’t heard much about ticket sales and attendance figures dropping, not to mention merchandise sales and money spent at games. We have heard that the economy may be preventing rich alumni from coming through on their promised donations to their alma maters, and now I’m reading that sponsorships of individual athletes could be waning. Evidence Buick with Tiger Woods:

GM may implement a round of cost cuts because a planned $15 billion in asset sales and savings won’t be enough to maintain its liquidity amid deteriorating sales, people familiar with the matter said. The company’s stock has dropped more than 74 percent this year, to $6.19 at yesterday’s close, and GM has cut 53,000 union workers since 2005.

Because of that, [Woods' agent Mark] Steinberg said in a telephone interview that he wants to find out if it “makes sense to continue” beyond 2009, when the contract expires.
…
In the coming year, [Woods' agent Larry] Peck said, Buick would be “trimming back” some of its spending on “back of the house” things, such as hospitality at sports events.

One of the problems might be that Tiger is out recovering from knee surgery meaning he’s not producing returns on investment. Buick is also a big sponsor of the PGA Tour in general, so they may choose to scale that back, if not Woods. Bottom line: if the money isn’t there, it’s going to be hard for Buick to advertise, right?

So most people were going gaga over Greg Norman’s resurgence at Royal Birkdale where he shot even par on both Thursday or Friday and two over Saturday, leaving him in the lead after 54 holes. All this talk about his brilliance and how his marriage to Chris Evert changed his life and gave him a new mental edge. Yeah, so much for that. If that were the case, then why did he blow the lead like usual? I do have to admit that I was utterly stunned to see Norman’s name towards the top of the leaderboard on Thursday. I honestly thought the senior scores were getting mixed in with the regular players because it had been so long since Norman was a contender on the scene. Anyway, Norman managed to turn the attention away from himself come the final round, and the real story was Padraig Harrington.

Last month I was fawning over Tiger Woods much like the rest of the media and viewing public when he battled a severe knee injury to win the U.S. Open. Needless to say, it was a pretty incredible feat. But how about Paddy Harrington? The big story entering the British Open aside from Tiger not being in it and Kenny Perry deciding not to play in it, was defending champ Padraig Harrington’s questionable status. Harrington hurt his wrist last weekend working a speedbag in the gym and couldn’t even manage more than three practice swings on Wednesday. Harrington even said his chances of completing the first round were only 50-50 and that if it were any other tournament, he would have pulled out of the event.

I didn’t get to watch a whole lot of the tournament, only a few holes here and there, but I do know it was just as much of a shock for me to see Harrington’s name towards the top of the leaderboard on Thursday, much like Norman. Even more shocking was to see Harrington come from behind to win his second straight claret jug. No asterisk here for a non-Tiger win — Harrington’s a legit champ who successfully defended his title. And seriously, how about some love for a guy who won a tournament even though his wrist was so bad he couldn’t take more than three practice swings the day before the event? I’d say that’s pretty darn incredible.

Just when it looked like Michelle Wie might actually do something productive on the LPGA tour, she goes out and flubs it all up with a bone-headed move. Ms. Wie last graced the pages here at LBS because of the news that she was dating former Stanford basketball star Robin Lopez. Prior to that, it was for withdrawing from an event and then later pulling out of one because of a wrist injury. In addition to withdrawing and pulling out of tournaments, Wie has now found a way to get disqualified, too.

Wie told reporters that after she finished her round Friday, she left the tent just above the ninth green where players sign their scorecards. She was chased down by volunteers working in the tent, who pointed out she hadn’t signed.

Wie returned to the tent and signed the card, and “I thought it would be OK,” she said.

But Wie, according to Witters, had already walked outside the roped-off area around the tent. At that point, the mistake was final, Witters said.

Witters said she and other tour officials didn’t learn about the mistake from volunteers until well after Wie teed off Saturday morning, so they let her finish the round.

And for such a dumb move, she was disqualified. Too bad since she was second after three rounds and really had a chance to do something huge — like actually win a tournament. Oh man, what could have been.

OK, so I was raving about Tiger’s performance on Saturday in the third round of the U.S. Open because of how well he played despite a knee injury that was killing him. Skeptics said he was faking it, and so did fellow players on tour, most notably Retief Goosen. I saw the pained look on his face and knew all wasn’t kosher. That feeling was confirmed as the news dropped on Wednesday that Tiger’s done for the year to get reconstructive surgery on his knee. So this much we do know: Tiger Woods won a major playing on a bum knee with a ruptured ACL and double stress fractures as the result of the arthroscopic surgery recovery. That part makes him courageous. But what might make him foolish was his decision to commit to playing the tournament rather than keep himself on the shelf. According to swing coach Hank Haney, not only was Tiger aware he should not have been playing, but he also called his shot:

“The week of Memorial [two weeks before the Open], I thought there was no chance he could play,” Haney said in a telephone interview from his home in Texas. “The doctors told him he needed to be on crutches for three weeks and then three more weeks of inactivity, and then you start rehabbing.

“But Tiger looked the guy in the eye and said, ‘I’m playing in the U.S. Open and I’m going to win.’ Then he started putting on his shoes and told me we’re going to go practice. It’s just incredible.”

OK, so there’s the legend. And Tiger did make it worth his while because he won. But was this in hindsight a foolish move, knowing what we know now — that he was going against doctors’ advice? This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a player go against doctor advice, and doctors don’t always have the right assessment (many seek second opinions). Still, despite the heroics, maybe it wasn’t worth it in the long run to do what Tiger did. Hopefully his career won’t be cut short by this knee injury. And truthfully, we’ll never know how much this particular choice impacted his injury. For all we know, he could have shredded his knee down the line anyway.

(Photo Courtesy Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

I’m glad I’ve opened up to golf in time to witness and enjoy Tiger Woods. I didn’t grow up playing golf, still don’t, and I never really watched or followed it growing up. Make that at all. It wasn’t until recently for work purposes that I started following golf much closer, even watching events. So while I always knew the big names just from watching SportsCenter enough, I really couldn’t, and probably still can’t have much of a historical debate on the subject. But I do know this much: it’s not too late for me to be up-to-date on Tiger Woods.

Coming off the knee surgery, playing through pain on Saturday, Woods was incredible. You could see him grimace when he took his shots. You could see his body tweaking and not properly rotating because of the knee. It clearly was hindering his game and he clearly was playing through pain. And I’m not talking about John Daly sacking it up after a night of tequila shots — I’m talking about real, authentic, I have to grit this out because my knee is killing me pain. And what Tiger did, the eagle putt on 13, the birdie on 17, and then the other eagle put on 18, was simply incredible. I didn’t think he even had a shot at sinking either of his putts on 13 or 18, yet he did, and he climbed up the leaderboard.

Could anyone else overshoot their chip shot and have it land in the cup on one bounce? That’s just how things work when you’re Tiger Woods. By the time things are done on Sunday, Tiger will probably have his 14th major and third U.S. Open title. If not, no big deal — nothing can top what he did in the third round on Saturday to take the lead. Only three golfers are under par for the tournament. The course is eating alive the world’s best players. Yet here’s Tiger, on the shelf for six weeks because of knee surgery, atop the leaderboard. He makes you want to work harder and be better at whatever it is that you do. And if he doesn’t, well, then you need to check your pulse.

Considering Andy North actually won a U.S. Open or two, his word holds slightly more credence than the standard analyst. Not really, but his formulas for predicting a winner are pretty cool. With that in mind, I would like to present the formula Andy North went through to arrive at a projected U.S. Open winner on ESPN. Check it out:

In case you can’t watch, I have transcribed the formula below …

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