You heard all the headlines: Tiger Woods is unbeatable when leading a major after 54 holes. Start engraving his name in the Wanamaker trophy already — no point letting things play out because Tiger wins and everyone else folds. Not the case on Sunday with Y.E. Yang, who actually had the balls to step up and challenge Woods, despite being down by two strokes entering Sunday. If there was a turning point that helped Yang win the PGA Championship, it was this eagle on 14:

Man, he nailed that chip in the clutch and that eagle made him -8 for the tournament, a stroke up on Tiger Woods. Yang didn’t fold over the next four holes, and he didn’t fold after missing a putt on 17 that could have given him a two-shot lead. The best part is someone stood up to Woods and won a major going heads-up against him. I can only hope this gives other golfers confidence entering future tournaments knowing Woods is mortal. As for Tiger, putting was his problem the entire round. He’ll definitely be back.

First it was Anthony Kim hitting a spectator in the butt on a drive at AT&T National a month ago. This time it was Sergio Garcia nailing a dude in the gallery in the head with one of his drives that hooked slightly to the left. Check it out:

Straight in the coconut! That had to have hurt. Oh yeah, nice to the see the members of the gallery paying attention at all times.

There’s a cool video making its way around the sports blogosphere and it features Padraig Harrington trying out the Happy Gilmore swing to see how it works. It’s another excellent video put together by the people at FSN’s Sport Science and though it’s long, it’s worth it. Sport Science also had the breakdown of the fastest release shot by Jason Kapono that we posted here not long ago.

In case you don’t have the time to watch it, Padraig averaged an extra 30 yards per drive with the Gilmore swing thanks to the run up that created a faster swinging speed. I doubt that any golfer will have the balls to use this method in actual tournament play, but maybe it’s worth a shot for someone looking to gain an edge. Thanks to Yahoo!’s Devil Ball Golf for the video.

Admittedly, I didn’t see all 72 holes of the Masters this week, but I definitely saw Kenny Perry blow the Masters in the last two holes. Perry was up by two strokes with two holes to play after he eagled 16. Perry hadn’t bogeyed a hole in his final round leading up to 17. All he needed was a par on either hole and he was set free as the oldest winner of any major at age 48. Instead, Perry hit into a bunker on 18 and saw the green jacket vanish before his eyes. Thing is, despite choking, Perry still had a chance to win it all in the playoff. Chad Campbell bogeyed on the first playoff hole leaving just Angel Cabrera and Perry. Cabrera had even hit straight into the woods on the first playoff hole — he wasn’t exactly playing stellar golf. Despite blowing it, Perry says the choke job won’t haunt him:

“I may never get this opportunity ever again, but I had a lot of fun being in there,” Perry said. “I had the tournament to win. I lost the tournament. But Angel hung in there. I was proud of him.”
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I’m not going to feel sorry,” Perry said. “If this is the worst thing that happens to me, I can live with it. I really can. Great players get it done, and Angel got it done. This is his second major he won. I’ve blown two. But that’s the only two I’ve had chances of winning.”

I enjoy Perry’s perspective on the issue but it’s disappointing that he blew it. Anyone watching the telecast saw his wife and daughter, so you can probably understand why he can live with it — he’s already pretty well set. And by the way, am I the only one wondering how Tiger and Phil wound up in the same pairing Sunday? Based on their respective scores following the third round, they shouldn’t have been matched up together. Gotta love CBS trying to manipulate the ratings and make it more about those two than the actual winner. In this case though, it’s hard to really call Cabrera the champion with the way he backed into things.

I’ve been playing miniature golf since I was five and I still haven’t sunk two aces in the same round. But someone did that on a real course in Lake Placid two weeks ago. That person also happens to be the aunt of the venerable SpinMax. Barbara Lockwood defied the odds (67 million to one they say) by picking up a couple of aces in the same round, and she shared her story:

I was screaming and jumping up and down, and the lady that was with Logan, she was saying ‘Girl Power!’ On the second one, I got up on the green and was waving the flag back and forth.
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It was crazy. I called my nephew in Ohio, and he couldn’t believe it, he was going crazy because he never had one. And then I called my 90-year old mother after the first one, in her nursing home.

The nephew in Ohio? That’s right — SpinMax. Poor guy. First he can’t shoot the buck in his backyard, now he has to see his aunt pick up three aces before he gets one. Maybe next round will be your lucky day. Just make sure your aunt splits her lottery winnings with you afterwards.

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.
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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?