All posts in Golf

Tiger loses Gillette; Influence Drops; Hordes Cheer

By | December 27, 2010 | Athletes Who Advertise, Celebrity Athletes, Golf | 2 Comments

… or maybe not HORDES, but at least me.

I don’t know I care, as it has zero bearing on his ability as an athlete, but, as I’ve discussed many times before, Tiger made a living selling his image as a clean-cut family man, not just as an athlete, so with every endorsement he loses, I cheer a little inside. And outside. And then I discuss it with everyone I know, even though no one cares as much as I do.

He’s already lost Accenture, Gatorade, AT&T and others, and his endorsement earnings were down $22M year over year, but now — yeehaw! — Gillette is the latest sponsor to tell him to hit the road. And after all, he still has Nike.

2009 wasn’t exactly a spectacular year for our fine golfing friend, and I would say that it’s relatively rare for athletes to truly reap the consequences of their actions — after all, $22M down, the dude is still left with $70M, and that’s just for ONE YEAR. And yet, you have to wonder (hope?) if others will follow suit.

Tiger Woods on his knees

Jonna is stoked that the Patriots clinched home field advantage and remains as riveted by Tiger (and Elin) as ever.

Sports News Roundup: Same Stupidity, Different Week Edition

By | October 18, 2010 | Baseball, Basketball, Football, Golf, NFL, Payoffs, playoffs, Tennis | Comments Off

Another week, another round of “You’re an idiot, <insert name of professional athlete here>!” It shouldn’t surprise me anymore, and the ease of finding material is astounding, but jeez Louise, people. These gentlemen (ahem) get paid loads of money and are, in the eyes of some, heroes. But man, are they stupid sometimes..

Duking it out in the boneheaded-retireee category:

Warren Sapp? He was pulled over by a cop in a minivan, but yesterday he had moved on to other more pressing concerns.

Picture 3

Lenny Dykstra? He’s pretending to be a lawyer and demanding his creditors return the private jet they reposessed. He’d like them to give him $800,000 too. He’s also a cutie, right?

lenny-dykstra

John Elway? Ponzi scheme, anyone?

I guess Auto Nation wasn’t the bonanza he was looking for.

elway-auto-nation

Liar? Faker? Crybaby?

That would be Gilbert Arenas. Yawn.

Illegal betting?

Check. Tiger didn’t have enough trouble in his life, and no comment from Federer.

Ouch

Pinkies are apparently overrated — or at least they are if you’re Hokie left guard Greg Nosal and want to finish the damn game. I’m a mom. I’ve said, “Don’t interrupt me unless there’s blood.” But this? Ridonculous.

And he plays fantasy baseball too.

greg-nosal-vt

Big Hair

Elvis has not left the building, or had a haircut since March. Somebody tell him he’s not a hockey player and playoff beards do not belong on top of your head.

elvis-andrus

[Photo: In.com]
[Photo: Dailypress.com]
[Photo: US Presswire]

Weekly Roundup: Sex, Drugs, and Bieber Edition

By | October 2, 2010 | Baseball, Cycling, Golf, Soccer, Unsportmanlike Conduct, WTF? | 2 Comments

Sex

Cincinnati Bengal Chad Ochocinco was trying to help Feed the Children by having their phone number for donations printed on boxes of his cereal, “OchocincOs.” A typo sends callers to a phone sex line instead. If Chad were not a Bengal, would this be as funny? I think not.

20060708_jab_ts1_772.jpg

Premier League players are accused of hiring 15 hookers for a post-match celebration party. This probably wouldn’t be news if one of the hookers had not been a transvestite. He kept that little tidbit to himself while doing “some oral stuff” with Fulham defender Carlos Salcido. Salcido intends to sue the transvestite. That will be fun.

Drugs

Alberto Contador is blaming his positive drug test during the Tour de France on bad steak. Contador, who won the title, tested positive in a test taken the last rest day of the 2010 Tour. His story sounds plausible. The drug detected is given to cows and meat from Spain that was consumed by Contador and his teammates. The fact that it’s the Tour de France makes this one a bit of a yawn. As Contador said, “It’s almost normal for people to doubt this sport now.” Gee, you think? This surely isn’t the end of this story, especially since Lance Armstrong is a former teammate of both Contador and Floyd Landis, the only Tour winner to be stripped of his title. So far, anyway.

Bieber

Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins has purchased the rights to a Justin Bieber song. I have no idea what this means. It’s probably just an Eenie Meenie sign of the apocalypse.

“Shawty is a (sic) eenie meenie miney mo lover?” Who wouldn’t want to co-sign that genius? Um…

None of the Above

Last week I mentioned the sport of wife-carrying.

wife-carrying-for-beer

I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the Harris Cup International Miniature Golf Tournament, being contested this weekend in Vestal, NY. Winners of regional qualifiers meet in Vestal to decide a champion. Nobody wins their weight in beer, though.

[source] [source] [source] [source] [source]

Top photo: Robert Seale/TSN /ZUMA Press.

Bottom photo: Eightface.com

October, Wales, Golf . . . Who’s In?

By | October 2, 2010 | Football, Golf | Comments Off

Remember the British Open?  It’s usually played in the midst of summer, July – competitors normally look like they’re about to head out for the Iditarod?  Well, this year they’re playing another tournament in the UK, but later in the year.  It’s the Ryder Cup and I hope everyone brought their mittens.

October Golf - Feel the Heat!

October Golf - Feel the Heat!

I am only half joking.  I live in Cleveland and the weather here is no day at the beach, even when you’re spending the day at the beach.  But whenever I see golf in England I have to take a minute to appreciate how completely miserable it looks.  40 degrees, driving rain and gale-force winds?  Where are my sticks?

Golf was not meant for October.  They invented the game, you would think they know this by now.

One sport meant for October is co-ed (double) touch football.  Wave of Mutilation gears up for a 10 am game tomorrow morning.  Yes 10 am.  Now, 10 years ago, this was a dicey proposition for my team.  We were all in our young to mid-twenties, we were out getting drunk the night before and maybe someone would puke on the sideline (and maybe that happened last year, who’s to say?).  But now, we are old and we have kids.  I was up til 12:30 last night and was probably the only one to miss curfew.  This might seem like a downer, but it often turns into an advantage when our less teetotaling opponents show up groggy to the field.

As life changes you have different problems to solve out on the field like how do we run a three-deep zone while keeping all the kids off the field?  And, we might have to leave the game if Lincoln’s nap doesn’t last through the half.  And the lessons are different as well.  I promise to be understanding when my boy drops a wide open two-point conversion.  But the ball hit my hat and then I couldn’t see with the hat and the clouds and sun in my eyes!

Despite the adversity (and the weather), we’ll happily be out there tomorrow.  Then maybe we’ll get a quick round of golf in – parkas and all.

Twitter at the Ryder Cup: Will They or Won’t They?

By | September 29, 2010 | Athletes on Twitter, Golf, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

On Sunday it was reported that both the European and US Ryder Cup teams had banned the use of the social networking site, Twitter, for the duration of the tournament.

U.S. Captain Corey Pavin said the team as a whole has decided not to tweet this week, because it can be distracting and takes focus away from the Cup, matches and team camaraderie.

“But first thing a week from today, I’m sure tweeting will be all over the place,” Pavin said.

(Dude obviously doesn’t get Twitter. “Tweeting will be all over the place”? Amateur.)

NEWPORT, WALES - SEPTEMBER 28: Rickie Fowler of the USA walks across a green during a practice round prior to the 2010 Ryder Cup at the Celtic Manor Resort on September 28, 2010 in Newport, Wales.

Gratuitous shot of cutie pie Rickie Fowler since he’s probably the cutest of the bunch, said in a non-pervy, mom-cute kinda way. Check out those eyes!

Combined, Corey Pavin, Rickie Fowler, Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson, Hunter Mahan, and Bubba Watson have over 1.3 million followers. And that is only a portion of the US team. On the European side between Colin Montgomerie, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy and Francesco Molinari there are more than one million followers. Those are some powerful numbers in the Twitterverse.

Other professional sports that have banned Twitter use include the NHL, NFL, NBA, and the MLB, most putting a time limit before and after game time, restricting all organization employees. The ban for the Ryder Cup teams just seemed to follow suit.

It doesn’t end there, though.

On Tuesday the ban was lifted by Montgomerie, or modified to allow personal tweets.

“Tweeting has not been banned,” he said. He also who claims never to have used Twitter, (the account linked above is for his foundation.) “Whatever they do [in the posts], whatever they are, respect is shown for what is said within the team room. That’s what I have banned. They can do whatever they have to do elsewhere regarding their thoughts.”

HUH? Let me interpret for you:

“Don’t tweet about the Ryder Cup specifically but feel free to tell whomever is listening that you just took a crap.”

So. Will they or won’t they? So far today I’ve seen a few tweets about mundane stuff, practice rounds, losing cash to their practice partners, etc. No evidence of anyone taking a crap. Damn. That’s what I turn to Twitter for. I guess they’re all taking the ban seriously, so if you’re a golf fan and like to follow your favorite player on Twitter for the inside scoop, you’ll just have to wait until the tournament is over, but by then all the news will be old.

Kendra would love to watch the Ryder Cup but it starts at 2 am. Who gets up for that shit?

source source source photo

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