Happy New Year!

Thanks to all for your insights, wisdom and humor. It's been an interesting year and 2010 figures to be another doozy! I look forward to sharing it with (most) of you.

Geoff

So Much For The Friday Afternoon News Dump: AT&T Drops Tiger**

Though I do think New Year's Eve is kind of your basic Friday afternoon no matter what day it falls on.

Some good news in the announcement: they are not dropping their sponsorship of Tiger's PGA Tour stop. Oh, and they wish Tiger well.

Update on 2009-12-31 18:16 by Geoff

**CNBC's Darren Rovell, who is often agent Mark Steinberg's first stop for revealing Tiger business news, paints a bleak future for the Tiger Woods Foundation's future now that AT&T is not renewing its deal to sponsor "Tiger Jam." He also suggests that while Nike is likely to pick up Tiger's bag sponsorship, Chevron could be the next corporation to pull out of its Woods related deals.

If there's a natural next sponsor to go, it's likely Chevron, which is in a similar situation in terms of having a less visible role with Woods, but a more active role with the foundation. It's clear that the foundation, which has done a tremendous job in raising money over the last decade, won't do as well in the near future.

Tiger's Indefinite Leave Clippings, 34th Birthday Edition

With Furman Bisher's stamp of approval, publications galore (and heavily trafficked blogs) have picked up the "real story" email details, with some now quoting Bisher directly! (Give credit to the Daily Mail for taking down their version that originally said "Bisher writes" every other sentence.)

Deadspin's A.J. Daulerio details how many times he's received the email and notes the added details in later editions. (My favorite is the stuff about Mark O'Meara playing poker with Tiger Thanksgiving night, even though he moved out of Isleworth a while ago and lives in Houston.)

Leslie Gornstein of E! analyzes the validity of the email and even manages to get a quote from agent Mark Steinberg about the contents:

"This is just another patently false rumor being circulated," Steinberg tells E!

Note to Steiney: just a few details from your end would put a stop to a lot of the speculation and absurd stufff. For example, you could explain that you weren't in Orlando the night of the incident, so that would make it kind of hard for you to have hopped in the car and headed to the hospital. Just a thought!

Gornstein also notes this regarding the Bay Hill aspect of the chain mail:

The email says: Woods is now staying in golf legend Arnold Palmer's upscale golf community, Bay Hill, in Orlando. Apparently, Woods' sports agency implored Palmer to coach him through this tough time; Palmer is seen as possibly the only person who can get through to Tiger.

The truth: That's news to staffers at Bay Hill Country Club, who tell E! they are unaware of Woods visiting since the incident.

Stephanie Wei tracks the source and puts out an APB on the culprit.

I'm just disappointed the version I posted hasn't been picked up by Bisher yet.

Just four years removed from the "Tiger at 30" orgy of columns, features and other assorted essays, Randell Mell is the only golf writer daring enough to tackle Tiger's 34th birthday needs.

But if you were going to get him a gift, what would you get him?

A compass? To find his way back?

A chauffeur? To avoid driving into fire hydrants at night?

Ear plugs? To shut out the jeers that may be coming?

Forgiveness? If you haven’t granted it, will you?

Words of encouragement? And if so, what would they be?

A prayer? If you believe, what would you pray?

Speaking of his birthday, X17 says he's spending it at Wickenberg, Arizona clinic for PR purposes.

"He has been there for a few days since his handlers forced him to enter the program. They feel that if he blames his cheating on addiction, the public will forgive him."

Jose Lambiet talks to several folks in Palm Beach and Tiger definitely is not there living the good life with Rachel Uchitel. (Thanks reader Steven T.)

It seems several people are taking issue with the UC Davis study that has now been picked up all over the place. Holes are punched here, here, here, here and here.

Steve Elling praises Golf Digest for benching Tiger's column:

We'll probably never know who made the editorial call and why, but the game's most popular publication, Golf Digest, has benched playing editor Tiger Woods indefinitely in the aftermath of his trysts with various women in various towns at various times in various positions (hey, that's about as nice as I can phrase it). After enduring ridicule for having Woods on the cover this month with a photo-shopped picture of President Obama -- the cover was in production weeks before the Woods scandal broke -- the monthly magazine elected to give the world No. 1 some time off to plot his personal and professional course. Besides, the next cover story was probably something like, "Tiger Woods: Escaping the Ultimate Bad Lie." Just wondering aloud: How many of these firms that have, somewhat controversially, stood by Woods have signed binding contracts they cannot escape from?

And finally, Bob Harig talks to several players about Tiger's play golf over the last decade.

As for anyone else putting together this kind of 10-year stretch?

"You never say never," Cink said. "When Jack was doing it, we all said, 'Nobody will ever do this again.' I think it probably will happen again, just because of the way that history does repeat itself.

"But at this point, it's hard to imagine. It's hard to imagine someone getting a lot better. Except if Tiger was an extremely straight driver of the ball. The next guy to come along to be the greatest ever will have to be a really accurate driver. That's the only thing someone could do better, and even then it's not guaranteed."

"This is the biggest bogey Finchem has ever made."

The surprisingly chipper talk of Tiger coming back unblemished meant this exchange from the SI Confidential went unnoticed:

Anonymous Pro: The thing that we thought would drive the Tour was the World Golf Championships. If anything, those events are killing the other tournaments. Why? The WGC tournaments draw top players away from regular Tour events, which we need now more than ever.

Bamberger: The Tour basically oversold Tiger, and in the end it's an uphill slog when he doesn't appear. The Tour's long tradition is about local events and local charities. They tried to join the big leagues and were somewhat successful but found that golf is still a niche sport, although it can break out from time to time. The WGC events haven't connected with anyone and at the same time have ruined the real heart of the Tour, stops like L.A. or Hartford or Colonial that are now unfairly perceived as second-rate.

Anonymous Pro: Tiger and Phil wanted the season to end sooner. They weren't playing after mid-August, sometimes not even in the season-ending Tour Championship. Now that the FedEx Cup concludes the season in September, they're taking advantage of the downtime they asked for by playing overseas for big appearance fees. Didn't Finchem know that was going to happen? I'm not blaming Tiger or Phil. I'd play in a dress for $3 million. It is the Tour's fault for allowing it, and it really rubs me the wrong way. This is the biggest bogey Finchem has ever made.

Short term I think it's terribly wrong to call the WGC concept a bogey. But in the post-Tiger accident and Great Recession economy, long term the events appear to bring as many complications as solutions.

I'm guessing that hard questions internally about the value of WGC events will be forbidden as long as Finchem is commissioner. But the combination of increased animosity outside of the U.S. toward the America-centric concept and the inability of stops like San Diego to draw sponsor interest, could mean 2010 will lead to a closer examination of the World Golf Championship concept. Long overdue.

“We immediately jumped on that and said we have to dig deeper"

In an NY Times Business story, Brian Stelter explores TMZ's business model and upcoming expansion into sports.

This year, TMZ continued to provide fodder for news media ethics classes (and police investigations) by, for instance, publishing a photo of the singer Rihanna after an assault and reprinting details of the actress Brittany Murphy’s autopsy report.

Sometimes the objections to TMZ’s tactics come from within Time Warner. In an interview on Golf.com, James P. Herre, the managing editor of the Sports Illustrated Golf Group, called TMZ’s sourcing on recent pieces about Mr. Woods “beyond flimsy.”

But Mr. Levin defended the reporting, saying TMZ “has the same rigid standards as any operation in America.” Its track record of accuracy may speak for itself. He recalled that the initial claims surrounding Mr. Woods’s car accident on Nov. 27 “made no sense.”

“We immediately jumped on that and said we have to dig deeper,” he said.