Champions Tour Great Jim Thorpe Headed to Prison

"You want to beat me? Take me to a course with lots of water. I'll play chicken, because I can't stand to risk hitting a new ball into a water hazard. It's like throwing money away, man. Even playing for $100 a hole, I can't make myself take a chance of losing a $4 ball."
Jim Thorpe, Golf Digest, 2006
Shit happens. Sadly, sometimes, to decent people.
Such, it seems, is the case with three-time PGA Tour winner and frequent Champions Tour victor, Jim Thorpe.
The hard-scrabble golfer with the trademark Panama hat is going on forced sabbatical from golf because he's been sentenced to a year in prison for tax evasion.
Thorpe, who was raised dirt poor and suffered all the indignations heaped upon black golfers in the era that preceded Tiger Woods' reign, was never known to take the easy way out of anything.
But I happened to uncover a long-lost Golf Digest article about him that may offer tell-tale clues to Thorpe's undoing. In it, Thorpe describes how an act of kindness he committed while down to his precious last dollars led him into close connection with casino gambline operators. And he willfully divulges his fondness for betting on horse races, dice games, boxing matches, and the like.
Responding to the news, a chief blogger for the Golf Channel takes a rather pitiless view of Thorpe's plight.
But given Thorpe's back-story, and the way all John Daly's transgressions haven't kept him from pro golf's embrace, here's hoping that Gentleman Jim eventually gets to bask again on a sunny fairway on his way to victory.

Photo: Golf Digest

First It's Tiger. Now, Steroids? Pity the PGA.

Pro golf's governing body is being threatened with a lawsuit by a marginal player accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Reliable sources report that Doug Barron (left) has a federal lawsuit filed against the PGA for branding him as golf's first violator of substance abuse policies, if that's what it takes to salvage his career. Meanwhile, Barron's playing in golf's version of the chittlin' circuit to keep his name in the news and to try and regain his pro card.
He has claimed that any traces of testosterone and beta (tension) blockers in his system were from doctors' prescriptions, and he even reported his use of them before the '09 St. Jude Classic in Memphis where he got busted. He's suing the PGA for black-balling him for a year unfairly.
Presumable, the PGA has the upper hand and pockets deep enough to bury Barron in the bunkers of he legal system. But if he manages to win acclaim on the upstart eGolf Professional Tour, steroids in golf could become a much more sensitive issue.

Wall Street Journal: What's Nike's 'Plan B'?

Nike hasn't severed its ties to the meal-ticket known as Tiger yet. But, as the Wall Street Journal is reporting, the brand that had virtually nothing to do with golf until it tattooed itself to the game's great, disgraced icon is having second thoughts.
Woods may have helped Nike generate more than $1.5 billion over the last two years, but what has he done for them lately?
With Woods taking an "indefinite" layoff from competition in the glare of scandals surrounding him, Nike must explore other options to stave off declining sales. Fortunately, the brand has two 2009 Major tourney winners _ Lucas Glover (U.S. Open) and Stewart Cink (British) _ as well as the perky prodigy Michelle Wie in its stable.
Credible sources say golf equipment sales were declining at an annual rate exceeding 10 percent even before the sad news surrounding Tiger was unleashed, and Nike hasn't been immune to the swoon.
The question, then, is whether the PGA and all its cohorts can keep on truckin' now that the gravy train is gone.

Tiger Woods' Next EA Sports Game Launching

Not every sponsor has jumped off Tiger Woods' back now that it's been revealed that he prowled outside of his marriage to Elin.
The golf press is now reporting on the fact that EA Sports is going forward with its new online golf game centered around Woods, and will soon allow select users to test-drive the "breakthrough" technology to help iron out wrinkles before it goes live.
Tiger’s transgressions are forgiven as far as EA Sports President Peter Moore seems concerned: the golfer Moore considers “one of the greatest athletes in history” has helped EA earn far more than half a billion dollars in just the U.S. over the last decade according to respected estimates.
(Visit the EA web site for "open beta" access to "Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online")
The U.K.'s Independent tribune has just declared the online (PC) game "instantly gratifying", adding that the best feature of what's considered a pre-cursor to the inevitable launch of "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10" for the Wii is, "the option to play it via a web browser; register at tigerwoodsonline.ea.com, create a golfing persona, and let your browser take care of the rest."
Apparently, SOMEBODY (besides Elin) thinks of Tiger as a commodity you can still take to the bank.




Photo: EA Sports

Obama Foresees Big Comeback for Tiger

According to a breaking ABC News blog post, President Barack Obama has been coaxed into endorsing the notion of redemption for disgraced golfer Tiger Woods.
According to ABC, Obama's quoted in the next issue of People magazine stating that, "I suspect that he will try to put his life back together again."
The Commander in Chief and the greatest golfer ever have reportedly met on several occasions.
Meanwhile, the mass media swirls with a tsunami of unsubstantiated rumors about the status of Woods' career, marriage and endorsement opportunities.
Keep relying on Fore!BlackGolfers for relevant updates as they occur, and visit the COMMENT box below to register your reaction.
Photo: Flickr

Jesper Parnevik Pokes Fun At Caged Tiger

"Of course, we're going to have to chat," he said. "Obviously, we're going to have to compete against each other." Jesper Parnevik, AP Jan. Jesper Parnevik has just anointed himself as the “Harry Reid” of professional golf.
The way he’s been talking out of the side of his mouth about Tiger Woods lately makes fervent viewers of the game hope and pray that the peacock of the PGA manages to retain and main his pro card for a few years hence.
That way, there’s at least the prospect that we’ll get to see a pairing between Woods and Parnevik, in which the former pummels the latter like he stole something.
In the minds of many who agree that there are certain Universal man rules that one should never run afoul of, Parnevik insinuated that Woods deserved a beat down from his estranged wife, Elin, once word first leaked and then flooded about his extra-marital affairs.
Now the course jester's gone way off the tracks be saying he's not sorry for describing Woods _ who, as of now, remains married to Parnevik's former nanny _ as a complete phony in his eyes.
Parnevik, who limps into this weekend's Sony Open on a wing and a prayer of again grasping elite status, said he's spoken harshly of Woods because he takes the issue of cheating on Elin "personal".
Personal? PERSONAL?
Just imagine how personal things might get if Tiger and Jesper ever get paired up in the future. If Woods was miked up, they'd have to bleep out half the telecast. And in the press conference afterward, Tiger would no doubt gnaw on the opportunity to detail why Jesper was so inferior to begin with.
One way or another, this saga will play out.
Parnevik points to people like his wife, close friends of Elin's, who have enough intimate knowledge to break the story wide open. With friends like Parnevik, who needs enemies?
Enjoy the beats, and hit us back in the COMMENT BOX below..









PHOTO: FLICKR

Charles Barkley's Golf Swing No Longer Funny

A year ago, replaying those first few YouTube clips of the Round Mound of Rebound's butchery on the golf course seemed like they'd be hilarious for eternity. No more.
Charles Barkley's second time hosting "Saturday Night Live" put an end to the merriment, when he spoofed the "Haney Project" series he had on The Golf Channel. Yes, his swing was "terrible" to start with.
But he didn't need to exaggerate it by sweeping a broom in the miniature kitchen SNL set up, did he?
Off the cuff, no out-of-shape, retired and unrepentent pro athlete is funnier than Barkley. Just like his golf swing before the planet learned how "terrible" it was; spontaneity is the key him.

Escort Claims Tiger Woods Is Bi-Sexual

As if the blistering essay by Buzz Bissinger in the latest issue of Vanity Fair wasn't damaging enough to Tiger Woods' public personna, now a high-paid Italian escort is reportedly shopping around a tell-all book in which she'll claim to have witnessed the golf superstar engaging in gay sex.
According to the web's celeb news receptacle RadarOnline, some tramp named Loredana Jolie Ferriolo is taking great pains to be spotted taking golf lessons in Florida these days while she tries to cash in on "arranged" romps with Woods. So far, she provides no proof of her claims of illicit sex with the 14-time Major tourney champ.
And, to date, not one money-grubbing male has stepped out to declare that he too was among the alleged list of concubines in Woods' wake. So this camp's not lending an ounce of credence to Ferriolo's gambit, and looks forward to the day when all the spotty claims go away.



Photo: Annie Leibovitz/VanityFair.com

Tiger Woods' Wife Has Her Wedding Ring Back On

Let the rampant speculation about the fate of Tiger Woods’ floundering marriage begin…AGAIN!
People magazine’s brandishing a brand new (uncredited) photo of the incomparable, philandering golfer’s wife (and baby mama to two heirs) on the ski slopes of the Swiss Alps, draped head-to-waist in virginal white with a cell phone tucked up to her lovely left ear.
Lo and behold, though: the fair, mistreated Elin has a blinging ring on her wedding finger in that shot of her in chic Chamonix, France!
A few week’s back, the media gaped at photos of her pumping gas into her luxury SUV without one on. This shot just fuel’s the flames.
Wouldn’t one run a much greater risk of losing an heirloom like that FOREVER on a ski slope than at the local GasUpNGo?
And what’s she saying on that phone in the midst of a slalom run?
“Take Your Name Off Your Phone”?
Or, “Gayle, tell Oprah I’ll call her back in a bit”?
Shoot your best shot in the comment box below!

Golf's True Black Pioneer, Bill Powell, Passes Away

Let's take a brief break from bemoaning Tiger Woods' self-imposed suspension from competitive golf, and take time instead to reflect respectfully on the passing of a true great pioneer of the game.
On New Year's Eve, Bill Powell _ credited as the first and only Black man to build and operate his own golf course _ passed away at age 93. Powell's Clearview Golf Club in East Canton, Ohio originally opened as a nine-hole track in 1948 and ultimately gained recognition as a National Historic Landmark.
After serving his country in the Air Force during World War II, Powell returned home to the harsh reality that he was barred because of his race from playing the game he'd grown to love as a caddy. Undeterred, he purchased a large parcel of land and employed his own back-breaking labor to create Clearview.
His obituary in the New York Times states: "In August 2009, when the P.G.A. of America held the 91st annual P.G.A. Championship in the Minneapolis area, it bestowed its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, on Mr. Powell."
And in his acceptance speech, "He closed with his credo: 'Stand firm. Never give up. Never give in. Believe in yourself, even when others don’t'.”
It's pitiful that Woods is secluded away in shame right now and, thus, unable to publicly pay Powell his due accolades.