As you may have heard, Tiger Woods was critical of a rules official at this past week’s World Golf Championship for putting Padraig Harrington and him on the clock with 3 holes to play Sunday.  Tiger stated, “I thought they would have used better judgment on that considering we were the ones that were probably going to win the golf tournament in the last group. We separated ourselves.”

Initially, a PGA Tour official announced that Tiger had been fined for his comments.   Earlier this morning, however, Tiger stated that he had not been fined.

Our inside source claims that Tiger has now actually been fined for publicly stating that he was not fined.  “We have to draw the line somewhere,” yet another PGA official told our source.  “It’s one thing to criticize a rules official, but it’s an entirely different story when you say you weren’t fined after the PGA announces you were fined.  That’s unacceptable.”

When asked if Tiger really was fined for saying that he was not fined, the PGA official reminded our source that the PGA does not make its fines of players public.

ESPN is reporting that Michael Crabtree’s adviser, David Wells, claims Crabtree will be willing to sit out the entire NFL season and re-enter the draft next year if the 49ers do not make him a reasonable contract offer.  Crabtree was taken 10th and think he is not getting the respect he deserves in San Fran.

Apparently, Wells based his advice to Crabtree on his negotiations back in 1998 with the Yankees.  “I told Mike a little story,” Wells said, “about how in ‘98 when the Yanks offered me a contract that said I could not drink more than 10 beers a day.  I told them to go to hell, and then signed with the Padres.”

That worked out well, right?

With Tiger Woods having surprisingly missed the cut, ABC has decided not to show the final two rounds of the 2009 British Open.  Instead, ABC will show a replay of the final two rounds of the 2006 Open, won by Tiger with a -18.

“People would rather watch Tiger,” an anonymous source told us.  “And with the PGA rules so strict about this stupid ‘cut’ thing, we have no choice but to air the archived footage.”

If you’re a Chris DiMarco fan, don’t tune it.

We just read that the Detroit Pistons are firing head coach Michael Curry after hiring him just one year ago to attempt to coach a steaming bag of cow poo.  We feel bad for Curry, adn we think it’s really poor form to hire some guy, give him nothing to work with, then fire him after he somehow makes the playoffs.  Curry led his team to a 39-43 record.

If you gave Phil Jackson a team with Aaron Afflalo, Kwame Brown, Will Bynum, Rip Hamilton, Walter Hermann, Allen Iverson, Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell, Antonio McDyess, Tayshaun Prince. Walter Sharp, Rodney Stuckey, and Rasheed Wallace — he’d have gone 40-42 at best.

Maybe drafting Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony in the 2003 draft might have been the real mistake.

Good luck, Detroit.

We have just read where former Cub great Ryne Sandberg has commented that he doesn’t think Sammy Sosa belong in the Hall of Fame.

Sosa’s response to our inside sources… “I barely can speak English, and even I know the way you spell that name should be R-Y-A-N.”

While we can all agree that the story of Dirk Nowitzki and his crazy, lying, ex-fiancee Crista Ann Taylor is pretty messed up, we have heard some rumors that this cloud might have at least one silver lining.  We have been told by some sources that, after reading this article about a Dirk interview with a German publication, David Hasselhoff will be composing a song in Nowitzki’s honor.  If so, we can only assume that the song will be a number one hit in Dirk’s home nation for the 3 years following it’s release.

The Hoff told sources that it was the least he could after hearing about Dirk singing his songs at the free throw line in the 2006 finals.  We’ve been told the tentative title of the song is “A Few Little Dirks Running Around (It Won’t Be Easy To Win My Heart).”

In the 5 games of the NBA Finals, here’s what Pau Gasol did:

Game 1 - 16 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks

Game 2 - 24 pts, 10 rebs, 3 asts, 1 block

Game 3 - 23 pts, 3 rebs, 1 asts, 2 blocks

Game 4 - 16 pts, 10 rebs, 1 asts

Game 5 - 14 pts, 15 rebs, 3 asts, 4 blocks

Also, Gasol held Dwight Howard to just 11.4 points per game.

And now here’s the pertinent blurb from NBA.com on February 1, 2008…

“The Los Angeles Lakers have acquired forward Pau Gasol in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies, it was announced today by General Manager Mitch Kupchak. The Lakers will also receive the Grizzlies second round draft choice in 2010. In exchange Memphis will receive forward Kwame Brown, guard Javaris Crittenton, guard Aaron McKie (who the Lakers signed earlier today), the draft rights to Marc Gasol and first round picks in 2008 and 2010.”

After a failed attempt to make it as one of the doctors on “Grey’s Anatomy,” Andrew McLardy will now try to win the U.S. Open.