Woods may have helped Nike  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.

“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,

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  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 gambline operators. And he willfully divulges his fondness for betting on horse races, dice , boxing matches, and the like.

Responding to the , a chief blogger for the Golf Channeltakes 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.