Monday was the slowest sports day of the year.
No Major League Baseball games due to the all-star break.
It was rest day at the Tour de France.
After all the excitement at the Women's World Cup on Sunday, the stadium was empty on Monday.
There simply wasn't a score or a game in sight.
We needed something to break the monotony.
Perhaps the National Football League would announce the end of its lockout. The timing would be perfect. With virtually no other sports news, the NFL?would top every front sports page and would dominate SportsCenter.
But, alas, that didn't happen.
Although progress is being made, the two sides still haven't completely settled their differences.
Just when we were resigned to the fact there just wasn't going to be any big sports news, along came word that Tiger Woods was going to make a major announcement.
Shades of LeBron James saying he was taking his talents to South Beach. This was going to be huge.
Immediately, the speculation began.
Perhaps Tiger had made an amazing recovery and was ready to return to the PGA?Tour.
Or, his knee was so bad he had been informed that his golf career was over.
Of course, there was the distinct possibility the announcement wouldn't be quite that dramatic, but it obviously was going to be big news on the slowest sports day of the year.
The Golf Channel was all over it. This was going to be major breaking news.
Then, it happened. The announcement was - drum roll, please -that Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, was joining Excel Sports Management.
That's it. Th-th-th-at was all, folks.
No Earth-shattering revelation. No return to golf. No retirement.
We had been had.
At least Tiger got his name mentioned in a week when the British Open is being contested.
Perhaps it -like the recently-completed U.S. Open -will serve as another reminder that golf is going to be just fine, with or without Tiger.
Obviously, we're all hoping it's with Tiger.
But the longer it goes without him, the more opportunities for new stars like Rory McIlroy to take his place as the best golfer in the world.
I used to say golf needed Tiger more than he needed golf. Now, I'm not so sure. Golf survived after Hogan, after Snead, after Palmer, after Nicklaus, after all its legendary players.
Thanks in large part to Tiger opening up the game not only to a new generation but also to parts of the world where it was a foreign sport, golf will survive even if he doesn't return.
Come Thursday, we'll be too busy following the likes of McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and a large contingent of Americans around Royal St. George's Golf Club.
In other words, we'll be focusing on who is there, rather than who is not competing.
Contact Dave Poe at dpoe@newsandsentinel.com
