Buick might drive away from golf
The wheels that have driven the Buick Open the past 50 years will be falling off.
As General Motors tries to recover from bankruptcy, The Associated Press reported Tuesday the carmaker will end its sponsorship of the PGA Tour event after this week's 51st annual edition.
The company's contract for the Open and San Diego's Buick Invitational in February ends in 2010.
"Both are under discussion, and we haven't signed or agreed to any changes at this point," a GM spokesman said.
General Motors earlier this year parked nine-year Buick spokesman Tiger Woods and extensively cut its financial involvement in American racing, including NASCAR.
GolfWeek Magazine, citing two sources it did not identify, reported on its Web site last week that GM would end the PGA Tour's longest partnership.
• T.O. NO HELP -- Outspoken receiver Terrell Owens would have done more to help Michael Vick if he hadn't tried to help.
Owens, now with the Buffalo Bills, lobbied last weekend for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to not further punish Vick and to allow the troubled quarterback to return to the NFL immediately.
"It's almost like kicking a dead horse in the ground," Owens said Saturday of adding a suspension to the two years Vick served in prison.
The idiom Owens tried to use actually is "beating a dead horse." Neither phrase, however, conjures a good image in defense of a man convicted of running a dogfighting operation and killing dogs.
• HELLO, ANYONE THERE? -- A deaf Ohio State fan wants the school to put captions on its scoreboards and televisions in concession areas at football and basketball games.
Vincent Sabino, a 32-year-old Hilliard, Ohio, resident, has asked the federal court in Columbus to order the changes under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"The PA announcer says, 'Wells carries the ball for 4 yards and is tackled by Jones.' The PA announcer says something to that effect after every play," said Marc Charmatz, a lawyer with the National Association of the Deaf. "These are parts of the game. And when a deaf person's sitting in the stands, they're not getting that part."
The association won a similar suit against the Washington Redskins in 2006.
The first correspondence the university received from Sabino was in a letter requesting action, Ohio State spokesman Jim Lynch told Dispatch.com.
"The bottom line is, had the individual called us, we would have taken action," he said.
Apparently, Lynch was looking for a one-sided conversation.
• OBAMA TWO-PEATS -- President Barack Obama liked so much what he said to the Connecticut women's basketball team three months ago when he honored the NCAA champions that he called a similar play Monday, when the WNBA champion Detroit Shock visited the White House.
In both speeches, the president said he wanted to speak as a father and noted how daughters Sasha and Malia benefit from seeing the players on ESPN because it showed his daughters that "they can be champions, too."
WNBA officials were elated to learn at least two people watch the league's highlights.
COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
