Seven-time Bridgestone Invitational champion Tiger Woods wants to play in the $8.5 million event at Firestone Country Club Aug.  4-7, but his plan is being thwarted by his firing of caddie Steve Williams, according to a report on Foxsports.com.

While most NFL fans are likely rejoicing over Thursday's news that the league's owners have approved a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, Northeast Ohioans might take a more pessimistic view when the lockout ends.

Not only must the Browns install new offensive and defensive schemes under new coach Pat Shurmur before the Sept. 11 opener against Cincinnati, but the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the city of Canton took a marketing and economic hit with the cancellation of the Hall of Fame Game. Every year the game is technically a sellout, with a large number of tickets purchased locally.

Although it's likely he'll have to stick to a confidentiality agreement, caddie Steve Williams became the most qualified person to recount Tiger Woods' fall from grace after Woods fired Williams Wednesday.

By virtue of his British Open championship, Darren Clarke will return to Firestone Country Club for the $8.5 million Bridgestone Invitational Aug. 4-7.

It's hard for me to be disappointed in Japan's victory over the United States in an overtime shootout in the women's World Cup final Sunday because of how much the triumph meant to Japan, ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

Perhaps the match should merely be taken for what it was -- 117 minutes of heart-stopping competition between two talented and unified teams.

I love this item on PGATour.com from a ShotLink analysis of past British Open champions going back to Stow's Ben Curtis in 2003.

It shows that scrambling is the key to victory, with seven of the past eight champions ranking in the top 15 in that category during the tournament.

This is the day The Drive and The Fumble got company.

And probably got upstaged.

Former Browns running back Jamal Lewis was one of three athletes named by a federal prosecutor Wednesday as being patients of Dr. Anthony Galea, a Toronto doctor who has admitted to smuggling HGH and other illegal drugs into the U.S., the Buffalo News reported.

The other two were golfer Tiger Woods and linebacker Takeo Spikes, now with the San Francisco 49ers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul J. Campana did not say what kind of treatments Lewis and Spikes received. New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez has also acknowledged being one of Galea's patients. 

After his 25th career game with double-digit strikeouts in the New York Yankees' 9-2 victory over the Indians Tuesday night at Progressive Field, CC Sabathia refused to gloat.

And he had every reason to.

Three-time British Open champion Tiger Woods announced on his web site that he will be forced to skip the July 14-17 event at Royal St. George's in Sandwich, Kent because of injuries to his left leg.