The word came down late this afternoon that Tiger Woods and Buick, and by association, General Motors, will no longer be aligned as corporate sponsors. I suppose it’s a touch sad because Tiger’s Buick ads were about as humorous as car commercials can get (see: Mellencamp, John Cougar for future reference).

Of course, GM also has a huge spot on FOX NEWS’ ticker running right now that says (well, paraphrases): “THIS SPLIT IS TOTALLY UNRELATED TO THE $25 BILLION WE WANT TO GET FROM THE GOVERNMENT. (WE SWEAR!!!1)” It also mentions that Tiger wants to spend more time with his family.

“Tiger is expecting a second child in his family and he’s looking for more time in his schedule,” said Peter Ternes, G.M.’s director of communications for sales, service and marketing. “At the same time, General Motors is looking to cut costs… we both agreed that we would part our ways.”

The announcement ends a nearly decade-long relationship that coincided with Woods’s growing dominance in golf. In 2000, his first year endorsing G.M.’s Buick line of cars, Woods became the youngest golfer to have won all four major tournaments. In addition to appearing in numerous advertisements for the automaker, the Buick logo was prominently displayed on his golf bag during tournaments.

The sad reality is that GM said to Tiger “We are out of money, will you work for free?” and he said “Um, no thanks.” Because, well, none of us want to work for free. It’s against our inherent value systems.

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