Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who has been presumably prodded by his dismal ratings in 2012 Republican presidential candidate polls to find himself a personality, tried to make a joke in his speech at CPAC earlier today. About Tiger Woods. More specifically, praising his wife Elin Nordegren for smashing the back of his SUV to pieces, and labeling her a role model for conservatives to follow in their approach to big government.

Product placement can take the strangest forms. Exhibit A: a physics book that was on the floor of Tiger Woods‘ car when it crashed shot up more than 350,000 places on Amazon in the course of a day when the inevitable car crash photos leaked online. The book in question, Get A Grip On Physics, is currently going for $75.00, minimum, for a used copy. The real story here: might Tiger Woods be a Large Hadron Collider fanboy?

As much as the PGA Tour would like to sell you on the greatness of many of its players, the sport just isn’t as compelling without Tiger Woods. (Just look at how dreadful the television ratings were for the tournaments he missed during the time he took off to recover from knee surgery.)

For the Tour — and most of the sycophantic golf writers who cover him — a tabloid-fueled story of this magnitude puts many of them in an unenviable position. Especially when it comes to reporting the truth.

TMZ is reporting that Woods mentioned the “Kobe Special” on Friday, leaving his friend on the phone confused at his facetious reference. What’s the Kobe Special, the friend asked. “A house on a finger,” Woods said, referring to the massive diamond basketball star Kobe Bryant bought for his wife after his own domestic ordeal. Sounds like a joke, eh? Punch line and all. Late show writers — take notes!

Tiger Woods has released a statement via his website about this weekend’s tabloid dream car accident, and yet things remain as vague as ever. BNO News is reporting that Woods has cancelled his police interview for the third time, though Florida police have released the 911 call made by the golf star’s neighbor at the time of the accident. Listen inside, and check out Woods’ statement.

As more details emerged about the circumstances of the Tiger Woods car crash, the more suspicions were raised that there may be more to the story.

Now TMZ.com has blown the reported version of events wide open – alleging domestic violence led to the injuries, and the car crash was used as a cover up.

This afternoon, news broke that golfer Tiger Woods had been injured in a car accident early this morning near his home in Florida. According to his agent he is “fine” though he has suffered facial lacerations; also, great pains have been taken to get the word out that alcohol was not involved. That said, “charges are pending.”