Winners and loser after 36 holes at the U.S. Open

We're still 36 holes from crowning a new U.S. Open champion, but before we head to the weekend, it's time to look back on some of the winners and losers from the first two days of the tournament.

Winners

Tiger Woods: A spot on the winners list? This has to be a mistake, right? Not this week, after Woods posted rounds of 69-70 to grab a share of the lead going into the weekend. He won eight of the last nine majors where he's held at least a share of the lead going into the weekend, so you have to like his chances -- especially the way he's hitting the ball at the moment. Woods is leading the field in driving accuracy at 75 percent. If he keeps that up, he's got a great shot to take home his 15th major championship -- and fourth U.S. Open -- on Sunday evening.

Graeme McDowell: There's something about playing in the U.S. Open that brings out the best in McDowell. After missing three consecutive stroke-play cuts, the Ulsterman showed up at Olympic and found his game. His round could have been even better had it not been for a five-hole stretch that included four bogeys. Even with the mistakes, he still finds himself only two shots off the lead at 1-over.

Olympic Club: How tough is Olympic Club playing at the moment? Let David Toms tell you: "If they gave you the first cut on every hole, you'd probably take it." Yep, hitting the fairways on this course is an absolute must, unless, of course, you enjoy taking a ride on the bogey train. With only 28 players within four shots of the lead -- and only three in red figures -- at the 36-hole mark, it looks like we could be in for a great weekend on one of the toughest U.S. Open tracks in recent memory.

Hunter Hamrick: Making his pro debut at the U.S. Open, Alabama golfer Hunter Hamrick looked to be well on his way to slamming the trunk early after an opening-round 7-over 77. That honestly should have been it the way Olympic Club was playing, but Hamrick decided to grind, posting a 3-under 67, the lowest round of the day, to make the cut. Even better? He'll be taking home a paycheck from his first even as a professional. That's never a bad way to kick off your career.

Losers

Luke Donald: He may be the No. 1 ranked golfer on the planet, but it's time to start questioning if Luke Donald's ever going to win a major. A favorite to win at Olympic Club, where fairways and greens are the keys to success, Donald crashed out early with a 9-over 79 on Thursday -- all but ending his chances. His usual consistency was nowhere to be found off the tee (he hit only 50 percent of his greens); and the putter was awful as well (1.78). It makes you wonder when, if ever, he's going to figure things out in a major.

Rory McIlroy: One year after he blitzed the U.S. Open field by eight shots at rain-softened Congressional, Rory McIlroy never even gave himself a shot at Olympic Club, missing fairways and greens with regularity and looking completely lost on the greens. With the exception of this year's Masters, he's been a non-factor in the last couple of majors. Since his 14-under win at the U.S. Open, he's gone T-25 in the British Open, T-64 in the PGA Championship, T-40 in the Masters, and missed the cut at 10-over for the week. It's time to go back to the drawing board.

USGA's 10-shot rule: It's one thing to notify golfers of your decision to tweak the rules well before the start of play, but apparently the USGA never got that memo, opting to change the 10-shot rule -- it allows all players within 10 shots of the lead to play the weekend -- at the last minute. Now it's just the top 60 players and ties. The change affected Casey Martin, Louis Oosthuizen, Ryo Ishikawa and Dustin Johnson, who would've all been around had it not been for the new rule. I can understand why the USGA made the switch (it should speed up pace of play with fewer golfers on the course), but a simple heads-up would have been nice.

Bubba Watson: Everyone thought it was silly when we started questioning if Bubba was starting to burn out after his Masters win. But after two missed cuts in his last three events, it's obvious he needs to get back out and start working on his game. He finished 9-over for the week (78-71) and admitted before the tournament started that he could potentially shoot 80 because of the course conditions. He was close.

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Tiger Woods collides with cameraman after ugly U.S. Open round

After a flat-out horrendous round at the U.S. Open on Saturday, Tiger Woods was walking off the 18th green when this happened:

Now, this is a moving Rorschach-blot test, an opportunity for you to see what you want to see. Was this an example of:

1. Tiger leaning into a cameraman, then making a big deal of a minor injury that wouldn't have happened if he'd been paying attention to anything around him.

2. The overzealous media not respecting Tiger's space and causing him injury that could affect his play tomorrow.

Your call!

[Related: Tiger Woods on the outside looking in after lackluster Round 3]

Yahoo! Sports' Brian Murphy was directly across the walkway from the collision, and gives us this on-the-scene report: "I guess he had no clue Tiger was coming up, and he decides to start picking up his equipment — what appeared to be a TV camera — and back into the path without even looking. Tiger was storming up the hill and — bam! Collision. Tiger's right hand jammed fairly hard against the guy's camera, and the guy appeared clueless as to what happened. Tiger yelped, dropped a profanity, shook his hand vigorously and kept steaming up the staircase. As he went up the staircase, he shook his hand two or three more times." Murphy further notes that "For once, Tiger wasn't the bad guy in an incident with the gallery. He had a right to be pissed."

After the collision, Tiger did a brief post-round interview with NBC's Roger Maltbie, politely answering a question about the speed of the greens. When Maltbie asked him about the hand, Woods gave Maltbie a gaze icier than the waters of the San Francisco Bay and said simply, "It's fine."

Woods was seen practicing on the putting green not long after the incident, so it can't have been too catastrophic. Still, the way that Woods and the accompanying security reacted, you'd think someone had pulled a knife. Good to see that didn't happen, of course.

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David Nalbandian defaulted after kicking sign, bloodying linesman (VIDEO)

The genteel Queens Club tournament was marred by an ugly incident in Sunday's final when David Nalbandian kicked an advertising sign and inadvertently bloodied a linesman sitting above it.

The Argentinian was immediately defaulted from the match, giving Marin Cilic the victory in the grass-court tournament. Nalbandian won the first set 7-6 and was trailing 3-4 in the second when he kicked the sign in frustration.

The linesman later rolled up his pants and blood was seen dripping down his leg.

"I am very sorry, sometimes you get frustrated on court," said Nalbandian after the match. "Sometimes I make a mistake I agree with. It's a tough moment to end a final like that but sometimes we feel so much pressure from the ATP playing so many tournaments."

Some people are crediting Nalbandian for his apology, saying he seemed contrite toward the linesman, if not about his actions. Nonsense. By blaming the ATP for pressure and hiding behind the "it was an accident" defense, Nalabandian makes this an even bigger farce. An accident would have been if a piece of that Perrier sign Novak Djokovic hit had gone flying into the crowd and cut a fan. Nalbandian intentionally broke a sign that was sitting directly in front of a linesman. His recklessness caused the accident.

Nalbandian should expect a suspension from the ATP, one which could extend into next week's Wimbledon. Then again, the ATP is notoriously toothless when it comes to giving penalties. Maybe the sight of a little blood will scare them straight.

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LaDainian Tomlinson will retire a Charger after 11 seasons, two rushing titles

James Brown once said that "Money won't change you, but time will take you out." The Godfather of Soul could have been talking about all running backs when he unleashed that outstanding bit of philosophy, and one of the all-time greats is about to call it a career.

It was announced on Sunday morning that LaDainian Tomlinson, the league's fifth all-time leading rusher, will retire after 11 seasons. Tomlinson, who played for the New York Jets over the last two seasons, will sign a contract with the Chargers in order to retire with his original team. Tomlinson will speak about his retirement at a Monday news conference.

"There have been very few players in the NFL who have meant as much to their team as LT did during his career here," said Chargers head coach Norv Turner. "In particular, his MVP season in 2006. It would be hard to find a back who's led the league in rushing and caught over 100 balls in separate seasons. It speaks volumes to his abilities and what he was capable of doing."

[Related: LaDainian Tomlinson to call it quits after 11 NFL seasons

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who has terrorized more than his share of running backs over the last 16 years, held Tomlinson above the fray, and recently gave him a rare level of respect when asked.

"LT changed the way the running back is looked at," Lewis told the Chargers' official site. "You think about him being a complete three-down back and using that as a receiver as well. You hadn't seen that many backs have that type of versatility. He was one of those backs that you had to get in position on all downs on the ball. I think that's the way he really changed the game."

Tomlinson was selected fifth overall in the 2001 NFL draft, and his impact was immediate. In his rookie campaign, he gained 1,236 yards on 339 carries, and scored 10 touchdowns. From 2002 through 2007, he averaged 1,569 yards and 17.5 touchdowns on 338 carries per season -- one of the greatest stretches of continued productivity the NFL will ever see.

And that's just on the ground -- Tomlinson was also one of the NFL's all-time great receiving backs. In 2003, he became the second back to catch 100 or more passes with 100 on the nose (fullback Larry Centers of the Arizona Cardinals caught 101 in 1995), and his career totals of 624 receptions for 4,772 yards and 17 touchdowns would be a pretty good career for any pure wideout. As much as Walter Payton or Marshall Faulk or anyone else you'd care to mention in NFL annals, Tomlinson was the very definition of the complete back -- the jack-of-all-trades who mastered every aspect of his game.

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Sadly, though, Tomlinson couldn't avoid the two great equalizers among all elite backs -- workload and time. Just three years after his 2006 MVP season, in which he set an NFL record with 28 rushing touchdowns, Tomlinson was missing games and watching his rushing totals decline severely -- from 1,815 yards in 2006, to 1,474 in 2007, to 1,110 in 2008, to 730 in his last Chargers season of 2009. He had a nice bump in his first season with the New York Jets after signing as a free agent in 2010, but that 914-yard year was just a flashback to a better time. Last season, Tomlinson gained just 280 yards on 75 carries, and it certainly looked as if the end was near.

Tomlinson confirmed this to SI.com's Jim Trotter in May, telling Trotter that he was "95 percent retired" and that it would take the perfect combination of team and role to reverse that process. The next NFL process for Tomlinson? Waiting five years for his eligibility into the Hall of Fame. With 13,684 rushing yards and 145 touchdowns -- good for fifth and third on the all-time lists, respectively -- anything but a first-ballot shoo-in in 2017 would be an insult.

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