By Art Spander
Global Golf Post
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA — The sign attached to the second-floor patio railing intentionally was visible from the adjacent fairway. "Welcome back, Tiger," it said in properly large letters.
Such a delightful greeting. Such an unexpected response.
Copyright 2015 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Tiger Woods may have lost his touch — his 82 Friday in the second round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open was his worst as a pro — but he retained his sense of humor.
"I'm only doing this so I won't get fined" was Woods' opening comment to the media. Clearly he's been watching the interviews with Marshawn Lynch, whose Seahawks will play the Patriots Sunday in Super Bowl XLIX in nearby Glendale.
Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Tiger Woods' return to PGA Tour tournament golf for the first time in 5 1/2 months was a struggle to be expected by everyone aside from the man himself.
Woods, who turned 39 at the end of December and hadn't competed in a full-blown event since the PGA Championship last August, started erratically, 4 over par in his first four holes, then rallied impressively and shot a 2-over-par 73 in the opening round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
GLENEAGLES, Scotland — When Andy Roddick, the now-retired tennis star, was asked about his rivalry with Roger Federer, he answered, “That’s not a rivalry. He keeps winning.”
The same could be said for the European team's dominance against the United States in the Ryder Cup. Once it was a rivalry. Now it’s an irrelevancy. At least in the U.S.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
GLENEAGLES, Scotland — This was going to be an exclamation point on Tom Watson’s great career, a final glorious farewell for a man appropriately in a land where much of his golfing reputation was established.
He would step out of the past, return as captain of an American Ryder Cup team and through his words and wisdom earn another generation’s accolades, maneuvering and persuading players, some of whom weren’t even born when Watson was one of the game’s greatest stars.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
GLENEAGLES, Scotland — It was golf’s version of a Hail Mary pass. Or a bottom of the ninth home run. Or really a kick in the head.
The United States grabbed control in the opening morning of Ryder Cup 2014 and then, stunningly, painfully, lost control in the afternoon.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
GLENEAGLES, Scotland — Losing is the great American sin. A Harvard-educated author of young adult fiction, John Tunis, said that first. Losing is what America has done in the Ryder Cup.
With Tiger Woods. Without Tiger Woods, who is not on the team that this week in the rolling countryside of Perthshire will face Europe. With a deficit going into the last of the three days of play. With a lead, as was the situation last year at Medinah
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
The suspense has ended. Inevitability won. Tiger Woods lost. The U.S. Ryder Cup team lost. If an athlete, a sportsman, is unable to play, then there’s nothing to do but make the concession. And so Wednesday, Woods, tenacious, finally gave in.
Per the PGA of America, he withdrew his name from consideration for the Ryder Cup matches at the end of September because of the injury to his back.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
For Global Golf Post
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY — When Denny Crum, a California native and at the time an assistant to John Wooden at UCLA, was introduced as head basketball coach of the university in this city in 1971 he referred to it as "Lewis-ville."
Corrected almost immediately, Crum's mistake was shrugged off by the local citizenry as a minor indiscretion...
Copyright 2014 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The slogan couldn’t live up to the event.
“This is major,” they advertised. The 2014 PGA Championship, with a leaderboard of unprecedented quality, a race against darkness to reach conclusion and a champion already threatening to become the best ever, was so much more.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This is a major.
Is it ever.
This is a golf tournament with a leaderboard full of champions and suspense. This is what we’ve been waiting for in a summer that lacked the competition any sport needs, especially when it’s without its injured star.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Once he provided all the answers. We knew all we needed about Tiger Woods, the golfer, if not the person.
He was the champion who could win U.S. Opens on a bad leg, who could set scoring records and who could do almost everything except walk on water.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — They are the major characters in this major championship, the 96th PGA, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, at least for a couple days, facing each other and facing the probability they may never pass this way again.
The game is one of personalities, stars, and during the past decade there have been no greater leading men than Woods and Mickelson, in popularity and frequently on the scoreboard.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — He’s the man, all right. All you had to do was listen to the shrieks and the shouts. “Hey, Tigah, in the hole. Hey Tigah, over here.” No question he’s the heart of golf in America.
But Tiger Woods, who made a stirring return on a steamy, humid afternoon with a practice round in Louisville on Wednesday, also is the mystery man.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — One round for Phil Mickelson, who must have played 10,000 rounds of golf in his life. Maybe 50,000. One round, but even for a man who’s been there, done that, won majors, won millions, it's a round that could make a difference.
How strange, the PGA Championship, the tournament which carries the reminder "This is major" at the front of the media tent, is being played at a course named after a hall named for slain warriors in Norse mythology, Valhalla. It is on a course with a funeral connotation Mickelson again seeks to find life.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — It was supposed to be a coronation march. Instead it became a long walk, although not spoiled, to the delight of Rory McIlroy.
After starting the final round of the British Open on Sunday with a lead of six strokes, McIlroy saw his margin trimmed to two by the 72nd hole. Still, that was good enough to have him announced as "The Champion Golfer of the Year."
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — Rickie Fowler was the only player in the 143rd British Open to shoot four rounds in the 60s. And he didn't win.
"I tried to give Rory a little run at the end," Fowler said of Rory McIlroy, who finished two shots ahead of Fowler and Sergio Garcia. "But I just got on the gas a little too late."
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
For Global Golf Post
HOYLAKE, ENGLAND — The final round started and Jim Furyk was on the leaderboard. Where he always seems to be. The years and the putts roll by, but Furyk makes no concession to time. Or no less significantly, failure.
Copyright 2014 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
HOYLAKE, England — Rory McIlroy is one of three, with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. But so effervescent, so whimsical as well as so remarkably talented, McIlroy in truth is one of a kind.
“The Champion Golfer of the Year.” That’s how the British Open winner is introduced by the head of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, Peter Dawson.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — It was short, and for Rory McIlroy, oh so sweet. In a matter of minutes he threw two eagles at the field and dispelled any thought the 143rd British Open would belong to anyone else.
McIlroy's threes on the par-5 16th and 18th holes Saturday in the third round at Royal Liverpool enabled him to leap to a six-stroke lead. Almost certainly the rest of the field is playing for second.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.