Bleacher Report: Meet Hiroshi Iwata, the Unknown Golfer Who Made History at the PGA Championship

August 14, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

HAVEN, Wis. — He’s 102nd in the world golf rankings. He needs an interpreter when the questions are in English. And Friday in the second round of the 97th PGA Championship, Hiroshi Iwata equaled the lowest round ever in a major tournament.

Are we permitted to tweak the title of that old Beatles hit and make it “Out of Nowhere Man”?

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Bleacher Report: Tiger Woods Going from Bad to Boring in Early Stages of 2015 PGA Championship

August 13, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

HAVEN, Wisc. — Out on the man-built hillocks and swales that make Whistling Straits more difficult for fans to walk than for most pros to play, on the 17th green alongside side Lake Michigan, Tiger Woods had an 11-foot birdie putt. He missed, of course.

There barely was a response from the fans who made the risky walk to that area, a murmur rather than a gasp. And in the virtual silence, a young man trying to whisper. As Woods failed with the putt, the man sighed: “Those used to go in.”

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S.F. Examiner: Don’t forget the winner: Johnson carving own history

July 21, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — He wasn’t exactly the wrong winner, although in the context of what was possible in this 144th British Open, that could be one definition — if an unfair one.

Zach Johnson may not be Jordan Spieth, in fame or fortune, but he is “The Champion golfer of the year.”

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Bleacher Report: Jordan Spieth Will Look Back on the 2015 British Open as the 1 That Got Away

July 20, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — He was a stroke short, one swing of the 274 Jordan Spieth needed over the five days and four rounds of the British Open. This is the game of golf, a heartbreaker, because of one swing.

Three in a row, the first three majors of any year. Ben Hogan did it, won the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in 1953. And nobody has done it since, and it's likely nobody will do it. Ever.

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S.F. Examiner: Slam quest doesn’t rattle Spieth

July 19, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Let us be the doubters, the ones who keep reminding Jordan Spieth what he’s trying to accomplish. We’ll tell him this has been done only once in the long history of golf, by the great Ben Hogan, and that it borders between improbable and unlikely — if not somewhere around impossible.

Spieth is a man apart, and man is the proper identification, not because he has reached his majority, age 21, but because he accepts the task at hand: winning a third straight major championship this year — and, lordy, maybe even a fourth — with an almost unreal zealousness.

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Bleacher Report: Jordan Spieth's Swagger Shows He's Ready for the Record Books at British Open

July 19, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The confidence is subtle, demonstrated, not shouted. Yet there's no question Jordan Spieth has a belief that he can do what Ben Hogan did and what neither Arnold Palmer nor Jack Nicklaus could: win the first three golfing majors of the year.

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S.F. Examiner: Crisis? Johnson bids for Claret Jug after U.S. Open crash

July 19, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The specter of disappointment was lurking, haunting Dustin Johnson, or so we thought. What Johnson thought, or so he told us, was, hey, he can’t do anything about the past, about the way he squandered the U.S. Open.

“I did everything I was supposed to do,” he said of his final-day putting disaster at Chambers Bay. “It wasn’t difficult to get over it. But you know I was definitely happy the way I played.”

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Bleacher Report: Are Jordan Spieth's Chances to Make History at 2015 British Open Still Alive?

July 19, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — His strength is putting. He said so himself. But with the second round of the British Open full of rain, wind and a tiny bit of controversy, Jordan Spieth may have three-putted his way out of a chance for history.

Eight times over 18 holes that took two days and arguably may have taken Spieth out of his quest for golf’s Grand Slam — although he disagrees—Spieth needed three putts to get the ball into the hole.

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Bleacher Report: There Won't Be Any More Tiger Woods Miracles After 2015 British Open Dud

July 18, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — He made us believers in the remarkable. Tiger Woods was one of a kind, captivating and enthralling. He chipped in at Augusta and won a Masters. He holed impossible putts at Torrey Pines and won a U.S. Open. But after yet another performance that was less embarrassing than it was lamentable, it is time to stop believing.

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S.F. Examiner: A single stroll at St. Andrews still sends tingles

July 17, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — An hour’s drive north of Edinburgh, across the Firth of Forth, in the county of Fife, is golf’s holy land, Churchill Downs, Fenway Park and the Rose Bowl all rolled up in a bowl of haggis, the Scottish national dish.

In a region where “new” translates as something constructed in 1898, the “Old Course,” at St. Andrews, is appropriately named. The game of golf, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, has been played on the rolling links for nearly 600 years.

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Bleacher Report: Simplicity the Key to Jordan Spieth Staying Hot in St. Andrews Debut

July 16, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Golf can be remarkably simple. Hit the ball, find it and hit it again. Golf can also be terribly complex when there’s too much thinking, too much listening to others than to oneself. Jordan Spieth came to that understanding long ago.

Spieth is the best golfer in the world right now, not so much by marching to his own drummer as ignoring the irregular rat-a-tat of others. He’s 21 going on 35, wonderfully skilled — isn’t there a line that says talent trumps experience? — and supremely confident.

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S.F. Examiner: Tiger fading away, but we still must watch

July 15, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — To the very end, until he decided to step away, Sinatra could fill a room. You thought of that when Tiger Woods, still searching for a past seemingly gone forever, came to the press tent for his pre-British Open interview.

It was standing room only for the media. Tiger never gives up, nor do we.

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Global Golf Post: Tiger's Poor Play Befuddles Everyone

June 22, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Global Golf Post

UNIVERSITY PLACE, WASHINGTON — The symbolism was unavoidable. Tiger Woods topped a 3-wood from the middle of the 18th fairway into the deepest bunker on the course.

There was his ball, so far down. There was his game, so far down. There were the rest of us — fans, media, not knowing whether to offer sympathy or laughter.

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S.F. Examiner: Leaving us Spieth-less: Phenom halfway to historic Grand Slam

June 22, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — The adage is you don’t win a U.S. Open, it wins you. That after the yanked tee shots and missed putts, after the lead slips through the hands of one golfer to another’s like fool’s gold, there’s someone standing as much in bewilderment as elation when he’s handed the trophy.

On a beautiful mid-summer’s day, on a course as reviled as it was admired — tattered and battered Chambers Bay — that someone was the best young player in America and maybe the world, Jordan Spieth.

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Bleacher Report: Jordan Spieth Looks Like Tiger Woods 2.0 After Masters-US Open Double at 21

June 22, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — There’s always a star in the future. And in the wings. There’s always another great one ready to move in, to keep us enthralled in golf. Always another Jack Nicklaus. Or Tiger Woods.

Always a Jordan Spieth.

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S.F. Examiner: Woods stuck in Chambers of horrors

June 21, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Bogies and gallows humor are golf’s perfect blend of imperfection. After the mistakes and the frustration come the laughter. And the questions.

But Tiger Woods has heard every question imaginable.

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Bleacher Report: Who Will Tame the Beast of Chambers Bay and Claim US Open Glory?

June 21, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Henrik Stenson compared the greens to broccoli, except broccoli is green and the greens are brown. Ian Poulter said Chambers Bay would turn the U.S. Open into “a complete farce,” but he conceded his comments were constructed from hearsay.

But Jim Furyk, who 12 years ago won a U.S. Open on a course very different from this year’s — old-fashioned Olympia Fields south of Chicago — described Chambers in less emotional terms.

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Bleacher Report: What Insiders Have to Say as Tiger Woods' Woes Hit a New Low at the 2015 US Open

June 19, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — The old line when a famous golfer shoots a bad score — Lee Trevino used to toss it out frequently — was that 90 percent of the pros didn’t care and the other 10 percent wish he had played even worse. Harsh, but mostly true.

Golfers are so focused on their own games, their own difficulties, it’s rare when they even acknowledge those of a competitor.

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Bleacher Report: The Dustin Johnson Roller Coaster Is on the Upswing Again at 2015 U.S. Open

June 18, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — It’s not always what you’ve done lately, especially for Dustin Johnson, whose present will always be linked to the past.

Here he is, tied for the clubhouse lead after Thursday’s first round of America’s golfing championship, the U.S. Open. Yet the questions that surround him deal as much with what he has done as what he might do.

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S.F. Examiner: McIlroy sends Match Play out in style

May 04, 2015 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Sporting days by the Bay don’t come much better than this. Not for Tim Lincecum and the Giants. Not for Stephen Curry and the Warriors. Maybe most of all, not for Rory McIlroy and the game of golf, which again is a game that he is very much in control.

Oracle Arena in Oakland, AT&T Park in San Francisco and TPC Harding Park — in history and weather so much a part of the cool, gray city — offered us a Sunday beyond compare.

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