SF Examiner: Untainted Tiger truly a positive sports hero

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

You want a positive force in sports? Someone who makes headlines for reasons other than being accused? Someone who keeps himself at the front and keeps the rest of us in his thrall?

That man is The Man, arguably the most successful athlete on the planet at the moment and unquestionably the best golfer in history, Tiger Woods.

Tiger has his flaws, mostly a potty mouth. He can swear a blue streak, and it’s not in private. “Unfortunately, I do make mistakes,” he agreed, “and I hit bad shots and I say bad things at times. I don’t mean to. It just comes out.”

But that’s it. No shooting himself in the leg. No torturing animals. No performance enhancing drugs. Just a temper which at times is not under control. As we know, there’s a lot worse.

This is the final chance for Tiger in ’09, the PGA Championship. He’s 0-for-3 in the Masters, U.S. Open at British Open. He’s had a spectacular year, five wins, two of those the last two weeks. But without a major, can it be a spectacular year for Tiger Woods?

“It’s been a great year either way,” Woods said Tuesday. “For me to come back and play as well as I’ve done and actually win golf events, to say at the beginning of the year, when I was feeling the way I was, I don’t think any of us would have thought I could have won this many events this year.”

He was in the media tent at Hazeltine National Golf Club, some 20 miles southwest of Minneapolis, where the 91st PGA starts Thursday. He was in a good mood. And why not?

A year ago, Woods was on crutches, recovering from that ACL surgery on his left knee. A year ago, his career if not in doubt was full of questions.

Now it’s full of anticipation. Whatever he’s done, 70 wins overall, third most in PGA Tour history behind Sam Snead’s 82 and Jack Nicklaus’ 73; whatever he’s accomplished, victories in 14 majors; Tiger is not satisfied. He wants more.

The way Joe Montana wanted more Super Bowl victories. The way Michael Jordan wanted more NBA titles. Which is understandable.

Greed not only is acceptable in sports, it is demanded. An athlete must be driven, as is Tiger Woods.

In 2000, Woods won nine tournaments, three of them majors. A few years later he was reworking his swing, making changes which he believed would make improvements. Yesterday didn’t mean as much as tomorrow.

If the Tiger of nine years ago played a hypothetical match against the Tiger of the present, someone asked, who would come out on top?

“I would win now,” meaning the Tiger of ’09. “I know how to manage my game a hell of a lot better than I did then.”

It will be interesting to see how he manages at Hazeltine where in the 2002 PGA he finished second by a shot.

“Oh, man,” said Woods, “the course is in phenomenal shape.”

So, it appears, is Tiger Woods, the untainted sporting hero.

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http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Spander-Untainted-Tiger-truly-a-positive-sports-hero-53006307.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Tiger Controversy Is What Golf Needs

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

CHASKA, Minn. --This is what golf needs, a good controversy that involves the unquestioned best player in the game.

Maybe the people who dote on scandal and debate will decide indeed there is more to the sport than handshakes and kind words.

These are times of action, and about the only action in golf is bending over to pick a ball from the cup. Golf then must do it with reaction.

Like the reaction of Tiger Woods to being charged, along with playing partner Padraig Harrington, with slow play in Sunday's final round of the Bridgestone Invitational over at Akron.

Tiger's in a bigger event this week, the 91st PGA Championship, which starts Thursday at Hazeltine National some 20 miles southwest of Minneapolis. He's trying to win his first major of the year. He's also still trying to defend his criticism of a rules official at the Bridgestone.

Tiger's the big dog. When Tiger barks, everybody hears. Tiger barked loudly after winning the Bridgestone.

He and Harrington, coming down the stretch, separated by a shot, were put on the clock by John Paramor, a European official working the tournament because it was a World Golf Association event. In a timeless game, Tiger and Padraig were being timed, threatened by a fine and a penalty stroke.

Harrington apparently rushed his chip shot from behind the green on 16 and the ball bounced into a pond. He ended with a triple-bogey 8, losing four shots to Woods, the lead and finally the tournament. Padraig stayed silent. Woods did not.

"The way I understood it,'' Woods said Tuesday, "we were the only two in contention. We had separated ourselves. The winner was not going to come from the groups ahead. It was going to come from our group, and we were having a great battle.''

Forty-eight hours earlier, Woods stated, "I'm sorry John (Paramor) got in the way of a great battle, but that happened.''

In his defense, Paramor said the twosome was 17 minutes behind the preceding group on the 16th tee, and the warning was deserved.

On Monday, a day later, there was a story that the PGA Tour, in its speak-no-evil ways, had fined Woods for his remarks. But Tuesday Tiger said he was not fined. Neither was he fine.

"I thought they could have used better judgment,'' Woods said of being put on the clock. "It certainly influenced us in how we played and influenced the outcome of the tournament, and that's not how you want to have a tournament come to an end.''

Harrington, the defending PGA champion, was less critical than Tiger but hardly less displeased.

"As regards to what he said,'' explained Harrington, "I think it's easier for having won the tournament to take the moral high ground and say what he wants. Having lost the tournament, I'm going to take it on the chin and say it was my mistake.''

Which, literally, it was. Hassled or not, flustered or not, a player as good as Harrington, who has two British Open wins along with his PGA, is not supposed to lose control.

The people in charge of golf shudder at this stuff. They deem golf a gentleman's game and attempt to cover up any misfortune or disagreement.

At the Masters, there's a booklet with a quote from the late Bobby Jones warning fans not to cheer a player's errors. The Tour last winter refused to confirm that John Daly had been suspended, even though he had been.

But golf is better off with controversy. Baseball, football, basketball, and even tennis thrive on it. All of a sudden, you have Tiger Woods talking like a low-key Ozzie Guillen -- standing up for what he thinks is right and getting as much attention as for his marvelous play.

Woods has won five tournaments in '09, a year that begin with him still rehabilitating the June 2008 anterior cruciate ligament surgery on his left knee. Two of those victories have come in the last two weeks. However, none of those victories has been in a major.

"For me to come back and play as well as I have,'' said Woods when asked if this still would be a top year without a major win, "and actually win golf events, to say at the very beginning of the year, I don't think any of us could have thought I would win this many events.''

Told that previously he wouldn't have thought it was a good year without a win in a major, something that hasn't happened since 2004, Woods answered, "I've said that in the past, but I didn't have ACL reconstruction either.''

He had it. He's back. And he's letting golf know, with his game and his comments.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/08/11/tiger_controversy_is_what_golf_needs_96447.html
© RealClearSports 2009

RealClearSports: Aaron's Right; Time to let Pete in the Hall

By Art Spander

The right man made the right statement. Nobody in baseball, in sports, is more admired, more respected than Henry Aaron. If he says Pete Rose belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame, where Aaron long ago was placed, then Pete Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame.

"How long does a person have to die?'' was Aaron's rhetorical question about the lifetime ban against Rose.

Rose, at 68, lives, but as a pariah, an individual whose accomplishments in uniform remain tainted by his arrogance in going against the code and wagering on the sport while managing the Cincinnati Reds. Then denying his sins.

Rose has more base hits than anyone in history. He played the game with a petulance. He was Charlie Hustle. Now he's Charlie Humbled, having agreed 20 years ago, 1989, to never again being involved in any way with the sport from which he cannot be separated.

"I think the thing that bothers me,'' said Aaron, "is (Rose) is missing out on a lot of things. He made a mistake. I don't know what else can be done or what else can be said.''

We've heard a lot about mistakes lately, about athletes accused or convicted of acts that in the context of society are much worse than gambling. We understand the sports we watch, the games we follow, are built entirely on integrity, that when there's a doubt if a team or individual is trying, there's no reason to care.

But Pete never fixed any games. Or beat up any women. Or abused any animals.

It's a different sport with a different issue, but if the NFL can forgive Michael Vick, reinstate him, allow him to have that so-called second chance we're always hearing counselors and coaches and parents contend is the American way, then why can't baseball finally forgive Pete Rose?

What do think is worse? What Michael Vick did to those pit bulls? Or what Pete Rose did to baseball?

These are complex times, not only in sport but our world as a whole. Our values have been tossed around, by the financial system, by our revised thoughts on what matters, to a point where the judgments of today sometimes have no relevance to those of the past.

Ponzi schemes and steroids and scandals in virtually every political arena offer a different perspective. Is Aaron, with his 755 pharmacologically unassisted blows still the lifetime home run champion, or is it Barry Bonds and his 762, even though he apparently had the advantage of the performance enhancing drugs prevalent in Barry's era?

The Hall of Fame's roster includes individuals who, to borrow the old Jim Murray line, were less than a group of choir boys. Ty Cobb, as you've been told, was a sociopath. In the old days, baseball had its supply of brigands. And gamblers.

Aaron said he would like to see these steroid guys have an asterisk by their name and their numbers. Why not do the same for Pete Rose? The man is a Hall of Fame baseball player -- the main street in Cooperstown, N.Y.,  has one shop after another selling Rose paraphernalia -- even if he's not a Hall of Fame person.

Contrition never has been his style. Neither, remind his critics, has been honesty. For years Rose denied he had wagered on baseball, but finally in 2004 on ABC-TV news, Rose conceded, "I did. That was my mistake for not coming clean a lot earlier.''

The confession was neatly timed with the release an autobiography, "My Life Without Bars,'' and skeptics thought the whole setup was just an attempt to sell more books. As if he and his publishers were unique in that plan.

Without the admission, in print, in conversation, there wouldn't be any chance Rose merely could be considered, much less put on a ballot. Now, five years later, there's been no progress. Until Aaron's suggestion.

There's talk the commissioner, Bud Selig, so opposed to lifting the restrictions on Rose, has had discussions with Aaron, who played for Milwaukee when Selig was the Brewers' president. Maybe Selig is softening. Maybe not.

It's time for baseball to soften, time for baseball to confront reality. For a generation, Rose has been separated from the game he played with a vengeance and such success.

If Hank Aaron, an individual of great honor, believes Pete belongs back in the game and then in the Hall of Fame, that should be good enough for the rest of us.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/08/06/aarons_right_time_to_let_pete_in_the_hall_96443.html
© RealClearSports 2009

SF Examiner: Bay Area due for a turnaround

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Football season doesn’t begin with the romantic nonsense that surrounds baseball, of spring and flowers and summer in the future. Instead it starts harshly, pragmatically, sometimes with broken bones, and in the Bay Area of late, with broken dreams.

Our impatience has reached a limit. We don’t need any more tales of the way it was, of Joe and Steve, of Marv Hubbard and the Mad Stork. We’ve been living in the past or living with potential. Neither has been fulfilling.

Time flies when you’re having fun. Also when you’re miserable — or your teams are miserable. In Northern California they certainly have been.

Six straight years now since the Niners or Raiders had a winning season. Six straight for either. Six straight for both.

It didn’t used to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way. When does it stop being this way?

August is when NFL franchises sell hope in horribly large doses. Frank Gore, we’re advised, has fresh legs. JaMarcus Russell is telling the media the opposition will be wondering “‘What are they going to do on this down, pass it or run it?’ Either way, we’re going to kill ’em.”

Since 2002, when the Raiders went to the Super Bowl and the Niners to the playoffs, they’ve been killing themselves. They had too many coaches and too few victories. They’ve had promotional campaigns, which is the way of the world in the 21st century, but they haven’t had enough substance.

Alex Smith or Shaun Hill? Russell or Jeff Garcia? It doesn’t matter. It’s not who, it’s how. Is there a quarterback out there who can win games? A quarterback who can make a change?

Who cares if Alex’s hands are too small or JaMarcus’ girth is too large. They aren’t in a beauty contest. To reuse the cliché, there are no style points, just points for touchdowns.

The coaches, both in their first full seasons, Tom Cable of the Raiders, Mike Singletary of the 49ers, are careful with their words, tough with their demands. A bad coach can lose games. A good coach, however, can’t necessarily win games.

The attitude is right, the preparation is correct. Which means very little. Show me a team that concedes it wasn’t well-schooled or a team that admitted it was unprepared.

Winning is about making something — making putts, making baskets — in football, about making plays. When you’ve had six straight losing seasons, about the only thing you’ve made is a mess of things.

Since the end of ’08, when each team finished with victories in its final two games, there’s been a lot of hyperventilation about what 2009 is going to bring. This is the year the Niners find success. This is the year the Raiders find improvement.

A skeptic wonders. Six straight years of losing makes anyone cautious. In August, yes, things appear better than they’ve been in a long while, but how will they look in December?

When we get that answer, we’ll know whether this was the season that made a difference or just another in a world of sporting failure.

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.

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http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Spander-Bay-Area-due-for-a-turnaround-52487192.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Legalized Sports Betting Is Inevitable

By Art Spander

Legalized sports gambling is coming. Bet on it. There's opposition from the leaders of the pro and college leagues. You already know that. It doesn't matter.

This isn't an issue of being pure and saintly, it's an issue of reality, an issue where already one state, Delaware, said it will allow wagering on NFL games and a gubernatorial candidate from another, Christy Mihos of Massachusetts, would hope his state follows the lead.

The worry is games will be rigged, that organized crime will call the shots, that when gambling becomes legit in other places, as it is in Nevada, sports will lose their integrity, and without that there's no reason to play because there's no reason to believe.

Yet as you already know, gambling, particularly on NFL games, is universal. Illegal, but universal. Point spreads, that's all we ever hear or read about. Are the Patriots six over the Bills? And we're told those spreads, out of Vegas or Atlantic City or Reno, keep things honest, because if the numbers change dramatically everyone from NFL security to the tavern owner who distributes the cards gets suspicious.

The country is going broke. States are hopelessly in debt. California, for one, is unable to pay teachers or health care providers and others who make our society what it must be. Taxes on gambling would help play those workers.

It's the economy, stupid. It was a campaign phrase in 1992 and never has lost its significance. When employment is down, foreclosures are up. Legalized gambling sounds a lot better than the fire department dropping 50 people because it can't afford them.

Americans are sometimes much too puritanical. And hypocritical. Great Britain has bookmakers every 25 feet, or so it seems, laying odds on everything. The British Open is a bettor's paradise, and names such as Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson were known to place a few quid on themselves over the years.

There have been no great scandals in the UK, at least for gambling, Plenty of sex scandals -- the Profumo Affair, as a start -- but nobody has questioned the Manchester United scores. On the contrary, every few years, some kid is accused of shaving points in an American college basketball game.

Pete Rose bet on horse races. And baseball. But did he ever affect the outcome of a game? The 1919 Chicago White Sox, the Black Sox, of which eight players who despised their parsimonious owner Charles Comiskey conspired to throw the 1919 World Series, are the ultimate example of how gambling can destroy sports. But their sport wasn't destroyed.

Joe Maloof owns the Sacramento Kings. Joe Maloof also owns a casino in Las Vegas. "When it's regulated,'' he told USA Today about gambling, "it's safer. There's no hanky panky.''

No attempt by an official, such as former referee Tim Donaghy, to make deals with gamblers.

The image the pro leagues want to exploit is of some guy with a cigar and pinky ring hovering over a quarterback an hour before kickoff. The hoods aren't going to be in control. Only a few days ago half the mayors in New Jersey were accused of taking bribes. Maybe we should rethink the idea of politics being legal.

And if the leagues are so concerned that legalized gambling will turn their sports into chaos, how come the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA, a league subsidized by the NBA, play home games at a casino resort? A lot of sleight of hand taking place.

"The hypocrisy is just mind-boggling,'' Ray Lesniak, a New Jersey state senator, told USA Today, alluding to the big four pro leagues. "The only reason they're objecting is they're not getting a piece of the action. Sports betting is legal throughout the world. Billions of dollars are bet here illegally in the U.S. It hasn't destroyed soccer and other sports overseas, and it won't destroy sports here.''

The NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball have asked a federal court to stop Delaware. If that doesn't take place, nothing and no one will stop sports gambling from becoming legal in every state.

Already, New York is terrified its citizens will jump in their cars and motor down the interstate, betting money in Delaware that could have been bet back home. The experts -- academicians, politicians -- already are making that point.

A decision has been made. Whether it's out of necessity or frivolity doesn't mean a great deal.

It's the difference of opinion that makes horse races, said Mark Twain. Gambling has been a major part of what made the NFL. Legal is better than illegal. Bet on it.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/08/03/legalized_sports_betting_is_inevitable_96439.html
© RealClearSports 2009

RealClearSports: Bonds is Looking Better Every Day

By Art Spander

Day by day, leak by leak, Barry Bonds keeps looking better and baseball worse. Bonds didn't ruin the game. Bonds didn't poison pigeons or fail to stand for the national anthem. He simply used performance enhancing drugs.

So, we learn, did a great many others, A-Rod, the Rocket, Manny and now, according to one of those anonymous reports -- this one on the New York Times web site, which makes it considerably more credible than others -- David Ortiz.

We may not be amused, but neither are we surprised, about the names or the fact the names keep being made public, despite promises no such things would happen.

Players, dozens of them, were tested in 2003 and told the results would remain secret. That would have been impossible.

If we know what's going on in the White House we're going to know what's going on in Bud Selig's House. You think those TV shows stay on the air because people don't like to talk?

Bonds now is insignificant. We went after him and his silent partner, Greg Anderson, the trainer, so long ago it's almost ancient history. Mark Fainaru-Wada and his then San Francisco Chronicle colleague Lance Williams left no syringe unturned. We acted like the sky was falling, then shrugged.

What's falling now are other names into place, the latest of those Ortiz and Manny, who in 2004 combined to help the Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years. And just an aside, you think any of those self-righteous Boston fans would give back the title because, like the Bonds homers they yelped about, it might be tainted?

The line forms on the right. Soon there will be more stars who used what daintily are known as "performance enhancing drugs,'' or PEDs, than didn't. It was common practice. It was, some will argue, a necessity.

In their book, "Game of Shadows,'' Fainaru-Wada and Williams insist what pushed Bonds over the edge was watching Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in their magical run in 1998 and bristling that the two were getting more attention than he.

Barry got his attention and his home run record. Does it deserve an asterisk, as Hank Aaron, who held the old mark, contends? Maybe. But Selig, the commissioner, is loath to tarnish his legacy. So there aren't going to be any little stars next to a name with the notation, "Was thought to have put something into his body besides milk and honey.''

Players took steroids. Baseball did nothing to stop them until it was too late. Back in the 1989 World Series, the one in which an earthquake had us much more frightened than a little thing like illegal substances, somebody mentioned a drink called the "Canseco Cocktail.''

In theory, Jose -- looking, well, bulked up -- was ingesting stuff that enabled him to hit that shot into the third deck of the place now called Rogers Centre but then known as SkyDome.

How naïve. He wasn't taking things orally, he was taking injections in his bottom, not that the method was of such great importance.

After the New York Times disclosures on Ortiz and Ramirez -- revelations, they're not -- Canseco said he wasn't surprised. Neither was anybody else, Jose. But we have to find people willing to give their opinions, and inevitably when drugs and baseball are involved, Canseco appears as an expert witness.

The probability that anyone who starting in the mid-1990s hit a lot of balls over fences was artificially enhanced has turned into a very good one. The probability that those major leaguers who agreed to be tested "secretly'' in 2002 will be outed is an excellent one.

The feds, knowing all too well that steroids were illegal in America, if not America's national pastime, seized the results of the tests. Now newspapers are seizing the chance to make everyone look bad.

The Times says its information about Ramirez and Ortiz "emerged through interviews with multiple lawyers and others connected to the pending litigation." The lawyers spoke anonymously, the Times said, because the testing information is under seal by a court order.

Barry Bonds has a different problem. He's being hounded by the government on charges of perjury, the U.S. claiming he lied under oath when in December 2003 Barry said he never used the stuff.

But the guess is that Barry never will come to trial. And who cares anymore? He took his grief. He was the Lone Ranger, the one who stood alone until it seems there was no room left on the list for all players who were guilty. The line forms to the right.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/07/30/bonds_is_looking_better_every_day.html
© RealClearSports 2009

RealClearSports: Only in New York, the Mets Mess

By Art Spander

It was the great golfer Lee Trevino who correctly told us never to complain about what you shot. Ninety percent of the people don't care, he said, the other 10 percent wish you had been worse.

So it has been with this situation involving the Mets front office, something more Hollywood than New York. A team executive, Tony Bernazard, was fired after challenging minor leaguers to a fistfight. Then the general manager, Omar Minaya, blamed a New York Daily News reporter, Adam Rubin, for Bernazard's demise.

We know the rest of the country looks upon New York without sympathy. Troubles in Gotham? Most American sports fans wish whatever goes on would be worse.

"Tragedy," cracked Woody Allen, "is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down a manhole. What do I care?''

Long Island didn't care because the Washington Nationals dispatched their manager, Manny Acta, recently. Yet, we're all supposed to be concerned about the Mets? New York believes so.

Everything in New York -- A-Rod's back, the unsold season tickets at the two new ball parks, the Knicks' inability to draft Stephen Curry who, heh, heh, was taken by the Warriors -- is supposed to be of national interest.

On the field, the Mets are perhaps the biggest bust in baseball, and who can ignore that collapse? But a personnel director challenging a group of minor leaguers because he didn't like their attitude? And then the GM getting into a grumping contest with a newsie? It isn't Iran or the U.S. economy, that's a given.

Unless you're a New Yorker. Then it's the only thing that matters. Unless you're a Yankees fan. My friend, Bill Madden, the sharp baseball guy from the Daily News, said the Yankees and Mets didn't have games as much as they had 162 incidents.

What Madden's paper said in the headlines on the back and front pages was "Smears of a Clown,'' and "Shirt Hits the Fan.'' And no matter what else, those lines are both telling and brilliant. Newsday bannered, "Big Apple Circus,'' while the Post, called it "Amazin' Fireworks.''

Why doesn't this nonsense happen in Minneapolis? Or San Diego? Or Cincinnati? If a Mariners executive lost his temper, would anyone in Seattle lose perspective? (Since the city is down to one printed paper, would anyone in Seattle even know?)

People screw up every day, in sports and out. You make a mistake, you correct the mistake, apologize if need be, and then move on. Except in New York. Nobody ever moves on in Gotham. Bill Buckner still is a villain or a hero, depending on your viewpoint. Twenty years from now Adam Rubin will be. In New York.

Reporters are told to tell the story, not be the story. Rubin blew that one. Rather, Minaya did. He contended Rubin wrote critical articles about the Mets because he wanted Bernazard canned so Rubin could get Bernazard's job. Now there's a new one.

Every journalist thinks he knows more than the GM or head coach or manager, but heaven help him if he actually accepted the position. Especially in New York. As the lyrics go, paranoia strikes deep.

Rubin confessed only that he didn't know how he was going to cover the Mets any longer. May I suggest with a couple of straitjackets and a hidden microphone? It's one thing when Fox News and Obama can't get along, but a baseball journalist and a GM? Help!

It's time for the Mets executives either to take a vacation or take a hike. These are ball games, not life-threatening decisions. What happened to the Mets big shots was that their team fell apart, which anywhere is looked upon unkindly and in New York is akin to passing military secrets to the Taliban.

When teams fail to meet expectations, even if the reasons -- injuries for example -- are legitimate, the sad souls who put them together, Minaya, Bernazard, et al, tend to fall apart as quickly as the ball club. For the past couple of years, Minaya was treated as both delightfully brilliant and pleasant. Then all of a sudden, he's accusing a lowly sports writer of conspiracy.

Panic is what it is. Understandably. Nothing can be approached rationally in New York, and so Minaya couldn't approach Adam Rubin's knocks rationally. There they were one of the most famous executives in baseball and one of the stars of a tabloid newspaper in a messy struggle.

How unfortunate. Or some might say, to borrow from Lee Trevino, how wonderful.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/07/28/only_in_new_york_the_mets_mess_96436.html
© RealClearSports 2009

SF Examiner: A’s, Giants headed in opposite directions

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — The funny thing as one considers the progress of the local baseball nines, is that back in April, the belief was if either team could produce a winning record it would be the A’s. Goes to show what we know.

Maybe the Giants are not the surprise team in the major leagues, but they at least draw a few upraised hands when somebody asks for a vote.

And west of Citi Field, is there any franchise a bigger bust than the A’s?

The trades the last few days, one apiece, were a reflection of what the folks in charge think of their franchises. Oakland is always getting rid of somebody. In this case it was Matt Holliday. Conversely, the Giants are looking for help, not merely a way out.

Ryan Garko isn’t Ryan Howard, but seemingly he isn’t Travis Ishikawa, and Giants management believes the team will be better off with Garko, which we were told back in grade school was the whole idea of making a trade. Unless you were the A’s of recent vintage. Yes, Matt Holliday was brought in to be sent out. Was there any doubt?

Then again, when the A’s introduced Holliday and Jason Giambi at a media session last winter and then a few weeks later in Arizona brought in Nomar Garciaparra and Orlando Cabrera, there was a misguided thought Oakland would be less than embarrassing. Goes to show what we know.

There is no attempt here to make anyone believe Holliday is Mark McGwire, but the last time the A’s sent a power hitter to the St. Louis Cardinals it was the red-haired kid who would hit 70 home runs in a season. Sort of makes one wary.

When taunted about the Holliday trade, an A’s spokesman pointed out something about Oakland getting a potentially great young third baseman, Brett Wallace ... meaning he’ll eventually be sent to the Diamondbacks?

This is not to berate the continually berated and continually maneuvering Billy Beane — guilty, your honor — but when does the gerbil-cage wheel stop turning? Is Oakland ever going to hold onto what it has? Ever?

Long ago and far away, the A’s were champions. But so were the Raiders and 49ers. That bit of gloating, “No splash hits, four World Series,” is now irrelevant. No, the Giants haven’t won a World Series the 50–plus years they’ve been in San Francisco, but they’re trying.

The season ended weeks ago for the A’s. In Oakland, it’s always tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. You can’t tell whether they’re at the beginning or the end or who will be showing up next February for introductions.

Over at AT&T Park, there’s a palpable satisfaction, although being miles back of the dreaded Dodgers is proof the Giants are in need of more than Garko.

San Francisco, we’re advised, has talent a year or two away from the bigs — Buster Posey, Angel Villalona, Madison Bumgarner — and yet we kept hearing thoughts like that about the A’s system. And Oakland is hopeless once more.

You can’t be certain, but the Giants seemingly have a future. All the A’s have is a past, and a potentially great third baseman.

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.

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http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Spander-As-Giants-headed-in-opposite-directions-51963587.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: ESPN Rarely Exercises Caution, Why Now?

By Art Spander

So the world leader in avoiding stories it alone determines not to be true has had a change of opinion. Covering the civil case involving Ben Roethlisberger is, according to the announcement by ESPN, "the right thing to do.''

After, in tactics that would have impressed the old Soviet Union bosses, ESPN attempted to avoid all mention of the situation.

Which might have worked if the issue hadn't been covered in every daily television sports roundup and radio talk show.

The issue here is responsibility. It's one thing when a coach says his quarterback forgot the play. That's sports. It's something else when an individual is accused of rape. As was Kobe Bryant six years ago. As was Ben Roethlisberger a few days ago. That's life. Dirty, nasty, how-did-it-happen life.

There are two sides every time a well-paid athlete is accused of bedding a young woman who later claims it was against her will.

She knew exactly what she was doing, and now months later is attempting to hit the guy in the wallet big time, taking advantage of a reputation or a bankbook.

Or the jock, raised on entitlement, figured as in everything else from the time he was about age 15 the rules of society didn't apply to him and because he was rich and famous would never be prosecuted.

That another non-sports sports story involving ESPN, or at least announcer Erin Andrews, illegally photographed in her hotel room, was crashing some of the front pages at the same moments could only be described as fateful. One tale had nothing to do with the other, but they became linked.

July is a quiet month for sports journalism, meaning a bad month for sports journalism. Baseball is grinding away, relatively unchanged from the way it had been in May and June. NFL camps are yet to begin. The British Open, as compelling as the most recent might have been, is merely a blip on any screen.

So the smallest of incidents are overplayed, not to imply that what happened to Andrews was in any way minor -- it was disgraceful. And surely when a man who has won two Super Bowls, including the most recent, is involved, we're going to pay attention.

ESPN did just that. What it didn't do, until Wednesday, was treat the story the way it normally does when a sporting celebrity, say its special favorite, Terrell Owens, is involved. ESPN brings out the big artillery and big names, lawyers, former coaches, and studio analysts to attack our senses. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just around midnight, there's nothing left.

Conversely, with Roethlisberger, there was plenty left. ESPN, when the civil suit alleging sexual assault against Roethlisberger was filed in a Nevada court, issued a memo to all its outlets and reporters, "do not report.''

One feels sorry for Roethlisberger if the suit by one Andrea McNulty, claiming a year ago he lured her to his room at the Harrah's hotel at Lake Tahoe during the annual celeb golf tournament, is only an attempt at gold-digging.

One feels sorry for McNulty, a penthouse concierge, if her story that Roethlisberger demanded she fix a broken TV in his room and then attacked her is true.

One feels no less sorry for ESPN which, if it backed away from its responsibility as a news outlet only to protect its acknowledged relationship with Roethlisberger, lost more than a minimum of credibility.

It was July 2003 when Kobe Bryant was accused of persuading a concierge at hotel outside Vail, Colo., to come to his room. Now it is July 2009 when Ben Roethlisberger is accused of persuading a concierge at Nevada hotel to come to his room.

ESPN was all over the Kobe story, sending reporters and attorneys from Los Angeles and Washington as the trial unfolded. Maybe Roethlisberger never comes to trial. Maybe he doesn't deserve to come to trial -- although then again, possibly he does. But why the shift in ESPN's approach?

"Based on the sensitive nature of the story and other factors we mentioned,'' ESPN's Bill Hoffheimer told Pro Football Talk, "we initially exercised caution and did not report it.''

That philosophy is admirable, except it runs counter to the very existence of ESPN which, while most of the time does a fine job, rarely can be described as exercising caution.

The network delights in letting us know everything its workers accomplish, even when little more than "confirming'' a story that first appeared somewhere else, such as Fox Network or Associated Press.

You wish it would confirm why it treated the Ben Roethlisberger story in a most unusual manner, like not treating it at all.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009. 

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/07/23/espn_rarely_exercises_caution_why_now.html 
© RealClearSports 2009

SF Examiner: Likeable Watson forced to deal with sting of defeat

By Art Spander
Examiner Columnist

Losing, we have been told, is the great American sin. But was it sinful what Tom Watson did at the British Open? Surely, it was disappointing. The idea in sports is to win.

The reality is that more times than not we lose.

“The taste of defeat,” wrote basketball star and U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, “has a richness of experience all its own.”

The memory of J.T. Snow hunched over and staring at his locker after the seventh game of the 2002 World Series forever will remain. Snow and the Giants had that Series won, had a 5-0 lead in Game 6. Yet they didn’t win.

And there was Snow contemplating what could have been, what Giants fans to this day believe should have been.

Tom Watson is very much a part of the Bay Area as the Giants and A’s and the rest of the franchises. He came from Missouri, but was a Stanford man ... still is a Stanford man.

No cheering in the press box is the yardstick to which American journalists must adhere. An event must be approached without bias. In this British Open, however, I cheered silently for Watson.

Not only because of his age, not only because a 59-year-old golfer finishing first in a major championship tournament would have been the sports story of the century, an irresistible tale of persistence and implausibility, but because in this world of fraudulence and dishonesty, Tom Watson is genuine, truthful.

In the winter of 1968 as a Stanford freshman, Watson for the first time competed in the San Francisco Amateur at Harding Park. In the match-play portion he hit an errant shot, into the trees, at the 10th hole I think it was, and after he putted out for what presumably was a par, he said he had moved the ball accidentally at address, thus had a bogey and lost the hole.

No one saw his transgression. The ball had remained virtually in the same place it had been. He received no advantage. But Tom Watson was governed by the rules of golf, as well as his conscience. For him, there was only one way to play the game.

Tom has had his moments, created his legacy. He won five British Opens, two Masters and then at Pebble Beach in 1982 in the U.S. Open. He was involved with Sandy Tatum and Robert Trent Jones II in the creation of Spanish Bay Golf Links on the Monterey Peninsula and has taken part in charity events at Stanford.

He can do without our tears, even though symbolically he deserves them.

Watson played so well for so long in the Open, until the last of the 72 holes, and then as the Bay Area, as America, as the world of golf winced, he messed up, dropped into a playoff and lost to Stewart Cink.

“This ain’t a funeral, you know,” Watson told a grim-faced pack of writers in what the Open still calls the “Press Centre.”

No, it was a defeat, supposedly enriching an athlete’s experience.

You looked at Watson as you did Snow back in 2002 and found that concept very hard to understand.

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.

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http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Likeable-Watson-forced-to-deal-with-sting-of-defeat-51368017.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

Newsday: Watson falters, loses British Open playoff to Cink

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- It could have been the sports story of many a year, the golf story of the century. Tom Watson, who will turn 60 in September, was going to win the British Open. He had a putter in his hand and the tournament in his grasp.

It was wonderful, fantastic. And then like that, it was gone.

Then like that, late Sunday afternoon, Stewart Cink -- mentioned so often as a probable major tournament winner -- was raising his arms in triumph and reaching for the historic silver claret jug on which his name, as is tradition, already had been engraved.

Watson was a shot ahead after 71 holes of the 138th Open, but he bogeyed the 72nd and came apart in a brutally sad four-hole playoff in which he looked like the 59-year-old man he is, getting beaten by six shots.

Cink, playing five groups ahead of Watson, birdied the 18th hole for a 1-under-par 69 and a total of 2-under 278. It didn't seem to mean much until Watson's 8-iron approach to 18 was long. Using the putter, he took three from just off the green, shot 72 and also finished with 278.

Cink went par-par-birdie-birdie in the playoff, Watson bogey-par-double bogey-bogey.

Tied for third at 1-under 279 were two Englishmen -- Lee Westwood, who held the lead before bogeying 15, 16 and 18, and Chris Wood.

"It would have been a hell of a story," said Watson, who had at least part of the lead in all four rounds at Turnberry, where 32 years earlier he won the second of his five Open titles.

Indeed. Not that the 36-year-old Cink didn't like the story that came to be. He grew up watching Watson's World Golf Hall of Fame career, and to face him in a playoff for a major, Cink said, in a bit of awkward prose, "would be beyond even my mind's imagination capabilities."

The presumption was that holding up the last day was beyond Watson's capabilities. He had hip surgery in October. He plays the Champions Tour, where the courses are not as severe. He had not won a major since the 1983 British Open.

But with a hole to play, Watson was a shot ahead and seemed destined to become by 11 years the oldest man ever to win a major. Unfortunately, he hit an 8-iron when he said he should have used a 9, and the ball rolled off the back edge of the 18th green, Watson made a bad putt, then missed an 8-footer for the par and the win.

"Yes," Watson said, "it's a great disappointment. It tears at your gut, as it always has torn at my gut. It's not easy to take. The playoff was just one bad shot after another and Stewart did what he had to do."

Which was make one good shot after another.

Cink had won other tournaments. He had been on Ryder Cup teams. He just didn't have that finishing touch, a major. He does now.

"How much I needed it, I don't know," Cink said. "I'm not sure I ever thought about whether I was good enough to win a major or not. I knew I'd been close a few times, but I never heard my name tossed in there with the group of best ones not to win.

"So maybe I was starting to believe that, that I wasn't one of the best ones to never win a major."

Watson opened his post-round interview with the admonition, "This ain't a funeral, you know."

It was a golf tournament that gave Watson and others a huge jolt and then, excluding Cink, a massive letdown.

"It was almost," Watson said. "Almost. The dream almost came true."

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http://www.newsday.com/about/ny-spbrit2012984854jul19,0,2597041.story
Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

CBSSports.com: Easygoing Cink gives fans fairy tale -- just not one they want

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- It wasn't as if he shot Santa Claus. All Stewart Cink did was shoot under par. That he beat Tom Watson, whose age and reputation made him everybody's favorite, couldn't be held against Cink.

Finally Cink had won a major, the oldest one on the planet, the British Open.

Did it by sinking a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation Sunday, and then after the 59-year-old Watson bogeyed the same hole, Cink crushed him in their four-hole playoff.

"It's a surreal experience for me," said Cink. "Not only did I play one of my favorite courses, but playing against Tom Watson. I grew up watching Tom Watson play on TV and hoping I could follow in his footsteps at the Open Championship.

"I feel so happy just to be part of all this."

As he should. As Watson felt so devastated.

After the 36-year-old Cink and Watson tied with 72-hole scores of 2-under 278, Watson, coming unglued, went 4 over par in the four extra holes -- the fifth, sixth, 17th and 18th -- while Cink went 2 under.

A onetime star at Georgia Tech, Cink twice finished third in majors, including the 2001 U.S. Open, when -- despite a reputation for being a great putter -- he missed a short one on the final green that kept him from a playoff. Cink is maybe the best unknown star on the PGA Tour.

He understood the compassion for Watson, a five-time Open winner who by 11 years could have become the oldest champion in a major.

Stewart was the unintended villain, the guy who ruined arguably the best golf story ever.

"Playing against Tom, it was with mixed feelings, because I watched him with such admiration all week," Cink said.

The admiration was universal. Virtually everyone in the boisterous gallery wanted Watson to make history.

"It's not the first time I've been under the radar," said Cink. "I've played a lot of times with Tiger [Woods] and hearing the Tiger roars, and with Mickelson. I'm usually the guy the crowd appreciates, but they're not behind me 100 percent. Maybe this will change it."

Or maybe not. For some, this 138th British Open at Turnberry on the Firth of Clyde will always be the one Watson lost rather than the one Stewart Cink one. The one that might have been.

Cink came in with a 1-under-par 69 Sunday, holing that 15-footer on 18, although at the time, with Watson several holes behind and battling Englishman Lee Westwood, the putt didn't seem that big. As we learned, it would become huge.

An easy-going individual -- and in this world of shouting and waving, that may have kept him in the figurative shadows -- Cink was mentioned by the golfing cognoscenti as one of the game's top players.

He had won other tournaments. He had been on Ryder Cup teams. He just didn't have that finishing touch, a major. He does now.

"How much I needed it, I don't know," Cink allowed. "I'm not sure I ever thought about whether I was good enough to win a major or not. I knew I'd been close a few times, but I never heard my name tossed in there with the group of best ones not to win.

"So maybe I was starting to believe that, that I wasn't one of the best ones to never win a major."

He can stop believing. The way he went through that playoff late on a windy afternoon, going par-par-birdie-birdie, was the stuff of excellence. He talked about Tiger, but Woods rarely has put on so emphatic a performance.

Someone wondered if Cink, who was embraced by his wife and family just off the 18th green, felt he had come in at the end of a syrupy Hollywood film and stolen the girl just before the final scene.

"Well, just as long as I get the girl," said Cink, "I'm OK with that. No, I don't feel that way. I feel like whether Tom was 59 or 29, he was one in the field. I had to play against everybody in the field and, of course, come out on top.

"I don't think anything can be taken away. Somebody may disagree with that, but it's going to be hard to convince me."

Understandably. Cink did what he was supposed to do, win the tournament, although admittedly it was not what many people wanted him to do. The Tom Watson Tale was one that never may come along again.

"I never would have dreamed that I would go up against Tom Watson head-to-head in a playoff for a major championship," Cink said. "That would be beyond even my mind's imagination capabilities."

That's an awkward way of saying that even if the ending wasn't all fuzzy and magical for the world of golf, the story was as good as it gets for Stewart Cink.

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http://www.cbssports.com/golf/story/11969462
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

Newsday: Watson holds on to lead at British Open

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- This can't keep going, can it? Tom Watson can't continue rolling back the years and rolling in the putts, remaining on top of a British Open which may be lacking Tiger Woods but in no way is lacking in subplots, drama and emotion.

For a second straight year, someone out of the past has taken control of the present, making us wonder if anything we know about golf or sports makes sense and whether Watson for one final round is able to keep waking the echoes.

Greg Norman was 53 when he led after 54 holes of the 2008 Open at Royal Birkdale and then, not unexpectedly, tumbled under the weight of the pressure, ending up tied for third behind Padraig Harrington.

Now we wait to see what 59-year-old Tom Watson, leading this 138th Open by a shot, is able to accomplish, not that what he's already accomplished at Turnberry so far hasn't been remarkable.

Watson was 27 when he won the Open at Turnberry in '77, the second of his five Open titles, defeating Jack Nicklaus by a stroke. Jack was 10 years older than Tom. Now Watson's closest competitors are in their 20s and 30s.

Of course, as the saying goes, the golf ball doesn't know how old you are.

Watson began the third round Saturday tied for first with Steve Marino at 5 under par. Marino destructed, a 76 with three 6s, one on a par 3. Watson wobbled, but after he dropped into second by a shot, he birdied 16 and 17 to walk off as the leader.

He is at 4-under 206 after a 1-over 71. Mathew Goggin, an Australian who plays the PGA Tour, and Ross Fisher, an Englishman who plays the European Tour - and tied for fifth in last month's U.S. Open at Bethpage - are at 207. Goggin shot 69, Fisher 70.

Tied for fourth at 2-under 208 are Lee Westwood of England and Retief Goosen of South Africa, a two-time U.S. Open winner.

To make things more interesting, Fisher's wife, Jo, is in London expecting the couple's first child, and he has said he would leave the tournament to be at her side if she went into labor. He has a jet standing by at nearby Prestwick.

Watson has two grown children. And, as he said, a sense of serenity. His poignant story involves memories of his longtime caddie Bruce Edwards, who died in April 2004 of ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease.

"It's kind of emotional out there,'' Watson conceded. "I looked at Ox [his caddie Neil Oxman, a friend and political consultant], after I hit my shot on the green at 18, handed him the club and said, 'Bruce is with us today.' He said, 'Don't make me cry.' So he started crying and I started crying.''

Watson insisted he's not thinking of the magnitude of what has been happening as he tries to become the oldest by 11 years to win a major tournament. Julius Boros was 48 when he took the 1968 PGA Championship.

"First day here,'' Watson said, "yeah, let the old geezer have his day in the sun, a 65. The second day you said, well, that's OK. And then now today, you perk up your ears and say this old geezer might have a chance to win the tournament. It's kind of like Greg Norman last year.

"I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know I feel good about what I did today. I feel good about my game plan. And who knows, it might happen.''

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http://www.newsday.com/about/ny-spbrit1912983429jul18,0,7708853.story
Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

CBSSports.com: Fisher hopes he, and wife, can hold on for one more day

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- Oh, baby.

This is a matter of, well, golf and life, if not necessarily in that order. Ross Fisher is doing what he can to win his country's golfing championship. His wife is doing what she can not to give birth to their first child.

Until her husband plays his final shot Sunday, which of course both hope will be for a victory in the British Open.

This 138th Open lost Tiger Woods after 36 holes, but it doesn't lack for drama or human interest. Or subplots.

Not when 59-year-old Tom Watson has the 54-hole lead. Not when an Englishman, Ross Fisher, is shot behind, tied for second. Not when Jo Fisher is in the maternity ward down in a London hospital.

Not when her husband has said if she goes into labor he will leave the links to join her.

A couple of days ago, the 28-year-old Fisher said if he were notified the baby was coming, he would be going to catch a plane. But now that three rounds are history and he has a chance to make history, Fisher has begun to vacillate.

Asked what he would do if before he teed off for the final 18 holes a text message arrived of the impending birth, Fisher responded, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Then later he said, "If Jo goes into labor, I'll be supporting her 100 percent, and I won't be here. I'll be with her, because it's something that I don't want to miss.

"It's been an intriguing week. ... I've got through three days, and she's got through three days. Who knows? To win and then get back home and see the birth of our first child would be obviously a dream come true."

Watson finished at 4-under-par 206 on Saturday at windblown Turnberry, on Scotland's western coast. Fisher, with an even-par 70, is at 207, as is Australian Mathew Goggin. Another shot back are Lee Westwood, another Englishman, and South Africa's Retief Goosen.

Fisher mostly plays the European Tour, but a month ago he came in fifth in the U.S. Open at Bethpage, the best finish by someone from this side of the Atlantic. The result was uplifting. The challenge is fascinating.

Only five Brits have won the British Open in the past 60 years, the last one Paul Lawrie of Scotland in 1999. The others are Nick Faldo, the Englishman, in 1992, '90 and '87; Sandy Lyle of Scotland in 1985; Tony Jacklin of England in 1969 and Max Faulkner of England in 1951.

Fisher understands what a victory would mean. But it doesn't mean as much as his child.

"No news is good news," he said of the next few hours. "Hopefully she'll be able to hang on another day, and hopefully I can hang on another day."

In his gallery was a man wearing a billed baseball-type hat with a hand-painted message: "Hold on Mrs. Fisher."

Mr. Fisher has figured out the closing holes of this course hard by the Firth of Clyde. He birdied 16-17-18 on Thursday, 16 on Friday and then 16 and 17 on Saturday.

"Not bad," mused Fisher, a classic English understatement.

Then, egged on, he continued.

"I don't know what it is," he said, "but 16 [a 455-yard par-4 with an approach shot over a burn, or stream] I birdied every day. Seventeen [a downwind par-5] is probably one of the easier holes, and if you don't make birdie, you feel like you've slipped a shot."

Fisher said he likes links courses, having competed on them as an amateur, but in his only two British Opens, he missed the cut at Carnoustie in 2007 and finished 39th a year ago at Royal Birkdale.

And his European Tour record this year isn't terribly impressive. In 19 events, he has missed 10 cuts, including six in succession at one stretch.

Yet he is 21st in the world rankings, having won last year's European Open and this year making the semifinals of the Accenture World Match Play in Marana, Ariz.

"I feel quite prepared to play," Fisher said. "I probably haven't got the experience as to the likes of Tom [Watson], you know. He's been playing this golf for quite a few years."

Another understatement. Watson has been playing links golf since before Ross Fisher was born and has won the Open five times, going back to 1975.

Whether Watson or Fisher is a bigger surprise is anyone's guess. One is two months from his 60th birthday. The other is only in his third year as a touring pro.

"Tom is similar to my story," Fisher said. "It's a bit of a Cinderella story. To be playing as well as he is at age 59, I mean, it's incredible. He won here, what, 32 years ago? So I'm sure there will be a lot of followers out there rooting for Tom.

"But I had my fair share today. It was wonderful to hear the reception, up to every tee, up to every green. Hopefully I can play good [Sunday] and it will be for a win. If not, to push Tom and just put in a good performance."

While Jo Fisher waits a few hours longer for her own special performance.

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http://www.cbssports.com/golf/story/11967129
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

Newsday: Watson, 59, shares British Open lead; Woods misses cut

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- The haunting unpredictability of golf jolted the British Open on a windy afternoon that sent the world's No. 1 player out of the tournament and surprising Tom Watson and Steve Marino into a share of the halfway lead.

Tiger Woods, the overwhelming favorite -- in the betting parlors as well as in casual conversations -- missed the cut. That was more stunning than the 59-year-old Watson -- the oldest player to lead a major championship -- and the winless Marino moving into a first-place tie.

Marino, 29, a graduate of the University of Virginia who had never even seen a links course until this week, shot a 2-under-par 68 Friday at Turnberry. Watson, a five-time Open champion, was at 70. Each had a 36-hole total of 5-under 135.

A shot back at 136 was another of the near-geriatric set, 49-year-old Mark Calcavecchia. Ross Fisher, Retief Goosen, Kenichi Kuboya, Vijay Singh and first-day leader Miguel Angel Jimenez were tied for fourth at 137.

Only once in 48 previous majors as a pro -- the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot a few weeks after his father, Earl, died of cancer -- had Woods missed a cut.

Unable to control his tee shots, even though he mostly used irons and his 3-wood instead of a driver, Woods lost seven shots to par in a torturous stretch of six holes on the famed course, eight through 13.

He had bogeys at eight, nine and 12 and double bogeys at 10 and 13. Even a birdie at 17 was of little help as Woods shot a 74. Added to Thursday's 71, it left him at 145, a shot over the 144 cut line.

"I was 1 under par for seven holes,'' Woods said, attempting to mask his disappointment, "and just right there in the championship and had a few tough holes right in a row and couldn't get it back.

"I hit a couple of bad shots, but other than that, I made a double bogey at 13 from 150 yards. It was just problem after problem. I kept compounding my problems out there. I just made mistakes, and obviously, you can't make mistakes not only to make the cut but to try and win a championship. You have to play clean rounds of golf, and I didn't.''

This is the third straight major of 2009 in which Woods came in two weeks after a victory and didn't win, although in the other two - the Masters and U.S. Open at Bethpage Black - a pair of sixth-place finishes were hardly as crushing.

The double bogey at 10, a 446-yard par 4, came after a lost ball. Using a 3-wood, Woods smashed his tee ball into the deep rough.

Woods, who had been the 2-1 choice in this nation where gambling is legal - The Racing Post called the action on Woods a "feeding frenzy'' - won three previous Opens. But he never had played Turnberry, on the west coast of Scotland along the Firth of Clyde, until a practice round Sunday. He did not take to the course.

"I was playing well coming in,'' said Woods, who when asked what was next on the agenda answered, "Head home.''

The great drama now is whether Watson -- who won at Turnberry in 1977, edging Jack Nicklaus in their renowned "Duel in the Sun'' -- is headed for a miracle win.

The oldest major winner was 48-year-old Julius Boros in the 1968 PGA Championship. Greg Norman was 53 when he challenged in last year's Open at Royal Birkdale before slipping back the final day. This time Norman missed the cut at 77-75-152.

"The spirits are with me,'' Watson said. "And I've holed some long putts.''

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http://www.newsday.com/sports/highschool/golf/ny-spbrit1812980876jul17,0,2331801.story
Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

CBSSports.com: For Calc, a chance to help promise be a bit less unfulfilled

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.comTURNBERRY, Scotland -- There's a painful humor in the words of Mark Calcavecchia, who likes to talk about the way he has downed pints as compared to the way he has holed putts.

"I'm working on St. Mungo this week," he cracked about a lager brewed in Glasgow. "It's pretty good stuff."

So too is Calcavecchia, a bit overweight, a bit unappreciated. He's good stuff. He should have been better.

He definitely doesn't take himself seriously but deep down knows how successful he could have been if indeed he had done just that a little more often.

It isn't as if the career has been a bust. There is that major championship, a British Open at Troon, about 20 miles and exactly 20 years from the testy one now going on at Turnberry. Yet Calc, as he's always called, when requested to look back, does it with more than a twinge of regret.

Calcavecchia shot a 1-under 69 Friday in the second round of the 138th Open, giving him a 36-hole total of 4-under 136, one shot behind co-leaders Steve Marino and Tom Watson. And so Calc faced the unavoidable questions of whether he could win and whether during his 27 years on tour he should have won more.

There was a hesitant yes to the first question, because Calc's quite acceptable controlled ego wouldn't allow him anything more, and a less hesitant yes to the second.

Golf tempers a person's outlook. A botched bunker shot is never far away, even for a pro. But it doesn't change intent. Or actuality.

Some may wonder what Calc is doing up there in third of the same major in which Tiger Woods -- Calcavecchia's frequent practice-round partner -- was going to miss the cut. A more legitimate query is why Calc never placed himself up there in Hall of Fame consideration, even though he insists that sort of acknowledgment is unimportant.

Asked point blank whether he indeed could win the Open, Calc hemmed and hawed, talking of his downs and ups throughout the seasons and then agreed, "Yeah, I think I can win. If not this week, then maybe somewhere later on this year down the road."

Then came the more poignant query, one that from some people might have brought an angry growl: Does Mark Calcavecchia believe that through the years he has underachieved?

"Yeah," he said. "There's no question I should have won at least 20 tournaments." He's won 13.

"I've had, what, 27 seconds, and another 25 thirds or something. [It's 17 thirds]. I think only [Greg] Norman has more seconds. I probably gave 10 of those away, and the rest I made good rallies to finish second.

"But I could have won a Masters. Sandy Lyle [in 1988] hit the shot of his life out a fairway bunker, but who knows, maybe I wouldn't have won this tournament the next year. But I would have thought I would have won a Masters at some point, and that's clearly not going to happen. But that's OK."

A fascinating leaderboard halfway through the Open: Marino, 29, who not only never had won on tour but never had played a links course or, obviously, the Open, until this week; 59-year-old Tom Watson; and 49-year-old Mark Calcavecchia.

"I watched TV this morning," said Calc, who had an 11:41 a.m. British time start, "so I kind of knew what some of the holes were playing like on the front nine. And I saw the wind -- there was no wind [Thursday] -- was going in the opposite direction it had been on Tuesday."

After a quiet, almost embracing opening round 24 hours earlier, when the air was still, the sun shining and 50 players broke par, Friday came up wet and wild, genuine British Open weather.

"At any rate, I knew the front nine was going to play hard," said Calc, confirming many of the opening holes would be into the teeth of the north wind. "I saw the scores, and I just wanted to stay away from big numbers, which a lot of guys were making out there, doubles, triples and quads and whatever. A few bogeys here and there weren't going to kill me."

He did bogey the second and fifth holes, which parallel the coastline of the Firth of Clyde, but then he birdied seven, 10, 12 and 14, stumbling only with a bogey on the 206-yard par-3 15th.

"When we turned around on the back nine, I thought I could probably shoot a decent score," said Calc, cognizant Turnberry, as so many links courses, goes out in one direction and then turns toward home, with a diversion or two. "I'm real happy with the way things have gone. I've been getting some good bounces, getting lucky on occasion, which always helps."

Some of the younger American players described Calcavecchia as some sort of unofficial team leader because of his many years playing golf in general and the Open specifically. He sloughed it off with the expected self-deprecation.

"I would never think I'm the type of guy anybody could learn anything from, to tell the truth," Calc remarked. "I think experience is way overrated. All that means is I've hit more bad shots than all the guys that are 20 years old, and they're lingering in my brain."

Along with the good pints. "I'm allowing myself four," he smirked. "Seems to be a good, round figure."

That from a man with a good, round figure.

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http://www.cbssports.com/golf/story/11963803
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

Newsday: Jimenez passes Watson for British Open lead

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- He had stepped from the past, which in this land of legends and lore, kings and kilts, shouldn't have been a surprise.

Tom Watson seems as much a part of Scotland, of the British Open, as the heather in the rough and the bunkers in the fairways.

He is 59 and yesterday, when the 138th Open started at Turnberry -- where Watson won an Open 32 years ago -- he shot a 5-under-par 65 to come in a shot behind Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez. Watson shares second place with American Ben Curtis, the 2003 Open winner, and Japanese Tour regular Kenichi Kuboya.

"I think there was some spirituality out there today," Watson said. "Just the serenity of it was pretty neat."

Spirituality and fantasy merge here to create reality. It is here along the Firth of Clyde where Robert the Bruce, an eventual king of Scotland was born in the 13th Century. It is here where weathered castles and abbeys dot the countryside, telling of another age.

Over the hill in Ayr runs the River Doon and across it the Bridge of Doon, or as it's called here, the Brig o'Doon. "Brigadoon" became a Broadway musical set in a mythical Scottish town where the residents never age.

Like Tom Watson.

"Not bad for an almost 60-year-old," Watson, who reaches that number in two months, mused of his round. Not bad for anyone no matter how old. Or young.

And how's this for fantasy morphing into reality. Watson, once the dominant player of his day, mashed the dominant player of this day, Tiger Woods. Woods shot a 1-over 71. At 33, he gave Watson 26 years and six shots. Woods is seven shots out of the lead after a sloppy round.

Watson simply gave everyone a reminder greatness can still have its day. He has won the Open five times. He has won the Senior British Open three times, one of those at Turnberry.

The Open is golf on the links land, that sandy soil from which the sea receded thousands of years past, golf where balls bounce and sometimes the wind howls and the rain falls. It's the weather which gives a links course its character and difficulty, but yesterday the sun was shining and the air was still.

"She was defenseless," said Watson. Reminiscent of those beautiful days the last two rounds of the '77 Open at Turnberry when, in the so-called "Duel in the Sun," Watson shot 65-65 to edge Jack Nicklaus, who had 65-66.

Nicklaus stopped playing the British after St. Andrews in 2005, but in a sense he was at Turnberry yesterday. Jack's wife, Barbara, texted Tom on Wednesday evening wishing him luck.

"I texted her back," Watson explained, "and said, 'You know we really miss you over here.' And I really meant it. It's not the same without Jack playing in this tournament."

Open champions have exemptions now, after a new regulation, only until they are 60. Nicklaus is 69.

Watson, looking at a leader board which included former winners Mark O'Meara, age 52, and Mark Calcavecchia, 49, said knowledge of links golf, which is more on the ground than in the air, is a large part of the equation.

"We have an advantage," Watson insisted. "The older guys have an advantage. We've played under these conditions, and we kind of get a feel for it. And that feel is worth its weight in gold when you're playing."

A year ago, at Royal Birkdale, Greg Norman, then 53, made a run at the title until the final holes. (He shot 77 yesterday).

Watson wouldn't guess what lies ahead.

"Sixty-five is the way to start," he said. "Will I be able to handle the pressure? I don't know. Whether I'm in the hunt, who knows? The pressure may be too much too handle. But I've been there before."

Many, many times.

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http://www.newsday.com/sports/golf/ny-spbrit0716,0,6778856.story
Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

CBSSports.com: Woods shoots 71, odds triple in rough first day at Open

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- The money couldn't be turned over fast enough. The pounds, each of them worth $1.77, were being wagered on Tiger Woods with such eagerness that Britain's betting paper, the Racing Post, headlined it as "a feeding frenzy."

Tiger was a virtual 2-1 favorite when he stepped to the first tee Thursday to hit first shot of the 138th British Open, and nobody else, not Sergio Garcia, not Steve Stricker, not two-time defending champion Padraig Harrington, was better than 20-1.

The odds changed dramatically by the time Tiger made it to the rolling 18th green of Turnberry's enticing links. Woods not only wasn't leading the tournament, he wasn't even leading the other two players in his threesome, one of them 17-year-old Japanese prodigy Ryo Ishikawa, the other Englishman Lee Westwood.

The odds on that happening were rather large. Mr. Woods, who came in with a 1-over-par 71, which put him down below the top 60, was a 1-2 favorite to beat Ishikawa and Westwood.

Which he didn't do, both of them coming in with 2-under 68s. And which made El Tigre perhaps the most unhappy laddie on the west coast of Scotland, if not the entire country.

Tiger was his usual repetitious and non-committal self when asked exactly that happened on a day when the wind didn't blow, the rain never fell and the temperature at the real Turnberry -- this one -- might have been confused with that of the reasonable facsimile, Turnberry in Florida.

You not only could see the sun, you could see Ailsa Craig, that mammoth rock off 10 miles into the Firth of Clyde, and not even think about the local axiom: "If ye can't see Ailsa Craig, it's raining; if ye can see Ailsa Craig, it's going to rain."

It figuratively rained on Tiger's out-of-step parade. He had four bogeys, of which one actually was quite impressive.

Woods hit his approach on the 455-yard par-4 16th, named "Wee Burn," into the burn, or stream, which doesn't seem so "wee." After a penalty drop, he chipped close and one-putted. Otherwise he would have had a double bogey.

Tiger's post-round analysis consisted of a not-surprising litany, words we have heard more than once at majors since Woods returned from the left knee ACL surgery that kept him out from June 2008 to February 2009.

"Well," he said, "I certainly made a few mistakes out there. Realistically, I probably should have shot about 1 or 2 under par. But I made a few mistakes, and consequently I'm at 1 over."

Then he pointed out he would be going to the driving range to correct those mistakes.

There's a pattern here, and one Tiger needs to break. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in March two weeks before the Masters and finished sixth at Augusta. He won the Memorial two weeks before the U.S. Open and finished sixth at Bethpage. Two weeks before this Open Championship, he won the AT&T in Washington.

"On the range," Woods said of his warmup, "my misses were to the right. And I tried not to miss it to the right on 3. I didn't do that. Consequently I hit it left."

After the shot, he took a swipe at the teeing ground and mumbled something under his breath. By round's end, he had tossed away his clubs a few times. He expected more of himself. So did everyone, especially the guys making the odds.

"The misses I had were the same shots I was hitting on the range," Woods said. "So I need to go to work on that and get it squared away."

With 54 holes remaining, Woods isn't exactly finished, even if the bookmakers revised the numbers upward, placing him at 6-1. You only wish waiters over here could serve half as quickly as the odds are posted.

Before 2005, Tiger had not finished first in a major when he didn't shoot par or better the first round, but that stat has become irrelevant, sort of like those six-foot deep bunkers at Turnberry without any breeze to knock down shots.

Woods now has three major titles when he began over par, the '05 Masters and the last two of his total 14, the '07 PGA and the '08 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, the one he took on a leg and half and a lot of courage.

The other day, after a practice round, Tiger said Turnberry is a course where "you can't fake it." There was no faking the first round of the 2009 Open, just enough bad shots to change the odds -- if not Tiger's continued place as the favorite.

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http://www.cbssports.com/golf/story/11960022
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Tiger Takes on Turnberry

By Art Spander

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- It is a land of history and mystery, of kings and kilts, of whins -- the tall grass -- and whisky. A land where remnants of 700-year-old abbeys stand against time and the words of poet Bobby Burns carry in the wind.

It is the land where golf began, on the sandy soil next to the sea called links, and the land where the game once more returns with the oldest of championships, the British Open, being played for the 138th time.

This is Turnberry, hard by the Firth of Clyde, some 40 miles south of Glasgow, a course twice, during World War I and World War II, turned into a base for the Royal Air Force and now has again been turned into a test for the game's best players.

Along the road is Croy Brae, or The Electric Brae, where because of an optical illusion up looks down and down looks up. On the edge of a course is a lighthouse, built on the alleged birth site of Robert the Bruce, who led the Scots against the English in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

The River Doon flows in Ayr, the city some 18 miles north, and over it, near Burns' heritage museum, crosses the Bridge over the Doon, or Brig O'Doon.

The pros can cross that bridge when they come to it. Now the idea is to get past the bunkers, the huge pits five or six feet deep, and the long rough when play in the Open begins Thursday on Turnberry's Ailsa course..

"Just a fabulous golf course,'' said Tiger Woods. He is a three-time British Open winner, but like so many of the golfers in their early 30s, or younger, never had played even a practice round at Turnberry until this week.

Three Opens have been held here: 1977, won by Tom Watson; 1986, won by Greg Norman; and 1994, won by Nick Price. But 15 years is a long time. Fifteen years ago Tiger was 18 and one of his playing partners for the first two rounds, Ryo Ishikawa of Japan, was 2 years old.

So, in a way, for many in the field Turnberry is uncharted territory, even though they will have noted every swale and sand trap during the previous few days.

"We haven't had the big winds yet,'' said Tiger of how difficult it is to create a playing strategy. "We'll see how the weather holds out.''

Off the coast about 10 miles is Ailsa Craig, a huge rock, an extinct volcano, home to thousands of birds. The saying here is "If ye can't see Ailsa Craig it's raining; if ye can see it, it's going to rain.'' On Tuesday, you saw it, and then you saw storms smash in from the Firth.

Turnberry was renovated the past year, reopened only a month past. Tiger, in a sense, also went through his own renovation, surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee in June 2008.

That kept him out of last year's Open, a fact to which the British media kept referring - hey, at least they didn't ask about Lindbergh flying across the Atlantic - and out of any tournament until February.

Since his return, Tiger has won three times, which he conceded was not something anyone would have predicted, but none of those wins was in a major. He tied for sixth in both the Masters and U.S. Open.

The three who took championships at Turnberry, Watson, Norman and Price -- and a fourth, Jack Nicklaus, whom Watson beat by a single shot in '77 -- all are living members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. The connection was not lost on Tiger.

"You are looking at guys who were some of the best ball strikers,'' said Woods, who has been made the 7-to-4 favorite. "At this course you can understand why. You really have to hit your ball well here. And you have to drive the ball well, hit your irons well. You just can't fake it around this golf course.''

Experience helps on links courses, although because the weather is so changeable sometimes not that much. If you're hitting a driver with the wind because the ball is certain to carry a bunker, what happens when the wind reverses? Do you use a 3-wood or 3-iron and play short?

Tiger won the Open three years ago at Royal Liverpool, Hoylake, and hadn't played the course until the week of the tournament. Back in 1964, Tony Lema, who had never even been on a links course, won at St. Andrews, advising, "I don't build 'em, I play 'em.''

So does Tiger, and he said his introduction to links golf, some 14 years ago when he was at Stanford, was a revelation.

"I just fell in love with being able to use the ground as a friend, as an ally,'' said Tiger of golf on the hard-packed fairways. "We don't get to do that in the States. Everything is up in the air.''

At the moment, so is the winner of the 2009 British Open. Tiger is the choice, but everyone except Robert the Bruce has a chance.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/07/14/tiger_takes_on_turnberry_96427.html
© RealClearSports 2009

SF Examiner: Tiger anxious for first major win since surgery

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

TURNBERRY, SCOTLAND — And now into the land of Robert the Bruce, where castles stand and time seems endless, steps Woods the Tiger. Aye laddie, the British Open returns to Scotland, and Woods, after a missing year, returns to the Open.

“Haste ye back,” says the sign along A77 as it curves out of Kirkoswald toward the Firth of Forth and the links of Turnberry. Tiger is back. And naturally the heavy betting favorite, 7-to-4 at Ladbroke’s the bookmaker.

Every Open Championship, as it’s called here, offers a unique glance at an event which is as much about history as it is competition. Over the hill in Ayr is the actual Brig O’Doon, or bridge over the Doon River. Close by is the home of Bobby Burns, the poet hero who created Auld Lang Syne told us the best laid plans “o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley.”

Tiger’s plan for this 138th Open, of course, is to finish first, to follow in the wake of Tom Watson, Greg Norman and Nick Price who won the three previous Opens at Turnberry.

“They were some of the best ball-strikers,” Woods reminded. “At this golf course you can understand why. You really have to hit the ball well here ... you just can’t fake it around this golf course.”

Nor on any links, which is where the Open always is played. Those are the courses on the rolling, sandy soil once under the sea, where the bunkers are huge, the fairways firm, and the advantage is in hitting the ball low, not high.

Those are courses such as Royal Birkdale, where Padraig Harrington won last year, and Carnoustie, where Harrington won in 2007, and Royal Liverpool, where in 2006 Tiger took his third Open.

There are no true linksland venues in the United States — Pebble Beach Golf Links is one in name only, not style — and not until they cross the sea do Americans get the opportunity to play them.

“I fell in love with it right away,” Woods said of links golf. “I fell in love with being [able] to use the ground as a friend, an ally. We don’t get to do that in the United States; everything is up in the air.”

Nor in the U.S. do they compete on a course built where, in 1274, Robert the Bruce was born. He would become King of Scotland and fight the English at the Battle of Bannockburn. Now a lighthouse, Turnberry’s symbol stands at Robert the Bruce’s alleged birth site.

The virtual king of golf is Tiger. But since the knee surgery which prevented him from playing in the ’08 Open, Woods has not won a major. He has three victories since returning five months ago but he couldn’t get to the top in either the Masters or U.S. Open, tying for sixth in both.

“To sit here and say I was going to have three wins halfway through the year probably would have been reaching a little bit,” Woods said. “Granted I haven’t won a major, but I’ve come close. I’ve done it before, and hopefully I’ll do it again.”

The oddsmakers believe he’ll do it this Open. They are not alone.

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on artspander.com and realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.

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