Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger Woods ends 2-year drought with win

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- The putt went in, and the cap came off. For the first time in two years, Tiger Woods had won a golf tournament, and he celebrated with first pumps, a wave of his hat and a smile that for golf had been too long unseen.

Woods came from a shot behind Zach Johnson with birdies on the final two holes Sunday to take the $5-million Chevron World Challenge, a charity event which benefits his Tiger Woods Foundation and surely was beneficial to the host.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger Woods struggles in wind, trails by one

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Sherwood Country Club is cut into the rocky foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, fairways running up hillsides and down canyons, where Saturday afternoon, the wind gusted and swirled and tossed Tiger Woods for a loop.

Woods' three-shot lead entering the third round of the $5-million Chevron World Challenge was blown away, and he fell to second, a shot behind Zach Johnson.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Tiger Still the Only Golfer Who Matters

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Let’s not fool ourselves. In golf, there’s Tiger Woods, and there’s everyone else.

Not specifically on the scoreboard, because as is obvious from the results, Rory McIlroy and Charles Schwartzel and Keegan Bradley can damn well play, and win.

But in our minds. In our attention to the game.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Is it time for Golden State Warriors fans to believe again?

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The promises are out there, from a chain of command which seems very commanding, from a new head coach who acts very demanding.

This is the season, we are told, when fans of the Warriors, the most persistent, most loyal fans in sports, receive their payback.

Sixteen years out of 17, the Warriors have missed the playoffs...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Luck Leaves Stanford Stadium a Winner

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

STANFORD, Calif. — One of a kind. That's how Andrew Luck's appreciative coach described him.

"There's no player in America like Andrew Luck,'' was the biased but hardly inaccurate phrase of David Shaw. "Forget about the stats."

In his last game at Stanford Stadium, Luck's stats...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: 49ers quarterback Alex Smith finished biding time

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He was wearing a 49ers hat the other day, to which you would say, of course. But Alex Smith more often is seen in a Giants hat. Or on occasion, as a salute to his first love, a team of which he always will be a fan, the San Diego Padres.

“I’ve always worn something,” he said about his personal preference.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Jackson creates winning culture with the Raiders

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The blend is unusual in pro football, excitement and candor. Hue Jackson doesn’t stop believing. Or demanding.

When you wait half a lifetime to become a head coach, you look at things differently, and even when the score is wrong, approvingly.

Jackson isn’t the only reason the Raiders have moved out of the darkness...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Winds of change blow through Bay Area football

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The NFL season the Bay Area wondered if they would ever see has arrived.

The gloom has been lifted. The joy has returned. The playoffs are certain for the Niners, probable for the Raiders.

It’s barely past the mid-point, with several weeks...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Oh, Brother! Harbaughs Ready for Battle

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

Oh, brother! Coach Jim Harbaugh’s San Francisco 49ers against coach John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving night. “Yeah,’’ said Jim, “it’s a big deal.’’

Jim, a month from his 48th birthday, John 49. “We’re cut from the same cloth,’’ agreed Jim.

Of course they are, two sons of yet another football coach, Jack Harbaugh...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Luck 'Phenomenal' in Stanford's Victory

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

STANFORD, Calif. — He was wet and weary. But on this rainy Saturday night, Andrew Luck also was a winner. Of a football game, a traditional game that means as much to him as — maybe more than — the Heisman Trophy he might not win.

Whether Luck helped or hurt his chances for that individual prize is up to the observers and then the voters, but the only thing that concerned him was Stanford beating Cal in the 114th Big Game, if only 31-28, which might be considered a negative for a 17½-point favorite.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Tiger, Tebow Battle Their Demons

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

They were nearly 9,000 miles apart but as close as a television remote, the "T-Men,'' the demonized men. One is disliked for what he did - disappoint us after we embraced him like no other golfer in history. One is despised for what he hasn't done - play quarterback as conventionally played in the NFL.

On the Golf Channel, Tiger Woods at the Presidents Cup in Australia, a controversial and so far unproductive captain's pick by Fred Couples.

On the NFL Network, Tim Tebow...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: No love lost in Stanford-Cal rivalry

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

This Andrew Luck kid from Stanford? Just diplomatic enough to keep the coach happy. Just candid enough to keep the alumni ecstatic.

“We definitely respect Cal,” said Luck, discussing Saturday night’s Big Game at Stanford, “and I think they respect us. But it doesn’t mean we have to like each other.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Escaping the Hurt for a Few Hours

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

It was all right to watch the Raiders and Chargers, to check in on Tiger Woods at the Australian Open, to find out what was happening with Virginia Tech-Georgia Tech.

It was all right to get away from the hurt.

The world of sport had been changed, pummeled...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Stanford in the spotlight heading into Oregon matchup

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

For this week’s “Game of the Century,” you are presented a team with the longest major college football winning streak in the land, the Heisman Trophy favorite and the early morning arrival of that “look at me, Ma” presentation, ESPN’s “GameDay.”

Yes, as the Stanford band plays, it’s all right now.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: PSU Scandal Robs Sports of Innocence

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

It comes so fast you barely have time to duck. Or blink. “Bad news on the doorstep,’’ were Don McLean’s thoughts in “American Pie’’ – which, heavens, is 40 years old.

Now the bad news is on the screen, on the internet, on Facebook, on Twitter. Now the bad news assaults without a stop.



This is not about results...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Jay Don Blake basks in glory of Champions Tour win at Harding Park

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He doesn’t look back. Jay Don Blake doesn’t wonder how he could have changed the past — ask himself if he would have been a star if he hadn’t been so stubborn, ignored the doctors’ advice, paid more attention to what was in his head, not his heart.

Blake on Sunday won the Champions Tour’s Charles Schwab Cup, at least the single-event section, in the chill and wind at TPC Harding Park on San Francisco’s mysterious southwestern edge.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Even on the Champions Tour, Tiger Woods is the talk of the town

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He’s 5,000 miles away in Singapore. Even if  he were home in America, the Champions Tour, with its season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship underway at TPC Harding Park, is not where Tiger Woods would be competing.

Yet, for better or worse, no matter where, no matter when, Tiger seemingly is the only one who counts in golf.

Even during a tournament for seniors, or if you will Champions.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Couples Taking Heat for Taking Tiger

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — This isn't about the Fred Couples who was tied for the lead after the first day of the Charles Schwab Championship, the Champions Tour's year-end tournament.

This is about the Fred Couples who is finding out what it's like to be Tony La Russa or Phil Jackson, who is taking heat for taking Tiger Woods for a national team.

Couples, with a personality as relaxed as his swing...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Tom Lehman’s had long journey to top of Champions Tour

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The journey is what distinguishes Tom Lehman, no less than the journey’s destination, and the destination at which he arrived after years of struggle and doubt is a place among golf’s best, and surely golf’s most persistent.

The journey took him across America and across the sea.

It took him...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company