By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — He’s the man, all right. All you had to do was listen to the shrieks and the shouts. “Hey, Tigah, in the hole. Hey Tigah, over here.” No question he’s the heart of golf in America.
But Tiger Woods, who made a stirring return on a steamy, humid afternoon with a practice round in Louisville on Wednesday, also is the mystery man.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — One round for Phil Mickelson, who must have played 10,000 rounds of golf in his life. Maybe 50,000. One round, but even for a man who’s been there, done that, won majors, won millions, it's a round that could make a difference.
How strange, the PGA Championship, the tournament which carries the reminder "This is major" at the front of the media tent, is being played at a course named after a hall named for slain warriors in Norse mythology, Valhalla. It is on a course with a funeral connotation Mickelson again seeks to find life.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — It was supposed to be a coronation march. Instead it became a long walk, although not spoiled, to the delight of Rory McIlroy.
After starting the final round of the British Open on Sunday with a lead of six strokes, McIlroy saw his margin trimmed to two by the 72nd hole. Still, that was good enough to have him announced as "The Champion Golfer of the Year."
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — Rickie Fowler was the only player in the 143rd British Open to shoot four rounds in the 60s. And he didn't win.
"I tried to give Rory a little run at the end," Fowler said of Rory McIlroy, who finished two shots ahead of Fowler and Sergio Garcia. "But I just got on the gas a little too late."
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
For Global Golf Post
HOYLAKE, ENGLAND — The final round started and Jim Furyk was on the leaderboard. Where he always seems to be. The years and the putts roll by, but Furyk makes no concession to time. Or no less significantly, failure.
Copyright 2014 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
HOYLAKE, England — Rory McIlroy is one of three, with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. But so effervescent, so whimsical as well as so remarkably talented, McIlroy in truth is one of a kind.
“The Champion Golfer of the Year.” That’s how the British Open winner is introduced by the head of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, Peter Dawson.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — It was short, and for Rory McIlroy, oh so sweet. In a matter of minutes he threw two eagles at the field and dispelled any thought the 143rd British Open would belong to anyone else.
McIlroy's threes on the par-5 16th and 18th holes Saturday in the third round at Royal Liverpool enabled him to leap to a six-stroke lead. Almost certainly the rest of the field is playing for second.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
HOYLAKE, England — The Open is closed. One moment we had a golf tournament. The next we had a rout. For Rory McIlroy, the next walk across the links of Royal Liverpool will be a coronation march.
Six shots in six holes. McIlroy was tied with Rickie Fowler at the 13th tee Saturday in the third round. After the 18th green he was six shots in front.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
HOYLAKE, England — That takes care of the Friday Flop nonsense for Rory McIlroy. That also ought to take care of the 143rd British Open.
Was it a jinx? A curse? A bad swing that turned into a horrible situation? A leprechaun’s mistake?
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — Phil Mickelson called it a "crazy" round. He was talking about his own play at Royal Liverpool on Friday, but the word very much could have applied to his rival, Tiger Woods.
Mickelson had an eagle on the 528-yard, par-5 fifth hole, lost a ball on the par-5 10th but still made par, and birdied the par-5 18th for a 2-under-par 70 and a 36-hole total of par 144 in the British Open.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — He's done this before, three years ago in the other Open. He turned the 2011 U.S. Open into a runaway, and now on this side of the ocean, Rory McIlroy is doing it again.
McIlroy did something on Friday that he hadn't been doing much of this season and extended his lead in the 143rd British Open to four shots. Even with two rounds to play, he may be uncatchable.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — Rory McIlroy did what he was supposed to do in the opening round of the British Open: Take the lead.
Now can he avoid doing what everyone expects him to do — fall apart in the second round?
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
HOYLAKE, England — Oh, we of little faith. That will teach us. Doubt the Great Tiger, even after back surgery, even after not winning a major in six years. Dummies.
That’s what Mr. Woods implied, which for him was just as clear as if he spelled it out, d-u-m-m-i-e-s.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — To steal a line from the Beatles, who began just across the River Mersey, Justin Rose's career has been a long and winding road.
Twenty-eight miles from Royal Birkdale to the north — where in the 1998 British Open Rose hit the spotlight before he hit the skids — to the 2014 Open, which starts Thursday at Royal Liverpool.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
HOYLAKE, England — Suddenly golf is more than a four-letter word. It’s an attraction, a mystery, a sport so significant ESPN is providing live coverage on its website of every shot hit by the man who’s the cause of it all: Tiger Woods.
Tiger in the Open Championship, in a major for the first time this year, held on the course at Royal Liverpool, where he won in 2006. The Return of the Tiger, film at 11.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
HOYLAKE, England — The one admission was unavoidable. “It hasn’t been a very good year,” affirmed Phil Mickelson. Not at all.
Not when he missed the cut in the Masters and finished 28th in the U.S. Open.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — The timing is perfect. The World Cup finally exits the sporting stage and starting Thursday ready to step on are Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy — and for the first time this year in a major championship — Tiger Woods.
We're in Beatles Country, for those with a nostalgic bent, across the Mersey River from their city, at a golf course formally named Royal Liverpool but known more familiarly by its location, Hoylake, the town where the River Dee Estuary flows into the Irish Sea.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
It wasn't Novak Djokovic's first hurrah, his victory Sunday in the Wimbledon men's final, but it might have been Roger Federer's last.
A month from his 33rd birthday, Federer was out to get his eighth All-England title. Djokovic had that in mind and also hoped to rid himself of the doubts about his play in championship matches.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LONDON — Roger Federer thought it was going to be enough. Except it wasn't — for him.
For tennis, for those who love any sport for the beauty and tension of competition, for those who love athletic brilliance, it was more than enough.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — It was less a match than a mismatch, 55 minutes of tennis so one-sided the winner was moved to tears by her domination and the loser felt compelled to offer a partial apology.
Petra Kvitova won her second Wimbledon women's singles Saturday, crushing 20-year-old Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-0 before a Centre Court crowd which hoped for better.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.