By Art Spander
Global Golf Post
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA — Such an appropriate nickname. "The Big Easy." Golf, however, is nothing but easy, even for the man with the relaxed, easy swing, Ernie Els.
"I've been to the dark side a couple of times," said Els.
Copyright 2015 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — He previously was No. 4 in the World Golf Rankings. Not just the U.S. PGA Tour, which uses the FedExCup standings. The world. Before he mysteriously lost it.
As happens in golf, where livelihoods, prestige and success are all too dependent on putts that miss by inches or drives that take weird bounces, in a matter of months, Brandt Snedeker was No. 63 as he entered the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Copyright © 2015 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The promotional slogan for the PGA Tour was and is, "These guys are good." And when the sun shines and the winds quiet at Pebble Beach, those guys are phenomenal.
The Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce absolutely loved Saturday. The temperature along Carmel Bay soared to the upper 70s. The guys swatting golf balls the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am loved it too.
Copyright © 2015 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
PEBBLE BEACH — The golf almost is secondary. Bing Crosby understood that. People make the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am what it is as much as pars or birdies.
As through the decades people, personalities, made the tournament we once knew as the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am what it was — Northern California’s annual winter party of occasional wild weather and constant enjoyment.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SAN DIEGO — It was a day of sunshine and fog, of birdies and bogeys and of a lead that couldn't be held until the final par putt.
That came from Jason Day on the second playoff hole of the Farmers Insurance Open that, without Tiger Woods (bad back, withdrawal) or Phil Mickelson (missed cut), may have lacked star power but didn't lack for excitement.
Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SAN DIEGO — The first few minutes of the CBS telecast Saturday from the Farmers Insurance Open were videos of swings by Tiger Woods. Which might be all you need to know about the current state of PGA Tour golf.
Woods hasn't been here since Thursday, when he withdrew because of back spasms.
Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SAN DIEGO — The Farmers Insurance Open lost its second star in two days when hometown guy Phil Mickelson, putting "beyond pathetic," missed the cut Friday. Tiger Woods withdrew from the PGA Tour event Thursday because of a bad back.
Mickelson, who grew up playing Torrey Pines, shot a par 72 on the easier North Course after a 2-over 74 Thursday on the South, the one on which Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open.
Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SAN DIEGO — The questions about Tiger Woods before he teed off Thursday dealt with his game. Now, once again, they are about his back, and at age 39, his future.
Woods, in obvious pain, withdrew after only 11 holes in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, a course where he had flourished. He has eight wins here as a pro, including the 2008 U.S. Open, his last victory in a major.
Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist, Bleacher Report
SAN DIEGO — It seemed as symbolic as it was sad. There was the man, Eldrick Woods, the one and only Tiger, driving away into a coastal fog that, if it didn’t obscure his future—he’s done—it certainly did the future of golf.
Why does it always have to end like this for the great ones—injuries and ailments and worst of all an inability to perform with the magnificence they once did?
Copyright © 2015 Bleacher Report, Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
Even the weather seems to be against Tiger Woods.
Coastal fog, not unusual this time of the year in southern California, delayed Woods -- and everyone else -- by two hours at the start of Wednesday's pro-am for the Farmers Insurance Open.
Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
They are so good for so long, and then suddenly we’re wondering — they’re wondering — how and why the great players go into decline.
Why can’t Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum get the ball over the plate any more? How did the Niners’ Vernon Davis last season go from star to question mark? And what has happened to Tiger Woods?
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
Global Golf Post
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA — The sign attached to the second-floor patio railing intentionally was visible from the adjacent fairway. "Welcome back, Tiger," it said in properly large letters.
Such a delightful greeting. Such an unexpected response.
Copyright 2015 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
GLENDALE, Ariz. — He was weary and battered, a champion once again, an MVP once more.
Tom Brady, who wasn't necessarily the man who made the difference — although certainly he was a difference-maker — stood there as much in gratification as in glory.
Copyright © 2015 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Tiger Woods may have lost his touch — his 82 Friday in the second round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open was his worst as a pro — but he retained his sense of humor.
"I'm only doing this so I won't get fined" was Woods' opening comment to the media. Clearly he's been watching the interviews with Marshawn Lynch, whose Seahawks will play the Patriots Sunday in Super Bowl XLIX in nearby Glendale.
Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Tiger Woods' return to PGA Tour tournament golf for the first time in 5 1/2 months was a struggle to be expected by everyone aside from the man himself.
Woods, who turned 39 at the end of December and hadn't competed in a full-blown event since the PGA Championship last August, started erratically, 4 over par in his first four holes, then rallied impressively and shot a 2-over-par 73 in the opening round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to the Examiner
PHOENIX — They weren't going to trap Marshawn Lynch. He would talk Tuesday on Super Bowl Media Day. He would sit there at his rostrum and declare, "I'm only here so I won't get fined."
Declare it 28 times before adding, "Time up."
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
PHOENIX — There was a guy wearing only a barrel. No, not the late, great Tim McKernan of Denver; this was someone representing a local C&W station, KNIX.
There was a young lady from a Hispanic sports station wearing something so tight it could barely be confused with a dress, much less a barrel.
Copyright © 2015 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
PHOENIX — Think of the great NFL coaches over the last half century, the Lombardis, Shulas, Nolls, even the Belichicks, because no matter what we think of Bill, he is part of this category and a much rarer category -- a winner in back-to-back Super Bowls.
Now consider adding the name of Pete Carroll to that list. Silly, you suggest, because Carroll, a product of California's fantasy-land Marin County, a guy whose easy-going ways when he coached the Jets were derided as "the good ship Lollipop?"
Copyright © 2015 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
PHOENIX — Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, in his rimless glasses and dark suit, looked more like a businessman than a football coach. However, the questions he was asked moments after the Seahawks arrived for next Sunday's Super Bowl had nothing to do with finance.
Seattle's jet arrived at Sky Harbor Airport in the early afternoon, and not long after that, after the Seahawks' buses crept through the crowd of cheering, banner-waving fans at the motor entrance to the Arizona Grand Hotel, he was dealing with, yes, "deflategate."
Copyright © 2015 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
We have grown accustomed to the Warriors' success now, even demanding of it. One winning streak after another. Two brilliant backcourt artists, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Nirvana. At last.
The Warriors with the best record in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics -- nemeses since eternity -- trapped in the wasteland where the Warriors once resided.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner