By Art Spander
Global Golf Post
UNIVERSITY PLACE, WASHINGTON — The symbolism was unavoidable. Tiger Woods topped a 3-wood from the middle of the 18th fairway into the deepest bunker on the course.
There was his ball, so far down. There was his game, so far down. There were the rest of us — fans, media, not knowing whether to offer sympathy or laughter.
Copyright 2015 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — The adage is you don’t win a U.S. Open, it wins you. That after the yanked tee shots and missed putts, after the lead slips through the hands of one golfer to another’s like fool’s gold, there’s someone standing as much in bewilderment as elation when he’s handed the trophy.
On a beautiful mid-summer’s day, on a course as reviled as it was admired — tattered and battered Chambers Bay — that someone was the best young player in America and maybe the world, Jordan Spieth.
©2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — There’s always a star in the future. And in the wings. There’s always another great one ready to move in, to keep us enthralled in golf. Always another Jack Nicklaus. Or Tiger Woods.
Always a Jordan Spieth.
Copyright © 2015 Bleacher Report, Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Bogies and gallows humor are golf’s perfect blend of imperfection. After the mistakes and the frustration come the laughter. And the questions.
But Tiger Woods has heard every question imaginable.
©2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Henrik Stenson compared the greens to broccoli, except broccoli is green and the greens are brown. Ian Poulter said Chambers Bay would turn the U.S. Open into “a complete farce,” but he conceded his comments were constructed from hearsay.
But Jim Furyk, who 12 years ago won a U.S. Open on a course very different from this year’s — old-fashioned Olympia Fields south of Chicago — described Chambers in less emotional terms.
Copyright © 2015 Bleacher Report, Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — The old line when a famous golfer shoots a bad score — Lee Trevino used to toss it out frequently — was that 90 percent of the pros didn’t care and the other 10 percent wish he had played even worse. Harsh, but mostly true.
Golfers are so focused on their own games, their own difficulties, it’s rare when they even acknowledge those of a competitor.
Copyright © 2015 Bleacher Report, Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — It’s not always what you’ve done lately, especially for Dustin Johnson, whose present will always be linked to the past.
Here he is, tied for the clubhouse lead after Thursday’s first round of America’s golfing championship, the U.S. Open. Yet the questions that surround him deal as much with what he has done as what he might do.
Copyright © 2015 Bleacher Report, Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
This one was for Purvis Short and Sonny Parker, and even for Todd Fuller, who unintentionally became the scapegoat of previous failings.
This one was for Baron Davis, who eight years ago showed us what was possible.
This one was for the Golden State Warriors and their relentless followers — past, present and future, and yes, with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes still babes, the future would seem every bit as exciting as these most recent 11 days in June.
©2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
Sure, Stephen Curry splashed it up. But this Warriors victory, the one that made an NBA championship seem not just possible but probable, belonged as much to two players whose combined points couldn’t match what Curry had on his own.
Andre Iguodala, starting once again in Steve Kerr’s smallball scheme, had 14 points, and Leandro Barbosa had 13 off the bench. By his own self, Curry picked up 37. Yet Iguodala, again with the unachievable task of defending LeBron James, and Barbosa, a.k.a. “The Brazilian Blur,” reminded there is so much to basketball beyond putting the ball in the basket.
©2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
Ten years and it changed for Andre Iguodala. Ten years of starting, of scoring and rebounding, of making the All-Star team, of helping the Philadephia 76ers upset the conference champion Chicago Bulls, of helping the U.S. win the 2012 Olympics — and suddenly he was out of the lineup and on to the bench.
It was all different. “I’m still trying to figure it out,” said Iguodala on Saturday of his role. “It’s harder than it looks.”
©2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
The 49ers will hold a three-day minicamp starting today, and while even a publication such as San Francisco Business Insider is trashing the team — "49ers have Fallen Apart" — the probability is coach Jim Tomsula will show up fully dressed. As opposed to how his predecessor, Jim Harbaugh, appeared for practice with his new team, Michigan.
Harbaugh, in a photo from the website "Lost Lettermen," is shirtless, untanned — all those years in California wasted? — and looking as so many of us like he's been sitting behind a desk and not exercising in a gym. Niners owner Jed York is hereby allowed a chuckle.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
Before Saturday, it had been 37 years since a horse won the Triple Crown—an extra carrot or two for you, American Pharoah. And now that Affirmed's 1978 win has essentially been removed from the minds of sports fans, we’re off to decide what improbability is next to be conquered.
Will it be someone hitting .400 in the majors, a college basketball or NFL team going undefeated or even Novak Djokovic winning the French Open after another disappointment?
Copyright © 2015 Bleacher Report, Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
OAKLAND — He was hardly a surprise, this Matthew Dellavedova, who had a very large part in the Warriors' very large loss to the Cavaliers on Sunday night. He played his college ball maybe 20 miles from the Oracle, at St. Mary's, a gritty, talented kid who set scoring records and had his number retired.
That he went undrafted is yet another indication the guys who run the NBA are far from perfect. The man is physical and determined. In Game 2, his job was to slow down Stephen Curry, an assignment that left Dellavedova unfazed and Curry disenchanted.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
An Oakland cop roared past, a Warriors flag attached to the back of his motorcycle. Official merchandise in perhaps an unofficially approved location? Who's complaining?
Not city hall. Not any city hall — Oakland, Francisco, San Jose, Berkeley, Fremont, whatever. It's bliss by The Bay, a region in a Golden State of excitement.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
OAKLAND — He missed his first three shots, which shouldn't have been a surprise since he was just cleared by doctors after a concussion and hadn't played in a basketball game for eight nights.
Then Klay Thompson made his next four, which also shouldn't have been a surprise. Such has been his offseason, finishing with 21 points in an up-and-down Game 1 in which he claimed to be feeling fine mentally and physically.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
OAKLAND — There they were, the MVP and the almost MVP, hugging. For one man, Stephen Curry, it was congratulatory, and for the other, James Harden, it was comforting. The end had arrived for Harden and the Houston Rockets. There were no more games to play.
The Warriors, led by Curry, the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, had beaten the Rockets, 104-90, in the Western Conference Finals Wednesday night before a sellout crowd that sent cheers cascading down the tiers of Oracle Arena in ear-splitting glory. It is on to the finals for the golden men of Golden State. It is on to the summer, Houston.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
OAKLAND — The old guy looks good in green and gold. To the A's, anyone who can show them how to pick up a moving ball looks good.
It's been Warriors fans chanting, "Defense, defense," but it's the Athletics' fans who needed to be shouting it. Which is the reason A's management brought back the old guy, Ron Washington, whose head is clear after personal issues prompted his resignation as manager of a Texas Rangers team that won two American League pennants on his watch.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
LOS ANGELES — The Raiders are not here. At least I could not find them. Neither are the Chargers. Nor the Rams. Nor a new stadium. What they have here, in the suburbs of Inglewood and Carson, is a battle to get an NFL franchise and a lot of talk about spending millions of dollars for a team which never might arrive.
They’re already planning for a Super Bowl. Not involving a local team, since one doesn’t exist, but a local stadium, although that doesn’t exist, either. They’ll have one, we’re told, but don’t book your seats yet. Don’t do anything until all an earthmover moves earth some place.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
OAKLAND — It was everything NBA playoff basketball is supposed to be, two desperate teams crashing and colliding, scoring and rebounding, getting leads and losing them and, in the final frantic seconds, making a great defensive play to save a victory for the Warriors.
"You just want the win," said Steve Kerr, the Warriors coach. And they just got it, 99-98, over Houston on Thursday night at Oracle, to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Western Conference final.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
There's a phrase for everything in sports, isn't there? We had "Billy Ball" for the move-'em-along style of baseball the A's played in the early 1980s. We had "Hack-a-Shaq" for the way opponents repeatedly fouled Shaquille O'Neal, because he couldn't make free throws.
And now we have "smallball," which seems to be anything in the NBA involving athletes 6-foot-9 or shorter.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner