Ireland to Pebble, by way of East Tennessee State

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Rory McIlroy deserves some credit, in a rather convoluted way.

Rory signed a letter of intent to play golf at East Tennessee State but turned pro instead. So the State coach, Fred Warren, went about recruiting other Irish players.

Which is how Seamus Power ended up at East Tennessee, and in a way how Power on Friday ended up with the second-round lead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

An enormous lead, in relation to par if not the actual scoring totals, because two of the courses, Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill are 72, Monterey Peninsula 71.

A lead of five, equaling the biggest for 36 holes, in the history of this tournament, now in its 76th year. Bob Rosburg was five ahead at the 36-hole mark in 1958 and Charlie Wi in 2012. Neither won.

Power had an 8-under 64 Friday at Pebble, the same as Thursday at Spyglass Hill, a 128 total and 16 under.

First-round leader Tom Hoge, Andrew Putnam and Adam Svenson are 11 under. After his 63 Thursday at Pebble, Hoge shot 69 Friday at Monterey Peninsula.

“I was a little shaky at the start,” said Hoge, the man from Fargo, N.D.

Power is the man from Waterford, the community famous for its crystal. But the only kind of glass he cares about is the type cut into golf trophies.

Hoping to get to a school in the U.S., Power was at a European junior event in Italy. So was Warren, the East Tennessee coach, still seeking someone who might be as talented as McIlroy. OK, there wasn’t anyone, but a coach needs to keep looking.

Along came Power.

“He had an American-style game,” Warren told Michael Arkush of the New York Times. “A long hitter, aggressive, trying to make birdies. I was real impressed with him.”

Warren would offer Power a partial scholarship if Power were willing to wait a year. Power agreed.

“No problem,“ wrote Arkush. “Power had written letters to other colleges in the United States but did not receive encouraging responses. In fact, if it had not been for the interest from East Tennessee State, he would have followed through on another plan: Take an accounting course at a university in Ireland.”

Counting numbers is familiar to a golfer. In fact, another Irishman of some fame, PGA championship and Open Championship winner (and Euro Ryder Cup captain) Padraig Harrington has an accounting degree.

After leaving East Tennessee, Power struggled, not unusual for almost all young golfers, playing the Buy.com Tour and something called the eTour, going from tournament to tournament in an old Toyota.

Finally, in 2019 he qualified for the PGA Tour, and in 2021 he won the Barbasol Open. That would have been fantastic except because it was the same week as the Open Championship, the British Open, it didn’t get him in a first Masters. 

It could be corrected with a victory here, of course. Power, who will be 35 in March, has paid his dues.

“That's certainly part of it,” said Power. “I've always loved playing golf. I have fond memories of playing those tours. Obviously, it's not where you want to be, but I mean any time you get to play golf for a living, like you're in a pretty good spot.

“So it's obviously satisfying, but, I mean, guys have gotten here a lot of different ways and it doesn't matter once you're here, it's how is your game going to hold up. That's kind of the fun part, trying to improve and just see where you can kind of put yourself.”

At Pebble this week, with great weather, where he puts himself could be in a special place.

The man from Fargo warms up at Pebble

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Just for the record, it was -5 degrees on Thursday in Fargo, N.D. Also on Thursday, Tom Hoge, the best pro golfer ever to come from Fargo — at least in recent memory — was -9.

That’s because he was playing Pebble Beach, where sometimes conditions during the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am might make people think they’re in North Dakota rather than Northern California.

But not this year. If it wasn’t Maui, the temperature on the Monterey Peninsula leveling at 57 degrees, there were no clouds, no rain and for Hoge no bogies.

OK, so he isn’t as well known as guys like Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, and coming into this tournament he had missed 89 cuts of the previous 202 tournaments he played, but Hoge (pronounced HOAG-ey, like the sandwich) finished second in the American Express a couple weeks back.

And on Thursday he shot a 63 on one of the world’s most famous courses in some of the winter’s best conditions. Sell the umbrellas. Ditch the apres-ski boots. Bring your admiration.

This is hardly a lock for Hoge. He’s only a shot ahead of the Irishman Seamus Power, who recorded his 64 at Spyglass Hill, another of the three courses used in the first three rounds. PGA Tour champ Patrick Cantlay had a 65 and former AT&T winner Jordan Spieth a 68, both at Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

Still, for a man from a city made infamous in the black-humor flick “Fargo” a few years back, being in the sunshine and being in the lead is, well, special.

He played here in the years of chilblains and heavy rains, so-called Crosby weather (remember, the tournament was created by Bing Crosby).

“Yeah, I enjoy it,” he said. “You know, when the years have bad weather it's still fun to be out here. And then you get weather like (Thursday) and this week, and it's fantastic.”

Hoge, 32, was born in North Carolina, but his family moved to North Dakota, when he played between blizzards, and he later went to school at Texas Christian.

He started his round at 10, the hole before the course turns away from the water, with a birdie. Then he birdied 11. And 18. But it was on the front where he made the run, six birdies in a row, on holes three through eight.

“It's hard to be in a bad mood out here,” said Hoge. “I mean, Pebble Beach and perfect weather is about as good as it gets. So it was a lot of fun.

“I feel like I've been playing well. I've been excited to get out here on the golf course and feel like Pebble Beach is a golf course that suits me well, so I was excited to get out here this week.”

And get as far away Fargo as possible?

“The first reaction is usually the movie, yes,” Hoge told Helen Ross of PGATour.com, discussing the reaction to his background. “And then the second statement is that I’m the first person they’ve ever met from North Dakota.

“So I’m kind of ready for those two all the time.”

On this fine day, he was just as ready for Pebble Beach.

Cantlay chooses Pebble beauty over Saudi payoff

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — So Pebble Beach, despite a misquoted observation, isn’t the greatest meeting of land and water in the world, but the view on Wednesday — sun glistening on Carmel Bay — was overwhelming,

A highlight of practice rounds for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a sparkling, enticing invitation to a place Patrick Cantlay calls “the epitome of California golf.”

Cantlay, currently No. 4 in the world ranking, is a home state guy all the way. He was born in Long Beach, went to UCLA and chose familiarity and natural beauty over the lure of a huge payoff.

Not that he wouldn’t someday change his mind.

There’s another tournament about to start on Thursday, head to head against the AT&T some 5,000 miles away, where the setting may be less inviting unless you’re big on sand dunes, but the money is enormous — the Saudi Arabia Invitational.

The PGA Tour gave exemptions to those who chose the Saudi event — and please don’t ask about politics; “we’re only going there to play golf” — but below the surface is a bigger issue, the future of the pro game..

The Saudi tournament is part of the DP Tour, which used to be the European Tour, and because Greg Norman is maneuvering behind the scenes, the probability is there’s only going to be one tour, with the biggest names.

This time a former AT&T winner, Dustin Johnson; a former Masters champion, Patrick Reed (as Johnson is also); Tony Fine; and (gadzooks) even five-time AT&T champ Phil Mickelson are there.

But former U.S. Open, British Open and Masters champ Jordan Spieth (who endorses AT&T products) and Cantlay are here. So was defending AT&T winner Daniel Berger, until he was forced to withdraw because of a back injury.

Cantlay perhaps is the least famous of the most famous golfers on the globe. As an amateur, he was No. 1 in the world. Then last summer, he not only won the FedEx Cup but did it in a fashion, making putt after putt under pressure, which gained him the nickname, “Patty Ice” — he was that cool.

He may not yet register on a scale with Tiger Woods or Mickelson, but his colleagues know how good he is, especially around the greens, where golf is decided.

What Cantlay (who turns 30 next month, on St. Patrick’s Day), decided was to stay loyal and stay close by. Not that he didn’t pay attention to Saudi Arabia.

“I think with the amount of money they're talking about,” he said, “it's always very tempting. I think it's tempting for everybody. And to deny that would be, you know, maybe not true.”

The actual Saudi purse is smaller than the $8.7 million AT&T purse, but there are reports that golfers will be paid tens of millions in fees, illegal on the PGA Tour.

“But I'm really glad that I'm here this week,” said Cantlay, “and I love Pebble Beach and so that definitely factored into my decision.”

Golf and tennis are dependent on the recognition factor, on fame, personality — as Tiger’s presence verified. People would flock to see him, even if they didn’t know a thing about the sport.

If golf does shift toward a super tour, grabbing away the crème de la crème, where does it leave those left outside? Will anyone care about the minor leaguers, as it were?

“I think it's a complicated thing, and I don't think there's an easy answer,” Cantlay said. “If people want to be more interested in golf and want to put more money into golf, I think that's a good thing. I think definitely there's a want of the best players in the world to play against the other best players in the world, and so it's hard to quantify exactly.  

“Some move the needle more than others, and some are at the top of the game more than others.“

Right now, with the beauty of Pebble Beach as a backdrop, Cantlay can concentrate on a more specific issue, playing well.

Rams to Super Bowl; Niners to great unknown

The better team won. As difficult as it is for 49er fans to admit it. “All-stars and super stars,” 49ers receiver George Kittle said of the Los Angeles Rams.    

They were built to go to the Super Bowl, which will be held in their multi-billion-dollar SoFi Stadium in two weeks.

Construction obviously is a success. If not by much.

Six straight the Niners had beaten the Rams. One of those games was as recently as a few weeks ago. But there would be no lucky seventh for San Francisco.

The semi-glorious season of 2021, with its agonizing about Jimmy Garoppolo; with its marvelous comebacks (down 17 to the very same Rams in the last game of the regular schedule); with its misbegotten belief of another Super Bowl, came to an end Sunday, with a 20-17 loss to the Rams at SoFi.

It is L.A. going to a Super Bowl in its home stadium (that hadn’t happened in the first 54 years of the game, and now it's two in a row). The Niners go to the great unknown.

It was one of those “if only” games for the Niners — if only the offensive line had protected Garoppolo better when the Niners had a 17-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter, if only Jaquiski Tartt had held on to the apparent interception that would have halted a drive that resulted in the field goal which tied the game, 17-17.

But losers always think that way. Winners just do what is required.

Which is what the Rams did, starting with the stunning off-season trade of quarterback Jared Goff, the onetime overall No. 1 pick from Cal, for Mathew Stafford and adding all-pro defensive lineman Von Miller.

Stafford did what Garoppolo couldn’t do Sunday, unload long passes when needed, completing 31 of 45 for 337 yards and two touchdowns. Niners coach Kyle Shanahan rightfully did not belittle Garoppolo, who got him to one Super Bowl and was one game from another. Yet he and management did trade up in last spring’s draft to take a quarterback, Trey Lance.

Now, after mostly watching during his rookie season, Lance presumably will be the Niners’ starter next fall, and Garoppolo, so maligned, so adept at handling criticism as well as reacting to a heavy pass rush, will be traded. Presumably.

Still, a great quarterback is not always the answer. The Kansas City Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes, and on Sunday, a couple hours before the Niners were eliminated from the playoffs, KC was eliminated by the Cincinnati Bengals.

Who, as Niner supporters know, twice made it to a Super Bowl and twice were beaten by the Niners.

This time it will be the Rams, even though the majority of fans Sunday at SoFi seemed to cheering for the Niners. San Francisco played tenaciously but too often couldn’t make the critical play, and the Tartt drop was just one of the examples. 

At their best the 49ers hang on to the ball for a long while, and then if they do give it up without a score, get it right back. But it was the Rams who controlled the ball — L.A. had it more than 35 minutes of the total 60 — in effect, using Niner style and play-calling to beat San Francisco.

“That is a good team we played,” said Shanahan, still appearing somewhat bewildered by the result, “but we had opportunities we didn’t use.

“We’re hurting in that locker room. We came up short. That’s part of sports you have to learn to deal with.”

Just not the part the Niners are used to against the Rams.

Bonds hit homers but, again, not the jackpot

They kept showing videos of the swing, so powerful, so effective. Then they kept showing the differential between the votes Barry Bonds received and the votes he needed — and painfully, for one last time, failed to receive.

The man could play as well as anyone who ever played. Baseball, that is.

But he didn’t play by the rules, or more accurately by the standards created to keep the playing field level — even though, level or tilted, there was no doubt that the field belonged to Bonds.

He's off the Hall of Fame ballot now. His decade is done. His journey to the Baseball Hall of Fame is unfinished, and no matter the optimistic predictions of a rescue by the Hall’s veterans’ committee, it may remain unfinished forever. Along with the journey of Roger Clemens.

Bonds, who hit more home runs in the history of America’s most historic game, 73 for a season, 762 for a career, and Clemens, who won the Cy Young award seven times, did everything possible to improve.

Which is the problem.

They are acknowledged to have used products known as PEDs, performance-enhancing drugs, which because they allowed more repetitive workouts resulted in greater strength and resilience.

That each was a probable Hall of Famer before using the PEDs — Bonds was a seven-time MVP — is not the issue. He and Clemens were tainted. They always will be tainted.

So much of this is about timing. Barry’s was impeccable when he stood at the plate, not so much when it came to his place in the overview of the sport.

Maybe if Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire hadn’t made Bonds jealous by the attention the country gave to their 1998 home run battle, Bonds would have been content to go about business as usual.

He was great, to his justified way of thinking, greater than anyone. But the big boys got the big praise.

Remember that commercial, “Chicks dig the long ball”? So did everyone else, as Bonds quickly enough discovered.

True, Bonds had a prickly personality, which seemed modified after he retired. To get an interview required patience and luck. He rarely said hello or addressed journalists by name, but Barry knew every one of them.

As I learned during the BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) hearings.

This was the first day at the San Francisco Federal Building. The writers came down one elevator, the defendants and lawyers another. We waited on the ground floor. Suddenly, Barry yells my name and greets me with a hug. Who knew?

What we do know is this: whether he ever gets into the Hall, he was a Hall of Fame player, learning baseball from the time he was toddler, the son of a man, Bobby Bonds, who could hit home runs and steal bases as few others could.

Bobby in reality was the first 40-40-man, home runs and stolen bases, well before Jose Canseco, although he lost one of the home runs because of a rainout.

They say Barry always felt he had to overcome the burden of being Bobby’s son. Whether that was the case, Bobby delighted in being Barry’s father. Once, when the media was down on Barry, deservedly or not, Bobby walked by and without any bitterness said, “Be kind to Barry.”

Now after the rejection — Bonds received 260 Hall votes this time, well short of the 296 required to reach the 75 percent figure that gets a player in — he definitely needs more kindness.

His own disappointment may not be known for a while, if ever, but the disappointment for fans of the San Francisco Giants, his team after a career start with the Pittsburgh Pirates, is apparent.

He was their guy, the one who could hit balls into the bay almost on command. Unfortunately, he’s still waiting to hit the jackpot.

49ers-Rams: Pure Hollywood — uh, Inglewood

Perfect stuff for Hollywood, well, Inglewood, 11.8 miles away, where the game will be played Sunday: Two teams from California coached by two guys who as assistants were on the same staff and now will face each other again, for a chance to get to the Super Bowl.

Niners vs. Rams: Once more into the breach.

So much history. And now, with the NFC Championship to the winner, so much of a possibility.

They each won an NFC divisional title over the weekend on a field goal, the Rams beating Tampa Bay 30-27 on Matt Gay’s 30-yarder as time expired Sunday.

That came less than 24 hours after the 49ers beat the Packers 13-10, in the snow of Green Bay, on Robbie Gould’s 45-yarder as time expired Saturday night.

The Niners post-game celebration was notably raucous. Maybe because they weren’t supposed to win, underdogs on the road.

Maybe because Jimmy Garoppolo would remain as quarterback for at least one last game.

Maybe because they trailed from the start, unable even to record a single first down or pass completion until the middle of the second quarter.

The Niners won their two regular season games against the Rams, and the rule of thumb in the NFL is that it’s rare to beat a team three times in one season. Then again, the 49ers have defeated the Rams six in a row.

“We’ve got an opportunity,” said Niners coach Kyle Shanahan.

They also would seem to have an advantage over the Rams, coached by Sean McVay, who not that long ago worked alongside Shanahan when they were assistants with Washington.

Shanahan was visibly excited about the victory over the Packers in what some would label Packers weather, 14 degrees at kickoff and dropping to a wind chill of zero. Brrr? Big deal.

San Francisco was 2-4 back in October, and there were people wondering if Kyle could handle the job — even if the Niners were in the Super Bowl a couple years earlier.

He could handle it. Check recent scores.

“Since week eight, our backs have been against the wall,” Shanahan said, ignoring any suggestion or not his neck could be on the chopping block.

As opposed to the blocks the Niner defense produced, becoming only the third team in the Super Bowl era, meaning from 1967, to block both a punt and a field goal in a playoff game.

“We stayed together,” he said. ”We worked hard.”

Garoppolo was efficient, playing with the sore right thumb that wasn’t disclosed until after the win in the previous game over the Cowboys. He did throw an interception, but a beautifully thrown pass to George Kittle that might have become a touchdown was dropped.

“Jimmy made some really good plays,” confirmed Shanahan.  

There’s a football saying that a quarterback’s performance should be judged by the final score. Does he bring the team home, especially in difficult conditions? Jimmy G. met that requirement.

The Niner defense was particularly responsible for this victory, not only with the two blocks, one by defensive end Jordan Willis blocking Corey Bojorquez’s punt with the 49ers trailing 10-3. That was turned into the tying touchdown with some five minutes left.

The Niners were out of it, or so we believed, and then they were all over it.

Defense is the side that makes the Niners go by keeping the other team stopped. End Nick Bosa was permitted to return from concussion protocol just before game time. He had two sacks. Fred Warner and Dontae Johnson each were involved in six tackles.

Niner fans can be as relentless in support of the team as the athletes are in their attempt to win, as Rams management effectively told everyone Sunday.  

For the conference championship at SoFi Stadium, it will not sell tickets to people who attempt to use credit cards registered outside the greater Los Angeles area.

Would you call that sound defense? Or defense against sounds?

Niners again face Rodgers, the man they should have drafted

For the 49ers, it wasn’t so much what might have been or could have been but what should have been. Yes, before yet another playoff game between the 49ers and Green Bay Packers, it’s time to recall the unfortunate tale of Aaron Rodgers.

Unfortunate if one is emotionally involved with the 49ers.      

It was a given that in the 2005 NFL draft San Francisco, with the No. 1 pick, would select Rodgers. He played at Cal across the bay; grew up a Niners fan; and in 2004 against USC completed the first 23 passes he threw, tying a record.

Such a certainty. Such a surprise. The Niners had a new coach, Mike Nolan, whose father had preceded him in that position years before.

Mike was going to show us what he knew — and so the Niners picked Alex Smith because, said Nolan, he was more athletic, virtually able to do everything except leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Nolan was relieved of his job before the new man in charge, Jim Harbaugh, replaced Alex with Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback famous — or infamous — for actions other than his play (although he did get the Niners to the Super Bowl).  

Because teams predetermine who they’ll draft, often becoming trapped by the choices, nobody else moved in on Rodgers, who dropped from a presumptive No. 1 down to an actual No. 24, by the Packers.

More than a decade later, in 2016, Mike Nolan, between jobs as an assistant coach, confessed to “NFL HQ” he was less than enthralled with Rodgers’ arrogance and his throwing motion.

With Rodgers having won three MVP awards, favored to win another and at least partially responsible for a Super Bowl triumph, one guesses those failings now appear less important — although Rodgers‘ current lack of honesty about Covid-19 vaccination remains inexcusable.

“Basically, we thought in the long term that Alex Smith would be the better choice than Aaron," Nolan said. "It was one of those, maybe, paralysis by analysis. We had so much time to think about it.

“We put a lot of stock in changing Aaron's throwing style. We also got caught up a little bit in that Alex was so mobile. That was a good thing. But in the end, we felt Alex would be the better long-time guy. Obviously, we were wrong in that thought process."

So again Rodgers, stubborn, cocky, successful, is the quarterback the Niners must confront instead of embrace, while perhaps for the last time they rely on Jimmy Garoppolo.

The draft is a process built on hope as much as it is on preparation. Tom Brady, labeled the GOAT, or “Greatest of All Time,” was not chosen until the sixth round of the 2000 draft, 199th overall.    

Garoppolo, the man the Patriots intended to take over for Brady, was picked in the second round of the 2014 draft, after Blake Bortles and Johnny Manziel. But ahead of Derek Carr. The 49ers traded for Jimmy G in 2017. Now they’re waiting for the ascension of Trey Lance.  

The inevitability of Lance becoming the Niners’ starter was presumed the moment they grabbed him with the third pick in last year’s draft. Yet who knows?

In Green Bay, according to Eric Edom of Yahoo! Sports, some suggest that Saturday night’s game at Lambeau Field, similar to the Niners and Garoppolo, will be Rodgers’ last for the Pack.

Over the last couple of off-seasons, Rodgers has avoided giving a direct answer to whether he wanted to remain with the team, figuratively dancing around when asked — like a quarterback evading the rush. And Green Bay did select a quarterback, Jordan Love, in the first round of the 2020 draft, which made Rodgers quite unhappy.

“There are a lot of guys’ futures that are uncertain, myself included,” Rodgers said a season ago after the Packers lost to Tampa Bay in the NFC championship game.

Wouldn’t it be ironic, then, if what turns out to be Aaron Rodgers’ last game for the Packers is against the team that should have drafted him when it had the chance, the 49ers?

Niners win in a perfectly imperfect game

It was a perfectly imperfect game, full of too many penalties (by the Dallas Cowboys, mostly), more than enough tension (thanks to some 49er misplays) and an ending that belonged in a comedy show as much as it did an NFL highlight film.

Yet, when it came to the bizarre conclusion — Dak Prescott trying to run off a play without the officials having touched the ball — there were the 49ers in the next round of the playoffs and Dallas owner Jerry Jones sitting stunned in his box at the multi-billion-dollar stadium in Texas he helped finance.

On Wild Card Sunday the Niners, with a (phew) very wild 23-17 victory, advanced another step in the postseason, to the divisional round, where they’ll face the Green Bay Packers.

The Pack defeated the Niners in the regular season. And with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, football’s anti-vax answer to the disgraced and deported tennis star Novak Djokovic, Green Bay will be picked to win this one.

But who cares? In effect the Niners, who two weekends ago seemed to be done for the season (they’re now 11-7), are playing with house money — mainly because they play with a great defense.

The talk coming into this one was all about Dallas (of course, the former “America’s Team.”) No matter, the Niners clearly were better. The Boys helped SF by getting called for 14 penalties; who do they think are, the Raiders?

But the Niners, who were off to a first-quarter 10-0 lead, made mistakes of their own, including a Jimmy Garoppolo interception to keep us from turning off the CBS telecast, which featured the duo of Jim Nantz, fighting any urge to favor the Cowboys, and ex-Cowboy QB Tony Romo, who was less neutral.

Which made him about the same as others in the CBS crew. When sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson said Dallas was looking to pick off Jimmy G, and did the next play, there were congratulations and joy throughout.

“It was an emotional, up-and-down game,” said Garoppolo, who would rue the interception. “We were in a dogfight. The fans were nuts.”

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, also known as Jerry’s World, holds more than 94,000 of those fans, and with Jones, GM as well as owner, and highly paid quarterback Dak Prescott running things in their own ways, the Cowboys were talking the Super Bowl.

Oops. That’s also a word applicable for the ultimate play on Sunday. Moments before, with the 49ers trying to run out the clock, Deebo Samuel was stopped on third down literally inches short of the first down.

Then came a Niner false start and a punt to the Cowboys’ 20. As the clock kept ticking, the Cowboys, with Prescott running and throwing, moved the ball to the Niners’ eight. Tick tock.

Prescott bumped into ref Ramon George trying to place the ball without an official touching it — or did George, in the line of duty, bump into Prescott? Whatever, the ticking had stopped. Game over.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy — anybody here remember he was the Niners’ offensive coordinator for Mike Nolan in 2005? — said Prescott was slowed by the collision.

McCarthy wanted a review. “They were going to put time on the clock,” said McCarthy, “and the next thing I know they’re running off the field.” They had to catch a flight to SFO.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said later when asked about his team, “There are lots of ways to win a game, but we shouldn’t have given the ball back to them.”

They did, but most importantly they held on to the victory.

Klay wants more minutes, and he’ll get them

Time is always an issue for an athlete. His days, her days, are numbered from the very start. It’s only a question of how many remain.   

And then there are the injuries.

The time in treatment. The time in rehabilitation. The time watching others play the way you played and wondering whether you’ll be able to play again.

The time answering questions about when you’ll be back.

Klay Thompson, at last, is back. Maybe at the moment, after only two games — the third is Thursday night at Milwaukee — not as far back as he desires, but he’s a basketball player once more.

So much joy. So much satisfaction. Not only for Thompson, which is understandable after two and a half years incapacitated, but for the Warriors community, indeed the Bay Area.

Klay Thompson has been a great player. He comes across as a good guy.

Just as Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and the other Warriors we know — or think we know —come across as good people, touching lives if unintentionally.

Strange, and wonderful, how we grow attached to those we watch make baskets or touchdowns or birdie putts, people we may never get closer to than a television screen.    

It’s only laundry that unites us, we’re told, a jersey, a warmup jacket. But it’s the humanity that comes through. How can you not want him to succeed? And succeed he will.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr seemed pleased the way Thompson performed Tuesday night at Memphis, if not the way the game went. Klay hit 5 of 15 shots and scored 19 points, while the Dubs were beaten, 116-108.

“He looks quick, agile, strong,” said Kerr, evaluating Thompson. “It’s really exciting to see him playing this well this early.”

For Thompson, after a battered leg followed by a torn Achilles tendon, it’s no less rewarding as it is exciting.

Long ago, a Warriors center named Nate Thurmond reinjured a knee that had been surgically repaired. He was despondent. “I just can’t go through it again,” said Thurmond.

He did, however. It was the price one had to pay to return to the sport, to be able to use the remaining days of a career that already had grown short.

With fortune, the career of Klay Thompson blossoms again. He will be 32 next month. The future, so questionable after the injuries, now should be full of jump shots and glee.

Thompson’s father, Mychal, was the No. 1 overall choice (by Portland) in the 1978 NBA draft. Klay is well schooled in the sport and in life. That doesn’t make the injuries easier to accept, but it does provide a sense of perspective. Change is inevitable.

“We will ramp up the minutes for Klay,” said Kerr, after Thompson played 20 against the Grizzlies. “It’s a process. He will be getting stronger in the next three, four weeks.”

Kerr also said Thompson has to learn the moves and games of men he had never played with such as Gary Payton II and Jordan Poole. In addition, the NBA style has been altered, teams frequently going to a smaller lineup.

“We’re going to want Steph (Curry) and Klay down the stretch in games,” said Kerr, who has been as patient waiting for Thompson’s return as Thompson himself.

“My minutes are restricted,” said Thompson. “I want to play 35 a game. You just can’t take that much time off and be back where you were. But I feel great. I don’t even feel tired.

“One thing is the same — every team wants to beat us. We’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”

They should respond with enough shots of their own. Klay is back.

Just a game for 49ers — but what a game

It wasn’t for a championship, wasn’t for the record book. It was just a game. But what a game.

A game that offered what sports is supposed to offer, unpredictability, surprise and best of all for the 49ers — and their faithful — a victory.

A game that once and for all disproved any thought that Jimmy Garoppolo isn’t a worthy heir to Joe Montana and Steve Young, no matter what the future holds.

A game that with the Niners, once down 17-0, then in the closing minute of regulation down by a touchdown, managed to win, beating the Rams, 27-24, in overtime on a Robbie Gould field goal.

And oh yes, a game that got the Niners into the coming weekend’s wild card playoffs against the Cowboys, deep in the heartlessness of Texas.

You want drama? You want joy? You want irony? It was 40 years ago the Niners came back against Dallas in the playoffs and won historically when Montana and the late Dwight Clark connected on “The Catch.”

Which would elevate the Niners to their first Super Bowl.

That one was held at aging Candlestick Park, now gone. This one was held at the newest of stadia, $5 billion SoFi in Inglewood. That’s home to the Rams, though you might not have believed it from the crowd reaction.

It’s always been that way, hasn’t it, Niner fans coming south to make their presence felt?

On a Monday night at Anaheim Stadium in the late 1980s, John Taylor caught touchdown pass after touchdown pass, and from the cheering you’d have sworn you were in the Bay Area.

When the listless 49ers couldn’t move the ball and couldn’t keep the Rams from moving it in the first half Sunday — they were outgained, 149 to 83 — you’d have sworn the Niners’ season was done.

Yeah, wait ’til next year and that Trey Lance kid.

Someday, maybe next season, Lance presumably will be the Niners’ quarterback. Management — and Niner fans — can only hope he will show the courage and poise of Garoppolo.

Jimmy G had torn a ligament in the thumb of his throwing hand eight days earlier. The question was whether he even could throw, much less start. The question was answered positively and effectively.

“You learn how to adapt,” said Garoppolo. There was pain. There  was resilience. There was success.

Garoppolo was 23 for 32 for 316 yards and a touchdown. Most of all, for an offense dedicated to running the ball, there was leadership.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan appeared to be gloatingly delighted, implying that all those who doubted Jimmy G and doubted Kyle himself had underestimated both.

Especially with Elijah Mitchell (21 carries for 85 yards) and Deebo Samuel (8 for 45 and one TD) running and pounding, and Samuel (4 catches for 95 yards), Brandon Aiyuk (6 for 107) and Jauan Jennings (6 for 94 and 2 TDs) receiving.

Remember that Rams game a few weeks back when the Niners ground out a victory? In the second half Sunday, they ran the ball on 10 straight plays. Maybe the only stat that counts is the final score, but in winning a sixth straight over L.A. the Niners had 449 yards, the Rams 265.

The saying in football is you win on defense. The Niners were a perfect example.

When needed, such as on a third down and short yardage in the first half, San Francisco, trailing 17-0, stopped the Rams and then was able to kick a field goal.

Asked how he felt after game, Garoppolo said, “It was an emotional game, up and down.”

Down and then up might be a more accurate description. And guaranteed at least one more game.

No Djoke: Aussies tell No. 1 player to leave

What’s with these athletes anyway? Sure sometimes they play loose with the rules—other than golf—but calling a shot in when it’s out or claiming they caught a pass when it hit the turf is one thing.  

 Trying to escape a vaccination for coronavirus is another.

 Do they believe these judgments about health were made to hurt their games?  Is that why Aaron Rodgers spent all that effort to try and con us? Or that Novak Djokovic has given us a lot of  gobbledy-gook that he had a medical exemption?

The man known as the Joker for more reasons than his name, was refused entry into Australia when his flight landed Thursday at Melbourne.

 The No. 1 men’s player in the world rankings was told, basically, “b’gone” virtually as he arrived to defend his title in the Australian Open.

Dokovic is special. As a tennis player. The next Grand Slam he wins, Australia or Wimbledon, U.S .Open, whatever, will be his 21st overall, one more than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

But Djokovic is also just another member of society, another human in a world where a virus has been running wild and hundreds of thousands have died.

As is Rodgers.  And Antonio Brown. And the rest of the athletes with their explanations and fabrications about avoiding the injection that will benefit millions of others.

Djokivic and his agents and traveling party thought everything was arranged. He’s the star, the last of the generation still in shape and in the spotlight.

Personalities are the lifeblood of tennis and golf. His presence lifts the tournament—as television and fans and Novak know. They want him to be there. Djokovic wants to be there.

But who knows if he will be there?

You can sympathize with Djokovic getting held in the Melbourne airport after a 13-hour flight from Dubai. Australia takes no chances. A year ago some 70 players had to spend two weeks in quarantine, allowed out of their hotel rooms only to practice.

This time, officials never permitted Djokovic to get off the airport property. He was kept in a room overnight, a 12-hour standoff—you can imagine his unhappiness debating the validity of his medical exemption from vaccine.

 One day he had been given last-minute permission to enter the country, in effect being told by the prime minister that, indeed he was who he and tennis fans thought he was—Mr. Wonderful—to revert to persona non grata.

 At one point, according to the New York Times, Aleksandar Vucic, president of Serbia, Djokovic’s home country, got involved. Wouldn’t you have liked to be in on that conversation?

Maybe  president Vucic could work out a package deal that includes Kyrie Irving and the Nets.

Sorry. This is serious business in the Land Down Under where they’ve been remarkably successful against Covid-19 because of attention to detail.

“Fair and independent protocols were established for assessing medical exemption applications that will enable us to ensure Australian Open 2022 is safe and enjoyable for everyone,”  said Craig Tiley,  president of the Open.

Djokovic has always done mostly what he wanted, whether when he was young , imitations of others , to at the start of the virus outbreak in March 2020 holding a tournament in Serbia where nobody was forced wear a mask.       

Others on the tennis tours appreciate his skill but not necessarily his style. Or his leverage as a celebrity.

“I think if it was me,” said Jamie Murray of Britain the doubles specialist, and younger brother Andy Murray, “I wouldn’t be getting an exemption.”

But it’s not you, it’s Novak Djokovic. A problem for opponents, a problem for health authorities.

Maybe the best Rose Bowl game ever

PASADENA, Calif. — It wasn’t for the national championship, but that’s the only thing this football game on the first day of January 2022 wasn’t.

They’ve said the one in 2006, when Texas came back to beat USC, was the greatest Rose Bowl ever, and the most exciting. We’ll amend that contention.

The way a redshirt first-year quarterback from Ohio State amended the school’s and the game’s passing records.

C.J. Stroud grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, about 30 miles east of the Rose Bowl stadium itself, so maybe it was appropriate he would help lead the Buckeyes to a last-second win over Utah, 48-45.

The winning field goal from 19 yards with nine seconds remaining was by Noah Ruggles, but those were merely — merely? — the ultimate points in what had to be one of college football’s ultimate games.

It was a game that dragged before it erupted. Five touchdowns were scored in a three-minute stretch in the second quarter, Stroud responsible for six overall as he threw for 573 yards.

Never mind why Stroud left California, but a year ago as a freshman at Ohio State he never threw a pass, waiting behind Justin Fields, who of course was the No. 1 pick by the Chicago Bears in last year’s draft.

To recycle the line used about winning college football programs, the Buckeyes don’t rebuild, they reload.

But for the first time in eight years, they lost to Michigan in the annual matchup, which is why Ohio State was in the Rose Bowl while Michigan was in the playoffs getting pounded by Georgia.

Be assured, with Stroud back another couple of years, that won’t happen in the immediate future.

On the receiving end of Stroud’s passes were Jaxon Smith-Nigba, with 15 catches for 347 yards and three touchdowns, and Marvin Harrison Jr., the son of a onetime NFL star, with 8 catches for 32 yards and three touchdowns.

How times have changed. Ohio State, where the offense 60 years ago was often described as “three yards and a cloud of dust,” on this New Year’s afternoon ran for 110 yards but passed for almost 600.

Stroud said of his link with Smith-Nigba, “We came in together as freshmen. But me and him doesn’t have a good game without our offensive line. Our backs ran well. Our tight ends blocked well. When you get that combination, you get going.”

Stroud, who also was a fine basketball player in high school, has made it a habit of looking for Harrison. “I call him ‘route man,’” said Stroud. “His routes are amazing, especially against a good corner.”

This Rose Bowl was amazing. Utah was all over the field, but after leading through three quarters, the Utes couldn’t close.

“I’m sure the fans and the networks got their money’s worth out of this one,” said Kyle Whittingham, the Utah coach. “Our guys got nothing to hang their heads about.”

Ohio State has played in numerous Rose Bowls. This was the first for Utah.

“It was a heck of a football game,” said Whittingham.

That it was.

Woody and a Rose Bowl in the rain

PASADENA, Calif. — You know the song: “It Never Rains in Southern California — It Pours.” Written by a guy named Albert Hammond about not being able to find work in the movie business.

Could have been about the 1955 Rose Bowl game.

No question, the weather this time of year in SoCal is spectacular. For the most part, it’s blue skies. Chamber of Commerce stuff.

But as the lyrics of another song go, into each life (and region) some rain must fall — the “region” line is my own personal addition, because it was raining here on Thursday as far as the eye could see.

That was also the case more than 60 years ago for the event with the copyrighted nickname, “Grandaddy of Them All.”

The label was created by the good people around here because they believed the Rose Bowl, in a way responsible for the multitude of postseason college football matchups, was being pushed out of the headlines by lesser games.

But on that New Year’s Day, that afternoon in ’55, the Rose Bowl received attention it never wanted.

For the first time since 1934 and the last time ever — not counting some fourth-quarter heavy mist in 1996 — it rained on the Rose Bowl.

What a literal mess on the field. What a virtual stink caused by Woody Hayes.

He was a grumpy, demanding, un-merry old soul who coached Ohio State — which, interestingly enough, will play Utah on Saturday in the 2022 Rose Bowl.

In ’55 Hayes and Ohio State would beat USC, 20-7, but Woody was displeased because the Trojan band had been allowed to march at halftime on turf already soggy, thereby transforming the Buckeye attack to three yards and a clod of mud.

That was only one of the controversies for what, you should excuse the term, became a quagmire of a game.

USC shouldn’t even have played. UCLA not only was the No. 1 team in the land in the UPI poll but also the undefeated champion of the Pacific Coast Conference, from which the West Coast team in the Bowl normally would be chosen.

But the PCC had a no-repeat rule. UCLA had played (and lost to) Michigan State in the 1954 Rose Bowl. Thus USC got the call.

That game was our first formal introduction to Woody, who the late Jim Murray once said was graceless in victory, graceless in defeat. Hayes once punched Los Angeles Times photographer Art Rogers when Rogers, doing his job, aimed a camera at Hayes.

My job at the Rose Bowl, before I became a journalist, was to peddle programs. The first Rose Bowl game I worked, 1954, I ended up with $10 and, because the goal posts were made of wood and people could swarm the field, a few memorable slivers. I was in high school and thrilled.

But one year later, everything was different. Before that 1955 game, the heavens opened up around 10:30 in the morning. I was unprepared. So was everyone else.

The usual 100,000 tickets had been sold (at $15 each, if I recall), but attendance was around 89,000. As I slogged through the stadium trying to sell before the game started, a spectator stopped me and asked if I wanted to buy a ticket for 25 cents. No thanks.

I was wearing one of those high school letterman-type jackets, blue with fake leather sleeves over a required white dress shirt.

By the time I left, the shirt was blue from the jacket color leaking. I had earned $1.25. Happy New Year. Glub.

John Madden was different because he was ordinary

So here was this sports columnist sitting in a lineup of cars trying to get to the Bay Bridge toll plaza. And three lanes to his right, there’s a guy repeatedly honking his horn for apparently no reason.

The columnist finally looks over, and it’s John Madden, waving and laughing. He had seen me as we drove west from Oakland to San Francisco. No pretension, just joy.

Madden, who died Tuesday at 85, was special because he was ordinary, at least away from the field, a size extra-large blend of curiosity and commentary.

He knew the game of football, winning Super Bowl XI as coach of the Oakland Raiders. He also understood the game of life: Be friendly as much as possible.

He was born in Minnesota but virtually was a Northern Californian, growing up in Daly City, graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and eventually ending up in the East Bay community of Pleasanton — where, in the manner of the pioneers, he grabbed vacant fields that quickly enough became valuable property.

John could be demanding. There are stories about his impatience with others in broadcasting. Yet most of all, in person or behind a microphone, he made you feel good.

I was the Raiders beat man for the San Francisco Chronicle for a while in the early 1970s, and he didn’t always like what I wrote — which didn’t make him unusual in the profession.

What did make him unusual was the way he responded. Some coaches claim they never read the papers. Madden would come at me after practice, waving the Chron sports page.

Then he would sit me down and explain what was wrong, so I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. An education. 

In those days, the Raiders took the writers on their charters for road trips, the better for the papers to save travel expenses. As soon as the flight was in the air and the seat belt sign was off, Madden would stand up and march to the front or rear of the aircraft.

As we learned, Madden disliked flying. After he left Cal Poly, a football team charter crashed in 1960. Numerous players, friends of Madden, died. The accident haunted him.

He also was claustrophobic, feeling trapped in a silver capsule, and as soon as he left the Raiders for broadcasting, Madden switched first to a train and then a bus — the Madden Cruiser.

He was adept at describing the quarterback draw — his signature remark after a big gain was empathic and brief: “Boom.”

He fit in everywhere and with everyone, working TV with Pat Summerall and then Al Michaels; getting off the bus at stops in various places and dining and chatting with the locals.

His daily show on the San Francisco radio station KCBS offered Madden at his eclectic best, moving from sports to food to weather to geography.

Once, relating to rivers, Madden said he was uncertain about the word “confluence,” as to the linking of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers to form the Ohio River in Pittsburgh. “So, that’s a confluence,” he repeated, having as much fun as the listeners.

John Robinson was Madden’s pal from their days as kids and teenagers in Daly City. They were both football people — Robinson became head coach at USC and later the Rams.

“We’d go to an ice cream store,” Madden remembered of their boyhood. “I’d buy a cone, and he’d always take a bite; to stop him I’d lick the whole thing, but John Robinson would eat it anyway. He was different.”

So was John Madden. John, that will be me honking in salute the next time I cross the Bay Bridge.

Is Garoppolo just another Steve DeBerg?

An individual who has followed the 49ers for years has an idea about Jimmy Garoppolo: “He reminds me of Steve DeBerg,” said the individual.

For those unfamiliar with DeBerg, that’s not exactly high praise. Or complete disparagement.

DeBerg had a lengthy career in the NFL, three years of which (1978-80) he spent with the 49ers at the start of the Bill Walsh era, which began in 1979.

The Niners would move the ball, and then in a critical situation DeBerg would be intercepted. He invariably made the big mistake.

As Garoppolo did Thursday night when San Francisco couldn’t hold on to a 10-0 halftime lead and was beaten 20-17 by the Tennessee Titans. 

Jimmy G threw a couple of interceptions, one from Tennessee’s 8-yard line in the first period, and also missed an open man in the end zone in the second half. And while the defense, the Niners’ strength, could be faulted, the quarterback’s failures were inescapable.

“I thought we should have been up more, that was for sure,” was the assessment of head coach Kyle Shanahan. “I thought we could have got three scores with those drives. We didn’t.”

Not with Garoppolo missing receivers or, worst of all, throwing when nobody was open and no worse than a field goal assured — unless the other team gets the ball.

Which it did to halt two of the chances.

So maybe it’s unfair in a team sport in which offense, defense and special teams are involved. But one man has the ball and decides what he’s going to do with it.

“We were rolling early on,” said Garoppolo, “and in the middle just kind of got a little sluggish. It’s tough when you let a win like this slip away.”   

Tougher when literally you throw it away.

Turnovers are killers at every level of football. The Niners had two, the interceptions, the Titans zero.

The Niners are 8-7 this season and still in the wild-card chase. But they are 1-6 when Garoppolo throws at least one interception, as opposed to 7-0 when he doesn’t have one.

Jimmy G was the quarterback for a Niners team in a Super Bowl, something DeBerg was unable to accomplish. Yet the Patriots traded Garoppolo to San Francisco when he seemed to be the heir apparent to Tom Brady.

One wonders if Patriots coach Bill Belichick sensed a deficiency.

The future of Garoppolo’s career with the Niners is a mystery. The Niners traded three first-round selections to Miami for the right to make the pick in April that brought them quarterback Trey Lance.

Shanahan and his staff determined Garoppolo this year would be more efficient than a rookie, no matter how qualified and regarded Lance might be.

That followed the Bill Walsh philosophy. He suffered through the DeBerg seasons while Joe Montana was getting acclimated and confident.

A week ago, Garoppolo was exactly what he needed to be, the Niners winning at Cincinnati. Four days later, he was a quarterback who put his team in distress.

This Sunday, San Francisco has a bye, a time perhaps to reflect and second-guess. The season continues with a home game against the woeful Texans and then one at L.A. against the Rams.  

The presumption is Garoppolo will start at quarterback in both. And that he’ll play well enough to get his team to the postseason.

Then probably, Trey Lance takes over.

But who knows how good Lance might be — the next Tom Brady or the next Jimmy Garoppolo, who was supposed to take over for Brady but never did?

Tour surrenders AT&T golf to Saudi event

So the PGA Tour surrendered, although no one involved would use that term. Maybe “gave in to reality” is more accurate.

Realized the big names always get their way, so why not give them what they want and avoid a conflict in what was once called the gentleman’s game.

The winners, among others, are Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and the Saudi International tournament.

The losers are the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, CBS television and the restaurants and shops on the Monterey Peninsula.

The AT&T, which started as the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, has been around for more than 80 years. It’s a traditional stop on Tour. But tradition has no chance when matched against oil sheiks.

They created a tournament that the Asian Tour chose to endorse after the former European Tour (it’s been re-named the DP World Tour) stepped away. It is held at Royal Greens Golf Club near Jeddah and offers a huge purse and appearance fees.

That both events are to be staged in the first week in February makes for a difficult situation. Let’s go to the past tense — made for a difficult situation.

When a Tour player wants to enter an event opposite one on the Tour schedule, he must receive approval — and agree to stipulations for the future.  

On Monday, Saudi officials sent a media release mentioning they had commitments from 11 major champions. Golf Digest asked who would blink first. We found out quickly enough.

It was the Tour. When the AT&T does get underway, they should put white flags in the cups.

Yes, I know the players are “independent contractors” and go where the money is, and I also know that in personality-driven sports such as golf (Tiger Woods, Mickelson) and tennis (Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams) the stars have leverage.

But they built their reputations and bank accounts in tournaments that enabled them to learn and improve. And earn.

The AT&T may offer celebrities and wonderful courses deep in the forest or along the bay, but it’s golf competition, and you want the top players, the ones who drive up attendance and TV ratings as well as drive a ball 330 yards down a fairway.

Long ago, when I tended to write about Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, even if they weren’t on the leader board or in the field, a golf official suggested I focus on the little-known players, to let people know who they were.

But that infamous headline, “Unknown wins Crosby,” will get only shrugs. ESPN, for better or worse, figured it out: Names are more important than games.

It didn’t matter that Tiger before the accident was 10 shots behind. To ESPN he was the story, often the only story.

You know that over the weekend Woods and his 12-year-old son, Charlie, played in the PNC father-son tournament. There were stories and videos from here to St. Andrews. Wow!

Tiger hasn’t been in the ATT for a while, but Mickelson and Dustin Johnson not only were there but more than once finished first. This coming February, however, they’ll be in Saudi Arabia.

The longtime tournament director of the AT&T, Steve John, has to be diplomatic and measured in any criticism. He’s not going to whine about players he hopes will be back in coming years.

"We are still focused on the many highlights of our tournament week," John told James Raia in the Monterey Herald. "We will be messaging that we will eclipse the $200 million milestone in supporting deserving non-profits in and around our community."

“We have received overwhelming community support from fans showing how eager they are to see their favorite celebrities.”

Good, but Phil Mickelson or Dustin Johnson wouldn’t hurt. In fact, they would help.

Justin Thomas ‘friggin’ blown away’ by Tiger’s round.

He played 18, and one of the men who was with him, a friend and a critic—as well as a major champion, Justin Thomas had this to say about the return of Tiger Woods; “I was friggin ‘blown away.”

If that borders on the obscene, well what Woods has done borders on the amazing.

Ten months ago surgeons were inserting a rod into his right leg and attaching his right foot to his ankle with pins and screws.

Ten months ago after that rollover auto accident a sheriff’s deputy in Southern California said Tiger was lucky he’s alive. 

Ten months ago the question was whether Woods would walk normally again, never stand and swing a golf club

But Saturday Tiger walked and played golf and awed Thomas along with most of us.

Sure he rode the course in a cart, but when he stepped out to hit a ball it was without a limp or without hesitation

It wasn’t the Masters. Wasn’t even  a normal PGA Tour tournament, but rather the PNC Championship, an annual  father-son (or for the Korda family, father-daughter) event at the Ritz-Carlton course in Orlando, Fla.

Two rounds, scramble format (each person hits and then the decision is made which ball to play. Entrants from 86-years old (Gary Player, teamed with grandson, Jordan) to 11 years old.

Thomas and his dad, Mike a teaching pro with a bad back, are defending champions, but everyone involved knows the idea is to have a good time. And usually nothing else is important.

Except this time. Except when Woods, who hadn’t played in competition for 263 days, makes –well, Peter Jacobsen said he wouldn’t describe it as a comeback although that’s exactly what it is.

So you don’t particularly care about golf. And you’ve been on Tiger ever since those escapades with the women. No matter, Woods remains transcendent, up there in the sporting galaxy with Tom Brady, Steph Curry, LeBron James and  Bill Belichick.

Tiger again played with his son, Charlie, who now is 12, has a swing much like his father—not from Tiger’s instruction but from Charlie’s replication—and loves to practice.

The Woods team is at a best-ball 10-under (Stewart and Reagan  Cink are 13—13 under but the only story really is Tiger. “Welcome to the most anticipated 36 holes in golf,” Dan Hicks told the Golf Channel audience at the start of a telecast which subsequently was switched to NBC. 

An exaggeration, indeed, but quite acceptable knowing the circumstances., Hicks later said tournament sponsors probably could have sold 20,000 tickets, but there wasn’t room on what basically is a resort course.

The man is not merely a sports figure, he’s a 21st  century version of a Greek tragedy whose struggles have only magnified his presence.

Praise him—as most do—or belittle him, you can’t ignore him. His past sins? America has forgiven others guilty of worse  transgretions. Woods will be 46 the end of December, the age of respectability.

After the round Woods—as any parent—talked more about his son than himself, explaining when questioned that Charlie tends to emulate all the moves of his father. But those were acquired, not taught. “I’m his father,” said Woods, “not his coach.”

One learns by practicing. “The grind of the game,” said Tiger, “from Hogan to Trevino to me.”

Lee Trevino, playing the PNG with one of his offspring], won two U.S. Opens and two British Opens. He’s now 82.

As we know, Tiger has won 15 majors, the last one the 2019 Masters, a surprise—as would be  any Tour victory, now,  major or not.

“He made some quality golf shots out there,” Thomas said about the round Saturday. I’m happy for him,”

So is all of golf. A Tiger revival would be just what the game needs.

Steph brings out the best in sports

This was sport at its best, a record, respect, appreciation, sharing. It was perfect timing in an imperfect world.

This was as good as it gets on the night Steph Curry got a place in history, along with an outpouring of praise from those who perhaps best understand what he has accomplished: others who play basketball at the highest level.

Tweets from so many, including LeBron James.

Curry literally was moved to tears as he considered what he had achieved, even though breaking the NBA record for career 3-point baskets had reached the point of inevitability.

He knew he was going to do it. We knew he was going to do it. He did it Tuesday night on arguably the game’s grandest stage, Madison Square Garden in New York City.

If you can make it there, the lyrics tell us, you can make it anywhere.

What Curry made at the 7:33 mark of the first quarter of the Warriors 105-96 win over the Knicks was the 3-pointer that would surpass Ray Allen’s mark of 2,973.

Before the game ended, among his total 22 points, Curry would make three more 3s, adding to a number that will grow as long as Steph keeps playing and shooting — and the contract for the 33-year-old lasts another three and a half seasons.

“I hope to push the record a long way,” said Curry.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr, an excellent long-range gunner long ago, admiring the post-game celebrations, again reminded how much Steph had affected basketball.

“There were 82 3-pointers taken (Tuesday),” Kerr said. “So, on a night when he broke the record, the sum of both teams’ 3-point attempts was kind of a testament to Steph’s impact on the league.

“It’s a different game now, obviously. But Steph made it a different game.”

After Reggie Miller, who was broadcasting the game for TBS, and Allen, who was in the building, made their contributions, Reggie holding the record until Allen grabbed it.

The two were thrilled to be part of an evening that in a way was as much theirs as Steph’s.

“Reggie came up to Boston to cheer me on,” said Allen, who was with the Celtics. “As Steph got closer to the record, I told myself I had to find a way to be there.”

So he was, along with Curry’s parents — his father, Dell, played in the NBA — a few coaches and friends, and a Garden crowd of 19,000, some of which paid prices inflated by the importance of the event.

“When I came in the league,” said Curry, as a matter of fact and not pretension, ”I watched things like this happening. Now 11 years later, I’m the one.”

Indeed, the one who has brought attention to the Bay Area as well as himself. In an activity too full of bitterness and criticism, egotism unfettered, Curry seems universally loved.

He plays basketball beautifully and joyfully. As well as successfully.

“He’s great at the one skill every player wants to be great at,” Tim Legler, a very competent shooter himself, said on ESPN. “Steph has redefined shooting. The things he does to get open are incredibly difficult. He makes it look easy.”

Although Kerr thought he had prepared himself for the basket that would make Steph the record holder, he was awed by the reaction after it took place.

“The moment was spectacular,” Kerr said. “The aftermath was more emotional than I expected it to be. It was just an outpouring of love and appreciation for Steph from seemingly everyone in the building. Beautiful, beautiful.“

As are the gifts that ESPN reported Curry gave long-time teammates Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala for their support — Rolex watches.

Time pieces from a man whose play is timeless.

Down the stretch, Garoppolo performed like Montana

Agreed, he’s not Joe Montana. But the way Jimmy Garoppolo performed down the stretch Sunday, completing passes, leading the Niners from behind in overtime to a victory, was — dare we say — very reminiscent of Joe.

Jimmy G. won a game the San Francisco 49ers very much needed, a game it seemed they had let slip away and then wrenched back from the Cincinnati Bengals on the road.

He wasn’t alone. Joe Montana wasn’t alone. Tom Brady isn’t alone. John Elway wasn’t alone. Football is a team game, and a game of ebbs and flows, when the opportunity must be grabbed or it will lay groaning as a painful memory.

The memory of the Niners’ 26-23 victory on Sunday touches back to the good old days of comebacks and championships, of making the right calls and the right plays.

That in the great scheme of this NFL season the game may turn out to be insignificant doesn’t matter. When the oft-criticized Garoppolo had to get a win, he got it, in conjunction with Deebo Samuel and Nick Bosa and Brandon Aiyuk — and certainly and demonstratively, the amazing George Kittle.

There, late in the afternoon at Cincinnati, were the erratic Niners, failing to take the game when Robbie Gould’s 43-yard field goal try at the end of regulation was wide; quickly behind, 23-20, when the Bengals made their own 3-pointer; pulling it out when, with virtually no time remaining, Aiyuk shoved the ball over the goal line as he flew into space.

It wasn’t beautiful, but it was successful. The saying in golf is applicable, “It ain’t how, it’s how many.” There’s no judging of form, just a display of the final score.

As a relieved Niners coach, Kyle Shanahan, conceded. 

Garoppolo botched things a week ago against Seattle, and there were other games when he couldn’t bring it home (even after the win, San Francisco is just 7-6, although very much a wild card possibility). 

This time with plenty of assistance from the offensive line, the receivers and the game plan, Garoppolo hit one pass after another. Or handed off to Samuel or Jeff Wilson. There was a sense of purpose and feeling of confidence.

“We kept saying that we’ve been in this situation before,” Garoppolo explained about the drive. “No one blinked. Guys knew that we had been here before, and we’ve done this before.”

True, but until you do it correctly, pulling out a game that seemingly was lost, it’s just rehearsal.

“We’ve just got to do this game,” said Garoppolo.

They did in no small part due to Kittle, the tight end who snares passes, batters potential tacklers and just generally makes the 49ers formidable and fearsome.

“That dude is the one Shanahan describe as a violent blocker and violent receiver” Aiyuk said of Kittle. “Not a bad combination. That dude is special.“

Kittle would just as soon hit possible defenders as catch a football, a trend coaches find perfect for a tight end, not that George shies away from getting a ball in his hands.

Against the Bengals, Kittle caught 13 passes for 151 yards, a touchdown and two first downs on third-down situations. “When you have a guy like him, you lean on him,” said Garoppolo.

If you didn’t, you’d better get a new job. Back when the Niners had Jerry Rice, and failed to target him, John Madden would growl, “He’s your best weapon. He needs the ball.”

What the 49ers needed was this victory, achieved in part because Cincy fumbled away two first-quarter punts and in part because Jimmy Garoppolo did what a 49er quarterback is expected to do.

Win the game the way Joe Montana used to do.

Steph lets his shots do the talking

Steph Curry was missing. Not with his shots. From the scene.

This was on Wednesday night, and as we all know — especially the guys at ESPN, who control our sports perceptions — only two people count in the NBA: Steph and that LeBron James guy.

LeBron, after helping the Lakers beat the Celtics, stood at a microphone and said, “I just like the way we competed tonight on both sides of the ball. A lot of intensity.”

Nothing to be etched in stone, but at least more than we heard from Curry.

Which was nothing.

Maybe Steph was trying to allow his teammates to get the attention after a 104-94 win over the troubled Portland Trail Blazers. Or maybe he was just weary from answering questions about the record he’s about to break.

You know the one, the lifetime total for 3-point baskets. For another few hours — or if Curry is off when the Warriors begin their road trip at Philly on Saturday, another few days — that record is 2,973, held by Ray Allen, who retired after the 2012-13 season.

Should we be excited about Steph’s quest? Indeed. He now is only nine threes short of tying Allen.

But unless the NBA is going to shut down tomorrow, Curry’s record is going to grow and grow. And grow. 

He has miles to go and many shots to make. The man is 33, and assuming he plays two seasons after this one — hey, LeBron will be 37 in a couple of weeks and he’s still rolling — Steph ought to put the record not only out of reach but beyond our imagination. He might hit another 200 of those long-range shots.

Not that teammate Draymond Green believes Curry will retain the record, once he sets it.

“Most people, especially in the analytical department, didn't think Steph Curry shot enough threes,” Green told NBC Bay Area Sports. 

“To this day, they still don't think Steph Curry shoots enough threes. That just goes to show you where the game is going and why his record will be broken probably within five to six years of him playing the game."

Who knows? What everyone does know is Curry helped remake the sport. Kids who wanted to dunk now just as often want to score from beyond the arc, which in the NBA is painted at 23 feet 9 inches.

"It totally changed the way the game is played,” said Green, “just by the way Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have been playing the game all this time.”

What Curry should be celebrated for is his accuracy and consistency. Along with his showmanship. Dribbling two basketballs in practice and connecting on those 35-foot baskets in pre-game warmups are fan favorites.

The eternal saying is that basketball is a team game, and while that’s true — hit the open man, switch while caught behind a screen on defense — it’s the individuals who make the game the joy it is.

The movie industry figured out a century ago that stars sold tickets. You didn’t need Shakespeare if Marilyn Monroe or Humphrey Bogart were on the marquee. In the NBA, what matters is who’s on the court — LeBron or Kevin Durant or, yes, Steph Curry.

As much as we love to watch them, others love to play with them — in effect sharing their success as well as adding to it. The other Warriors are well aware of the chase, at Chase Center and other locations, of a record.

“The vibe is still good,” said the Warriors’ Otto Porter Jr. “We are trying to figure out how to win playing Warriors basketball. We are trying to get good looks cutting off him. Steph is playmaking whether he is on or off the ball.”

Mostly when he shoots, he is on target.