Indian Wells is not "Tennis Paradise" for Osaka

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — It was 83 degrees by late afternoon on Sunday in the desert, warm enough to dry Naomi Osaka’s tears. Assuming she hadn’t blown town.

After coming unglued once again.

“Tennis Paradise” is the slogan for the magnificent sporting complex not far from Palm Springs where the BNP Paribas Open is held annually.

That depends on your definition of paradise.

Years ago, it was the place where Serena Williams was booed viciously by spectators when Williams withdrew from a semifinal match against older sister Venus.

Then Saturday night, a heckler got to traumatized Naomi Osaka a few moments after Veronika Kudermetova got to her, 6-0, 6-3 in a second-round match of the 2022 BNP.

The guy shouted, “Naomi, you suck.” Not very kind, and hardly expected from the tennis clientele, but not quite the sort of remark that would have you sobbing.

Unlike baseball, however, there is crying in tennis, usually joyful after a championship at the U.S. Open, which Osaka has won, or Wimbledon.

But these were tears of anger. Or disappointment. Or misery. Or frustration.

Tears during a post-match interview over the stadium public address system. Tears that even had the individual conducting the interview, Andrew Krasny of the Tennis Channel, consoling Osaka with the words “We love you here.”

At least everybody but one person.

We’ll get to Osaka shortly after we get to fans, whose displeasure and intent on acting obnoxious, inherent in baseball, football and basketball, has expanded to golf and tennis.

Which can be considered both unfortunate — quiet on the tee, please — and in a way advantageous.

If you want to fill the arenas, ballparks and galleries, you’re going to have to accept someone mocking Bryson DeChambeau.

Or belittling Osaka. As improper and unsympathetic as that may be.

Most times, the comments are swallowed up by the noise of the crowd. And if they’re not, well, among the first things a young athlete is taught is to ignore the disparagement, the so-called bench-jockeying from opposing players who spare no possible insult.

Osaka is 24, a four-time Grand Slam winner whose fame, or infamy of late, is less from the shots off her racquets than from her general well-being.

At the French Open in May, Osaka first refused to attend a media conference and then withdrew from the tournament, citing mental health problems, a story that became larger than any triumph.

Returning to tennis, Osaka was beaten in the third round of U.S. Open last fall, then left the sport again, explaining she no longer found satisfaction in playing.

She returned to the tour in Australia in January, apparently more upbeat, but lost to Amanda Anisiimova, the American, in the third round.

Indian Wells was only Osaka’s third tournament in six months. She insisted she needed matches to get into shape, but she played only two here.

Kudermetova broke Osaka’s serve in the opening game, and the spectator’s shout came as Osaka prepared to return serve. She approached the chair umpire, Paula Vieira Souza, and appeared to ask about having the spectator ejected, but Souza did nothing,.

Kudermetova held serve, and Osaka began to tear up as she prepared to serve the next game.

“To be honest, I’ve gotten heckled before, and it didn’t really bother me,” Osaka said. “But, like, heckled here? I watched a video of Venus and Serena getting heckled here, and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it.

“And I don’t know why, but it went into my head, and it got replayed a lot.”

Of course, in Tennis Paradise, a little bit of hell always gets attention.

LeBron stops the boos — and the Warriors

One game, two conclusions: There’s nothing wrong with LeBron James. There’s plenty wrong with the Golden State Warriors.

On Saturday night in Los Angeles, the fans stopped booing the home team just long enough to watch James score a season-high 56 points and the Lakers defeat the Warriors, 124-116.

For the Lakers, who Monday night play at San Antonio, the victory ended a four-game losing streak.

For the Warriors, who Monday night play at Denver, the defeat extended a losing streak to four games.

“Right now I don’t give a damn about the 56,” was James’ post-game statement. “I’m just glad we got a win.”

That’s something Warriors coach Steve Kerr understood, because he didn’t get one in a game the Dubs led in the fourth quarter, as if that matters.

Suddenly the Warriors are in third place overall in the NBA. They already were behind Phoenix. Now they’re also in back of Memphis.

“There’s more games coming, so we’ve got to do this ourselves,” said Kerr, emphasizing the obvious. “We’ve got to dig out of the mud, and nobody’s going to help us.”

A tale of two Californians: in southern Cal, the patrons are more demanding — thinking back to the days of Magic and Shaq and Kobe, of showtime and multiple titles.

In Northern Cal, we’re grateful for the seasons of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and, oh-so-briefly, Kevin Durant.

The name missing from the time of Warriors success is that of Draymond Green, who for years — well, it’s just a few weeks, but it seems like years — has been rehabbing, not playing.

His last game was in January. You wonder if his next game won’t be until June.

Just as LeBron showed us he still is LeBron, on Saturday night Steph showed us he’s still Steph, 30 points and some poignant analysis on the post-game show.

“We’re finding different ways to lose,” said Curry. “Self-inflicted wounds.”

You understand what he means, but truth tell, the Dubs are losing only one way. They’re not getting enough points, and the opponent is getting too many.

One reasons is that Klay Thompson, back once more after two seasons recovering from two different serious injuries, has struggled.

Just because you’re finally back on the floor doesn’t mean you’re immediately going to be back in the groove. “I think Klay is pressing,” said Chris Mullin, the former all-star who now does commentary on Warriors telecasts.

Well, of course. He is impatient to be the player he was previously, and Warriors fans are no less impatient. Still, these things can’t be rushed. 

Thompson was out recently with what the injury report listed as  a “general illness.” Whatever, it knocked him off his stride.

“I feel like the sickness affected his conditioning and his timing,” said Kerr.

Timing is such a critical element, not only within the game, the passing, the rebounding, the switching on defense, but also on the scheduling.

If the Warriors played the Lakers on another night, well, LeBron is great but who would imagine he would get all those points?

And, in a way, make a point to anyone who figured he had declined.

“When he has it going like that,” Lakers guard Russell Westbrook, said of James, “there’s nothing nobody on the other team can do about it. He forced his will and was able to direct the game on all levels.

“It was really big, especially in a game where we needed a win.”

The Lakers got their needed win. The Warriors did not. “Obviously we’re going to have to get healthy,” said Kerr. “We desperately need Draymond.”

They need something, no question.

Baseball people forget it’s a game, not just a business

There used to a game called baseball, and it was as much a part of summer as corn on the cob and watermelon. Kids could play it in the streets, and it grew to the point it was known as America’s Pastime.

All you needed was a bat, a ball, and a dream.

It gave us heroes like the Babe and the Iron Horse and Jackie Robinson. It was full of cliches that became part of the language and culture, like “I can’t get to first base with that girl.” The president of the U.S. even showed up to throw out a ball to start the season.

But baseball became extinct, like the Tyrannosaurus rex. The people who played it and the people who controlled it forgot it was a game and not a business. While the fans were interested in things like RBIs and ERA, the team owners — and the players — seemed more concerned with luxury tax and bonus pools.

Labor problems were the death of baseball. Lockouts by the owners, as we are stuck with now, or strikes by the players killed interest in the game. Fans may enjoy arguments on the diamond, but they were weary of debates in executive offices.

It was believed baseball had become so ingrained in the nation that it even could survive the people who run it, that like cockroaches it was impossible to eradicate. But that was before the country changed — and perhaps because the game didn’t.

Some question whether in these manic times the game is too slow for the new generation, and the sport has been inflicted with some ridiculous revisions, like putting a man on second in extra innings — what next, four outs an inning? — but the real trouble is what’s happening now, cancellation of the season’s opening series.

The more baseball fails to deliver every scheduled game of its schedule, the more fans will tend to ignore games when they are played. If they don’t think every pitch, every fly ball is important, then why should they pay attention?

Once the only three sports that mattered in this country were boxing, horse racing and baseball. Nobody cares about the first two — yes, the Kentucky Derby is important, but more as historical tradition than a competition — and baseball is slipping.

Tim Kurkjian, who was a writer before joining ESPN, loves the sport and recently was inducted into the Hall of Fame. “The game is in trouble,” he said the other day, and that was when we still had hope the 2022 season would begin on time.

The person who would have been at the ballpark or in front of the TV screen is losing patience, which means baseball is destined to lose even more fans. The NFL never ends, or so it seems. The NBA is everywhere, and March Madness is about to march into our lives.

Meanwhile, baseball is sinking out of view and into oblivion.

This doesn’t consider the ancillary folk whose livelihoods, as concession workers and other jobs, depend on games being held. Already the exhibition season is gone, a financial blow to Arizona and Florida.

A few days ago, somebody suggested that representatives from the owners and the players be locked in a room and kept there until reaching an agreement. That virtually happened, at least the part of being locked in a room, talks on Monday lasting until the wee small hours of Tuesday morning. But there was no agreement.

All we had was commissioner Rob Manfred trying to explain why the two sides remain apart. And alas, the sport he oversees is not going to be seen on the diamonds.

Phil always had to be different

He’s always been the one who had to be different. Sometimes for the better. Often for the bizarre. Have his caddy pull the flag on a shot 70 yards from the cup? Blame the captain of a losing Ryder Cup team of which he was a member? Intentionally hit a moving ball while the world watched during the 2018 U.S. Open? That was Phil Mickelson.

He pushed the envelope and pulled our chains. Indeed, the way he belittled Tom Watson for what Phil contended was mishandling the preparations for the American team in the 2014 Ryder Cup was awkward and embarrassing.

The other incidents, the flagstick at Torrey Pines, knowingly violating the rules of golf by smacking a ball that was in motion during the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, were goofy. As people said, “Phil being Phil.”

What’s happening inside the heads of these great sporting stars? Novak Djokovic, No. 1 in the world tennis rankings, refuses to accept the mandatory Covid-19 vaccination, is thrown out of the country before the start of the Australian Open and also may be banned from the French Open and Wimbledon.

Mickelson had this hare-brained idea he could revise golf by persuading the big boys to abandon the Tour and play in Saudi Arabia for huge sums of money. The players and, not surprisingly, Tour executives were not thrilled. Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson were outspoken in favor of the status quo.

That Mickelson felt compelled to apologize perhaps was as much a result of capitalism as contrition. If you thought the general public was, say, disturbed by Phil’s plans, how do you think his sponsors, the firms that sell their services and products to that general public, feel?

The golf stars earn several million a year alone for what is on the front of their hat, the most visible article of attire any pro wears and a reason that even after a round, and particularly during interviews, it never is removed. For years, Mickelson’s hat — or visor — displayed “KPMG,” the international consulting and accounting group..

KPMG announced Tuesday that it ended its relationship with Mickelson, a deal that that began in 2008. Although the release said the two sides had “mutually agreed” to end the partnership, it was clearly a reaction to eroding support for Mickelson

“The Tour likes to pretend it’s a democracy, but it’s really a dictatorship,” Mickelson told author Alan Shipnuck. “They divide and conquer. The concerns of the top players are very different from the guys who are lower down on the money list, but there’s a lot more of them. They use the top guys to make their own situation better, but the top guys don’t have a say.”

Mickelson said the conversations with Shipnuck, a former Sports Illustrated staffer, were off the record, but Shipnuck said that was not true.

Where Phil goes from here is a question, not that having earned some $800 million in a career that included six majors he needs to go anywhere. If and when he returns to golf — a PGA Tour suspension is unlikely — Mickelson could be an outcast, but that’s improbable.

He always was the guy talking to the gallery, signing autographs. Besides, sports fans are notably forgiving. As Jaime Diaz pointed out on the Golf Channel, it didn’t take long for Tiger Woods to regain his status after his escapades. Phil didn’t try to overthrow the government, just change golf the wrong way.

"Although it doesn't look this way now given my recent comments,” wrote Mickelson, either on his own or after persuasion, “my actions throughout this process have always been with the best interests of golf, my peers, sponsors and fans. There is the problem of off-the-record comments being shared out of context and without my consent, but the bigger issue is that I used words that do not reflect my true feelings or intentions.

"It was reckless, I offended people, and I am deeply sorry for my choice of words. I'm beyond disappointed and will make every effort to self-reflect and learn from this."

Niemann wins, but talk in golf is still about Phil

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Golf, the Tour, is going to be like this for a while, at least until The Issue, the Phil Mickelson-Saudi plan, is resolved. If ever it is resolved.

A pro wins a tournament, plays brilliantly as did the young man from Chile, Joaquin Niemann, who was ahead start-to-finish, took the Genesis Invitational, which ended Sunday at Riviera, and all anyone seemed to care about was the game’s future.

Which depending on your viewpoint may not be as interesting as the present.

This should have been Niemann’s moment, and surely, shooting an even-par 71, and hanging on to a lead that after an eagle 3 on the 11th was up to five strokes but finished at two over Collin Morikawa, it was.

In winning for the second time on Tour, the 23-year-old from Chile shot a 19-under total of 268.

Great golf in a, well, not so much troubled time but distracting time, not that Niemann appeared at all distracted on yet another beautiful, blue-sky Southern California afternoon.

The top 10 in the World Golf rankings all were entered in the Genesis, which both made Niemann’s victory impressive but also brought many of the top journalists, most of whom had questions about Phil trying to get his fill.

Mickelson was not at Riviera. In body. Talk of his project to force a remodeling of the PGA Tour by leveraging money from Saudi Arabia — yes, they’re killers and such, but the plan only deals with golf, not humanity — was everywhere.

Niemann surely is perceptive enough to realize this whole mess is like Covid-19 and other misfortunes in life to deal with as maturely as possible. Another season and Niemann would be receiving accolades — after all, he won on the course where Tiger Woods never has — rather than questions.

Hey, the wise and capable know not to get riled about situations beyond their control. They step forward and leave the grumbling to others. Of all the sports, golf especially teaches how to deal with adversity.

Niemann didn’t have much in his three days until holing the final putt. Then a reporter told him,  “…while you were doing some pretty good golf out there today, there was a lot of news going on with the Tour when DJ (Dustin Johnson) and Bryson (DeChambeau) said that they were going to be staying on the PGA Tour . ...I know you didn't want to talk about it earlier, but in a broader view when the top 12 players in the world have indicated that they're staying here, do you think that it would make it tougher for someone to not want to compete against the best?”

Niemann was as sharp with his words as he had been with his clubs. “I want to compete with the best players in the world,” he said. “I want to be No. 1 one day ... I think there's nothing better like what I'm feeling right now, winning a PGA Tour event, getting a trophy.”

In 2019 Niemann took first in the Military Tribute tourney at the Greenbrier, joining the late Seve Ballesteros and Rory McIlroy as the only foreign-born players in the last 98 years to win on Tour before turning 21.

Some 10 years later, McIlroy has four majors — and at Riviera on a Sunday an opinion on where golf is going and why he’s staying.

“I don't want to kick someone while he's down obviously,” McIlroy said, meaning Mickelson, “but I thought they were naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant. It was just very surprising and disappointing, sad. I'm sure he's sitting at home sort of rethinking his position.”

Joaquin Niemann’s position in the Genesis doesn’t need rethinking, only cheers.

An eagle on “best short hole in golf” sparks Niemann

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The platform is small and subtle, the opposite of what we too often misconceive as Southern California chic. But the 10th hole at Riviera — merely called by Rory McIlroy the best short hole in golf — can be as difficult as it is beckoning.

It plays to around 310 yards, which is nothing in these days of hulked-up golfers and high-powered golf clubs, designed back in the 1920s by George Thomas, an ageless gem that creates a question in the player’s mind: Do I lay up or take a chance?

The stories are legendary. Some guys have ruined their chances by taking a chance. A few years ago in a playoff, Phil Mickelson (this was before he became an object of scorn) went with his driver and went for a birdie.

On Saturday, Joaquin Niemann, well aware of his own position — first place — in the Genesis Invitational as well as the risk-reward quality of the 10th hole, played it smartly and safely just short of the green and made a 22-footer for an eagle two.

“I felt the crowd there,” said Niemann. “There was a lot of crowd. It was a big putt there. It was good because I was coming out of a few birdies, so it was great to make that eagle.”

Niemann, the 23-year-old from Chile, shot a 3-under-par 68, his worst score by far of the three rounds — he had back-to-back 63s, but with a 54-hole total of 19-under 194 still expanded his lead. Second-place Cameron Young had a 69 for 197, while Viktor Hodland, with the day’s low, a 65, is at 200. Justin Thomas (70) is at 201 and Collin Morikawa (68) 202.

The way he is scoring and enthusiastically reacting to the support of the gallery, fans still wound up by the Rams in the Super Bowl, Niemann would seem destined to be the wire-to-wire winner, But as we’ve learned so many times, golf can be an ornery game. You can’t protect a lead. And you can’t keep someone else from building one.

As Niemann, despite his youth, knows quite well. He has gone about the task at hand, with a smile or two but showing little other excitement, which brought about an inane question of whether he was enjoying himself.

“Yeah, I'm having the best time of my life right now,” he said. “I just try to keep it calm, but yeah, I'm enjoying it a lot and I just can't wait to have a good day (Sunday).”

There haven’t been a lot of good days in the media for Mickelson, since the story broke that he is working with the abusive (some would say treacherous) Saudi group to finance golf competition that would compete with the PGA Tour. Phil, who won at Riviera, isn’t entered in the Genesis this time, but his presence can’t be denied.

Niemann, naturally, was hit with a reference to Phil, a journalist wondering if Joaquin “had been involved in talks at all with the Saudi league.” His answer was direct if not specific

“Yeah. I mean, obviously a lot going on,” he said. “I don't know much about it and I don't want to say anything about it. I just wait.” 

Golf is a game of waiting — and then performing.

Niemann plays his way into Riviera history

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The place is known as Hogan’s Alley. There’s even a statue of Ben alongside the practice green. Howard Hughes was a member. So was Humphrey Bogart.

Riviera Country Club had its moments and its stars. Now a kid from Chile has played his way into Riviera history.

There never may be a carving of Joaquin Niemann on the course called the “The Riva,” but his name is in the record book, which isn’t bad considering who played here and when.

People like Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead.

Joaquin Niemann, 23, is another of those prodigies from a land not enough Americans associate with golf, which in a way is both insular and unintelligent.

The game may not be as far-reaching as soccer, but it’s played in areas we sometimes ignore.

Niemann, who Friday in the second round of the Genesis Invitational shot another 8-under-par 63 and holds the halfway lead at 16-under 126, a record, is from Chile.

So is Mito Pereia, who is up there, as are Viktor Howland of Norway, Sebastian Munoz of Colombia, C.T. Pan of Taiwan and Sunga Kim of Korea. 

We used to ask, “Who are those guys?” We’ve learned. They’re world-class golfers.

Niemann in fact was the world’s No. 1-ranked amateur for many months. He was going to enroll at the University of South Florida— well, that’s closer to Chile than other U.S. schools — but there was a mix-up with his grades.

So he turned pro, which he would have done inevitably. Won a tournament early on too. Already earned millions.

Last summer, in the final round of the Tour Championship, he won another sort of event. In last place after 54 holes, he did one of those dumb but laughable things top golfers do when they have no chance. He went against the clock rather than the card, playing for time instead of score. 

Niemann looks like a guy who could enter a marathon. His caddy, Gary Mathews, looks like a middle linebacker. All the excess paraphernalia, practice material, rain gear, was extracted from the bag.

They made the 18 holes on hilly East Lake in 1 hour 53 minutes, an-all-time best. Paul Azinger, the announcer and a former PGA champion, didn’t like what Niemann did, saying he disrespected the game and cost himself a ton of money.

Niemann still earned a $405,000 bonus for finishing 29th in what had been a 30-man field (Brooks Koepka had withdrawn because of an injury) and had a good time. Spectators had something to keep them attentive before the leaders went off, Patrick Cantlay eventually winning the tournament.

"I didn't know how fast I could play 18 holes, but on the front nine, I decided to play quick, but not like crazy quick, not like rushing and hurrying up," Niemann said. "But then they told me I did like just over an hour, I was like, 'ah, I'm just going to rush it and try to break the record.' It was pretty good, the back nine."

At Riviera, the final two rounds this beautiful weekend of sunshine, Niemann will be concentrating on par, not pace. On Friday, he had seven birdies and an eagle.

“I think everything is working pretty well,” said Niemann, confirming what was on the card. “Obviously, I'm making a lot of putts right now. I feel I'm starting my ball online with the putter, so that's obviously — when you have greens this good when you start your line, I think you've got a good chance of making putts, so I think that's been big this week.”

Niemann birdied the first and second hole, to get to 10-under with 16 holes remaining.

“Yeah, obviously it was a great start after (Thursday’s) round. Didn't sleep much, it was pretty late when I finished and we started pretty early, but yeah, we got it going pretty good at the beginning.

“Yeah, I really like the way I handled myself out there after been playing good the front nine. Didn't hit a great driver on 11, still made birdie there. That different mentality this week, I think, is helping a lot.” 

Hot and Chile is a good forecast.

Phil wants to take over the Tour — but he’s not at Riviera

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — So Phil Mickelson, who’s not even here, wants to remake the PGA Tour and blocked his Twitter account.

Somebody from Golf Digest hopes the Waste Management Phoenix Open will not continue to play the last round during the Super bowl.

And there’s a story the Saudis are going to destroy pro golf as we know it with their millions.

But looking down the fairway from the elevated first tee at Riviera Country Club, there’s a better view of golf, one of old eucalyptus trees, kikuyu fairways and a tournament as competitive as it is historic.

Round one of the Genesis Invitational on Thursday offered a leaderboard that included the guy who won in Arizona on Sunday, Scottie Scheffler — yes, when you’re hot, you’re hot — Jordan Spieth and, on top, Joaquin Niemann. 

Obviously it did not include Phil, a.k.a. Lefty, who although residing maybe 80 miles south and having won here — remember the time he flew up daily in his jet? — chose not to enter.

But apparently he has chosen to push the limits of how pro golf is controlled. And also chosen not to allow critics to enter his social media platform.

Phil is always one of the friendlier, more cooperative guys in golf, full of opinions, willing to take a stand or a chance on making a tough shot.

Virtually everyone was thrilled when last summer, at almost age 51, he took the PGA Championship and became the oldest man ever to win a major.

Then a couple weeks ago, Mickelson skipped the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which he had won five times, to play in the filthy rich Saudi event — and while there lambasted the PGA Tour for “obnoxious greed.”

While explaining why he would be open to playing in the filthy rich Saudi Golf League.

That didn’t make him overly popular with those who run the Tour or play the Tour, or with Brandel Chamblee, the astute Golf Channel commentator who briefly played on the Tour. Chamblee referred to Mickelson as a highly paid ventriloquist puppet.

Phil recently claimed that Augusta National, the club where he won the Masters three times, made $3.5 million from licensing his 2010 shot off the pine needles to the 13th green.

It’s amazing how a game supposedly built on sportsmanship and fair play can make so many people so angry, including fans and media. Of course, it’s also built on money.

According to Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press, Mickelson told a journalist writing a biography on him that he recruited three other “top players” to the Saudi-supported golf league. And his intent is to remake the Tour more than to help Saudi golf.    

The comments are from an interview with former Sports Illustrated golf writer Alan Shipnuck, who has a book on Mickelson coming in May.

“They’re scary mother-bleepers to get associated with,” Mickelson said of the Saudis. “We know they killed (Washington Post reporter Jamal) Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights.

“Why should I get involved? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”    

The worry may be how Phil operates. Anger is being expressed against Mickelson in messages on the internet. He responded in kind. Off went Phil’s site.  

That’s the side of golf some prefer to ignore. Controversy sells, but so do birdie putts and success stories. They prefer beautiful locations such as Riviera, which along with Pebble is one of California’s most famous, as well as one of its best.

The pros hesitate to put too much into the opening round of any event — they tell us you can’t win a tournament on the first day, but you can lose it — but those were impressive starts on Thursday.

Niemann had an 8-under 63, while Scheffler, Spieth, Cameron Young and Max Homa shot 66.

But the question remains: With this Mickelson news, will anyone notice?

Tiger talks of a great past and doubtful future

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — He was sitting behind a table instead of standing on a tee, but wherever Tiger Woods finds a place any tournament belongs to him, especially the one where he first had the chance to play against the game’s top players — before he would become the game’s best.

It’s called the Genesis Invitational now. Before, it was the Nissan Open. But we know it as the Los Angeles Open, at historic Riviera Country Club, where the stars hung out, Ben Hogan dominated and in 1992 a teenage Tiger made his pro debut.

Woods now is the host, ironically for an event on a course where he never won but where his presence as both spokesman and hero perhaps carries as much significance as any of his 82 Tour victories.

A year ago, Woods drove off a curving road maybe 20 miles from Riviera. As he reminded Tuesday, “I’m lucky I’m alive.” He had his right foot reattached, underwent months of rehabilitation, eventually was able to play with son Charlie in the PNC Father-Son tournament and at age 46 remains uncertain about his future.

Among his tasks here were to create the attention impossible for anyone else in golf. The room in the old Spanish clubhouse used as the media headquarters suddenly filled to overflowing when Woods walked in on Wednesday, first to introduce pro Adam Beverly — a college star at Sacramento State — as recipient of the Charlie Sifford Memorial exemption.

Woods recalled the difficulty he faced when at age 16 he was in the big time, and no less pertinently mused about his chances in April of playing the Masters Par-3 tournament (possible) and the Masters itself (doubtful).

“I wish I could tell you when I'm playing again,” said Woods. “I want to know, but I don't. My golf activity has been very limited. I can chip and putt really well and hit short irons very well, but I haven't done any long stuff seriously.

“I'm still working. Like at the PNC, I'm still working on the walking part. My foot was a little messed up there about a year ago, so the walking part is something that I'm still working on, working on strength and development in that. It takes time. What's frustrating is it's not at my timetable.”

There has been progress since the father-son. He is stronger, able to hit more balls.

“But as I was alluding to at the PNC, I was in a cart,” he said. “I can play weekend warrior golf, that's easy. But to be able to be out here and play, call it six rounds of golf, a practice round, pro-am, four competitive days, it's the cumulative effect of all that.

“I'm not able to do that yet. I'm still working on getting to that point.”

He is more realistic than pessimistic. He came to grips with the situation lying in a hospital bed. There is just possibility or impossibility.

The opportunity to discuss the Sifford award, presented annually to one of the country’s top minority golfers, brings Tiger back to an earlier time.

The PGA of America (which controlled tournament golf before the PGA Tour was formed in 1968) had a Caucasian-only clause in its by-laws. Charlie Sifford and other African Americans were not allowed to play. A threat by California attorney general Stanley Mosk to ban any tournament from the state forced the PGA to eliminate the clause.

When Sifford won the L.A. Open in 1961, at Rancho Park, he sent Mosk a telegram of appreciation. Tiger Woods, with a Black father and Asian mother, was well-schooled in ethnic discrimination.

“Charlie was the grandfather I never had,” said Tiger. “To me, he was Grandpa Charlie. I would see him at Firestone every year. I was telling Aaron over here that I would get these yellow texts in my locker every time I had a chance to win a tournament and I'll summarize it by saying ‘go out and win.’”

What Tiger told Adam Beverly was that playing in a Tour event for the first time would be both intimidating and thrilling.

“It was like going from playing JV baseball to all of a sudden facing — you're going to be on the bump against Nolan Ryan. That's how big a jump that felt like.”

Big or small, the jump ended beautifully.

Spieth’s 63 shows there’s nothing wrong

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — A year ago, a lot of people in golf were asking what was wrong with Jordan Spieth. The answer, in the briefest of explanations: Nothing.

Spieth shot a 9-under 63 on Saturday, his lowest ever at Pebble Beach, and bounded into contention after three rounds of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

With one round to go and most of the celebrity amateurs, including the irrepressible Bill Murray, having taken their hopes and their double-bogies to other locales, the AT&T has become what many wanted: A battle among some of golf’s more recognizable players.

Maybe Beau Hossler, Andrew Putnam and Tom Hoge, the three guys sharing first with 54-hole totals of 15-under-par 200, don’t have their own line of clubs or clothing, but they’re hardly in that grouping of unheralded.

Hossler held a brief lead in the 2012 U.S. Open at San Francisco’s Olympic Club when he was a 17-year-old amateur. Hoge is the pro from Fargo, the city in North Dakota, not the dark-humor movie. Putnam has been on Tour and off.

But a stroke behind at 201 are Spieth, FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay and Joel Dahmen. Another shot behind at 202 is the chap from Ireland, Seamus Power, who sadly verified what we all know: Golf can be cruel.

After 64s at two of the more difficult courses, Pebble and Spyglass Hill, Power shot 74 Saturday at Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course.

You might think the tournament would come down to Spieth, a three-time major champion, and Cantlay, the one known as “Patty Ice.” But there’s no defense. You can’t stop the other guy, you just have to outscore him.

Not easy when Spieth has an eagle, eight birdies and only a lone bogey.

“I guess I'm one back,” said Spieth. “I think the leaderboard's pretty bunched. Pebble can yield low scores.“

A 63 would indicate as much.

“So I think I just kind of learned a little from last year,” Spieth said. “Last year I went in with the lead and I was a little tentative early and (Daniel) Berger came out firing, I think, went like birdie, eagle to start. 

“I think not being in the final group (Sunday) I just kind of approach it like (Saturday) where I feel like, you know, sometimes it can be a little easier not in the final group to go ahead and fire away. You almost just set a goal for a number for the day and pretend you’ve got to get there in order to win.”

In the pre-tournament interviews, Cantlay, born in Long Beach, was asked why he didn’t go this week to the tourney in Saudi Arabia, where entrants are being awarded seven-figure bonuses.

He said he wasn’t asked, and besides, he prefers what he called “California golf.” You can see why.

“If the lead stays at 15-under, I'm obviously right there,” he said before the last player came in. “I think I came back from more strokes behind than that. So I'm in great position and I love this golf course, and everyone will be playing on the same golf course (Sunday), so it should be fun.” 

Asked if he and Spieth would have an advantage playing Pebble in consecutive rounds, Cantlay said, “A little bit. The greens definitely were the firmest of the three places here at Pebble. With the wind up a little bit, I think it may dry out a little more.”

After all the times it’s rained during the AT&T and its predecessor, the Crosby, nobody will complain about anything being too dry.

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.