For U.S., a Cup of Ryder road woes

This was a while ago, and Davis Love III was in the process of returning to his South Carolina home from a tournament when a neighbor offered a greeting and a question.

”He asked me what the Ryder Cup was,” recalled Love, “And how did we lose it.”

The years pass, and if the event, the biennial golf competition between the United States and Europe, can easily be explained with four-ball, foursomes, and singles. The results of many recent matches are less so.

Even to the-called experts. Perhaps most of all to so-called experts.

America has had the best players, right? Other than, previously Seve Ballesteros and currently, say, Jon Rahm. But that’s only two.

So why does Europe keep thumping the Americans? Particularly when America is the visiting team, as it will be when the 44th Cup is held in the suburbs of Rome Friday through Sunday. America has lost the last six matches when passports are a requirement. They — we, if you choose — have been beaten in England, France, Wales, Spain, Scotland and Ireland. If not in that particular order. Of course, they’ve also been drubbed back in the U.S., although they have won the last two in America.

As a yardstick, it is how ineffective various groups of Americans have been. Consider the 2004 matches that were held in Detroit, the U.S. team included Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and was an embarrassment.

What’s wrong with America? Or right with Europe? Theories are as numerous as shots at the practice tee.

We’re told U.S. golfers are too individualistic to care about team play. We’re told the Euros come from more humble backgrounds and that winning the Cup means more to them — and their countries.

For sure they celebrate the success loudly and boisterously, the musical lyrics, “Ole, ole ole,” resounding from their team rooms and from their fans.

It isn’t the 49ers vs. the Cowboys or the Yankees against the Red Sox. It’s them against us — or more specifically against the U.S.

And fans are incorrigible. Yes, the Olympics involve more nations in more sports. But in the Ryder Cup, the fans are pinching in close.

“It’s one-sided,” Fred Couples, a former Ryder Cupper, told Golf Channel. “You can feel them breathing down the back of your necks. They‘re waiting for you to screw up.”

Lanny Wadkins played his college golf at Wake Forest, which despite numerous stars never won a team championship. “I guess we didn’t pass the ball around enough,” he said with more than a bit of sarcasm.

In the Ryder Cup, what the American team needs to pass is the test. It has to start quickly — the first-day leader is the inevitable champion — and start well.   

And finally, stop losing a Ryder Cup match in Europe.

Niners up against expectations — theirs and ours

Sure it could have been better. But that shows what the 49ers are up against, their own expectations as well as ours. And, oh yes, the opposing team.

Which Thursday evening in the haze and mirth of Levi’s Stadium was the New York Giants, who were, dare we say, resilient and for a few moments effective.

But they never really had a chance of winning, meaning the Niners, now 3-0 and getting things together if perhaps a trifle slow, never had a chance of losing.

In the end, it was San Francisco, 30-12, and a Sunday after a breather they’ll be 4-0 because next on the list is the semi-hopeless Arizona Cardinals, who several days ago couldn’t even hold a large lead over the Giants.

True, there are upsets in the NFL — that  “any given Sunday concept” —  but no way were the Cardinals going to win at Levi’s. So there you have it, Niners against the Cowboys for the autumn version of the annual NFC title game.

Getting ahead of ourselves? Why not, in the NFC, and maybe the entire NFL the Cowboys, who overwhelmed the very same Giants 40-0 two weeks ago, and the Niners, are both the class and power of pro football. 

Niner quarterback Brock Purdy wasn’t perfect in the game. 

“He missed on a few throws early,” conceded head coach Kyle Shanahan. 

However, Purdy is perfect in regular season games as a starter, 13-0.

Defense won the game for San Francisco, as it usually does. The Niners had the ball 39 minutes out of the allotted 60. Small wonder then the Niners outgained New York, 441 yards to 150.

That’s not competition, that’s a joke.

Yes, D is what makes the Niners go, or more correctly keep the other team from going. But Thursday San Francisco offered plenty of offense. Deebo Samuel was running and catching along with Christian McCaffrey

On the telecast Al Michaels, recalling the line probably first used by the late John Madden about the Team of the ‘80s, Niners champions, told us “Too many weapons.”

Not that the weapons couldn’t be silenced. Three times San Francisco had a drive finish with a field goal by Jake Moody.

Thursday NFL football is on the NFL Network, and with Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit doing their best to keep us attentive there was a prehistoric video of Madden using the Telestrator for the first time.

Electronics have become a massive part of pro football. However, they can’t compete with winning.  Ask the 49ers.

Fortinet: The win Theegala won’t forget

NAPA — It wasn’t going to get away this time from Sahith Theegala. No bad bounce into the water. No story on how he had delighted the fans — not that he hadn’t.

This time, Theegala would start with a hug from his girlfriend. This time he would grab his first victory as a PGA Tour pro, winning in the sunshine amid vineyards of the Napa Valley. Cheers.

Theegala shot a final-round 68 at Silverado Resort’s north course, coming in with a 21-under total and a two-shot advantage over S.H. Kim. Cam Davis was another two back in the third.

Theegala was born and raised in Southern California and was a graduate of Pepperdine. He’s of Indian descent, which matters to the residents of India, but has nothing to do with his game.

Two years ago, a rookie, Theegala missed a playoff for the WM Phoenix Open, when a ball bounced into the water on the 17th hole. That tournament turned out to be the first victory for Scottie Scheffler. Now, Thegalla gets his first.

It seemed inevitable, certainly. The gala already had been in the Masters where this past April he made the cut. At this Fortinet, it was an issue of making sure.

“It’s funny you mention that,” he said about coming so close to Phoenix. “I vividly remember making birdie at Waste Management (Phoenix) thinking I’ve got a couple of holes coming up and I’ve just got to hold in there and stay around the lead. It was nice to be able to draw back on that. I was so much calmer today. At Waste I was kind of thrown in with all the top guys in the world. This week was a  much calmer and chiller atmosphere, and I think that helped.’”

Theegala, as you might imagine, is wildly popular among the large California population of those of Indian descent. His fans were plentiful and boisterous at the Fortinet.

“To be able to share such a, I don’t want to say once-in-a-lifetime moment, but it really is a once-in-a-lifetime moment, you only win once and you never even know if you’re going to win, right? So to be able to share this moment with all of them is really special and something that I’ll never forget.”

At Fortinet, age is no problem for Kuchar

NAPA — No, as we’re told when unexpectedly some veteran pro shows up on a tournament leaderboard, the golf ball doesn’t know how old you are.

But we know how old Matt Kuchar is, 45, figuratively ancient in sport. On the other hand, the second-round leader of the Fortinet Championship, Sahith Theegala, is 27.

Theegala was born in 1997, the year Kuchar won the U.S. Amateur.

Now it’s 2023, and with only one scheduled round remaining in the Fortinet Championship, the first event of the season, Theegala, following a 5-under par 67, on Saturday, is in front at 17-under.

Cam Davis who is 28 (and won the 2022 British Open), Justin Thomas who is 30 (and won two PGA Championships), and S.H. Kim who is 25, are all tied for second two behind.

Next, another stroke back, is Kuchar, reveling in the moment. “I love playing,” said Kuchar. “I love having a chance to compete. Being out here at Silverado, a fantastic resort, a fantastic golf course; this is one that regardless of where it is on the schedule, I’m likely to find myself here.”

And so he is and we have found him here. Older golfers don’t retire. They just keep replacing their divots. No linebacker is going to knock them down. If they can stand up to what is on the scorecard, they seem very content.

Obviously, Kuchar is. He missed winning a major a couple of times, finishing in a tie for third in the 2012 Masters. He also made a great run in the 2017 British Open, stumbling when he got into a dispute about whether playing partner Jordan Spieth got a surprisingly favorable ruling after a tee shot into the rough.

Kuchar is perhaps best recalled as the man whose compensation for his caddie after Matt winning the 2018 Mayakoba Classic, was a cause for controversy.

The relatively low amount Kuchar paid, although agreed upon before the tournament, was so mocked on social media that Kuchar finally had to up the payment.

Kuchar has overcome what he said was a misunderstanding. Whether he can overcome a deficit of several strokes in the Fortinet is now the issue.

Theegala, starting his third year on tour after winning college honors at Pepperdine, is seeking his first win on Tour.

He began and closed Saturday with a lead, which is not unimpressive with people such as Davis and Thomas, major champions, chasing him.

“The big key for me is just try to keep it in the fairway, which I haven’t done a great job the last three days and I feel like I’m just scrambling my butt off a little bit, which feels like a good thing because I feel like if I’m in the fairway, it almost feels like a bonus.”

“My main thing that I’m kind of focusing on was just making progress and I felt like I made progress again throughout the year,” Theegala said. “Yeah, I think I learned just as much from not being in contention as being in contention.”

He is very much in contention at the Fortinet, as is Matt Kuchar.

For Theegala, strange question but great golf

NAPA — The question wasn’t what, say, Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy would’ve been asked. It also seemed to have Sahith Theegala, the third-year PGA Tour pro, as distressed as it did perplexed.

Here was Theegala Friday after moving into a share of the halfway lead in the season’s opening event, the Fortinet, and one reporter asks, “Why are you playing this week?”

Yes, you read that correctly. After a headshake, Theegala responded diplomatically.

“Yeah,” said Theegala, “I actually don’t think that’s a great question.”

Especially after a great round, an 8-under 64 at Silverado which put Theegala at 12-under for 36 holes and tied for the lead with S.H. Kim. 

Sheepishly, the reporter restructured his previous query and wondered: “Is it a decent question?”

Theegala, now accepting the repartee, said, “I’d put it in the lower tier.”

As opposed to the golfer who has been in the upper tier basically since his prep days in Southern California. An All-America at Pepperdine, Theegala has been competitive from the start as a pro and was a hot shot out of the playoffs in the Waste Management Phoenix Open in 2022, his rookie season.

But he’s yet to finish first, and failed to qualify for the most recent Tour Championship, giving him unwanted time off and probably the reason he was unable to laugh away the question of why he was entered in the Fortinet. 

He was entered because as a golfer he wants to play golf. He definitely played it Friday with an eagle, seven birdies, and only one bogey. 

“It was a really good round,” was his understatement.

As reminded, Silverado isn’t a course for major championships. It was created with 18 holes by Johnny Dawson in the 1950s, then expanded and improved to two 18s by Robert Trent Jones II in the 1960s. Still, it’s where there’s enough water and out-of-bounds holes to cause trouble if a golfer is botching shots.

Set amongst vineyards in the Napa Valley, Silverado can be rewarding if a golfer keeps the ball online and off the tee and Theegala did exactly that on Friday.

“I was off to a good start,” he said. “Birdied all the par-fives. I started on the back nine. You kind of ease into the round versus starting on a couple of hard holes out of the gate.”

“I really like the course, it’s just good vibes. I think I’ve said a lot in the last couple of years. If I could get my tee shots in play and get my tee shots under control, I feel good about the rest of my game and I did that today.”

With two rounds remaining, and people such as Kim, Justin Thomas, and back-to-back Fortinet winner Max Homa very much in the picture, the only question to be asked now of Theegala is whether he can win.

Away from golf, Herbert found himself — and maybe his game

NAPA — So you’re a broker or a butcher or whatever and feel you need a break, maybe a day on the links to refresh. But how do you escape if you earn your pay as a touring professional golfer?

If you’re Lucas Herbert, instead of throwing caution to the winds you figuratively throw your clubs in the closet, put away your pitching wedge, and pick up a guitar.

And in the process pick up your spirits.

“Yeah, golf’s been getting me down,” said Herbert. “I missed the cut in the (British) Open Championship and then I didn’t want to think about golf, talk about golf. It was a tough stretch. I had a lot going on, in my life and on the course.”

What went on Thursday at the Fortinet Championship at Silverado when both Herbert and the PGA Tour returned after their respective breaks, Herbert’s a couple of months and the Tour a couple of weeks, was exciting. Particularly for Herbert, the 27-year-old from Australia.

He took the first-round lead, a 9-under par 63, which was two shots lower than S.H Kim. Max Homa, the Cal guy who’s won the Fortinet the past two years, was at 70.

If some of those scores seem fanciful, well Silverado where there have been Tour events since the 1960s, while a fine country club layout, isn’t Augusta National or Royal Liverpool. The latter, also known as Hoylake, is where a frustrated Herbert played his last round prior to Thursday.

He actually was doing decently there in the first 16 holes. But on the remodeled par-3, the 17th, Herbert couldn’t get out of a bunker. He lost a ton of strokes, taking a triple-bogey, and his cool. Right then, his shoes in the sand, Herbert knew enough was enough.

“I went and spent some time around people where I wasn't the main focus of everyone's life for the day,” Herbert explained. “I was able to go and be a part of other people's lives, which is something we don't get to do as golfers. I feel like coming here this week I was ready to play again.”

His game reflected that idea. He had six birdies in succession, 12 through 17 which enabled him to shoot 33-30. He came in with 10 birdies and a bogey, that on the par-4 sixth.

Herbert said he wasn’t thinking about a score, just trying to build momentum, going for the pin, knocking in the putt, and recalling how enjoyable golf can be when everything is going well. Which it wasn’t in July.

“I didn’t think it was much when I came back, very low. The break was a chance for me to reset. I think I’d become a bitter and spiteful person. I didn’t like that version of myself, I look back at the Open Championship. I was wound up pretty tight and lashed out at people. I feel now I can be a better person.”

After a 9-under par return, he must believe he could similarly be a better golfer.

At Fortinet, Justin Thomas seeking what he had

NAPA — Such a simple game, golf. A ball sitting there on the tee or the fairway that you keep hitting in the right direction. Until inexplicably it goes in the wrong direction. 

Like the career of Justin Thomas.

It isn’t baseball, where a pitcher keeps you off balance. Or football where an opponent may knock you off balance. 

But golf certainly can throw you off balance. Even if you’ve twice finished first in the PGA Championship, one of the majors, as Thomas has.

Now as the PGA Tour has its annual restart with the Fortinet Championship at Silverado, Thomas is looking for a personal restart. He had, well, a very bad year.

For a while, he was 71st on the money list. He missed the cut in three of the four majors. He had to sweat out being chosen as a captain’s pick — “like trying to call an ex-girlfriend” — for the Ryder Cup (He was selected).

You’re trying to figure out yourself while at the same time, others are trying to figure you out. And maybe at the same time they are worried it could happen to them.

But at age 29, Thomas, the son and grandson of golf pros, appears to have conquered his demons, if not specifically the cures to what ails him.

When the great Ben Hogan was asked by other players how to improve he had a terse answer: “It’s in the dirt.”

Meaning, just hit practice shot after practice shot, until there were divots from the repetitive digging into the grass and get turf. Thomas plans to continue his digging, literally and as a byproduct, emotionally until he’s content with signs of progress.

”Anytime you’re going forward,” said Thomas, “or moving forward — I don’t want to say moving on — but grow and get better I’m excited. I definitely am hard on myself but I kind of reminded some of the stuff Max Homa said.”

Homa, who’s going for a third consecutive Fortinet title pointed out he and the other golfers knew well Thomas was far too superior to languish so far down in the Tour rankings, even briefly.

Thomas has been both defending and explaining himself on social media, the outlet of choice for the 20 and 30 somethings. He has split with former putting coach John Graham. 

“Everything, fundamentally or mechanically, or on the putting green was as good as it could get. Basically what I told (Graham) is you can’t go out and make the putts for me. That’s something only I can do.” 

Whether he accomplishes the task might be evident at the Fortinet. Silverado’s greens can be difficult. 

“I’ve been practicing getting the ball in the hole,” said Thomas. “I don’t care how it looked. All that mattered was getting the ball in the hole.”  

And along with that getting his game out of the hole. As we’ve been told forever, in golf “it ain’t how it’s how many.”

At Silverado, the Tour starts 'twenty-fore'

NAPA — It never ends, does it? So many games. So many tournaments. So many championships. So little time to turn off the TV set, to put down the sports pages, to look back instead of always looking forward.

Sunday they held the finals of the U.S. Tennis Open. Monday there was a women’s tournament in San Diego. And now once more after a break just long enough for the players to get their spikes replaced, golf has returned.

To Silverado Country Club in the Napa Valley, where the Fortinet Championship begins Thursday. It’s the first event on the 2024 PGA Tour schedule, but compared to golf the Gregorian calendar doesn’t have a chance.

No, the field doesn’t exactly match that of the Masters, but as you’ve heard virtually everybody can make birdies.  

Besides, this is a Ryder Cup year, the international competition in a short time in Rome. Two men entered here, Justin Thomas and back-to-back Silverado winner Max Homa are competing for the American team — while two others playing here, Zach Johnson and Stewart Cink, are coaches of the American team.

Golf and tennis, true, are a bit different than some of the other sports. Brad Gilbert is a tennis commentator for ESPN — and then doubles as a coach of Coco Gauff, who won the Tennis Open.

Zach Johnson will be out here at the Fortinet trying to outscore the guys he’ll then choose for the Ryder lineup.

Maybe if U.S. coach Steve Kerr had been allowed to get on the floor as well as behind the bench as a coach then U.S. team might have ended up better than fourth in the FIBA basketball tournament.

For sure, Steph Curry, who said he wants to play on the 2024 U.S. Olympic basketball team in Paris, can play golf. Not too long ago he teamed with Phil Mickelson to win the pro-am at Silverado.

The men and women in charge of US teams love competitors no matter the game or the event.

What Johnson and Cink, one of the assistant captains, hope to learn by mixing it up with Thomas and Johnson in something more than a practice round is whether the preparations are at a high level for the Cup.

The U.S. won two years ago in Wisconsin, which was huge, but it hasn’t won in Europe in 30 years.

Asked if there is a value in preparing like this, Johnson said “I don’t think it is ever bad to go compete. That’s what we are designed to do, that’s where we’re wired.”

“I’m not going to put a ton of merit into — I guess I’m just thinking about myself — on how I play. Granted, I’m not playing in two weeks, but for me, it’s just kind of a fun week to go see what I’m at and get ready for October, November.”

Right now it is September, and there is a new start. The long year is underway.

Niners opener good reason for optimism

Caution is recommended. True, any game that leaves us wondering whether the 49er offense might be as good as the defense — arguably the best in football — would have the Faithful overly optimistic.  

Yet one game is not a season’s make. Even an opening game by a San Francisco franchise that a year earlier began with a thud.

We are reminded often that in sports it isn’t how you start but how (and where) you finish. Still, after falling a couple of games short of the only game that means anything to us spoiled citizens in NorCal, the Super Bowl, a proper beginning is not unappreciated.

And in overwhelming the Pittsburgh Steelers, 30-7, Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, the Niners opened not only properly but impressively. These Steelers are hardly reminiscent of those great “win one for the thumb”  teams of the ‘80s. However, some people were looking for an upset.

What we had was a mismatch. The Niners controlled the ball so much in the first half, 22 minutes of the possible 30, and it had the weary SF players looking for a breather.

“At one point,” said veteran offensive tackle Trent Williams, “you just kind of wanted (the Steelers) to get a first down. There were all those three-and-outs and we kind of needed a break.”

What they got presumably was a chewing out from longtime head coach Mike Tomlin.

While Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan was less displeased he, of course, found fault with San Francisco needing to settle for field goals five times in the first half along with two touchdowns. 

Asked what he thought of his team’s first half,  “The first 28 minutes were good,” said Shanahan. “The last two minutes were really bad.”

So many factors in this one. Nick Bosa, having become the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history( $170 million) played a ton. His stats weren’t awesome, two tackles and a hit but without a doubt, his presence made the other defensive linemen even more formidable. Like Drake Jason who had two sacks.

Running back Christian McCaffrey, a midseason acquisition last year, had 152 yards and a touchdown. He also caught 3 passes for 17 yards. Brandon Aiyuk, who had 8 catches for 129 yards and two touchdowns, seems to have become the receiver the Niners have been seeking. He also can block, helping spring McCaffrey free on one run.

And no less significantly was Brock Purdy, again the quarterback after injury and months-long rehab of his right elbow. In Shanahan’s disciplined offense, Purdy was 19 of 29 for 220 yards and two touchdowns.

A running attack, a passing attack and that strong defense. That’s balance and cause for belief. And for some, boastfulness.

 “I mean, we’re the baddest guys on the planet, and that’s our mindset, honestly,” said safety Tahsaun Gipson, speaking of the 49ers’ defense. “Not to be cocky or disrespectful. So tip our hat off to (the Steelers). Their offense has a lot of great young core guys. They’re going to be good for years to come. It’s just that the 49ers defense is a different brand of football. … And our offense is just — I would hate to play our offense, man.”

Said Bosa: “We just have so many players. It’s fun to watch Aiyuk do his thing. And Purdy shut some haters up. It’s nice to be on a really good team.”

How good will be decided when more than one game has been played, not that the one game didn’t get people excited.

Gilbert shares in Coco’s victory

So that young lady standing next to Brad Gilbert’s daughter, Zoe, in the photo Gilbert posted, happens to have won the U.S. Open women’s tennis championship, Coco Gauff. 

Neither Zoe nor Gilbert hit a shot Saturday at Flushing Meadows during the tournament, but you understand they were heavily involved in Gauff hitting the jackpot. 

Gilbert joined Gauff’s entourage a few days ago to provide advice, which in any sport — particularly one involving head-to-head competition — can be advantageous.

At 19, remarkably quick, and wonderfully perceptive, Gauff seemed to have everything needed to be one of the greats, except experience. 

Which is where Gilbert came in.

Maybe Gauff rallies to defeat Aryna Sabalenka, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the final if she and her family had never decided to connect with Gilbert. Then again, maybe she doesn’t.

Gilbert, who grew up in the East Bay community of Piedmont, was effective and wise enough as a player to make the quarters finals at both the U.S. Open and Wimbledon. But his fame is not so much for what he did but for what he wouldn’t allow his opponents to do. As emphasized in his book, “Winning Ugly,” it was the mind game where he excelled. 

Don’t get flustered because the guy — or woman — across the net is serving aces. Stay patient. Capitalize on an opponent’s weakness. The tactics helped make Andre Agassi a winner again after he (and his game) hit bottom, and it surely assisted Gauff.

The match on Saturday began all wrong for Gauff, who lost her serve in the first game. The normal boisterous crowd of more than 27,000 at Arthur Ashe Stadium, 99 percent of which was hooting and hollering for Gauff, sensed trouble.

But up in the ESPN broadcast the vibe seemed more positive.

Sabalenka had won the Australian Open, and she hit with decisive power. But almost as if the announcers, all former stars themselves, were flipping pages from Gilbert’s book, they mused about possibilities.

Sabalenka was due to cool off, and Gauff should be heating up. And, of course, that’s exactly what took place.

Sabalenka will climb Monday to the No. 1 position in the WTA rankings, based on season-long results, but as she stood there tearfully at the end, that hardly seemed consolation.

Gauff also cried a bit at the end, but that was as much in relief as happiness. She had been in the headlines for a couple of years now, and she’s made the top.

Not that in other ways she wasn’t already there. Coco knows there’s a world beyond the white lines. When Thursday night her semifinal against Karolina Muchova was delayed by protesters, one of whom glued his shoes to the floor of the upper deck at Ashe, Gauff at first expressed dismay but then pointed out she understood why in a free country like the United States an individual would want to take an unpopular stand.

Brad Gilbert has taken less controversial stands in the game of tennis. The results have helped create champions.

It shouldn’t end like this for Venus

It’s not supposed to end like this. But of course, too often it does. No matter how great you have been, how many records you have shattered, or how many people you have thrilled.

More than a few years ago it was Willie Mays hanging on with the New York Mets and being unable to hang on to fly balls he once turned into automatic outs.

And Joe Willie Namath, with the San Diego Chargers, so far from Broadway and so far from the quarterback who would make the cover of Sports Illustrated and make himself a legend. 

Now, it is Venus Williams, who on Tuesday in the first round of the U.S. Open was not just defeated but crushed, 6-1, 6-1. By a qualifier, no less, Greet Minnen of Belgium. 

How stunning, how terrible even if Venus can take it, soldiering on, flailing so to speak, as the rest of us can’t. We didn’t want to hear Pavarotti when his voice was gone. We don’t want to watch Venus Williams when her game is gone.

Which, sadly, it has been for a few years. 

It’s a problem as old as sports, as life really. We keep aging. And new kids keep moving in. Father Time — or if you will, Mother Time — gets the last forehand. Really the last laugh.

Through a remarkable career that started with her first pro match in Oakland, in October 1994, Venus has been careful with her words and protective of her emotions.  

Younger sister Serena might misbehave now and then, but Venus, even when losing matches, never lost control. She remained steadfast and resolute. 

Also from her comments after being routed by Minnen, she seemed somewhat in self-delusion. 

“I don’t think I played badly,” said Venus. “It was just one of those days where I was a bit unlucky.”

In winning only one game of each set? That’s not misfortune, that’s a misunderstanding. Her game has left with the years, and what might be acceptable — to us, if not Venus — is if she were competing against others her own age (not that there are any), she wouldn’t get thrashed.  

The argument against Venus giving in, not so much giving up, has been presented here at various times — a tennis player, unlike a football or basketball player, is in no particular danger as time passes.

Maybe a few more pulled muscles, but no worry about being hit by a 300-pound linebacker. Still, how will one of the all-time greats accept a match like this one?  

Her response after the defeat was typical Venus, all class, no whining, “I have to give credit to my opponent,” she said. “I mean there wasn’t a shot she couldn’t make. Even when I hit really amazing shots she hit a winner or a drop shot.”

What Venus may have hit was the bottom. Stunning. Terrible.

No present for 49ers QB of the future

So the 49ers quarterback of the future isn’t even going to have a present, and if the Faithful — as the fan base has been labeled — is distressed, how do you think the boys in the front office feel?

We’re raised on adages: You’re always one play from being a star. Or being hurt. It’s the nature of football, where one’s best plans might end up on the injured list.

It’s been two and a half years since the Niners traded three first-round picks in the 2021 NFL draft for the third overall choice. That pick would be used to choose an unfamiliar kid from North Dakota State, who we were advised had great potential.

What Trey Lance didn’t have in the few times he was on the field was the good fortune to avoid injury.

That’s the way it works in sport sometimes. Call it kismet. Call it physiology. 

After relying on good old Jimmy Garoppolo (who himself was always getting hurt) Niner management called on Sam Darnold, who was most recently cut by the New York Jets.

You know the story up to here. The boys in the Niner front office (mostly head coach Kyle Shanahan and GM John Lynch), after watching all or part of two preseason games decided that as of now, Lance wasn’t what they needed.

Unmentioned to this point is the savior from nowhere, who was the last pick in the 2022 draft, Brock Purdy, and while we blinked and gasped — and then applauded — quarterbacked the 49ers to the playoffs.

And, of course, he got injured and underwent elbow surgery.

Which is why substitutes are invaluable. Particularly at quarterback, who after numerous practices and two exhibition games turns out to be Sam Darnold. He too, as Trey Lance, was the third overall pick, in the 2018 draft.

He played for the Jets, threw beautifully, and ran effectively but there were problems with his play calling. 

Hey, he was a rookie so what do you expect?

Time and place — and health — always must be part of the package. A man who struggles on one team, in one system, may succeed on another squad with different teammates.

The speculation is the 49ers will try to trade Lance, if only to be somewhat compensated for all those No. 1s they traded to acquire him. Also perhaps to escape being reminded of what they didn’t get.

Patience is a rare commodity in pro sports. The owner, as the fans, wants to win immediately and is often forced to go with players who are ill-prepared. Newspapers and TV stations forever remind the public which coaches are on a figurative hot seat.

You receive plenty of attention in pro football.

What you never get is sympathy. When someone goes down, the cry is “Next man up.” Who in this case is Sam Darnold. As opposed to Trey Lance.

Venus keeps at it; tennis is her life

The other day the man on the Tennis Channel was talking about Venus Williams as if she were part of a traveling exhibition as opposed to the champion she’s become. You never know, he said in what seemed as much a warning as a promotion before a match about to begin in the Western and Southern tournament in Cincinnati; how much longer we’ll be able to watch Venus.

A legitimate approach one guesses, at this stage of Williams’ remarkably long and until the last couple of years, eminently successful career. As you’re well aware, tennis is an individual sport. There’s no coach or manager — or franchise owner — to put you on waivers.

You play as long as you’re able, as long as your body and your ego permit, which for Venus apparently is forever.

As long as tournaments want you in the field, and since on Wednesday Williams received a wild card for the U.S. Open in New York in a week and a half, they still do.

Yet about the same time the announcement of Williams’ gaining a place in the Open, she was losing a second-round match to Zheng Qinwen of China, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1. Losing is a generous description. She was crushed, Zheng took 11 straight games and 12 of the last 13. Venus is 43, and if she can accept defeat after years of success, maybe the rest of us should. Still, it hurts to watch the great ones in any sport get embarrassed. Venus has been at the top, and if she can handle the struggles perhaps, we ought to just grit our teeth.

There’s an emotional connection to Venus in Northern California where as a 14-year-old in October 1994 at what then was called Oakland Coliseum Arena, she had played and won her first pro match.

Younger sister Serena, who is retired, would surpass Venus and be more outspoken, but Venus had her viewpoints and her triumphs. One was in the 2005 Wimbledon final over Lindsay Davenport in three sets after saving a match point.

In what surely is ironic, Davenport was commenting for the Tennis channel on Venus Williams’ unfortunate one-sided defeat on Wednesday.

Williams kept making unforced errors against Zheng, who is 24th in the WTA rankings. Venus, not surprisingly, is far down, a victory last week for the first time in months. 

We do what we choose. Tennis is Venus’ life and has been. Not a bad one, either. Although these days it could be much, much better.

Niners' Shanahan: ‘Didn’t enjoy game by any means’

“It’s not all about the quarterback,” said Greg Papa, who after his years previously as the Raiders announcer and now the 49ers announcer, well knows, that it is indeed always about the quarterback, especially in San Francisco.

Where from Frankie Albert to John Brodie through Joe Montana and Steve Young, it’s been about the man who takes the snaps and the criticism. As was the case Sunday when the Niners played their first preseason (exhibition) game of 2023 to find a backup for Brock Purdy, who as promised pre-game, didn’t play a down Sunday against the Raiders in Las Vegas (sadly now the home of the Oakland Raiders as it seemingly will be of the Oakland Athletics as well).

If you care about the score, that’s your problem. 

The Raiders won, 34-7, and although the result means little in the grand scheme of things, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said, “I didn’t enjoy the game by any means.”

Not that there wasn’t some value for Shanahan and the Niners, who now understand (as if they didn’t before) the importance of the quarterback, primarily Trey Lance, to unload the ball before the D-line unloads on him.

As a point of information, the late John Madden, when he coached the Raiders, said if a preseason game was one-sided, he wanted to be the loser, the better to get his team’s attention in practice. 

Lance, who started, was sacked four times for 18 yards, the main reason the Niners didn’t get a first down until the second quarter.

“Trey held the ball too long,” affirmed Shanahan. Perhaps because even if he was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 draft, he’s barely played, losing the position because of injuries, which enabled first Jimmy Garoppolo, then Purdy to take over.

During the off-season, the Niners signed another first-round QB, Sam Darnold, who as Lance, was a third overall pick by the Jets who kept him until he was booed out of New York, not unusual for any Jets quarterback not named Joe Namath.

Darnold played the second half and after completing his first four pass attempts, finished 5 of 8. He wasn’t sacked once, but situations and lineups change later in play. It also may change after a few weeks and before the regular season begins. 

Is this the way the Niners view their QBs? Will the rotation be Purdy, Lance, and Darnold? Or will Lance or Darnold be waived or traded? And since he’s returning from that season-closing elbow injury, will Purdy be healthy enough to regain his place?

“We’re always hard on quarterbacks,” reminded Shanahan. 

Then, when it appeared he would gripe about what had happened — or considering the lack of offense, what hadn’t — Shanahan softened his attitude. Lance was being protected, in a manner by an O-line lacking numerous starters.

He paid the price for backups playing their roles. Then again, he paid the price of a sub not being completely comfortable with moving up to the level demanded.

It’s not all about the quarterback until it has to be.

For underpaid A’s, satisfaction is a sweep of Giants

There was something appropriate, if not ironic, that Brandon Crawford, who grew up in the East Bay, and plays for San Francisco, made the final out in what almost certainly will be the final game in Oakland between the Athletics and the Giants.

The result was almost insignificant. Almost.

The A’s, seemingly the worst team in the majors (at least they have the worst record by far), beat the Giants on Sunday, 8-6, to sweep the two-game series.

Sure, the Giants are attempting to retain their lead in the National League Wild Card standings, so any loss, to the A’s or any other franchise, is damaging. But we’re dealing with the big picture here, the one from which the A’s will be eradicated — or moved to Las Vegas. As if there is any difference.

That the A’s drew some 27,000 fans Sunday to the very maligned Coliseum after more than 37,000 Saturday, continues the idea the A’s should not be dragged away to Nevada or anywhere else.

Yet, the individual who owns the team — dare we refer to him as a gentleman? — is determined to upend the status quo, and because, for the most part, he’ll be universally supported, is destined to get his way — and get the money.

Sometime long-ago sport was called the “opera of the poor.” That was when tickets to say, “Rigoletto,” were expensive and those seats in the bleachers could be purchased on a working person’s salary. But as we know too well, nowadays the price of court-side locations at Lakers and Warriors games, for a start, requires a large withdrawal from the bank.

That said, the loyal patrons who are willing to buy, e.g. those remarkably determined A’s fans, deserve something more than to have their favorite team hauled off to a location where the locker rooms are marble and the field is sprinkled with sequins of gold.

Not that the highbrows involved in the academic side of festivities are much different. The appearance of the A’s this past weekend was timed unfortunately with what has become the complete disruption of intercollegiate athletics. What used to be the Pac-12, which billed itself as the “Conference of Champions” has been, well, destroyed. 

Yes, for money.

And does this have any connection to the Lakers giving Anthony Davis a contract extension worth $186 million? Indeed it does. True, it’s another sport, but dollars are dollars, and that figure alone is about double the Oakland A’s annual payroll.

It’s a different world, one sadly that probably will be filled with slot machines and croupiers for the A’s. All their fans can do is find satisfaction that their team won what looks like their final game in Oakland against the Giants.

At the Open Harman takes his major step

HOYLAKE, England — The champion golfer of the year. That’s the historical and wonderful phrase used annually to introduce the winner of the Open Championship, a phrase both of exclusivity — as if no other event matters — and confirmation.

That’s the phrase Martin Slumbers, secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, called out for Brian Harman.

Not that anyone should be surprised after the last two days when he stormed into a lead any sporting realist would have agreed was insurmountable.

Ahead by — dare we say — a whopping 5 shots before a final round at Royal Liverpool that would offer constant (and occasionally heavy) rain but no drama even when briefly at the fifth hole the margin was reduced to three shots.

By the time the 151st Open came to the soggy end, Harman shooting a 1-under 70 for a 72-hole score of 13-under 271, was six shots clear from a group that changed as often as the leader didn’t. Second place at 277 was shared by Tom Kim, Sepp Straka, Jason Day and the man who shot 63 Saturday (and won the Masters in April) Jon Rahm. Predictions were that Rory McIlroy, who won the Open here in 2014 and took the Scottish Open a week ago, would come in first. However, he putted poorly and was sixth.

It is a media belief a major is not a major — especially from a television standpoint — without marquee players such as McIlroy in the mix. The 36-year-old Harman hadn’t won a Tour event since 2017. He did lead the 2017 U.S. Open, but he hardly could be called a star. In fact, the non-golf crowd, despite the spelling of their names, would confuse him with Butch Harmon, who worked with various pros including Tiger Woods.

No more. If Harman isn’t marquee, he’s at the top of the heap in his profession. Bobby Jones won the Open. Ben Hogan won the Open. Arnold Palmer won the Open. Jack Nicklaus won the Open. Now 5-foot-7 Brian Harman has won the Open.

In the second round Harman, contrary to the spirit of golf, was heckled by a few boisterous spectators who presumingly were trying to improve the chances of local favorite Tommy Fleetwood. Harman shrugged this off. He knows now. All Sunday the crowd was universally cheering.  

”I’ve always had a self-belief that I could do something like this,” said Harman. “It’s just when it takes so much time it’s hard not to let your mind falter, like maybe I’m not winning again. I’m 36 years old. The game is getting younger.  All these young guys coming out, hit it a mile, and they’re all ready to win. Like when is it going to be my turn again?”

He knows now. We all know. The man who wasn’t marquee is a major champion.

Harman has Open lead — and distance to go

HOYLAKE, England — The problem in any sport, particularly golf, where you have no control of your opponents, and often little control of yourself, is to make presumptions. 

It’s a game where a three-stroke lead can be snatched away even before you get to the first tee, a game where it’s as much a danger of planning too far as remembering the past.

At the halfway mark of this 2023 British Open, a somewhat famous guy named Brian Harman has what could be called a comfortable lead.

Harman in Friday’s second round shot a 6-under 65. That gave him a 36-hole score of 10-under 132, a record low for Opens at Royal Liverpool, where the last two champions were Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.

It also gave him a five-shot lead over local hero Tommy Fleetwood, who had a semi-disappointing 71. That’s even par, or as they choose to say in Britain, level par.

But as delighted — a word he used — by a round highlighted and enhanced by an eagle on the par-five finishing hole, he knows so many things can happen.

And in a career prior to his hot-shot days in high school and the University of Georgia, not infrequently had happened to him.

Harman, 36, does have four wins on tour, but he also has a lost loss after carrying a one-shot lead into the fourth round of the 2017 U.S. Open.

“I have a very active mind,’ said Harman, asked about getting ahead of myself. “It's hard for me — I've always struggled with trying to predict the future and trying to forecast what's going to happen. I've just tried to get really comfortable just not knowing.”

Despite the ignorance-is-bliss attitude, Harman has to know at this 151st edition of the oldest of all championships, major or minor, he’ll never be in a better position to take a trophy — or at the Open, the claret jug.

Still 36 holes — and bewildering possibilities like Jordan Spieth shanking a ball out of the high grass on Thursday — remain in the way.

As others from the States, Harman needed to adjust to links golf after struggling his first several appearances at the Open, when he missed the cut.

“Now I like links golf,” he said. “I like the challenges, the strategies.”

He also likes the way he played.

For Fleetwood, Open is a home game

HOYLAKE, England — Tommy Fleetwood is there again, here again, closing in once more on the major championship he has come so close to winning.

Not that in today’s world close is anything other than another word for frustration.

The Open, the 151st British Open, the tournament Fleetwood, a Britisher, an Englishman, most wants. The tournament his country most wants him to win.

This is Beatles territory Twist and Shout. This is Tommy Fleetwood territory. 

He was born and raised in Southport, 21 miles north of Liverpool. It’s the site of an enormous amusement park, a downscale Disneyland. It’s also the site of a great links course with Royal Birkdale, where a kid named Tommy Fleetwood would sneak into when the opportunity arose and would play as many holes as possible until chased off the course.

Fleetwood no longer has to sneak on any course. Or sneak up on the competition.

Want to know how much Fleetwood progressed? Study the first-day leaderboard. There, tied for first with scores of 5-under 66 at Royal Liverpool are Emiliano Grillo, Christo Lambrecht and Tommy Fleetwood.

Grillo, who is from Argentina, qualified for the Tour and won his first start at Silverado in the Frys Open in 2015. Lambrecht is a 23-year-old South African who plays for Georgia Tech — and won the British Amateur a few weeks ago at Hillside, up the road from Birkdale.

Fleetwood is 32 and not so much favored as hoped for, to be the first Englishman to win the Open since Nick Faldo in 1992.

When Fleetwood merely walked to the first tee, the crowd cheered as it would for one-time Premier League winner Liverpool. Or should we say Everton, which is the team Fleetwood has long supported.

“Yeah, it was so cool,” said Fleetwood. “They were so great to me today.”

He even spoke of performing in Goodison Stadium, Everton’s home park.

“I would love to play Goodison. I would love to give that a go. But yeah, they were great, from the first tee onwards, throughout the round, the way they were down the last hole there, the reception I got.”

Lambrecht also got his own rounds of cheering. At 6-foot-8, he is believed to be the tallest of anybody who has ever played in the Open. The Daily Telegraph called him “a giant.”

That would be a figure of speech. As far as we know, he never played baseball in San Francisco.

For Tiger before the Open, apologies and memories

HOYLAKE, England — For the guests, it was a time for memories. For the man speaking, Tiger Woods, it was a time for appreciation, along with those memories.

A return to Royal Liverpool Golf Club, where 17 years ago, in 2006, Woods made his presence felt by again winning the Open Championship-the British Open.

And where Tuesday night in a video presentation, Tiger spun back the years, offering thanks and even a few apologies to journalists he had offended in his abrasive say of unequaled success.

Which made some sense because he was receiving an award from the Association of Golf Writers for Outstanding Services to Golf.

Like what wonders one cynic, winning 83 tournaments?

Sorry, Tiger or videos are always welcome everywhere in the sport that he very much helped make popular in the extreme.

We kept hearing there would be another Tiger. But as he approaches his 48th birthday and continues to recover from that rollover crash of March 2021, we realize he was one of a kind. 

Not a Unicorn, a Tiger.

The Golf Channel, the internet sites and newspaper headlines offer a wide variety of those who would fit the description of a star with Rory McIlroy, Bruce Koepka, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler — each of whom is in the 151st Open, starting Thursday — and each of whom has won no less than one major.

Yet when the Open comes back to Royal Liverpool, the thoughts inevitably turn in Tiger’s direction. How a month after the death of his father, Earl, he plotted and played his way to a championship, and figured the way to win was to not lose.

It’s almost hard to imagine it this week, with storms forecast, but the summer of ’06 was hot and dry. The course was brown, not green, and the fairways were fast.

Tiger, battling Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Chris DiMarco, was adept rather than aggressive, using his driver off the tee only once, missing the fairway on the par-5 16th hole in the first round but still making the birdie. The idea was to stay out of the many, huge bunkers, and Woods did that to perfection. Not once in 72 holes did Tiger need to hit a ball from the sand.

He closed with a 67 to end up two strokes ahead of DiMarco, with Els in third. Tiger, also winning in 2005 at St. Andrews, became the first back-to-back Open winner since Tom Watson in 1982-83.

With the passing of his father, who had been his mentor, on his mind during the competition, Woods later called the Open the most difficult event mentally he ever had played.

After the last putt fell, so did tears.

The Open: Rain and Rory?

HOYLAKE, England — The Open, two magic words. They stand alone, without the designation, “British,” but with decades of history and memories of bad weather and enthralling golf.

We’re at Royal Liverpool, across the River Mersey from the city where the Beatles started so many years ago. Recent generations probably don’t know Penny Lane from Abbey Road — but probably do know the past two winners here were Tiger Woods (2006) and Rory McIlroy (2014).

Tiger will be absent from the 2023 Open, which begins Thursday, but Rory is not only present and accounted for, but after a bang-bang ending to win last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, certainly is among the favorites.

Mcllroy won the 2014 Open at Royal Liverpool, a course also known as Hoylake, the town across the River Mersey where it is located. So yes, he knows the place, American pros and he knows open weather — which can be anything any minute. 

There was a steady rain Tuesday morning, but that didn’t keep any of the golfers from getting in their shots. There’s something captivating about these famous, talented pros standing in a bunker hitting practice shots during a downpour.

Good weather, which Hoylake had in 2006 when Tiger used a driver off the tee only once and never hit out of the sand.

American pros in particular seem to enjoy poor conditions here at least, if not in the States. It’s part of the appeal, sort of. Hey, who says we’re softies? 

During one Open at Royal St. Georges down on the English Channel, Phil Mickelson kept saying he wanted rain and wind if only to show that he, a southern Californian, was as tough as anyone anywhere. He never got the chance, but a few years later at Muirfield in Scotland, where the days ranged from nice to nasty, Mickelson got his Open win.

Basically, when you cross the Atlantic, you take on the whims and wildness of ol’ Ma Nature, who can turn a 300-yard hole into an unreachable par-5 or turn a seemingly easy hole into a disaster.

McIlroy, now 34, grew up playing in that stuff in Northern Ireland. He understands the days are not all sunny and bright, but he also understands how to win Opens. He has four of them, including in 2014 at Royal Liverpool.

That is part of the reason he’s a tournament pick, along with people such as Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler.

“I think regardless of whether I won or not,” said McIlroy, referring to the victory a few days ago. “I would have come in here confident with the way I've played overhand the last sort of month and a half.”

“My game feels like it's in good shape, but I think seeing the way I played last week and being able to control my ball in pretty difficult conditions… and I feel good about that coming into this week.”

OK, but keep that rain jacket handy.