In a timeless sport, Rory time may be running out at Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. — First a pro football reference. Dan Marino was only 23, in his second season of pro football, when the Miami Dolphins were defeated in Super Bowl XIX by the 49ers. Don’t despair, people told him, you’ll be there again.

He never returned.

Now a turn, at a figurative Amen Corner, of course, to another disappointed athlete. Rory McIlroy was only 22 and in his fifth year as a touring golfer when he blew an eight-shot lead in the 2012 Masters. Don’t despair was the advice. You’ll be there again.

He never has been.     

Twelve years later, McIlroy remains haunted by the failure. The tournament remains the only one of the four majors McIlroy hasn’t won, the piece keeping from gaining a career Grand. He’s made runs, but it’s incomparable to McIlroy, a successful career forever will lack the ultimate closure selection in other games, but age cannot be discounted.

Jack Nicklaus won the Masters at age 46, and Phil Mickelson won the PGA Round Championship at 50.

Still, as you grow older the people you have to beat keep getting younger. And more talented and prepared. Nick Dunlap is your appropriate example. At the start of January, he still was at the University of Alabama. He stunningly won the American Express tournament in the California desert and qualified for the Masters. Oh yes, he turned pro.     

McIlroy’s path was not that different. He left the amateur ranks, and in a relatively short period — the keyword is relatively — won the Open Championship, the U.S. Open-stomping famed Congressional Country Club and the PGA Championship. What’s next? The agony of Augusta, which included a drive so wild it ricocheted off one of those tidy, white-painted buildings known as cabins.

Yet if every following Masters brings memories, it also brings possibilities. Yes, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler are the betting choices, but Rory might be labeled the shoulda-coulda-oh-drat-all selection. Sometimes that sort of irreverence works as well as a long putt on those huge Augusta greens. 

McIlroy has done well heading into the Masters, which is no guarantee of anything, but sometimes those fickle golfing gods are sympathetic. Hey, Rory is idolized from Northern Ireland to Southern California.

“This is my 16th start in the Masters,” he said, “so I feel like I’ve done it quite a few different ways, and I guess just trying to bring a little bit of normalcy into what I sort of try to do week in, week out. I play 25 weeks a year, and there’s no point in doing anything different this week compared to other weeks, I guess.”

Actually, there is, winning the Masters.

Fifty-seven years of Masters cheers and tears

AUGUSTA, Ga. — A tradition unlike any other. Jim Nantz’s brief phrase about the annual first major golf championship has been parodied and mocked, but it lives on. For good reason.

Indeed there is nothing quite like the Masters, which has become a rite as much as a festival of spring, as an event, a competition which has elevated what once was a small southern city to a place of prominence in the world of sport.  

The name is pretentious and became an embarrassment to the great champion, Robert Tyre Jones, who helped create it as the Augusta Invitational.

But if the designation has changed, the location remains the same. Augusta National Golf Club.

It’s where at the second Masters, 1935, Gene Sarazen knocked his second shot into the cup on the par-5 15th, a double eagle — or if you prefer, albatross provided a bit of excitement languishing through the Great  Depression. It’s where Tiger Woods not only won the tournament but because of his ethnic background and jubilant success grabbed our attention for years.

Who knows now what man that will end up the winner in 2024. Maybe it will be Jon Rahm, who could become the first back-to-back winner since Tiger in 2001-2002. Maybe it will be Scottie Scheffer, who has a Masters of his own and currently tops the golf rankings.

True, a veteran experience in the mysteries of Augusta’s greens, invariably wins. But not always. Fuzzy Zoeller won his first Masters — only the second golfer to have done that.

This will be the 88th Masters. This will be my 57th Masters. I had made 54 straight until Covid stopped the streak. Yeah, I’ve eaten a lifetime supply of (ugh) pimento cheese sandwiches and purchased a ton of shirts with the Masters logo on the left front and a large number of Masters hats with the year embroidered on it. 

My first Masters, when I was a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, was 1967. The winner was Gay Brewer. Yes, I believed San Francisco’s Johnny Miller was going to win a couple of times — he was ahead at the 15th hole one year and said “I kept thinking how proud my Dad would be to see me in a Green Coat” — but he never could do it.

The memories include Roberto Divincenzo signing the incorrect score in 1968 that cost him a tie for first — “I am stupid,” the Argentinian sadly kept repeating — and of course, Greg Norman blowing the six-shot lead in 1996. There were cheers for so many. There were tears from Arnold Palmer after his last round and Ben Crenshaw after his second Masters victory, days after the death of his longtime tutor.

Hey, a tradition unlike any other and a fantastic run of golf.

In baseball’s board game, Oakland A’s become the Sacramento A’s

So the Philadelphia-Kansas City-Oakland-Las Vegas Athletics are moving to Sacramento, another wicked maneuver for baseball, which was called America’s Pastime but is little more than a board game for bored rich Americans.

Wasn’t it Bud Selig during his occupancy of the commissioner’s office who told us the sport belongs to the fans while the club owners are merely caretakers? Yeah, we all make mistakes, even millionaires. Especially so many of them, excluding the revered Haas family — who left their fingerprints and sad legacies on the game.

It was one of the French generals in World War I who was trying to explain what went wrong, they said “Ah, they handed me a disaster.”

Which is what baseball on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay was destined to become. It all started with Charles Oscar Finley, a country bumpkin with money who was able to haul the financially staggering Philadelphia Athletics to K.C.

When Finley, a penurious sort, couldn’t get what he wanted in KC — a new ballpark — it was off to Californ-i-a. Missouri senator Stuart Symington called Oakland The luckiest city since Hiroshima. Pretty good foresight.

The A’s became Oakland’s response to the San Francisco Giants, “our team.” The little city was in the Big League. That Finley had no front office but it didn’t matter because he had Reggie Jackson,  Catfish Hunter and Cap’n Sal Bando. And they also had 3 consecutive World Series Championships. Match that Giants.

What the A’s couldn’t match was a corporate backing or government backing for a new ballpark. Still, the fans cheered for their team. Still, the drums pounded in left centerfield. Still, Oakland was A’s territory.

But it also had been Raiders territory. Al Davis, loved/despised, had taken his teams — and some said the heart and soul of the region — to Southern California. He brought the team back. For a price, of course. He wanted the Coliseum not just improved but restyled, a huge section of seats built on the 50-yard line, which unfortunately also was for baseball, was the center field bleachers. Thus we had a new monument, Mt. Davis.

That distorted the baseball park. That, and overflowing toilets in the clubhouse and dugouts made it obvious the Coliseum needed to be replaced.

But talk is one thing. And in the East Bay, action is not just another thing, but rare. The line about Northern California is that it is easy to get issues voted down but virtually impossible to get them approved.

Where the owner, John Fisher, stood on all this was hard to determine. He wanted a new place to play but didn’t seem to want to get involved in how that would come about.  He was oblivious and seemingly uninvolved.

The A’s have the worst team in baseball — one win through Wednesday — as they had the worst team, by far, in 2023.

The thought seems to be to let them fall apart and because it is Oakland, and not a city like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York. It is going to become a reality. The team with a roster that probably belongs in the Minor Leagues, is disgracefully undermanned.  Major League Baseball is very much responsible for this. It has allowed the A’s to become what they are, a franchise now doomed to become the Sacramento A’s.

Giants better off without troubles Ohtani could bring

The San Francisco Giants have a new manager and apparently an improved pitching staff. What they don’t have is Shohei Ohtani. Thank heaven for small favors.

Ohtani may be the best player in baseball. He may hit 60 homers this season. May pitch several no-hitters. And he may be a problem as big as one of those Sumo champions. Come to think of it, he already is. So many of us, who are Giants fans (guilty your honor), rued the day Ohtani bypassed the Giants and signed what? A 100-zillion-dollar contract with the despised Los Angeles Dodgers.

Drat, the good folks up here north of Fresno and west of the Sierra, were thinking, those wealthy Dodgers, that celebrity audience and endless success. They did again to our sad little group from the ballpark by the Bay.

Is there no justice in the sporting world? There very well might be, and it’s named Ippei Mizuhara.

He was the interpreter and friend (some friend) who has worked with Ohtani all these years since Shohei came from Japan in 2018 to win two American League MVP awards with the Angels. Ippei is alleged to have bet millions on sports, bringing to the game nightmares of Pete Rose and placing Shohani in a situation of which he contends he was unaware.

In a prepared 12-minute statement Monday, ESPN properly thought it was so newsworthy it unpardonably interrupted the “Pardon The Interruption” show, Ohtani said he never bet on sports or anything else nor been asked to make bets for others. Ohani accused Mizuhara of “theft and fraud”  related to payments made from Ohtani’s account to an illegal Orange County bookmaking firm.  

Just think if the Giants had been unfortunate enough to sign Ohtani. They’d be dealing with all the legal mess along with the unpopular departure of longtime public address lady, Renel Brooks-Moon.

How much agony can a fan base take?

As this Ohtani drama unfolded I kept thinking of the film “Lost in Translation,” where a faded American movie star, portrayed by who else, Bill Murray, and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo. It has nothing to do with baseball, gambling or theft, but in part offers a window into cultural differences between two societies on either side of the Pacific.

On this side where the Giants and Dodgers are based — is it ironic the Dodgers opened their season last week in Asia, albeit Korea, not Japan? — Ohtani will be hounded and pestered even more than when he merely was a superstar.

The Dodgers, players and fans, probably are better equipped to handle the Ohtani mess than others, we’ll learn in time. He’s a great athlete, but after what’s happened and considering what might happen, the Giants can do without his baggage. Although they would like his bat.

What would Bud Collins have nicknamed winning Swiatek?

INDIAN WELLS — Iga Swiatek doesn’t need much on the court these days — my goodness she recorded a bagel in her semifinal — other than one of those colorful nicknames invented by the late, great Bud Collins.

He labeled Steffi Graf  “Fraulein Forehand,”  Venus and Serena Williams “Sisters Sledge Hammer. He might have anointed Swiatek the “Polish Rifle,” except that was used for the NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski, who is American.

Swiatek truly is Polish, born in Warsaw, and without question right now the best women’s tennis player in creation.

She turned the final of the BNP Paribas Open into a quick romp Sunday, defeating bewildered Maria Sakkari, 6-4,6-0. 

The match lasted only 1 hour and 8 minutes. Sometimes it seems to take that long to open a new can of tennis balls.

“Sorry I couldn’t put on a better fight,” said Sakkari, who two nights earlier defeated Coco Gauff in a semifinal.

Two years ago, at the same place, Indian Wells Tennis Garden — when you spend millions to build a sports complex among sand dunes and cacti — it was virtually the same. Swiatek defeated Sakkari 6-4, 6-1. 

In the rankings, she means, a place to which she seems intent — and content — never returning. In her week and a half of competition at Indian Wells, the 22-year-old Swiatek lost only 21 games in six matches. 

“She’s aggressive but she’s solid,” Sakkari said, summarizing Swiatek’s incredibly effective tennis.

It’s too early in a career that could last another 15 years or so to predict how Swiatek someday may be judged against the greats, Margaret  Court, Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova, Graf, but among the current females, she’s exactly where the number indicates, first.

It would have been interesting to see what would have been, had Gauff defeated Sakkari, but perhaps the best thing about tennis at any level is the actual playing not the promising. When the opportunity presents itself how do you respond

Swiatek’s response across the net is quite apparent and resourceful. She handled herself beautifully. Same thing after the tournament.

“I’m really proud of myself and super happy,” was her comment after literally lifting the crystal championship trophy. “Even though this tournament looked like the scores, maybe I had everything under control. It wasn't from the beginning to the end. I felt really good on the last two matches. Big amount of confidence.”

And for the bettors who followed the advice of Zachary Cohen in one of the tennis publications to parlay Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Daniil Medved, 7-6, 6-1. Big money. 

Wonder if Cohen has a decent backhand?

At Indian Wells, Mother Nature rains, Carlos Alcaraz reigns to find a way to hang on

To the match. Not an umbrella.

He had taken a 6-1 lead in the first set of the BNP Paribas semifinal. He had won 19 straight matches and in the process a Grand Slam, the Australian. His opponent, Carlos Alcaraz, said of Sinner, “He’s the best player in the world right now.  

Right, and it doesn’t rain in the Coachella Valley in springtime. Sinner lost, or rather, Alcaraz won 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. He will play another former champion, Dan Medvedev, who in the semi defeated the American Tommy Paul, 1-6, 7-6, 6-2.

“I tried to play obviously good tennis, which I have done,” said  Sinner, “especially the first set. Then I made a couple of mistakes. You know the momentum has changed. He raised his level.”

Which since Alcaraz is No. 2 in the world and Sinner No. 3, it isn’t quite like having to leap the Empire State Building. It was just that Sinner had flown in the first set, verifying the betting line making him such a solid favorite the tennis folk concluded it was a given.

 “Who’s going to stop Jannik?” questioned somebody. Well, good old Mother Nature — he had a 2-1 lead in the first set when the weather intervened, play being delayed more than two hours. And eventually, Alcaraz, who won the BNP a year ago.

“Obviously a tough one to swallow,” said Sinner, previously unbeaten in 2024.

The thinking in men’s tennis has been Alcaraz, the Spaniard, eventually would replace Novak Djokovic, the game’s best. Someday at least. At the moment, Djokovic remains first, and even though he’s 36 and the two heir apparents are in their early 20s, the change could be in the distance.   

Alcaraz had an impressive start, but in the last few months he has slipped. And  Sinner has surged. Then came the Saturday meeting, proof that all the speculation might mean nothing.

“Well, I’m really happy to classify (qualify) for another final,” said Alcaraz. “It means a lot to me to play at such a great level and be able to play another final.”

In the post-match interview, Alcaraz was reminded Thursday he had to flee when a hive of bees swarmed in while Carlos was playing.

 “On Thursday,” he was told, “you had the bees and then you had the rain delay today. You came from down a set. Kind of a wild 48 hours.”

At Indian Wells, Paul has chance to make us forget Australian collapse

INDIAN WELLS — The chance is there for Tommy Paul, the chance to make us forget. Forget what happened  Down Under. The chance to make himself a winner of one of the world’s biggest tennis tournaments outside the Slams. The chance to alter the memories of his failure in the Australian Open several weeks ago when he let a two-to-one set lead slip away and lost in five sets, the final one 6-0.

That caught the attention of everyone in the game and many outside the game. Here was a 25-year-old American, one of the new generation, not only unable to close the deal but looking bad in the process.

He became a headline. But he didn’t become depressed, on the contrary. He got on a jet for California, got a practice court, and told us, “Sometimes the painful endings are exactly what you need.”

Paul has come along with his age-group pals, Taylor Fritz, Francis Tiafoe and Reilly Opelka. Tiafoe made it to the semis of the U.S Open, Fritz won Indian Wells and Opela has his own victories. What Paul has, in some minds, is a blown opportunity.

Yes, unfair, but he seems unperturbed.

Paul grew up in North Carolina but now lives on his mother’s farm in Southern New Jersey, where, no he doesn’t plant corn or drive tractors but the few weeks he’s home does chores like feeding the chickens

There was a shirtless photo of him standing next to a tractor in a tennis publication, but that was to get the game noticed, which certainly did. Paul has a footballer’s physique.

Whether that will be an advantage or disadvantage in the match against Medvedev, a veteran with a strong forehand and an aggressive style we will learn quickly enough.

This is the fourth straight year there’s been a U.S. men’s player in the BNP semis. Paul was asked what it feels like to have broken through.  

”Your success now,” wondered a journalist, “does it feel a little bit sweeter, the stuff you’ve gone through, the stuff we learned (about his lifestyle) on Netflix, the late-night calls to your mom, maybe partying a little too much (when)younger, being a bit of a late bloomer? The fact you’ve locked it down and become the player you are now, does it make this success even sweeter?”

Paul was a bit reluctant.

“Maybe,” he said “I don’t know what it would feel like if I broke into the scene right away. I’m not sure. I mean it feels good. Obviously, I have another match on Saturday that I want to win. I’m not satisfied yet. So obviously I want to end the week with a win. You know, I want to win tournaments. That’s always the goal.”

At Indian Wells, bees, a bad toe, and another Sinner victory

INDIAN WELLS — Quarter-final Thursday, as the round is known at the BNP Paribas, turned out to be the afternoon Carlos Alcaraz had to worry more about back-biting (from insects) than backhands. The round “The Woz” could no longer go toe-to-toe with her comeback dream.

The round Jannik Sinner (16-0) remained undefeated, Tommy Paul remained on track and the world’s second-ranked male, Carlos Alcaraz, managed to survive, unlike top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who three days earlier was upset and then subsequently decided to pull out of next week’s event at Miami.

And for the round, the temperature, here often in the 80s and usually in the 70s, was no higher than that mid-60s, not that the weather seemed to matter to the boisterous fans packed in the 16,200-seat main stadium.

If it’s too cold to go to the pool, go to the courts — especially with the cast of those entered. Not that the stories all dealt with the actual tasks of cracking serves and hitting returns.

Three games into the Alcaraz-Alexander Zverev match, eventually won by Alcaraz, 6-3, 6-1, a swarm of bees arrived (OK, toss in buzz lines) and the two contestants ran for safety. Officials called an apiarist (a beekeeper) who collected the swarm.

“I'm glad I'm not there anymore… That's crazy. There was nothing like 30 minutes ago. I would run away," said Iga Świątek, watching from the interview room after her 6-4, 6-1 over The Woz, Caroline Wozniacki.

Wozniacki, once No. 1 before she married former Warriors center David Lee and gave birth to two children, is coming back from retirement. She injured a big toe a few days ago in a win over Angelique Kerber, and when the pain grew so severe, she called a stop against Świątek.

Sinner is the Italian from the Dolomite region of the Alps where they speak as much German — if not more — than Italian. But whatever language he employs his racquets pay attention.

He was a 6-3, 6-3, winner over Jiri Lehecka, and after taking his first Grand Slam, the Australian  Open, he had the rest of the pros in awe. He has great speed and beautiful consistent groundstrokes. And even more notably, he has the confidence that is a byproduct of success. Or the reason for the success.

And yes, the former teen, Coco Gauff, now age 20, also won, 6-4, 6-3 over Yue Yuan.

“It wasn’t the best serving,” concedes Gauff, “but the groundstrokes worked. I just try and take the positives.”

Navarro, Gauff are on the numbers

INDIAN WELLS — Only a number. So said Emma Navarro, who ranks No. 23 in women’s tennis after Wednesday upsetting Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2.

Only a number. So accepts Coco Gauff about the birthday that Wednesday ended her teenage years.

Tennis is all about numbers. No matter how old you are or how young.

The BNP Paribas Open rolled on as finally, the clouds rolled by. Sunshine in the desert, the Coachella Valley, and success for American women, expected in the case of the birthday girl, Gauff, now 20; probably unexpected with the onetime college star, Navarro.

Emma, 22, only a few months away from an NCAA Championship while at Virginia, won arguably the biggest match of her career, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, over Sabalenka, who in February became a Grand Slam champion with a victory in the Australian Open.

Gauff ranks No. 3, but she’s been the No. 1 star in America since her U.S. Open title in September doing TV interviews and getting a huge spread in Vogue magazine. Despite the glamor and glory, Coco comes at you as unpretentiously as, well, a cup of cocoa.

 In her quarterfinal match Wednesday she blitzed Belgian doubles specialist Elise Mertens, 6-0, 6-2.

“Finally got a win on my birthday, which was great,” Gauff said without emotion. “Yeah, I have nothing to say about the match. It was pretty straightforward, and hopefully, I can continue the good tennis.”

That the numbers seem to be more than nothing, but it’s her opinion that counts.

Navarro, understandably, was more emotional after finishing what might become her breakthrough match.

“Yeah, feeling excited,” said Navarro. “I’ve worked really hard over the years just to get to this point,”  

That hardly separates her from the other dozens of female players. The separation is when that work pays off, as this is much against Sabalenka, the powerful Russian. This time it did.

“I guess I wasn’t comfortable with my ranking,” said Navarro. “There’s not an opportunity for that. When I was younger I played in a way where I wanted to work myself into points and work myself into matches, and kind of just react to what my opponent was doing, kind of take a step back, OK, how are they going to play? But at this level, there is no time for that. You are striking or getting struck.”

She was striking. So was Gauff, although for Coco she scores like it was business as usual. Which is exactly what it turned out to be.

In this numbers game. The American ladies had the perfect ones. Or should that be 6-1?

After surprising Djokovic, how far can the kid, Nardi, go in the BNP Paribas?

INDIAN WELLS — The tennis term lucky loser is a contradictory description, something everyone hopes to be, lucky, and something abhorrent in sports, a loser.

We hear it used mostly in club competition, recreational events. This week it was prevalent at the BNP Paribas Open — mostly because the player, Novak Djokovic, was a loser but hardly lucky.

He was defeated, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 Monday night by Luca Nardi, a 20-year-old Italian who was almost as surprised as everyone else, calling it a miracle.

Nardi will advance to play Tommy Paul, part of a generation which was to revitalize American tennis to where it was in the glory days of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and pals.

But making predictions in any sport, especially tennis where there may just be someone new and maybe better each time you double fault, is a dangerous thing.

This BNP was going to belong to Djokovic. If it didn’t belong to Rafael, who withdrew because of that hip injury. If it didn’t belong to Stefano Tsitsipas, who was beaten, 6-2,6-4 by Jiri Lehecka. If it doesn’t belong to Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Fábián Marozsán, 6-3, 6-3, it won’t belong to Djokovic certainly. The 36-year-old Serb, was entering a tournament for the first time since dropping the Australian semifinal to Sinner. Sinner’s resume lacked only a Grand Slam. The shock was the match against Nardi.

The kid missed out in qualifying for the BNP. Then because Tomás Martín Etcheverry of Argentina pulled out, Nardi, instead of going home, went into the tournament.

In tennis, an individual sport, if you get your chance you have to take advantage of it. And Nardi did big time. He moved Djokovic around the court and hit some big passing shots.

“I made some really terrible unforced errors,” said Djokovic. “Just quite defensive tennis and you know, not much on the ball in the 3^rd (set), he just stepped in and he used the time that he had.”

“He was playing more free and more aggressive than I did, and going for his shots and that break on 3-2 was enough.”

Djokovic said he is more selective with his schedule. 

“I do play fewer tournaments. So of course it is not a great feeling when you drop out early in the tournament, and especially here, I haven’t played here for 5 years. I really wanted to do well, but that wasn’t meant to be. We move on.”

Literally, he will be going to the second tournament Sunshine Slam, in Miami, eager to show he still is the best and can handle those young kids.

Osaka’s comeback halted at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS — She took time away, putting down her racquets and picking up baby formula. Going from tennis champion to champion mother and back takes work and time. As Naomi realizes now.

We’re in the California desert, maybe only 150 miles down the interstate from Hollywood. The Academy Awards show was Sunday night.  But this is the real world, the sports world, where comebacks are neither rapid nor easy no matter how good you were.

And Osaka with four Grand Slam titles was damn good! Greater even. But Monday she wasn’t as good as Elise Mertens of Belgium, losing, 7-5, 6-4, in her third-round match of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

Although to some — Osaka lists herself as Japanese but was raised in New York and now lives in L.A. — the result was a disappointment but might not have been that big a surprise. Mertens also has won four Slams, and although they’ve been in doubles she’s a very accomplished singles player who, while Osaka has been raising her baby, was lifting awards.

Mertens next will play Aryna Sabalenka, the Wimbledon champion who Monday outlasted Emma Raducanu, 6-3, 7-3.  

Osaka, 26, went through numerous emotional problems not long ago, refusing to talk to the media after one match, and then withdrawing moments before another match. Newspapers and television networks responded with stories about mental health.

Then in January 2023, Osaka announced she was expecting—the father is her boyfriend, rapper Cordae (Amri Duston). The baby was born in July. Osaka’s first match after her return was on Jan. 1, 2024, in New Zealand, in preparation for the Australian Open.

That Osaka would come to the BNP and Indian Wells was expected. She had a bye then a victory. Now a loss.

“I had a plan today,” said Osaka. “And I didn’t really execute.”

Sounds like an NFL quarterback, not a world-class tennis player. Of course, maybe it was because the other team (Mertens) wouldn’t allow her to execute. Mertens, 38, has been there, done that in doubles or singles.

Then the admission. “I haven’t played in a while,” conceded Osaka, “so it was kind of surprising, her game.” A little bit that’s a Hollywood lie if ever there was one.

At Indian Wells, Djokovic has the answer

INDIAN WELLS — So at the place labeled Tennis Paradise, the No. 1  player in the world — and maybe ever, according to Sports Illustrated — was contemplating a stemwinder question not at all to do with paradise. 

“You’ve had such a spectacular career,” the 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, inquiry began and you knew what was coming — as did Novak Djokovic. “An incredible student of the game, my question is, this sport gives us so much. If you had to boil it down to just one or two key lessons that this sport has provided you, what would that be?”    

Fortunately, only moments before, Djokovic had concluded his first match in the BNP Paribas Open in five years, a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Aleksandar Vukic. He could be pleasant and forgiving. And surely the cover story on him by Jon Wertheim in the latest Sports Illustrated helped.

“The last GOAT (Greatest of All Time) Standing,” would tend to make a man more accepting of irritating comments and double faults. Not that the guy nicknamed the Joker hasn’t always gone about his business making others laugh as well as applaud from his earlier years before he started collecting Grand Slam titles — he now has 24, two more than Rafael Nadal. The Joker was known as a joker. His mimicry of other players was as big a hit as were some of his forehands. 

And apropos of nothing but considering the Serb, now 36, had to battle his way to the top, there was the time he won the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows and in the awards presentation was introduced as Da-okovic.

Roger Federer retired. Nadal, too often injured, may be retiring. Carlos Alcaraz, who Sunday defeated Felix Auger Aliassime, the Canadian, 6-2. 6-3, supposedly is the heir apparent. And Janik Sinner of Italy won the Australian Open in February.  

But for now the men’s game is in the possession of Djokovic.

The nonsense that presented Djokovic from entering the US or caused him to be expelled from Australia is a memory. If a painful memory.  

He’s on the march, and that’s as exciting for his sport as it is for Novak. Fans love winners. His presence at Indian Wells will help fill the 16,100-seat stadium.  

And regarding that complex, convoluted question tossed at Djokovic, he handled the situation with a quick feel-good response. 

“Very good question,” Djokovic insisted regarding the lessons tennis has offered. He smiled, either an affirmation or a put-down.

“I need a little prep on that to give you a right answer.”

“But I would say out of the blue it definitely made me more resilient, I think, just for everything else in life, really. Competing at the highest level for 20 years has allowed me to tap into parts of myself mentally, physically and emotionally that I didn’t know existed. I had to really dig deep so many times to overcome challenges and reach history.”  

A tough, long question to The Joker, brings a heartfelt answer.

Injury too much for Rafa; out of Indian Wells

Rafael Nadal could beat them all, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, could beat practically every opponent he faced. Except one. His own body.   

The problem for Rafa the last year isn’t another guy on the court, it is himself getting on the court.

He was going to return to competition this week at the BNP Paribas Open, which started Wednesday at Indian Wells, supposedly having recovered at last from the hip injury suffered at the 2023 Australian Open. Yes, 2023, 13 months ago.

Everything was lined up. He would start against one-time Wimbledon finalist, Milos Ronicl, the Canadian, who also had hip trouble, if not as severe as Rafa.

Then Wednesday night, the BNP and Nadal announced he had withdrawn.

There were the usual condolences. “It is with great sadness that I have to withdraw from this amazing tournament,” was Nadal's statement.

There also were the usual questions.

Is this, as people suggested during the long absence, the end of Nadal’s brilliant career?

Even before the fateful Australian Open Nadal had a series of injuries, disappointing but not surprising for someone who this May will be 38 and plays tennis as aggressively as an NFL linebacker plays defense.`

Then came the big one, the hip.

Rafa was special, along with Federer and Djokovic, one of the Big Three in the men’s game, so important in a sport where there are no home teams but there are home fans, whose appreciation soars on the skills and personalities of athletes from around the globe. It didn’t matter to the public that Nadal was from Spain — in fact it was a part of his appeal— only that he could chase a backhand down the line and return it with a flourish and hit a thundering forehand for a winner.

There are no home games in the individual sports of tennis, golf, and boxing. There are, however, home fans. They find their guy, or lady, and stay loyal until the end.

Which this could be for Nadal, who has won 22 Grand Slam tournaments, two fewer than Djokovic, who after all his nonsense about his refusal to be vaccinated, returns to Indian Wells.

You dare not predict the future, especially in sports, but one suspects we may never see the return of Rafa Nadal at Indian Wells. Or any other tournament.

He spoke in his apology of sadness. That’s a word all too appropriate for all of tennis.

For Warriors, awful end to great road swing

It was an awful game for the Warriors. A historically awful game. It took place Sunday at the end of what had been a successful and encouraging road trip. However, it surely made the trip seem worse—as if anything could be worse than being down 44 points at halftime to the despised Celtics at TD Garden in Boston.

Or for that matter anywhere. Yet it only was one game, which determines very little. Other than the indisputable fact the Celtics, with the 140-88 victory, are every bit as good as people say.

Then again, when the teams played at San Francisco's Chase Center in December, the Warriors won. Perhaps not as awesome as the Celtics did this game, that one a 132-126 victory in overtime. But this isn’t European soccer. They don’t count cumulative scores. And while this one was jarring emotionally, it didn’t mean any more or less than a one-point defeat.

More important and no less impressive was the victory at Toronto on Friday night after the Warriors spent Thursday night until around 9 am on Friday morning stuck on a jet because of airline problems.

No whining there, just winning.

That’s the mark of a focused team. You were reminded of the San Francisco 49ers of the 1980s. Ice, snow, the gloom of darkness? Who cares? Where’s the ball?  

This Sunday, too often the ball was in the hands of the Celtics and in short order in the basket. If the traveling hadn’t caught up with the Warriors, who were on an eight-game road win streak, Boston definitely had.

The Warriors, who were banged up Sunday, were also ineffective. Steph Curry, bothered by bursitis in his right knee, missed all nine of his 3-point attempts and finished with only 4 points.

Yes, awful historically and perhaps bewildering.

Although not to the point where Warriors coach Steve Kerr could allow it to linger, Kerr smartly took out Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green after the first half because it made sense—particularly in the case of Thompson who has a sore hamstring.

Kerr had what might be described as a typical coaching response to an atypical Warriors game. “You flush it down the toilet,” Kerr told Monty Poole at NBC Bay Area. “We had a great road trip, 3-1. We've had a million games. Boston was amazing. We weren't beating them today. So, we head home and get ready for Wednesday.”

When the Warriors face the Milwaukee Bucks at Chase, as the cliché goes—for a reason—no easy task, but most likely considerably easier than trying to stop the Celtics. A 44-point halftime lead? Wow.

“At least there wasn't a lot of wear,” Kerr said. “But it's different when you give a guy a day off. If he gets a day off, it's mentally refreshing as well. So, this was not a day off for Steph, although he probably could have used one. He's played so well and for so long this year. But hopefully, the next few days will get him recharged. Hopefully he'll go out and play golf or something and get away from it and come back Wednesday night ready.”

Rick Barry and Cliff Ray talk about a long ago title

That was an informative and enlightening start to the Warriors broadcast Sunday night, Rick Barry and Cliff Ray discussing old times past, the Warriors’ 1975 NBA championship sweep of the heavily favored Washington Bullets.

Barry called it, somewhat excessively, possibly the greatest upset in sports. Yes, a bit over the top, but he and Cliff were there.  

So was I, in the press section, which in those days was on the court, not up in the oxygen zone.

Rick said this year’s Warriors team, scrappy and feisty, reminded him of that team that nearly 50 years ago won a title. Then with optimism filling the air and because station KNBR the lost airwaves, the Warriors blew a 15-point lead and lost to the NBA champ Nuggets, 119-103. Here we are still trying to get over the Super Bowl, and the defeats continue to pile up. Who even has a clue where the bedraggled (still in Oakland ) A’s may end up, geographically or in the standings.

And thus far there’s nothing encouraging about the San Francisco Giants, who have scored in only two of the 18 innings they’ve played in the Cactus League. Indeed, they were exhibition games. Or as Allen Iverson might have put it, “we talking about practice, man.” 

And, as we know when the regular season begins every team is 0-0, unbeaten and of course unscored upon. The Giants will remain scoreless, or relatively so, while the dreaded Dodgers will roll up run after run.   

Meanwhile, back in the NBA, the Warriors added a lacrosse player. They didn’t add a player named LeBron James, despite a delicious (and apparently fictitious) rumor the deal was an item.

It was no rumor the Warriors’ Steve Kerr was given a new contract that makes him the highest-paid coach in NBA history. Which is wonderful. Not so long ago, when Draymond was out, and the team was down, those so-called NBA insiders were saying Kerr might be fired at the season’s end. Oh, well, we all make mistakes.

The Warriors are off on a road trip which, not to be too dramatic, is critical to their playoff chances. They’re 10th in the Western Conference, a game and a half behind the Lakers, who still have LeBron.

Nothing is forever in sports or life, but it’s hard to imagine the Lakers, so dominant in the ‘90s, and the Warriors, winners four times starting in 2015, struggling to get in that final playoff spot.

But great athletes in any sport age all too quickly.

Teams draft and trade, hoping and working to bring together the combination which then brings success. But even as a city is staging a victory parade, there’s a newer, younger team, taking over.

Matsuyama’s 62, “The beauty of the game,” said Zalatoris

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif — The round was magnificent, the sort that gets one into the record books as well as the winner’s circle. 

Hideki Matsuyama came from six shots behind Sunday to capture the Genesis Invitational, with a 9-under par 62 at famed Riviera Country Club, and of all the observations arguably the best was provided by the man three shots back in second.

“This is the beauty of this game, you know,” said Will Zalatoris. “Kind of nice when you get beat by somebody who shoots 62 on Sunday. That’s usually going to win a tournament or make a lot of money. Hats off to Hideki, that is just stellar playing.”  

Stellar, dominating, overwhelming, record-setting and not the least triumphant. He finished with a 17 -under 267.  

Matsuyama finished at 17-under 267 and that 62 was the best closing round by a winner since Doug Tewell in 1986.It was one off the course record of 61 set by Ted Tryba in 1999. 

The 31-year-old Matsuyama now has more victories, nine, than any other golfer from Asia. One happens to be from a tournament where he earned not only plaudits and a paycheck but also a green jacket, the 2021 Masters.

As you know there’s no way to play defense in golf. You have no control over the other players and sometimes not even over yourself. On Sunday, the Genesis seemed to belong, in order, to Patrick Cantlay (who shot a one over 72 and tied for 4th), Luke List (who short 68 and tied for 2nd), then Will Zalatoris (who shot a 69 and tied for 2nd), Adam Hadwin (who shot a 65 and tied for 4th), Xander Schauffele (who shot 70 and tied for 4th), and finally Matsuyama.

“Yeah, you know, to win in this tournament was one of my goals ever since I became pro,” said Matsuyama through an interpreter. “After Tiger being the host, that goal became a lot bigger. A little disappointed that I wasn't able to take a picture with Tiger today.”

That’s because Woods, who is a co-host of the tournament, withdrew Friday because he had the flu.

“Reaching nine wins was one of my big goals, passing KJ Choi. After my eighth win, I've been struggling with my back injury. There were a lot of times where I felt, you know, I was never going to win again. I struggled reaching the top-10, but I'm really happy that I was able to win today.”

Which certainly Cantlay, who played Riviera maybe two dozen times when on the UCLA golf team. It would have been interesting to learn what happened to his game the final 36 holes, but there were no explanations. 

What we needed to know, apparently was on the card.

At Riviera Patty Ice can win like the Wee Icemon

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — No Tiger (out with the flu). No Jordan Spieth (out because of a scorecard error). No problem for the Genesis Invitational Saturday, where a guy nicknamed “Patty Ice” is going to make people at Riviera Country Club remember a guy nicknamed “The Wee Icemon.”

Nobody would dare equate Cantlay, although a top current player, with Ben Hogan, one of the greatest golfers of all time.

But here we are at Riviera, “Hogan’s Alley,” where Ben won three times, including the 1948 U.S. Open—it was the Scots who called him “ Wee Icemon,” for his victory at Carnoustie.

And there is Cantlay continuing to stay ahead in the Genesis, if by three fewer shots than 24 hours earlier.

Cantlay had a 1-under 70 for a 54-total of 14-under par 199. His longtime pal and rival Xander Schauffele and Will Zalatoris, who both had 65s, are at 201.

“Yeah, I mean I played solid UCLA golf today,” said Cantlay. “I didn’t make any long putts or anything. Didn’t really give myself too many chances, but all in all a solid play and in a good position for Sunday.”

The chance he has here is to go wire-to-wire in what in effect is not only his hometown event (he’s from Long Beach, 20 miles away) but to win on the course across Sunset Boulevard.  

From where he went to school, UCLA. 

He also has the chance to toss a few good-natured pointed remarks at Schauffele, who is from San Diego, and San Diego State, maybe another hour and a half down Interstate 5.

“It’s a pretty comfortable pairing for us,” said Schauffele. “We play a lot week in and week out. We both love to compete. There’s nothing more we like to do than compete in big events.”

This may not be as big as the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, in which Schauffele won the gold medal for men’s golf, but it’s big and historic enough, especially in a city full of celebrities and at a location where there’s a statue of Hogan next to the practice green.

“I have a lot of friends and family out here watching, friends from Virginia Country Club where I grew up.”

Cantlay has won eight times on Tour, including the FedEx Cup. He knows what to do. So does Schauffele. So do Schauffele and Zalatoris. 

No Tiger. No Spieth. As a substitute, we have a potentially exciting conclusion.

At Riviera, a Zalatoris Ace, a Tiger WD and a continuing Cantlay lead

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — There is no disabled list in golf. If you’re injured or ailing, that’s not a team’s problem, that’s your problem. Or in the case of a unique attraction like Tiger Woods, a tournament’s problem.

They don’t bring in a backup from the bench. There is no bench. Just vacant tee times and frequent questions. Just frustrated, worried golfers. And disappointed fans.

This is what happened Friday at Riviera Country Club during the second round of the Genesis Invitational: The top of the leaderboard remained unchanged. Patrick Cantlay, who played his undergraduate golf at UCLA, a couple of miles and a few multi-million dollar residences away from Riviera, shot a 65, and at 3-under 139 for 36 holes, is in front. Tied for second at 134 were Luke List, 69, Jason Day, 69, and Mackenzie Hughes, 65.

The 27-year-old Zalatoris is not that all displeased. He was hurting, literally for a long time, kept going and then, wham.

“Kind of a golfer’s worst nightmare,” he said, “is feeling your back giving out on the driving range at Augusta 30 minutes before your tee time.”

After surgery, Zalatoris, once a Northern Californian who moved to Texas while in high school, did a lot of things — go to Wimbledon and take courses at Wake Forest — except doing what he wanted most,  swinging a club.

He returned to the Hero, Tiger’s little grouping in the Bahamas, came back to the Tour in January and then Friday, another Wham. Of the most positive sort.

Zalatoris made a hole-in-one at the 184-yard 14th, using a 7 iron, and won two Genesis automobiles, one for himself and one for his caddy Joel Stock.

“Lucky to go in,” said Zalatoris. “A nice little bonus.”

Not so little but very nice.

An ace certainly helps any scorecard, and this one enabled Zalatoris to shoot 70 for 136. With half the Genesis still to play, he’s in contention.

Tiger, of course, no longer is in the tournament, and you wonder at his age, with his troubles, how much golf he’ll be able to play as the year goes forward.

Rob McNamara, executive vice president of TGR Ventures, said Woods began to feel ill Thursday night, after playing the first round.

“This morning,” he said Friday, “the symptoms were worse than the night before and he had a little bit of fever. He felt better during the warmup, but when he got out there and started  walking and playing, he started feeling dizzy.”

Jordan Spieth was healthy enough but that didn’t keep him from committing the age-old mistake of signing an incorrect scorecard. Despite the Tours’ well-planned design of avoiding that error by providing scorecards with tear-off strips so the player can match the card of the scorekeeper, Spieth wrote in  3 when he made bogey 4 on the 4th.

At least his back isn’t bothering him, only his arithmetic.

At the Genesis Cantlay, Tiger, and a caddie’s 600 mile round trip by car

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Two kids from southern California, separated by years and a notable degree of success, returning once more to a course and a tournament so much a part of their lives.

Riviera Country Club, where photos of movie stars line the clubhouse walls and a statue of the great Ben Hogan stands alongside the practice green. Day one of the Genesis Invitational, successor to the Los Angeles Open and as almost always the last event of PGA Tour’s West Coast swing. An almost perfect blending of history, memory and possibility, and where else but in the place nicknamed “La-la-La-Land.”

The No. 1 story on opening day, Thursday, was a matter of opinion and perhaps not so much a matter of news judgment as emotional linkage.  

Maybe it was the 7-under par 64 good for first place by Patrick Cantlay, who is from Long Beach and went to UCLA, virtually across famed Sunset Boulevard to Riviera.  

Maybe it was the 1-over-par 72 by 48-year-old Tiger Woods, who was playing competitively for the first time since withdrawing from last April’s Masters with an injury to his right ankle requiring fusion surgery.    

Maybe it was Alex Ritthamel, the caddy following last week’s WM Phoenix Open, drove the 600-mile round trip, LA to Arizona and back, to bring the clubs here. As Tiger, Griffin shot a 1-over 72, on Thursday.

You’ve heard the line from the pros, you can’t win a tournament in the first round, but you can lose it. Numerous golfers made sure this first round they weren’t going to lose it. In addition to Cantlay were most top golfers. Following Cantlay at 65 were Cam Davis, Luke List and Jason Day. At 66 were Jordan Spieth and Will Zalatoris.

“I thought it was a good round,” said Cantlay, who has a reputation for not smiling — California Cool— and making putts practically from everywhere. He has won 8 times, including the FedEx Cup.

“I think I am really comfortable at this place,” said Cantlay, and why not? He played it numerous times while on the UCLA team. And since then as a pro. Cantlay is opposed to rolling back the length of the ball, which the U.S. Golf Association wants to do because of increased yardage and reduced scores.

“I think it would be good for the game to keep it the way it is,” he said. “I think more people are excited about golf than ever, hearing some of the numbers. Hearing some of the numbers that there’s been more rounds played the year before than ever in this country. I think that’s fantastic and I know it is growing worldwide as well. That should be the emphasis.”

The emphasis for Tiger Woods is staying healthy and being able to play month after month. “I love the game,” he said again. 

On Thursday those who love to see Tiger play the game had their first chance in months.

“Definitely nervous,” Woods admitted about the comeback. “I care about how I play and certainly I was feeling the nerves starting out.”

“I got off to a good start birdieing the first and getting right back up on the next two holes and made a couple more birdies. It was one of those days, just never really got anything consistently going and hopefully (Friday) I can clean it up.”

Woods (yes) shanked his approach on 18. That was rare. Overall, so was the entire first round of Genesis.

Tiger back to place he started—and never won

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — He’s back to the place where it all began, back to where Tiger Woods played a Tour tournament for the first time, back to golf with a newly fused ankle and an old hope, to get a victory at Riviera Country Club.

So many rounds of golf, so much success, at St. Andrews and Pebble Beach, at Royal Liverpool and Augusta National. But never at Riviera, tucked in a canyon off the Pacific, where on Thursday the Genesis Invitational returns.

And so does Woods.

“A nice W would be nice, right?” Woods said Wednesday, a redundant aside that was as much a statement as a question. “I haven’t ever won this event. I’ve played in it since ’92.” (when he was a 16-year-old amateur).

And it’s extremely doubtful that at age 48, not competing in anything since the ankle repair last April, other than the father-and-son competition in December, he could win this Genesis.

Still, if there’s something we’ve learned, from the time he was five down to Steve Scott in the final and won the 1996 U.S. Amateur to his triumph in the 2019 Masters, it’s never wise to underestimate

He’s golf. Period. Especially to people only peripherally interested in the activity.

Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and the others fill our screens, and with those amazingly large payoffs, fill their bank accounts, yet they’re merely role players.

This is a true story. Last summer after the British Open, we were in Paris, at the Louvre. A guide asked about my line of work.

“Sportswriter,” I conceded.

“Do you know Tiger Woods? “ she asked.

Everybody knows Tiger Woods, of course. The people who run golf as well as those who play it, also know there’s no one as transcendent.

He’s the franchise and seemingly always will be.

The elements came together, and with the departures from competition of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tom Watson, Tiger Woods burst onto the scene at the most critical of times. These days, as his career ebbs, Tiger is grateful for being able to walk and swing without pain.

“I'm just happy to see the man not limping as much,” Max Homa said. “It’s pretty amazing what he brings to an event with his presence on the golf course. ... You have less people watching you play golf, but there are more people watching golf.”

Woods, while not giving any hints he will retire — he hasn’t undergone the medical procedures just to sit around — has expanded his horizons.

Woods joined the Tour board and was involved in negotiations that led to Strategic Sports Group becoming a minority investor in a deal worth as much as $3 billion. 

“Ultimately we would like to have the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) be a part of our tour and a part of our product,” Woods said Wednesday at Riviera. “Financially, we don't right now.”

Ultimately, it would be great to see Tiger Woods win at Riviera. To end with a flourish at the place he started.