Billy Paultz Reconsidered

Here’s Sunday’s column about Tiger.
There’s a common contention in the media that golf would die of public indifference sans Eldrick. Nonsense. This nonsense comes from a persistent source, the TV Nielsen ratings, which are largely crap even when not mis- and over-used to the point of absurdity.
There’s an AP story here that illustrates my […]

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I’m doing a column on this for Sunday’s paper, but some quick reactions:
I think we all hate the vague or half-committed apologies that have become typical of disgraced athlete/celebs (”If I offended anyone, I’m sorry?” …. IF???). This at least wasn’t that. It was specific, detailed and comprehensive. Didn’t prove that he gets it, but came […]

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So there was Tiger Woods, in the press room, saying that if Y.E.Yang hadn’t chipped in and I’d made that putt and he’d done this and I hadn’t done that…
In short, there was Tiger talking like every golfer who’d come close and fallen short since the beginning of time.
I was glad to hear Tim Rosaforte, […]

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We were one hard bounce off the 18th green at Turnberry away from having that tedious debate all week.
Some people - not the most thoughtful among us -are having it anyway.
What people who say golf isn’t a sport mean is they don’t like or respect golf, and I’m not going to argue with that. You […]

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Lucas Glover: Was this a one-shot deal a la Shaun Micheel/Ben Curtis/Todd Hamilton or a springboard to great things?
I’m not inclined to jump hard on either of those choices. Before yesterday, you could say Glover had had an underachieving career. He made a President’s Cup and barely missed the last Ryder, but had won only […]

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Tiger’s coming back next week, which is certainly good news for the PGA Tour and its sponsors.
The opinion that he’ll be better than ever is out there, and not just among Mark O’Meara and John Cook, two senior-tour players who are Tiger’s boys and thus have this weird and annoying spokesman/acolyte role.
Tiger has never been better than in […]

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Some things that have annoyed/amused/intrigued me lately:
*Re: The Phillies nice win over the Mets Friday. Nobody I heard mentioned that Johan Santana - who averages 200 innings a year and over 100 pitches a game - left a 2-2 game after eight innings having thrown 95 pitches, with a lefthander, Ryan Howard, leading off the ninth. The night […]

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Did a phone interview last week with Ben Crenshaw, for a story about an outing he’s doing here. Most of our talk wasn’t really for the story, just stuff I was interested in. Following are some highlights.
Crenshaw was captain of the 99 Ryder Cup team, which beat the Europeans with the famous comeback including Justin […]

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When Tiger won his historic first Masters, by 12 shots, in 1997, Augusta National was a 6,800-ish yard course with no rough.
It was the ultimate strategic (as opposed to penal) design - you could hit tee shots six different places on many holes and give yourself six different approaches to playing the hole. There was […]

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It’s getting to be that time of year, but today was  dense one by any standard:
1. Dubya “reluctantly accepts,” the resignation of his pathetically overmatched attorney general, continuing a glorious tradition of patronage and cronyism gone horrifically bad. (See today’s other post, headlined “Gonzo”)
2. Michael Vick formerly enters his plea, then makes a reasonably effective apology statement. […]

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