SF Examiner: Tiger injects life into the Masters

AUGUSTA, GA. – One word. One name. Tiger. And it all changes, in golf, in sports. One name, and we’re thinking differently. One name, and we’re paying attention again.

One name, and the game is on.

It’s not a comeback for Tiger Woods. Not at the Masters. He was here in ’08, as in ’07 and the 12 years before that, two as an amateur.

He missed golf for eight months, June to February, recovering from knee surgery. And certainly golf, so dependent on individual stars, missed him.

But here under the Georgia pines, here where Amen Corner lurks, here where history can be found on virtually every magnificently trimmed fairway or hellishly fast green, it’s as if nothing has changed. Because nothing has changed.

Tiger is playing and thus, weeks of rehabbing and months of doubts to the contrary, Tiger is the favorite.

What a great few days in sports, the Final Four, the beginning of baseball season, the Masters. A tradition like no other, CBS tells us. Tiger Woods, a golfer like no other, and nobody needs to tell us.

What the fans tell Tiger, shout it out, is “You’re the man.” Which he is. Golf is dozens of great players, Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, Geoff Ogilvy, Greg Norman, returning to his scene of heartbreak. Golf is one person, Tiger Woods.

Does he do it this week, win a fifth Masters, a 15th major? Or does he fail, and his short streak without a Masters victory extend to four, which would be the longest since he turned pro and, with that crushing triumph in 1997, turned golf upside down?

Either way, Tiger becomes the tale, the focus. Either we’re going to say, “How about Tiger?” or “What happened to Tiger?” The world distilled into good and bad, right and wrong, Tiger or not Tiger.

The Giants and A’s have started their long season.

The 49ers and Raiders are trying to figure into the NFL Draft. All of it is interesting, as opposed to Tiger, who is compelling.

Golf, as tennis, is constructed on personalities. Arnie took the game out of the country clubs. Jack Nicklaus awed us with his success. Greg Norman was exciting, sometimes in a negative way. Then along came Tiger, breaking par, breaking barriers, becoming as much a symbol of progress as a champion athlete.

And now here he is, and here the Masters is, and we can’t help but pay attention and perhaps pay obeisance to arguably the finest golfer ever and maybe the best-run tournament ever.

The Masters the last couple of years hasn’t been as exciting as we remembered. The weather was cold. The course had been toughened. The familiar roars of appreciative fans were lacking.

Tiger the last three years wasn’t quite as exciting at the Masters as we preferred, although two third places and a second isn’t exactly a collapse. More a tease.

“The last couple years, my putting has been streaky here,” was Tiger’s explanation before today’s first round. “I got on rolls where I make everything, and I get on rolls where I didn’t make anything.”

For sure, Tiger has made himself impossible to ignore.

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.

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Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

KNBR Radio: Art speaks with Brian Murphy from Augusta

From KNBR.com:

"The guys congratulate golf writer Art Spander on his Lifetime Achievement Award and talk a little Masters."

Listen here

RealClearSports: The Best of Sporting Times and Tigers

By Art Spander

Our Aprils, contrary to the T.S. Eliot poem, never are cruel. In the space of a few days they give us a sporting mixture that is irrepressible, full of baskets, fast balls and here, beneath the pines of Augusta National, 300-yard drives that confirm, no matter what the conditions, spring has arrived.

The NCAA Final Four, with its oversized crowds came first, and were followed by the baseball openers teasing the long season to come. Now, at a site as legendary as the men who have competed here, the Masters.

Now Amen Corner, Hogan Bridge and the man whose very presence has transformed golf into more than a weekend pastime, Tiger Woods.

Have we come down from North Carolina’s brilliant victory over Michigan State? Or Francisco Rodriguez’ excellent relief performance in his first chance for the Mets? It is time to get up once more, to follow Phil and Padraig and particularly, Tiger. Time to pay attention to the 12th hole, called by some the most difficult par-3 in golf, and to greens that as Dan Jenkins once wrote, are as slick as the top of Sam Snead’s bald head.

There is a special fascination with the Masters as the first major tournament of every year. The name itself lends a cachet not found anywhere else in sport.

Golfers last a lifetime. Jack Nicklaus won a Masters at age 46 and was playing the tournament well into his 60s. Greg Norman is back this time, and even the most callous of individuals finds sympathy for a man in his 50s known less for success than for his failures, including that 1996 Masters, when he blew a six-shot lead the last day.

We are familiar with so many of them -- last year’s winner Trevor Immelman, and Vijay Singh and names which persist like the blooms of the dogwood trees.

We remember when Tom Weiskopf took a 12 on that 13th hole, and when Mickelson made that winning putt on the 18th and jumped, what, all of three inches? And we remember when, in 1997, Tiger crushed the scoring record, sending a signal that golf would never be the same, as he became the first African-American to win the Masters.

Since then, it’s been all about Tiger, and this year -- the year of the great return -- the focus is even greater. From his first shot in Thursday’s opening round to his last, he will be the focus, and perhaps the champion. He was gone eight months after surgery on that anterior cruciate ligament and legitimately or not, because we should be wary of doubting the great ones, there were questions of whether he would be his old self. They were answered quickly enough.

Tiger stood over that 15-foot putt nine days ago on the 72nd hole at Arnold Palmer’s tournament and seemingly as if predestined, knocked the ball into the cup to win. The way he had done before the layoff. The way he always will do.

“I really wanted to get into contention,” Woods said Tuesday of his victory, “and feel the rush again on the back nine. I was not in it at Doral; I was on the periphery. The past week at Bay Hill was great to feel that, and to see how my body would react again. It’s been a while and a lot of uncertainty over the months upon months of rehab. And it felt great to hit shots.”

Uncertainty? With Tiger Woods? Deep down, he knew. So did the rest of us. He was going to win again. It was inevitable. That he needed only three tournaments was maybe a surprise. Or was it?

I learned not too long ago, never to be unsure of Tiger. It was the 1996 U.S. Amateur, his last before turning pro a few days later. He was 5-down in the final, at match play, and on a radio broadcast I declared his reign, after winning the previous two years, was at an end.

Not at all. Woods caught Steve Scott and won on the second extra hole, the 38th. Scott could only sigh, “Against Tiger Woods no lead is safe.”

A couple days later, Willie McCovey, the Hall of Fame baseball player, confronted me and said, “How could you give up on Tiger? I don’t care how far teams and players get behind, when they’re good you have to believe in them.”

I believe. Tiger may not win this Masters, but who wants to pick against him? In these wonderful few days of April 2009, not me.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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© RealClearSports 2009

RealClearSports: North Carolina is a Quick Winner

By Art Spander

This was one in which reality crushed reverie, power overwhelmed hopefulness. This was one in which the best college basketball team in the land proved it was the best college basketball team in the land, and the experts knew exactly what they are talking about.

Over the weekend, we had been immersed in the tale of Michigan State, and how its ascent was being felt by this city that once was the proud hub of a flourishing auto industry, but now reflects all the problems of America’s stumbling economy. It was going to be so glorious, so uplifting when the Spartans came through. But they could not. North Carolina never gave them a chance. The Tar Heels ran and jumped and harassed. And Michigan State was in a state of bewilderment.

In the end, Carolina won 89-72, took its fifth NCAA basketball championship, finished as the Final One of the Final Four, verified that indeed as in October’s preseason polls and now in April’s glory, the Tar Heels are an unquestioned No. 1

They hit quickly and hard, stunning not only Michigan State, but a record crowd of 72,922 at Ford Field, the majority of which naturally was cheering for the Spartans. Carolina was up 22-7 within six minutes gone; then 34-11 with 9:44 to play in the half.

Would the Tar Heels score 100? Maybe they should have. Would they beat State worse than in December, when Carolina, in the very same building, the home of the NFL Detroit Lions, dismantled the Spartans, 98-63? Maybe they could have.

“They’ve kind of given us our lunch, haven’t they?" Tom Izzo, the Michigan State coach asked with great prescience the day before the game. “But that’s because they’re a great program."

The greatest going this season.

Sunday night, Roy Williams, the Carolina coach, dined on fried lobster at the Detroit Fish Market for the second time in 48 hours. “I’m not superstitious," Williams said when confronted as he left the restaurant, “but I ate here Friday night and I didn’t want to take any chances."

With the team he put on the court, there were no chances to be taken. Carolina forced a supposedly disciplined State team into 21 turnovers. “Fourteen in the first half," said Izzo. “We couldn’t do anything. I was disappointed. I also thought we missed some good shots early. I thought we looked either shell-shocked or worn down."

The championship was a reward for Carolina players such as Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green, who ignored opportunities to join the NBA and came back for a senior season of not so much retribution as relish.

The 6-foot-9 Hansbrough, last season’s Player of the Year, was castigated because he did not lead Carolina to a title. When Williams was asked if that would diminish Tyler’s career, he was adamant in his denial. “Ernie Banks never won a World Series," Williams reminded.

But now Hansbrough has won an NCAA, and when the final seconds ticked off and the confetti was shot from those special air guns, he was a little kid beside himself, belying a reputation for a lack of emotion.

“This was the best way to go out," Hansbrough shouted into a CBS television microphone, “after what we had been through. We climbed all the way." Hansbrough had 18 points, behind Ty Lawson’s 21 and Wayne Ellington’s 19. Center Goran Suton scored 17 in his last game for Michigan State.

“We couldn’t stop Hansbrough inside,” said Izzo, “and we couldn’t stop Lawson from getting to the line.” Lawson got 18 free throws and made 15 as he drove inside and drew foul after foul.

“All I know,” said Williams, who has led Carolina to two championships in his six years after moving there from Kansas, “is I’m the luckiest coach in America. I am so proud of this team. We overcame a lot during the season."

They also scored a lot. Eight times Carolina reached 100 points or more, and when the Heels led Michigan State 55-34 at intermission, it appeared inevitable they would do it a ninth time. But Carolina got a bit loose and sloppy, and so the rout became merely a one-sided victory.

Magic Johnson, the Michigan State alum, and Larry Bird were in the building on what was the 30th anniversary of their memorable battle in the 1979 NCAA championship, won by the Spartans over Bird and Indiana State. And Michael Jordan, a Heel, David Robinson, Vivien Stringer and John Stockton made an appearance as part of being voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Quite a night for greatness. And North Carolina was a major part of that, much to the frustration of the state of Michigan and Michigan State.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/04/north-carolina-quick-winner.html
© RealClearSports 2009

Roy Williams, the country boy who became a monarch

DETROIT – He’s smooth, smart and demanding, a melding of the country boy he used to be and the dominant basketball coach he has become. Roy Williams describes himself as corny, a word that if used in the same context could also be applied to King Henry VIII.
Thanks to Kevin813 at Flickr


Williams’ North Carolina team faces Michigan State on Monday night for the NCAA Championship, and Roy, at 58, having been there and done that, is approaching the game with his usual refined arrogance and bewildering wistfulness.



The other school is the story, and Williams well understands that, although favored Carolina is quite likely to be the winner.




Michigan State, located 92 miles away, has been anointed as the savior of an economically depressed region of Middle America. Carolina is merely attempting to fulfill the role it was given back in November, which was to finish as the best team in the land.




College basketball is a coaches’ game, an obvious statement even before Kentucky broke the bank to hire Rick Pitino a few days ago.








In the NBA, the people on court, Kobe, LeBron, Dwyane Wade, are in charge. They get the ball and the big salaries. But in the undergraduate division, the attention belongs to the coaches.




They recruit, they strategize, they keep the media entertained or outraged. Or in some cases, both.




Williams can be defensive, although through the seasons, at Kansas and then his alma mater, Carolina, his teams have been recognized for offense. But rather than confront, Williams persuades. Or derides something as “hogwash,” a term virtually guaranteed to elicit a chuckle instead of a sneer.


Roy makesjournalists feel accepted — unlike, say, Bobby Knight — but Williams also lets themknow who’s boss. Right away Sunday, Williams, in his white golf shirt and babyblue Carolina sleeveless sweater, opened an interview by remarking, “If I’mdoing this now, don’t expect me to stay around 30 minutes after (the players)leave. I have more important things to do than stand around here and makefun.”


Or pay lip serviceto the suggestion that a Michigan State victory would benefit the local territory,ravaged by the decline and fall of the U.S. auto industry. Roy wants to see thecar business thrive once more. He also wants to see Carolina win its secondtitle in his six seasons as the headman.


“If we’re playingagainst the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan,” said Williams of theidea that the majority of the 70,000-plus people at Ford Field will be cheering forMichigan State, “they outnumber us. We don’t have a good chance at that one … I do realize they have a cause. Well, we also have a cause.


“We want to win anational championship. Period. The end. And if you tell me if Michigan Statewins it’s going to satisfy the nation’s economy, then I’d say, ‘Hell! Let’s staypoor for a little while longer.’”


Williams thenpointed out that he only would be concerned if the workers of America “come down andstart guarding my butt on the bench.”


What Carolina mighthave to guard against is complacency, not that it’s likely. The start ofDecember, in the very same building, Ford Field, where the Detroit Lions perfectedtheir imperfection, North Carolina defeated Michigan State, 98-63.


Michigan State,tired and injured at that time, is a far, far better team four months later.Then again, so is Carolina. And who cares about 70,000 people supporting theother guy?


“You know, to me,”said Williams, “it’s not nuclear science. We’re coaching basketball. We’replaying basketball. I go out on the court (Saturday night for the semifinal, inwhich Carolina beat Villanova, 83-69) and look up, trying to figure where is theguy with the worst seat in the house. ‘Wonder what he’s thinking right now?’ I said, ‘OK.’ Then that wasit. I mean you’re focused on the task.”


Which is winning fora group of seniors, including last season’s Player of the Year, TylerHansbrough, and Danny Green, who returned for a last fling instead of enteringthe pro draft.


“You know,”Williams told us, “I’m corny. There’s no question about it. I’m emotional. Thissenior class has been really, really important to me. These guys came in afterthe (2005) championship year. We didn’t have a lot coming back. They competedfrom the first day … The classes I’ve recruited in 21 years (15 at Kansas),this is the one that’s special.”


This is the gamethat’s special, the game that because of the size of the facility, in whichSaturday a record 72,456 were in attendance, could be intimidating but toWilliams is not.


“I like playing onthe road,” said Williams of what technically is a neutral side, yet is anythingbut. “I like going to some other place and having my team so focused that we can shut the crowd up. Now this will be the maximum test.”


Roy Williams and his team are well prepared.