Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger's issue: He just couldn't judge the speed

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He was under an umbrella but under no illusions. Tiger Woods didn't win the Masters he was supposed to win, and there would be no talk on this rainy Sunday about bad breaks or anything except his inability to gauge the speed on Augusta National's vexing greens.

Woods played a decent back nine Sunday with three birdies after an indifferent front nine, and his two-under-par 70 moved him up to a tie for fourth at 283, four shots shy of first.

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Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Brandt Snedeker, Angel Cabrera tied for Masters lead

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Beyond the controversies and penalty strokes, the slow play of 14-year-old Tianlang Guan, the debate over Tiger Woods' non-disqualification, this Masters has become a compelling tournament.

Going into Sunday's final round, the competition is about as wide open as the eighth fairway at Augusta National.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.

When Tiger’s done, so are the fans

By Art Spander

AUGUSTA, Ga. — The mad rush of humanity, for hours waiting, working to get on the hallowed ground of Augusta National and then, with Tiger Woods coming off the course and a “Weather Warning” sign going up on the scoreboards, the desperate and successful attempt for most of those people — the Patrons, they’re called — to get off.
   
Fleeing, departing, as if warned of some onrushing tide. But this was not time to get to high ground, but rather a reality check on what and who counts at the Masters — and if it’s not Mr. Woods, it’s the fans’ own survival.
  
It wasn’t raining yet, but the threat of lightning and with Tiger finished, let’s get to one of those taverns on Washington Road.
  
Woods is the story even when Thursday, for the first round of this 77th Masters, he wasn’t the story. That is if you go by the leader board, on which he failed to earn a place, because there’s room only for the low 10 and ties. At 2-under 70, Tiger was among the group sharing 13th.
   
Marc Leishman, trying to become the first Australian to win the Masters, and Sergio Garcia, the Spaniard who had insisted he was not good enough to win a major — hey, we all make mistakes — were tied for the lead at 6-under-par 66. Dustin Johnson was at 65.
   
Golf tournaments, however, are like mile runs, four rounds instead of four laps. The guy in front after 18 holes may not be the one who’s in the lead after 72. Everyone knows that, especially Tiger Woods. The idea is not to lose touch, to stay close enough.
   
Tiger would be fine with two rounds to play, even with one round to play. With three to go, he’s in great shape, if not in first place, where those thousands of spectators, the Patrons, were hoping he would be before they hastily took their leave.
   
It’s been Tiger’s year so far in golf, three victories on Tour, a return to the top of the world standings. Yet, Tiger, as Jack Nicklaus, is all about major championships, because in his sphere — as in Jack’s — there’s little else. The rest of the tournaments, Torrey Pines (unless it’s a U.S. Open there), Doral, are merely obstacles to get past.
  
Nicklaus brought this about, although he contends it was unintentionally, after his win in the 1972 Masters.
  
Jack reached a point in his career, as now at age 37 Tiger has in his career, where nothing matters except one of the big four. Nicklaus seemingly didn’t care about and rarely entered any of the rest, which aggravated the late, great sportswriter Jim Murray to produce a column headlined, “Majoring in Golf.”
  
“I never counted my majors,” Nicklaus said a couple of days ago, “until (the late Associated Press golf writer) Bob Green told me at St. Andrews in the ‘70s, ‘Hey Jack, that’s 10. Only three more to tie Bobby Jones.’
    
“I said, ’Really?’ I never counted them. All I did was try to be the best I could be.”
   
Some of the facts are incorrect, if perhaps because of the passing of time. Jack’s win in the 1970 British Open at St. Andrews was his eighth, not his 10th. His win in the 1978 Open at St. Andrews was his 15th.
  
Irrelevant? Possibly. The ultimate total became 18, while Tiger, who has 14 but none since the 2008 U.S. Open, remains second.
  
“He’s got to win five majors,” Nicklaus said of Tiger’s quest, “which is a pretty good career for most people to start at 37. I still think . . . still he’s got to do it. If he wins here, it would be a very large step towards regaining that confidence that he has not won a major in three and a half years.
  
“He’s going to have to figure it out. But I think if he figures it out here, it will be a great boost for him. If he doesn’t figure it out after the spring he’s had, I think will be a lot tougher for him.”
  
When Tiger after his round Thursday stood relaxed behind a protective rope that separated him from the recorders and notepads of the press, he seemed contented if not elated.
   
“It’s a good start,” said Woods, who as others surely is concentrating on the finish. “Some years, some guys shoot 65 starting out here. But right now I’m only four back and right there.”
   
Tiger has played the Masters, Augusta National, since the mid-1990s when he was still an amateur. He won in 1997 as a rookie pro and then three more times, but not since 2005.
  
“I feel comfortable with every aspect of my game,” Woods said on Tuesday. “I feel I’ve improved, and I’ve gotten more consistent, and I think the wins (before the Masters) show that.”
  
What the first round in 2013 showed was Tiger can break par and draw a huge crowd that isn’t interested in much else other than Woods and not getting caught in a storm.

In a great game, Louisville achieves greatness

By Art Spander

ATLANTA – Sometimes it works out like this. Sometimes the biggest game of the season turns out to be the best game of the season, a game of emotion, drama and subplots that validates our love of sports, a game that, true to the mottos printed on the warmups of both teams, did rise to the occasion.
 
The preludes, the regionals, even the semifinals, were hesitant, awkward games, making us wonder what was wrong, instead of what was right, games when players couldn’t score, games that elicited criticism instead of the expected praise.
   
But on Monday night, the NCAA final swept away all the disappointment that had gone before, as Louisville, once trailing by 12 points, was able to sweep away Michigan, 82-76, and both take the championship and justify its overall No. 1 seeding.
   
It was a beautiful day for Rick Pitino, the Louisville coach, who in the late morning was chosen for the Basketball Hall of Fame and then so very late in the evening, just before the stroke of midnight because these games are staged for a maximum TV audience, watched and urged the Cardinals to their third title – and his second.
   
Thirteen years ago, at the only other school that counts in the state of bluegrass, thoroughbreds and college basketball, the U. of Kentucky, Pitino earned his other championship.
   
So Louisville, which at one time in the first half had trailed by 12, would come out ahead in the end, but the true winner was the sport, as wild and enthralling as only could be imagined by the record finals crowd of 74,326 at the Georgia Dome and the usual millions of television viewers.
 
“A lot of times when you get to championship games,” said Pitino, “the games are not always great, not always pretty. This was a great game.”
   
This was a game in which a kid nicknamed Spike, Michael Albrecht, a 5-foot-10 freshman, came off the bench for Michigan to score 17 points before intermission and then, as the media wondered if he were the stuff of fairy tales, slipped into oblivion.
   
This was the game in which a backup named Luke Hancock took the role of the injured Kevin Ware and not only led Louisville with 22 points but was chosen the Final Four’s most outstanding player.
 
This was the game in which players from both squads raced from one end of the court to the other at the sort of breakneck pace that had the screaming fans -- and oh, were they loud -- taking as many deep breaths as the athletes.
 
Michigan (31-8) was doing it for a while with four freshmen, and oh, are the Wolverines going to be strong in the future. Louisville (35-5) was doing it for a while figuratively without guard Russ Smith, who made only 3 of his 16 field goal attempts.
  
Yes, Ware was in the building, on the bench, the right leg in which he incurred a compound fracture 10 days earlier against Duke under sweat pants, his number “5” on the T-shirts of so many Louisville fans. He was given the opportunity to make the final snip, separating the net from the rim.
  
Louisville was not quite as ecstatic as it was relieved. The Cardinals gained control in the second half, as they did against Wichita State in the semifinal, but Michigan, shooting 52 percent for the game, wouldn’t fade until the bitter end.
  
“As fine an offensive team as there is,” Pitino said of Michigan.
   
The Wolverines with their happy ghosts from the past, Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and others from, the ’93 Michigan finalists in attendance, would get 24 points from the new Player of the Year, Trey Burke – even with Burke out most of the first half with  two early fouls.
  
That’s when Albrecht came in and came on, making 6 of 8 and getting his 17. That’s when Michigan zoomed to a 33-21 lead with 3:56 to play before halftime. But even more quickly, in three and half minutes, Louisville did its own zooming, and went ahead, 37-36. You sensed it had become the Cardinals' game.
  
“We feel bad about it,” Michigan coach John Beilein would say in retrospect. “We could have done some things better, every one of us. At the same time, Louisville is a terrific basketball team. I have not seen that quickness anywhere, and we played some really good teams. That quickness is incredible, and it got us a couple of times today.”
  
It got Louisville the victory, as one of Pitino’s horses, Goldencents, on Saturday got him the Santa Anita Derby victory.
  
“I think when you work as hard as we work,” said Pitino of his team, “it builds a foundation of love and discipline because you have to suffer together. You're always pressing.”
  
He meant for greatness. In this game, this great game, Louisville achieved it.

Reserves and persistence win for Louisville

By Art Spander

ATLANTA -- The fans of the school that didn’t win, Wichita State, were complaining, not about their team, which was magnificent, but about the college basketball rule that awards alternate possessions on what used to be jump balls and, of course, about the officiating.
   
What happened was Louisville -- which was down 12 in the second half and came rushing back to win the NCAA national semifinal, 72-68, Saturday night, and advance to Monday night’s final against Michigan -- missed a free throw with nine seconds to play.
  
Wichita’s Ron Baker grabbed the ball, then Louisville’s Luke Hancock also grabbed the ball, although the Wichita people among the huge crowd at the Georgia Dome insisted Hancock grabbed Baker, getting away with a foul that became a tie-up.
  
The possession arrow pointed to Louisville, and naturally Wichita had to foul intentionally. And that was that, the No. 1 seed beating the No. 9 seed.
   
But forget the rules and the refs. If you’re in front, 47-35, with under 14 minutes remaining, they’re not at fault. Your team is.
   
Your team, which was so protective of the ball for more than 30 minutes, which had only four turnovers, wilted under Louisville's pressure and made six turnovers in eight possessions. Your team, which got this far on 3-point baskets hit on only 6 in 20 attempts.
  
Louisville won because when its starters were less than effective, its reserves -- including a walk-on, Tim Henderson -- were very effective. Louisville won because it’s the best team in the country.
   
“They do that to everyone,” a saddened Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said of Louisville.
   
Then he sighed, “This may be the most important basketball game I’ll ever coach. It’s definitely the most important Wichita State has played in.”
   
It was no less important for Louisville, which certainly was without its emotional leader, Kevin Ware, who broke his leg in last weekend’s regional final against Duke. Louisville has made even greater comebacks – it was down 16 to Syracuse in the Big East tournament – to advance as it has.
   
“We had to win this game with our second unit,” said Rick Pitino, the Louisville coach, “with Steven Van Treese, Tim Henderson, one of the best sixth men in basketball, Luke Hancock, and Montrezl Harrell. Our starters played poorly, and that was because Wichita State is that good.”
   
If not quite good enough.
   
Henderson is one of those hometown kids who sat on the bench while Peyton Siva from Seattle, Russ Smith from Brooklyn, Gorgui Deng from Senegal – and definitely Ware, from the Bronx – got the playing time and accolades.
   
Hancock also is a sub, if one who Saturday night, basically taking Ware’s place, was on the court 31 minutes and scored 20, one point fewer than Smith.
   
Great teams, or at least very good teams, are deep teams, with players who perform when nobody except their teammates expects them to. Very good teams have players such as Henderson, who defied the Wichita State defense, if not logic.
  
All season, in the 25 games he played, Henderson had made just four 3-pointers, In this game, an agonizingly awful one in the first half and frantically exciting one in the second half, Henderson made consecutive 3-pointers. At the most critical of moments.
  
With Wichita ahead by those 12 points, Henderson cut the margin to nine at the 13-minute mark. Then he trimmed it to six, 47-41, with 12:18 to play.
  
“Tim hits shots like that in practice,” said Hancock.
  
This wasn’t practice. This was near perfection. Three 3-pointers in 17 attempts in 25 games. Two in three attempts in the national semifinal game.
   
“I think the two Henderson hit,” said Marshall, the Wichita coach, “were in concert with the two one-and-ones (the Shockers') Ehimen Okupe missed. You got to get some points there. Then the six-point run for them becomes three or four points.”
   
A week ago, when Ware went down with that gruesome fractured leg, the Louisville Cardinals prayed for him. On Monday night, Ware said he prayed for Hancock. “We’d love for him to be out there,” Hancock said of the injured teammate. “He’s out there in spirit. It means a lot.”
    
What meant a lot was for a dog of a game, Wichita leading at half by the ridiculous score of 26-25, to awaken after intermission and make the final totals respectable. More than respectable were the turnover numbers. Louisville had only two in the second half, nine for the game, Wichita just four in the first half and 11 for the game.
  
In domes, the shooting invariably is off -- although Siva, who was 1 for 9, was asked if the depth perception affected his jumpers and cracked, “Well, my layups. I couldn’t really see. I was too far away from the basket.”
    
No laughs, just the realization he’s close to the national title.