S.F. Examiner: Simpson turns back clock at Harding Park

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

One day, it was San Francisco nostalgia and a $48 hamburger for Webb Simpson. The next, it was a victory in the World Golf Championship Cadillac Match Play tournament over a former champion, Ian Poulter.

Simpson on Tuesday went to Olympic Club, where three years ago he won the U.S. Open, ate one of the classic burgers from a stand on the course and recreated the chip shot on the 72nd hole which saved par and the tournament.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Match Play at Harding Park is test of character

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

San Francisco? Herb Caen’s cool, gray city of love? Rudyard Kipling’s town of mad people? Golf capital of the universe? Indeed, all of the above.

Last week, it was the ladies at Lake Merced Golf Club, the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic. Thanks, girls, you were great, and mostly, in this place of wind and chill, so was the weather. Please, no reference to the comment Mark Twain never made, that the coldest winter he ever spent was, well, enough already.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Persistent Ko repeats as Skirts champ

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

DALY CITY — This kid’s got it, big-time, the game, the composure, the success. She’s No. 1 in the LPGA rankings, and she’s only 18. As of four days ago. Lydia Ko already has been called the Tiger Woods of women’s golf, a 5-foot-tall giant from New Zealand who hits her woods a mile and her putts into the cup.

Two years they’ve held the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic at Lake Merced Golf Club. Two years Ko has won. A year ago with a birdie on 18 to hold off Stacy Lewis. This time with a birdie on 18 to win a sudden-death playoff over Morgan Pressel that lasted two holes.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Mum Raiders have draft options

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

The two men in charge of the Oakland Raiders threw shadows at a few media types on Friday. To no surprise. The subject was the upcoming NFL draft, and the team’s possible selection in the first round. Which will be a surprise until made.

Teams are built from the draft, we’re told. And from patience. Construction of the Great Wall of China seemingly was completed before construction of the Raiders, who for seasons have been putting things together brick by brick. And taking them apart in much the same manner.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Inkster turns back clock at Swinging Skirts

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

DALY CITY — The beauty of the game. That’s how Juli Inkster phrased it at Lake Merced Golf Club on Thursday. She wasn’t talking about those who play women’s golf, although that would not have been inappropriate, but of the nature of the sport.

That she at 54 can be competitive against ladies who are the age of her daughters.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner