S.F. Examiner: Local teaching pro mixes with stars at PGA Championship

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — There’s a difference between a professional golfer,  someone like Jason Day or Jordan Spieth, someone who plays golf for a living, and a golf professional, someone like Mitch Lowe, who teaches others how to a play and now and then has a chance to compete with the big boys.

The PGA, Professional Golfers Association, is the group of teachers and club pros, but starting nearly a century ago it created a tournament that, along with the Masters and U.S. and British Opens has become one of the four majors. The PGA Championship saves a few places for people such as Lowe, who does his instructing at San Francisco’s Harding Park.

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©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Amidst global turmoil, sports trudge forward in Europe

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

PARIS — Unable to find Giants or Athletics results in L’Equipe, the historic French sports daily, one goes to the Internet and ESPN and gets not, say, the Red Sox but so help me Qarabag FK, an Azerbaijani soccer team. Yikes.

Not until I open the Examiner website do I discover the Giants have been in a free fall that began in San Diego, of all places, and continued at Fenway Park. The A’s unfortunately have been in a free fall since April.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

Global Golf Post: It's Harder Than Ever To Win Majors

By Art Spander
Global Golf Post

TROON, SCOTLAND — Thomas Brent Weekley, better known as "Boo," understands golf far better than most, that is if anyone, pro or amateur, star or hacker, is able to understand golf. A while back Weekley told The Wall Street Journal — yes, Boo, the alligator wrestler, and The Journal seem an odd combination — that if you win a major "all you get is more hype."

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2016 Global Golf Post

Newsday (N.Y.): J.B. Holmes finishes alone in third in two-man British Open

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — J.B. Holmes finished third in a two-man race.

They say anything can happen in golf, that a couple of bogeys by one player and a couple of birdies by another can erase a lead in a few holes. But when Holmes began the final round of the British Open on Sunday, eight shots behind eventual winner Henrik Stenson and seven back of runner-up Phil Mickelson, he wasn’t thinking of a championship.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): British Open: Henrik Stenson wins duel with Phil Mickelson for title

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — It doesn’t get any better than this, a golf championship in the land where the game was born, with two players, one of the game’s best, the other trying after years to break through, throwing caution to the considerable wind and birdies at each other in a repetitive display of brilliance and excitement.

Henrik Stenson finished in front, with Phil Mickelson second. Sport was the winner. There were no losers.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.