Rory replaces Tiger as ‘Da Man’

By Art Spander

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Tiger Woods would stand at a tee, and the imposed silence frequently was shattered by a shout of “You da man,” which in golf he very much was. But seemingly no longer is.
  
The man in golf now is Rory McIlroy, who, as the newer Tiger, the younger Tiger, has found room at the top of both the PGA Tour and European Tour, who has had the sort of year – five wins, one of those a major, the PGA Championship – Woods used to have.
  
Not that Tiger was awful. He did have four wins in 2012, three on Tour. Except none was a major. None, indeed, has been a major since the 2008 U.S. Open. And, as Woods agreed Tuesday, “Winning a major takes it to a whole new level.”
  
Woods figuratively is home this week, at Sherwood Country Club, just into Ventura County from the L.A. County line, where he’s the host – and defending champion, for a fifth time – in the World Challenge, now presented by Northwestern Mutual.
  
A small-field event, 18 golfers. An elite-field event, with Woods, Masters champ Bubba Watson, U.S. Open champ Webb Simpson, 2010 U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell, 2011 PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley and various Ryder Cup players. The World Challenge funds the Tiger Woods Foundation and learning center.
 
So much of the pre-tournament discussions for the World Challenge, which starts Thursday, were on the imminent joint announcement by the USGA and R&A of the probable banning of belly or anchored putters. Simpson uses one, for example, and said he has been practicing with what we would call a normal putter, in which only the hands are in use, not the body.
  
Still, it’s people who make golf – make every sport – and not equipment. It’s competition. And for this, we return to the game’s ultimate truism: It isn’t how, it’s how many. How many shots did you need? The golfer who requires the fewest wins.
  
Which McIlroy did last weekend in Dubai. He birdied the last five holes and came in two shots in front of Justin Rose. "I just wanted to finish the season the way I thought it deserved to be finished," said McIlroy.
  
The question was whether he finished Tiger’s chances of ever overtaking him. McIlroy is 23. The best is ahead. Tiger, in a month, will be 37. Is his best in the rear-view mirror?
  
“Rory is ranked No. 1 (in the world),” said Woods. “He deserves it . . . He should be very proud of the season he’s had, and I’m sure he’s excited about what next year holds for him as well, coming off a great year like this.”
   
The words are magnanimous, expected from one champion about another. But deep down, does Tiger think to himself, “I still can beat him, beat anyone”? Is he intent on proving those who belittle him, who degrade him, who make predictions of his demise?
 
“I needed to get to a point where I was playing a full season,” was Tiger’s response, “and where I was competitive, not where I was missing big chunks of time, which I had been over the past years.
  
“There were quite a few people out there who said I would never win again. Well, starting at this event, I won four times. That’s not too bad.”
  
"Not too bad" hardly is the description we once applied to Woods. A victory in the AT&T National in July was the 74th of his career, elevating him into second all-time, one better than Jack Nicklaus and eight behind Sam Snead.
  
Yet, we know and he knows – because Woods has reiterated the thought so often – without a major, the season is merely “not too bad.”
  
Nicklaus has 18 major triumphs. For four and half years, since the playoff victory in the 2008 U.S. Open, Woods has been stuck on 14, been stuck answering the unanswerable question of whether he’ll surpass Jack, or even equal Jack.
  
“Any time you’ve won a major championship, you’ve had a great year,’’ Woods insisted. “There are four guys (McIlroy, Watson. Simpson, Ernie Els) who have had great years this year in my opinion. And any time you get a chance to be part of history and put your name on one of the biggest trophies in our sport, it’s a great year.
   
“I know how it feels, and it feels incredible. It lasts with you, and that’s something I would like to have happen again.”
   
But will it? With Tiger slipping back in the final rounds of the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA this year, one wonders what the future holds. The adage is we’re not getting older, we’re getting better, but can a 37-year-old get better?
    
Tiger invariably had been good enough, until Rory McIlroy stepped forward and very much became Da Man. Silence please.

Yahoo! Sports: Spander: Irish stand up to challenge

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

LOS ANGELES -- The kid, a freshman making his debut as a starter, didn't have much of a chance. Against that Notre Dame defense no one had much of a chance. USC went with freshman quarterback Max Wittek.

The Irish went off to the national championship game. The echoes are awake and inescapable. Like the Irish defense. That Notre Dame has a linebacker who's a Heisman Trophy candidate is only proper.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Irish stop USC, head to national title game

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

LOS ANGELES -- Send a volley cheer on high. Top-ranked Notre Dame defeated USC, 22-13, Saturday night to finish unbeaten for the first time in almost a quarter-century.

The Irish called down echoes of past success with a defense led by linebacker Manti Te'o that was so unyielding that USC couldn't even score with a first down at the 2-yard line, along with an offense that enabled Kyle Brindza to kick a school-record five field goals.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

S.F. Chronicle 49ers Insider: 49ers make a statement

By Art Spander
Special for 49ers Insider

It wasn’t so much that the 49ers didn’t miss a beat, more that Colin Kaepernick didn’t miss an opportunity – nor, rarely, a receiver -- and Aldon Smith didn’t miss Bears quarterback Jason Campbell.

The Niners’ class of ’11 proved very much the class of the game.

Nine days after San Francisco could do nothing more than gain a tie against the mediocre St. Louis Rams, it came back Monday night at the ’Stick and tied the Bears, the team some believed was superior to the Niners, in knots, 32-7.

It did so using a backup quarterback, Kaepernick, forced to start for a first time because Alex Smith’s concussion symptoms had not improved, and a virtually unmovable defense featuring Smith’s five and a half sacks.

It did so before a national TV audience, which surely had to agree with Smith’s dead-on assessment of the result when asked if the Niners made a statement: “I’d say so.”

Not only for a game, a game that lifted the Niners’ record to 7-2-1 to the Bears’ 7-3, but a season.

“Who’s got it better than us, nobody,’’ the crowd of 69,732, chanted in accompaniment to a repetitive video in the game’s final seconds, and indeed at the moment maybe nobody in the NFL has a better team than the 49ers.
  
And this side of the New York Jets, with their Mark Sanchez-Tim Tebow debate, maybe nobody now has a quarterback controversy like the Niners.
  
Kaepernick, the kid from Turlock and the University of Nevada, the Niners’ second-round pick in last year’s draft – Aldon Smith was the first-rounder – stepped in for Alex Smith and perhaps stepped up all the way to the top.
  
Not that San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh would say as much, insisting, “We’ll go with the quarterback with the hot hand, and we’ve got two quarterbacks with the hot hand.”
   
Kaepernick’s hand probably registered 212 degrees Fahrenheit. He connected on seven of his first eight pass attempts, 16 of 23 in all for 243 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He finished with a passer rating of 133.1 – numbers reminiscent of Steve Young, who was doing the postgame show for ESPN.
  
“He did an outstanding job,” was the Harbaugh keep-it-cool observation. “Accuracy, poise in the pocket, play-making ability, understanding the game plan.”
  
What everyone must understand is that the Bears had the fifth-ranked defense in the league (the Niners were second) and led in takeaways, grabbing interceptions and fumbles.
   
But against Kaepernick and the Niners, they took nothing except a figurative punch to the ego.
   
Kaepernick threw the first play from scrimmage – “You expect they think you’re going to run with a backup quarterback,” Harbaugh explained – and kept throwing.
   
One of those passes was to Kyle Williams for 57 yards, a bomb, the sort Alex doesn’t throw. Another was a progression read to Michael Crabtree for 10 yards and a touchdown, the sort Alex does throw.
   
Kaepernick completed six, including one for a TD to Vernon Davis, who of late could have been reported to the Bureau of Missing Receivers.
   
This was as close to a perfect game as the Niners have played. The offensive line was effective. The defense was awesome. Numbers can be misleading, but these aren’t. At halftime, San Francisco had 249 total yards, Chicago 35.
  
“They started fast,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said of the 49ers, “and really kept us off balance through the night  . . . They had a quarterback that hadn’t played an awful lot, but he was on and looked like a seasoned vet from the start of the game. On the other side of the ball, we couldn’t get our running game going. We couldn’t protect our quarterback.”
  
Campbell, also a backup, for Jay Cutler, who as Alex Smith had a concussion, was sacked six times in all, Justin Smith getting the half to go with Aldon Smith’s 5.5 (All those Smiths are unrelated except for their ability to play football).
   
“I really just try to make people respect my power,” said Aldon Smith, who added, “I have a thing for night games. I love playing at night. I love the lights.”
  
They’re getting brighter, for all the Niners.
  
“Kaepernick played an amazing game,’’ said Aldon Smith. “Before the game I told him, ‘Don’t worry about the cameras, go play the game.’ And he put a good game together.”
  
It was a sensational game, a Tom Brady-Peyton Manning sort of game, but a game that, depending on Alex Smith’s health – Harbaugh told Kaepernick Sunday he would start – may not keep Colin in the lineup.
  
“I wanted to come out and show what I’m capable of and that I can be a starter,” said Kaepernick. “That’s what I’ve been trying to prove since I’ve been in the league.”
 
He proved it.

© 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.

SF Chronicle: Running woes doom Raiders' Carson Palmer

By Art Spander
Special to the San Francisco Chronicle

It wasn't the old Raiders, it was the newly revised old Raiders, unable to stop the run and thus unable to stop the bleeding; out of running backs and, when Carson Palmer missed Denarius Moore, out of luck.

You know the adage, the only stat that matters is the final score, which Sunday at O.co Coliseum was Tampa Bay 42, Oakland 32.

Read the full story here.

© 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.