SF Examiner: Leonard takes his shots

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It was a matter of shots for Justin Leonard. The kind you hit. The kind you drink. Or make people think you’re drinking.

Leonard had a good Friday in the Presidents Cup. Teamed with Phil Mickelson to win their four-ball match at Harding Park. Helped the United States stay in front on Day 2, in effect ending up where it began, with three victories and three losses to the Internationals.

A lead that was 3 ½ -2 ½ after Thursday’s alternate shot foursomes was 6 1/2 to 5 ½ after Friday’s four-balls. A total of 17 /2 points is needed to win the Cup, which has five foursomes and five four-ball matches today and 12 singles Sunday.

Thursday, Leonard, a great putter, missed a 2-3 footer for a birdie on the 18th green, costing a victory and half a point. Leonard and Jim Furyk halving the match with Retief Goosen and Y.E. Yang.

“I was pretty mad at myself,’’ said Leonard. “Pretty upset. I went to the putting green and hit some putts and cooled off a bit. Then I told a little joke in the team to to let everybody know I was OK.’’

Then Leonard, not exactly known for his sense of humor, pulled a big joke. He had Furyk’s caddy, Fluff Cowan, line up glasses at the bar of what appeared to be vodka but was only water.

“I went in,’’ said Leonard, “slammed the door, threw my stuff down and walked over to the bar and took these five shots like they were nothing and then slammed a beer. The beer was real and tasted good.’’

His wife, Amanda, was in on it. Unlike some others.

“I think,’’ said Leonard, “a couple of wives thought, ‘Wow. He’s really into this.’ But it was all in good fun, and I just wanted to show everybody that I was good.’’

He was more than good.  He was excellent. With the match Friday all square after 12 holes, Mickelson won 13 with a birdie and then Leonard won 14 and 16 with birdies.

“”We had a great partnership,’’ said Mickelson. “He came back after finishing the way (he did) Thursday night. He showed a lot of heart today.’’

Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker showed a lot brilliance. They whipped the Internationals Geoff Ogilvy and Angel Cabrera, 5 and 3. After smashing Ogilvy and Reyo Ishikawa, 6 and 4, on Thursday.

“Steve and I get along well together,’’ said Woods. “In this format you have to make a bunch of birdies and we did most of the day.’’

Only once during the day did Tim Clark make eagle, a 3, but it came at 18 and gave him and Vijay Singh a 1 up win over Stewart Cink and Lucas Glover to keep the Internationals where they started, one point behind.

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Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Tiger Is a Majority of One

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- This is a team event. This is when golf makes it "us'' against "them,'' country against country, or more specifically in the Presidents Cup, one country, the United States, against a group of them combined, Australia and Japan, South Africa and South America.

And yet this four-day competition held at a muni course on the western edge of San Francisco, Harding Park, a muni course that is not very far from the San Andreas Fault and very near the Pacific Ocean is not much different than most tournaments.

It's all about Tiger Woods.

He's only one player on a 12-man American team, a group that includes Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and two of this year's major champions, Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink. But as always, Tiger is a majority of one.

He's the focus. He's the main man. In press conferences, where he's practically invisible behind a wall of television cameras. On the fairways, where his galleries dwarf those of other players.

Tiger brings them in. Michael Jordan, his pal, is an unofficial assistant captain, chosen by Fred Couples as much because he is Tiger's confidant as anything else, is at Harding. So is Barry Bonds, back in the area where he grew up and played. So is the great Jerry West, a scratch golfer himself.

The event is special. San Francisco knows its place among the globe's chosen cities. Narcissism is not exactly unknown among the citizenry. When there's news breaking, no matter what the story and where the location, the live shot is always of someone standing with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Unless it's the Bay Bridge in the background.

But this Presidents Cup is special. Because in the last 20 years, since the Earthquake World Series, there have been only two notable sporting events that actually took place in the region: the 1998 U.S. Open and the 2002 World Series.

And because Tiger Woods is playing.

He once went to school at Stanford, but that was 13 years ago, before the legend had been established. Tiger doesn't come around here very much any more. But he's here now. So is the Presidents Cup.

On Day 1, Thursday, Woods teamed with Steve Stricker, who might be described as the anti-Tiger. Stricker is pure Midwest, quiet, unassuming, content to play the game and earn his money. A good guy. A very good golfer. But not the sort who has fans chanting his name. As they chant Tiger's.

Northern California weather can be mysterious. You're familiar with the line that Mark Twain probably didn't say but no matter who did say it is wonderfully accurate, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.''

Earlier in the week it was among the warmest autumns anyone had ever spent in San Francisco. But the fog and chill arrived just before the first tee time. So there was Tiger, who doesn't like long sleeves because they restrict his swing, in a long-sleeve sweater.

Bright red. For the U.S.A. But, as locals noted, for Stanford.

Team golf is a bizarre animal. There's four-ball or better ball, in which two guys from, say, the U.S. play two guys from the Internationals. All four balls are in play. And the golfer who takes the fewest strokes wins the hole for his team.

But on Thursday, the game was foursomes, or alternate shots. That meant Tiger hit the drive, then Stricker the next shot, then Tiger the next shot and so on until the one ball they were playing was holed out. It's a form of torture when your teammate hits into a bunker or the rough and you are forced to make up for his wildness.

When John McEnroe still was active, the toss-out line around tennis was that the best doubles team in the world was McEnroe and whoever was his partner that day. Same thing, in foursomes, with Tiger.

In the match-play format, meaning every hole is a separate entity and a match is over when one side leads by more holes than remain, Woods and Stricker overwhelmed Geoff Ogilvy and Ryo Ishikawa, 6 and 4. That's like beating someone by three touchdowns.

Woods now has the best foursomes record of anyone in the nine years of Presidents Cup play, eight wins, two losses and a half.

"I felt a little extra pressure going out today,'' said Stricker. "I was comfortable having Tiger as a partner, but I wanted to make sure he was comfortable having me as a partner because I didn't want to feel he had to hold up my end as well as his end.''

Tiger Woods will hold up both ends and the middle. He's a big reason the Presidents Cup is a sellout. He's a big reason the U.S. has the first-day lead.

"Where's Tiger?'' some breathless fan asked when he and Stricker were still in the distance.

Where's Tiger? Where he always is. By himself in the world of sport.

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. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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© RealClearSports 2009

SF Examiner: Americans generate momentum early on

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — It doesn’t get much better than this. For the world’s best golfers. For a muni called Harding Park. For a sellout crowd which knows this sort of an event may never come along again in San Francisco.

Day 1 of The Presidents Cup on Thursday offered more sunshine than expected, as many close matches as anticipated, not quite as much success from the International team as hoped and, naturally, a brilliant showing from one Eldrick “Tiger” Woods.

Tiger and Steve Stricker were anything but the odd couple in the foursomes, the alternate shot competition, crushing Geoff Ogilvy, the Australian, and Japan’s teenage “Shy Prince,” Ryo Ishikawa, 6 and 4.

They used to say the best tennis doubles team in the world was John McEnroe and anyone else. In foursomes, where one man hits a shot, and the other the next shot and so on until the ball in is in the hole, that would apply to Woods. He now is 8-2-1 in Presidents Cup foursomes.

“It’s just one of those things,” said Tiger, “where you’ve got to make birdies at the right time and make a lot of them.”
What the International team, the Aussies, Japanese, South Americans, South Africans, Koreans, Canadians and Fijians, didn’t do was win enough matches.

The Americans, despite a yanked putt by Justin Leonard on the final hole of the final match which dropped him and Jim Furyk into a tie, still took the lead 3½ points to 2½.

The Internationals have won only once in the previous eight competitions, and as Ogilvy of Australia had contended, to make this tournament a rivalry instead of an exhibition, the Internationals need to do something other than just show up. After Thursday, that probably isn’t going to happen.

“The game can be cruel,” said Greg Norman, the International captain — a man who having blown Masters tournaments and had a British Open and PGA snatched from him knows how cruel.

“We are not too despondent about today,” said Ernie Els, who combined with Adam Scott for one of the two International wins. “That’s one of the better starts we’d had, believe it or not, the last three Cups.”

At one of the better venues, according to Phil Mickelson of the U.S., who teamed with Anthony Kim for a 3 and 2 win over Mike Weir and Tim Clark.

“It’s a really wonderful course,” said Mickelson, “and it’s perfect for this event.”

There was an imperfection from someone in the gallery who, when Ogilvy was about to putt at three yelled, “Noonan,” a term from “Caddyshack,” which translates as “Miss it.”

“Tiger,” said Stricker, “did the classy thing and apologized.”

Why are we not surprised?

 

Celebrity turnout at Cup boosts energy

The people watching Thursday’s first round of The Presidents Cup were no less recognizable than the people playing. In the gallery or in a golf cart were, of course, Michael Jordan, who U.S. captain Fred Couples invited for moral support, fellow basketball superstar Jerry West and ex-Giant Barry Bonds.

Jordan has talked about going on the pro golf tour, and on Wednesday was teeing it up at Olympic Club, across the road from Harding Park where he returned Thursday. West was a scratch golfer at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles. Barry can play well enough.

“I think it’s good for the game of golf,” said Tiger Woods of the celebs, most of whom were watching Tiger and partner Steve Stricker. “The great sports figures have all come out here and supported golf. It couldn’t be any more positive than that.”

Phil Mickelson, a big-time fan, particularly of his hometown San Diego Chargers, said, “It’s cool to have those figures out supporting the game of golf, and it’s cool we could have somebody like Michael Jordan bring a lot to the table for our team.

“I think that shows the extent or the reach golf is starting to have.”

Bonds, who just finished his second year out of baseball, resides now in Beverly Hills but is a Bay Area native. “I’ll be here for the whole event,” was Barry’s Presidents Cup promise.

 

On target

Justin Leonard, remembered for the huge putt which gave the U.S. the lead in the 1999 Ryder Cup, missed a 3-foot birdie putt on the 18th green in Thursday’s final match. That cost the Americans the hole and dropped Leonard and partner Jim Fuyrk into a tie, all square, with Retief Goosen and Y.E. Yang, with each side getting half a point. Leading 2 up after 16, Leonard and Furyk lost both 17 and 18 to birdies.

 

Who said it

Tiger Woods
The No. 1-ranked golfer and Steve Stricker never trailed in scoring a 6 and 4 win over the Internationals’ Geoff Ogilvy and Ryo Ishikawa. “We didn’t give these guys a chance to get into the match,” Woods said after walking off the 14th green at Harding. “We put the hammer down pretty good.” They took the lead with a birdie at two, followed with a birdie at three and were at least two up the rest of the way.

Phil Mickelson
Lefty and Anthony Kim won the par-4 sixth hole with a bogey. Kim, driving, hooked the ball only 180 yards off the tee. Then Mike Weir, teamed with Tim Clark, bounced one off a cart path about 160 yards. “They hit a few more trees,” said Mickelson, “and when it was all said and done we both had 5-footers for bogeys. We made ours. They missed theirs.”

 

Match to watch

It’s fourball today, or better ball, with the low score from either player counting on each hole. The final grouping at 11:55 a.m., is Geoff Ogilvy and Angel Cabrera of the Internationals against Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker of the U.S. Stricker-Woods whipped Ogilvy-Ryo Ishikawa, 6 and 4, Thursday in foursomes, but Tiger has the most four-ball losses, seven, (he’s 3-7 overall) of anyone in Presidents Cup play.

 

By the numbers

3 Matches that went to the 18th hole Thursday
0 Holes Geoff Ogilvy and Ryo Ishikawa won against Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker
6 Birdies Woods and Stricker produced during their 6 and 4 victory

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

SF Examiner: The City provides the ideal golf backdrop

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — Enjoy it, Tiger, and Y.E., and Geoff. This is your week in the city that knows how, the city that takes on recessions and earthquakes and never quits, a city which thinks like a golfer two-down at the 17th tee: How are we going to hang in there?

This is your week and our week, a week to appreciate talent and celebrate sportsmanship.

What a brilliant blending, an “only in San Francisco” mix, millionaire athletes playing their game on a public course, Harding Park, a facility open to all in a city which is never closed to any.

We love our golf. We love our sports. We love our diversity.

That The Presidents Cup matches, which start Thursday, involve players from America and Australia, Korea and South Africa, Canada and South America, and Japan and Fiji, couldn’t be more appropriate for a region with dozens of cultures.

A region brought to life by pioneers who crossed the mountains and sailed around Cape Horn, by Latinos whose ancestors followed Father Serra, by Asians who crossed the sea to build railroads.

It’s different here by the Bay, by the Pacific, different in Oakland and Berkeley, different in Marin and San Jose. We’ve been there, done that, but we never can get enough.

We’ve had teams win Rose Bowls and Super Bowls, had U.S. Opens at the Olympic Club, saw Ben Hogan stunned by Jack Fleck, the Washington Bullets stunned by the Warriors. We’ve had World Series, including the most infamous of them all, 20 years ago, when we were shaken physically, but never shaken symbolically.

Now it’s 20 years after the A’s-Giants World Series, the Earthquake Series, and The Presidents Cup, with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, Y.E. Yang and Geoff Ogilvy, arguably is the biggest sporting attraction in the Bay Area since then, along with the ’02 World Series and the ’98 U.S. Open at Olympic.

The weather is spectacular. The scenery is great.

“A beautiful place,” said Ogilvy, the Aussie who won the 2006 U.S. Open. “Stunning. We should play on the West Coast more often.”

The celebrities are impressive — President Bill Clinton and Michael Jordan for a start. During the practice round Wednesday, caddies for the U.S. squad wore jerseys from the Giants’ road uniforms, the grays with “San Francisco” on the front.

Steve Williams, Tiger’s guy, had No. 24. Not a bad twosome, T. Woods and Willie Mays. We do know how to put on a show, if a subtle one.

We have our faults: San Andreas, Loma Prieta. We have our priorities — right down the middle, guys.

No matter who wins this Presidents Cup, there will be no losers. In San Francisco there never are, no matter the final score.

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.

Thursday’s matches

FOURSOMES

12:10 p.m.: Mike Weir and Tim Clark, International, vs. Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson, United States 
12:22 p.m.: Adam Scott and Ernie Els, International, vs. Hunter Mahan and Sean O’Hair, United States 
12:34 p.m.: Vijay Singh and Robert Allenby, International, vs. Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink, United States 
12:46 p.m.: Angel Cabrera and Camilo Villegas, International, vs. Kenny Perry and Zach Johnson, United States 
12:58 p.m.: Geoff Ogilvy and Ryo Ishikawa, International, vs. Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker, United States 
1:10 p.m.: Retief Goosen and Y.E. Yang, International, vs. Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard, United States

To see The Examiner's complete coverage of the Presidents Cup go to http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/presidentscup/

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Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Favre's Too Old? Too Spectacular

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

So do you still think Brett Favre should have retired?

Not a bad evening for the man. Too old? Too spectacular.

We worry about others more than about ourselves. We're always giving advice but rarely listening to advice. Maybe we should just shut up.

That goes for sports journalists, writers, announcers, former players. The whole lot of us virtually demanded Favre give it up. Insisted he was making a fool of himself, was embarrassing the NFL.

Favre didn't hurt anyone. If you don't include the Green Bay Packers.

He's a football player who wants to play football. Disingenuous? Flip-flopping? That's trivial stuff. The way he passed against Green Bay is not.

There's a lyric from "South Pacific,'' a show that even predates Brett Favre: "...So suppose a dame ain't bright or completely free from flaws, or as faithful as bird dog or as kind as Santa Claus. It's a waste of time to worry over things that they have not; be thankful for the things they've got.''

Be thankful for what Brett Favre still has, which is a remarkable ability to throw a football, an unfulfilled passion for competing at football.

He will be 40 before this week is finished. The term "graybeard'' is descriptive, not only a cliché reference. But he's young as springtime when he's given time in the pocket. When he can thread a ball through defenders.

The Packers didn't want him after the 2007 season, not under his terms. It was a painful separation. But once he took his leave, Favre was under no obligation to walk away from the game.

We carry images in our mind. We hated to see Joe Namath stumble when he spent that season with the Rams, winced when Johnny Unitas tried to hold on after he joined the Chargers. It's not so much what the veterans do to themselves, but what they do to us.

We want to remember the homecoming queen when she was 21, not when she was 61.

Yet Favre at 39 is as memorable as Favre at 29. A father could poke his 7-year-old Monday night, assuming the kid hadn't gone to sleep, and tell him, "You're watching history, son.'' Because Brett Favre indeed is history.

An athlete is only what he can produce, only what his body allows. It was Joe Montana, the great 49ers quarterback, the winner of four Super Bowls, who had a ready answer when someone asked why he didn't quit. "What do you have to prove?'' was what someone wanted to know from Joe.

Nothing, in effect. Except for himself, to himself.

"When I retire, I won't be coming back,'' Montana had explained. "I'm not like an accountant who can take a sabbatical. So I'm going to keep going as long as I feel like I can play and I enjoy it.''

No regrets. That's the essence. No wondering what might have been. Just do it until you no longer can do it. And then don't look back.

You know there are individuals who wanted Brett Favre to make a mess of things. Individuals who were aching to say, "I told you so.'' What are they saying now?

That despite their misgivings, their disenchantment, Brett Favre is a champion, a player who makes other players better, a player who makes teams better.

The Vikings knew all about Brett Favre. They had lost to him more than enough. They saw him as the one who could be the leader, be the winner. So far, they are correct in their assessment.

We can never be sure when an athlete is done. A change of scenery, a new outlook, a revised dedication may resuscitate a career. We're too eager to write an ending. There, it's over, so go about your business and get away from us.

A Sports Illustrated article by the wordsmith Selena Roberts questioned Tiger Woods' future. In a year when Tiger came back from knee surgery, a year when he won six tournaments but not a major, he suddenly was on the downside and probably never would catch Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors. What?

Tiger is only 33, and to conclude his golf had reached a plateau is wild thinking. Maybe Selena is right. Most likely she's wrong. Nicklaus himself went three years without a major and then started winning them again with great frequency.

Tiger's going to be around a long while. So is Brett Favre -- he looked brilliant against Green Bay, looked like someone who deserved to be given the chance to work his magic.

Tiger Woods didn't suddenly lose his touch. Brett Favre never may lose his touch.

The great ones need listen only to themselves.

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. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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© RealClearSports 2009