Bleacher Report: There Won't Be Any More Tiger Woods Miracles After 2015 British Open Dud

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — He made us believers in the remarkable. Tiger Woods was one of a kind, captivating and enthralling. He chipped in at Augusta and won a Masters. He holed impossible putts at Torrey Pines and won a U.S. Open. But after yet another performance that was less embarrassing than it was lamentable, it is time to stop believing.

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Copyright © 2015 Bleacher Report, Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

S.F. Examiner: A single stroll at St. Andrews still sends tingles

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — An hour’s drive north of Edinburgh, across the Firth of Forth, in the county of Fife, is golf’s holy land, Churchill Downs, Fenway Park and the Rose Bowl all rolled up in a bowl of haggis, the Scottish national dish.

In a region where “new” translates as something constructed in 1898, the “Old Course,” at St. Andrews, is appropriately named. The game of golf, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, has been played on the rolling links for nearly 600 years.

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©2015 The San Francisco Examiner

Bleacher Report: Simplicity the Key to Jordan Spieth Staying Hot in St. Andrews Debut

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Golf can be remarkably simple. Hit the ball, find it and hit it again. Golf can also be terribly complex when there’s too much thinking, too much listening to others than to oneself. Jordan Spieth came to that understanding long ago.

Spieth is the best golfer in the world right now, not so much by marching to his own drummer as ignoring the irregular rat-a-tat of others. He’s 21 going on 35, wonderfully skilled — isn’t there a line that says talent trumps experience? — and supremely confident.

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Copyright © 2015 Bleacher Report, Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.  

S.F. Examiner: Tiger fading away, but we still must watch

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — To the very end, until he decided to step away, Sinatra could fill a room. You thought of that when Tiger Woods, still searching for a past seemingly gone forever, came to the press tent for his pre-British Open interview.

It was standing room only for the media. Tiger never gives up, nor do we.

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©2015 The San Francisco Examiner

Newsday (N.Y.): Rory McIlroy coasts in with first British Open title

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

HOYLAKE, England — It was supposed to be a coronation march. Instead it became a long walk, although not spoiled, to the delight of Rory McIlroy.

After starting the final round of the British Open on Sunday with a lead of six strokes, McIlroy saw his margin trimmed to two by the 72nd hole. Still, that was good enough to have him announced as "The Champion Golfer of the Year."

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Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.