RealClearSports: Tiger, Tebow Battle Their Demons

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com


They were nearly 9,000 miles apart but as close as a television remote, the "T-Men,'' the demonized men. One is disliked for what he did - disappoint us after we embraced him like no other golfer in history. One is despised for what he hasn't done - play quarterback as conventionally played in the NFL.

On the Golf Channel, Tiger Woods at the Presidents Cup in Australia, a controversial and so far unproductive captain's pick by Fred Couples.

On the NFL Network, Tim Tebow...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Couples Taking Heat for Taking Tiger

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com


SAN FRANCISCO — This isn't about the Fred Couples who was tied for the lead after the first day of the Charles Schwab Championship, the Champions Tour's year-end tournament.

This is about the Fred Couples who is finding out what it's like to be Tony La Russa or Phil Jackson, who is taking heat for taking Tiger Woods for a national team.

Couples, with a personality as relaxed as his swing...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Spectacle of Presidents Cup comes to a close

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner


And so the golfing gods depart, the marquees come down and Harding Park, the little muni that could, goes from Tiger and Phil to a lot of neighborhood Joes, which is as it should be on a public golf course.

The weather wasn’t quite what was expected — brrr! — the competition was less than hoped, but The Presidents Cup was four days of memories and birdies. That ain’t bad.

Once again the United States was a winner against the international team, this time 19½ points to 14½ — not exactly a shock when the top three players in the world rankings are Americans and they play like the top three players in the world rankings.

Tiger Woods, No. 1 on the list, was a winner in all five of his matches; Phil Mickelson, No. 2, had four wins and a tie; and No. 3 Steve Stricker was 4-1.

“That’s what you expect out of your No. 1 player in the world,” Greg Norman, the international team’s captain, said of Woods. “You need him to step up to the plate. And sometimes he hasn’t done that, [but] this time he did do it.”

This time he teamed with Stricker to win their two foursomes and two four-ball matches. And then Sunday on his own, in what some called revenge for the stunning outcome of the PGA Championship in August, Woods crushed Y.E. Yang of Korea 6 and 5 in one of the 12 singles.

When Lincecum and Cain pitch shutouts, the Giants can’t lose. When Mickelson and Tiger pitched virtual shutouts, the U.S. couldn’t lose.

“I needed him — it sounds stupid — to go 5-0,” Fred Couples, the U.S. captain, said of Tiger’s perfection. 

The event needed him to provide the cachet of a high-level attraction, which The Presidents Cup certainly was.

If San Francisco didn’t exactly need the match-play event to verify its status as a world-class city, it still was a welcome addition.

Big-time golf makes such infrequent appearances in the West — although the U.S. Open will be at Pebble Beach next year and San Francisco’s Olympic Club in 2012 — that The Presidents Cup became a special presence in The City.

Yes, there are cable cars that climb halfway to the stars, but how often do guys such as Tiger, Ernie Els and Geoff Ogilvy walk the fairways out beyond Twin Peaks?

America again had a home-nation advantage in winning the event for the sixth time in eight chances. But Norman, the Aussie who grew up playing Royal Melbourne — where the tournament will be in 2011 — pointed out that the Harding crowd gave support to the international team, if not as fully as to the U.S. squad.

“I think it was a 70-30 split,” Norman said. “That would be expected here in San Francisco. We have a lot of ex-pats from around the world. Asian nations are represented very well here. There were a lot of Australians, and I saw a lot of Canadians out there and a lot of South Africans wearing their rugby jerseys.”

If Norman was impressed with the gallery, he was no less impressed with the venue. “I think,” he said of Harding, “with just a few minor adjustments it could be a magnificent course worthy of holding a PGA or a U.S. Open championship.”

Norman has no idea whether he will be asked to repeat as captain, but everybody has the idea Ryo Ishikawa of Japan is going to be one of the game’s best. In a match crossing generations and cultures, the 18-year-old on Sunday beat America’s 49-year-old Kenny Perry, 2 and 1. Ishikawa had three wins and two defeats.

Sean O’Hair of the U.S. — who had been coached during the week by Michael Jordan on intensity, and by Tiger and Phil on putting — overwhelmed Ernie Els, winning 6 and 4.

“I always enjoy getting advice,” said O’Hair, the team’s rookie. “Tiger always has been a friend of mine, and it was good to play Saturday with Phil. I learned so much about reading greens.”

Mickelson, a 2 and 1 winner against Retief Goosen, was elated when his wife, Amy — receiving treatments near San Diego for breast cancer — arrived Saturday.

“That was awesome,” Mickelson said. “What a wonderful surprise.”

The way he, Tiger and Stricker played also was wonderful, but it hardly was a surprise. They’re the top three in world rankings. And they played like it.

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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SF Examiner: Stricker’s comeback lands him on Team Tiger

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner


He’s seen as the other guy, the accompaniment to the main act, part of a twosome which some might consider a single. Steve Stricker was Tiger Woods’ partner in all four Presidents Cup team matches, an accessory, perhaps, also a necessity.

A man who almost left the game, Stricker, 42, has no ego problems. And of late, after twice winning the Comeback of the Year Award and this year having won three times and moving to third in the world rankings, no golf problems either.

The person assigned to join Tiger, especially in the alternate-shot, foursomes format, has to understand it’s not going to be a walk at Harding Park. The fans are there to see Woods. Saturday morning they were yelling, “Hey, Tiger.” No reference to Stricker.

But he and Tiger work well together. And when Tiger holes a 22-foot birdie putt 17 and then rips a 3-iron onto the green for his second shot on the 18th to set up Stricker’s eagle putt, Steve just smiles. “I have a front row seat,” said Stricker. “We all know what he does.”

What the two of them did was win the final two holes of the foursomes to beat Mike Weir and Tim Clark of the Internationals, 1 up.

When a few weeks back Stricker briefly was atop the standings of the FedEx Cup, eventually won by Tiger, Steve said, “We’re taking up space in [Tiger’s] world, but I’m thrilled to death to be playing how I’m playing.”

Especially after never finishing better than 151st on the PGA Tour money list from 2003-05.

His wife, Nicki, once his caddy, was home with their two young children. He was feeling sorry for himself, was ready to quit.

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do the rest of my life,” he said once. “I didn’t have the desire that I really needed to play this game ... Then at the end of the 2005 season, I went back to Tour school, didn’t make it and just kind of rededicated myself to work harder.”

Obviously, it worked far better than anyone might have imagined.

“I think we approach the game with the same mentality,” said Tiger of Stricker. “We just play it differently. I hit the ball a little farther. But our mentality and how we play and compete is exactly the same.”

Stricker, who grew up in Wisconsin but went to the University of Illinois, also has the right mental approach to be Tiger’s teammate.

“It’s been a blast,” said Stricker. “I hope he’s not sick of me.”

Nobody gets sick of winning.

Local legends make return to Harding


They had come home, in a sense, back to the course where long ago they had perfected the game. Ken Venturi and Johnny Miller were at Harding Park, for them a place of history and memories.

Each graduated from Lincoln High, a few miles away from Harding. Each had gone on to win a U.S. Open. Now Miller, 62, was working The Presidents Cup as NBC’s co-lead announcer with Dan Hicks, while Venturi, 78, was in attendance to observe and remember.

The trophy case inside the entrance to Harding’s Sandy Tatum clubhouse is dominated by the huge cup Venturi earned in the famous San Francisco City Championship of 1956, when he defeated E. Harvie Ward in a finals watched by 10,000 people.

Miller told the TV audience he used to fish in Lake Merced off the edge of the 18th hole, which for The Presidents Cup was played as the 15th hole.

“I followed him,” Miller said of Venturi who later was a commentator for CBS, “in his two careers, as a golfer and an announcer.”
Venturi, won the U.S. Open in 1964, the last year two rounds were held the final day, surviving 90-degree temperatures at Washington’s Congressional Club. Miller’s title came nine years later at Oakmont outside Pittsburgh.

It was fitting Venturi’s final tour victory was at the 1966 Lucky International at Harding, where his father once had been the pro. Miller never won at Harding but he did at Pebble Beach and Silverado in Napa.

On target


Despite an unseasonably cold, cloudy Saturday, another sellout crowd of some 28,000 — including Condoleezza Rice and former U.S. Open winner Juli Inkster — swarmed about Harding Park to watch The Presidents Cup. Support from Northern California sports fans has been overwhelming for this second of the five golf events promised to Harding Park over a 15-year span after $16 million was spent for improvements on the public course.

Who said it


Steve Stricker

Tiger Woods holed a 22-foot birdie putt on 17 in the morning after Steve Stricker’s relatively poor bunker shot and squared the match against Mike Weir and Tim Clark. Asked how he continues to come through, Woods quipped, “Luck.” Not exactly.  Stricker  said, “He kept telling me we are going to win. He was calling it all the way. Believing is one thing, and he pulled off some great shots at the end.”

Jim Furyk

“I love playing with Justin,” was Jim Furyk’s comment after he and Justin Leonard beat Ernie Els and Adam Scott, 4 and 2, in foursomes. “But we split up in the afternoon. We hit the ball so much alike. You need someone who plays totally different. Anthony [Kim] and I are two different people who get along great.” They also played strong against Scott and Angel Cabrera in four-ball.

Match to watch


Who else but Tiger Woods? Teaming with Steve Stricker, so far he is 4-0 in two foursomes, two fourballs. Today Tiger and the 23 others on both teams play singles, match play. Woods is 3-2 overall in five previous Presidents Cup singles, his losses coming in the last two Cups, to Retief Goosen of South Africa in 2005 and Mike Weir in 2007. After Saturday, he is 9-2-1 in foursomes, or alternate shot competition.

By the numbers


Total singles matches that will be played today: 12

Tiger Woods’ career Presidents Cup singles record entering today: 3-2

Vijay Singh’s career Presidents Cup singles record entering today: 1-4-2

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

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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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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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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


Matches that went to the 18th hole Thursday
Holes Geoff Ogilvy and Ryo Ishikawa won against Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker
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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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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SF Examiner: Presidents Cup: Lefty is doing everything right

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner


SAN FRANCISCO — All that nonsense about Phil Mickelson, the rumors, the criticism, is somewhere in the past. This has been his year, even though he didn’t win as many times as that Tiger guy, even though, like Tiger, he didn’t win a major.

But Phil won many hearts and respect that may have been lacking.

We call 39-year-old Phil Mickelson “Lefty,” because he hits the ball left-handed, even though he is right-handed, which goes against the old golfing concepts.

In the past, natural lefties — Ben Hogan, Johnny Miller for a start — played right-handed because left-handed clubs were hard to come by and because there was a wives tale a left-handed golfer was at a disadvantage. Until Mickelson and Mike Weir, the only lefty to win a major was Bob Charles in the 1963 British Open.

When Mickelson was a tot, he mirrored his father’s right-handed swing and never changed. Now after 37 PGA Tour victories, including two Masters and a PGA, why would Mickelson ever switch? What has changed is others’ viewpoint toward Phil.

There was an absurd article in GQ magazine three years ago that Mickelson was among the 10 most hated athletes. By whom? Not the public.

If you heard tough, sarcastic New Yorkers cheering for him at Bethpage during the U.S. Open, you’d understand how much Mickelson is admired.

As we know, both his wife, Amy, and mother, Mary, underwent treatment for breast cancer during the summer. Phil skipped the British Open, returned for the PGA and all the while kept the faith. Then eight days ago, he won the Tour Championship and he posed for a photo next to Tiger Woods, who took the overall FedEx Cup.

Both will be on the American side in The Presidents Cup this weekend at Harding Park, Mickelson and the International team’s Vijay Singh the only golfers to play in the previous seven Cups. For Phil, it will be a 15th straight year of competing in either the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup.

Phil was Tiger Woods before there was Tiger Woods, on magazine covers, winning a pro tournament as a collegian — not even Tiger did that — but once Woods arrived, Mickelson seemed to be chasing a ghost.

No matter what he did, it wasn’t what people thought he should do — especially since he was 0-for-48 before winning a major — or what Tiger did. And when Woods and Mickelson were paired in the ’04 Ryder Cup, Phil was blamed for the twosome’s failings.

Now we’re past that. We’re past Phil’s 0-5-0 mark at the 2003 Presidents Cup. Now Phil ranks No. 2 in the world. Lefty is all right.

 

Singh’s issues with putting resurface


He’s won 21 tournaments after the age of 40, more than anyone, including Sam Snead. And his former caddy Paul Tesori, who has a major role in the brief history of The Presidents Cup once predicted Vijay Singh would be competitive into his mid 50s.

But Singh is 46 and, with only three top 10 finishes this year, the best of those a sixth at the Crowne Plaza Invitational, he appears to be losing ground. The putting problems he overcame to win three majors have returned.

A contender halfway through the PGA Championship in August, Singh shot 75 the third day, missing several short putts.

Vijay, from Fiji but a longtime resident of Florida, has played for the Internationals all seven previous Presidents Cups, been in more matches than anyone and has an overall record of 14-15-6.

But Vijay is best remembered for an incident in the 2000 Cup.

Tesori, a good enough player to have earned a Tour card in 1996, was caddying for Singh.

For a match with Vijay and Ernie Els against Tiger Woods and former Stanford teammate Notah Begay, Tesori wore a hat on which he had written “Tiger Who.” Woods and Begay won, 1 up.

After 2007, Singh dropped Tesori. It’s doubtful Tesori will put “Vijay Who” on his cap.

 

On target


Course superintendents, like umpires, seemingly are only noticed when things go wrong. Nine of Harding’s greens were burned when too much fertilizer was applied in the beginning of August and word was the course would not be ready. “It has been blown out of proportion,” said Wayne Kappelman, Harding’s superintendent. “It was repaired within a week, and all 18 greens are in great shape. The course is where it should be.”

 

Newsmakers


Adam Scott
A year ago, the Australian was No. 3 in the world rankings. Then, after months of injuries and other woes, he was No. 53 
and figured he had no chance of making the International team. But Greg Norman — also an Aussie — made Scott one of his two captain’s picks, saying, “At the end of the day he’s got the playing skills ... what he can bring to the locker room, he was a logical choice.”

Tiger Woods
The world’s top-ranked golfer had an uphill 15-foot putt, with darkness settling in, to stay in the match during a unique sudden-death playoff for the trophy against homeboy Ernie Els at the end of the ’03 Cup in South Africa. “If you missed,” Woods said, “you let your teammates down, your captain down, all the wives and girlfriends. It was one of the most nerve-wracking moments of my life.” He made the putt. Then it was agreed the U.S. and International teams would share the trophy.

 

Hole to watch


No. 15, 468 yards, par 4 
This played as the closing hole in the 2005 World Golf Championship and is normally the 18th when the course is used for public play. The tee shot must carry Lake Merced and a stand of tall trees, yet anything to the right is likely to find two large, fairway bunkers. Once in the fairway, the approach is to a green that is pitched subtly from back to front. Anything short could spin back toward the fairway.

 

Sports by numbers


14-15-6 Vijay Singh’s career Presidents Cup record
13-11-1 Tiger Woods’ career Presidents Cup record

 
5 Total players who will be competing in their first Presidents Cup

 

Schedule of events


TUESDAY
8 a.m. — Gates open to public for practice rounds

WEDNESDAY
8 a.m. — Gates open to public for practice rounds
4 p.m. — Opening ceremonies

THURSDAY
9 a.m. — Gates open to public
11:30 a.m. — Foursome matches
TV — Golf Channel

FRIDAY
9 a.m. — Gates open to public
11:55 a.m. — Four-ball matches
TV — Golf Channel

SATURDAY
6:30 a.m. — Gates open to public
7:30 a.m. — Foursome matches 
12:05 p.m. — Four-ball matches
TV — NBC (KNTV, Ch. 11)

SUNDAY
7:30 a.m. — Gates open to public
9:25 a.m. — Singles matches
TBD— Closing ceremonies (30 minutes after play ends)
TV — NBC (KNTV, Ch. 11)

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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http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Presidents-Cup-Lefty-is-doing-everything-right-63507997.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company
 

SF Examiner: Presidents Cup is a different kind of fall classic

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner


SAN FRANCISCO — This one will be our World Series since that’s not in the picture at the moment, our fall classic.

This one will be a prize for Sandy Tatum, the 89-year-old attorney who saw beauty in a run-down muni course.

This one will be a chance for us to get a different look at a city often covered by fog and hidden under political rhetoric.

This one is The Presidents Cup, the tournament where Tiger and Phil are teammates, not opponents, where Greg Norman calls the shots instead of hitting them, where, for a few days, golf grabs headlines that in October usually go to the Niners, Raiders, Cal or Stanford. 

Harding Park used to be San Francisco’s pride, a place Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus all played, a place native San Franciscans Ken Venturi and Johnny Miller — both U.S. Open champions — developed their games.

Named for the 29th president, Warren Harding, who died while visiting San Francisco in 1923, the course was a beauty. Then she became ragged, unappealing.

Tatum, once president of the U.S. Golf Association, led a campaign for restoration, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem saw a chance to have the game return to The City, and $16 million later the project was completed, better than anyone might imagine.

Finchem promised five events over 15 years. The first was the 2005 American Express Championship, in which Tiger Woods beat John Daly in a playoff.

The second is this eighth Presidents Cup, matching teams from the United States and the rest of the world excluding Europe, which battles America in the Ryder Cup.

Harding is out on San Francisco’s western edge, across the road from the more famous, but not necessarily more admired, Olympic Club, site of four U.S. Opens and a scheduled fifth in 2012.

During the 2005 Am Ex, when told Harding was used as a parking lot for the ’98 Open at Olympic, John Daly cracked, “They should have held the Open at Harding and parked cars at Olympic.”

Twelve men a side in The Presidents Cup, Woods, Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Kenny Perry, Stewart Cink, among those on the American team, Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy and Y.E. Yang, the man who beat Tiger, on the Internationals.

The U.S. captain is Fred Couples, while Norman heads the other squad. Competition, starting Thursday, consists of 34 matches, 
11 foursomes (alternate shot), 11 four-ball (or better ball) and 12 singles.

No World Series, but world class golfers. It could be worse. It couldn’t be much better.

Els makes long, strange trip to town

A week ago, he was in Atlanta for the Tour Championship. Next week, he’ll be in San Francisco for the Presidents Cup.

This week, however, Ernie Els is in Scotland for the Albert Dunhill Championship, not exactly taking the most direct route from Point A to Point B.

“This tournament has been so dear to my dad and me over the years,” said Els of the Dunhill, where he pairs with his father in the pro-am.

“We’ve played in it many times and we’ve made the cut through to the final day in all but one of the years. It’s a great time for me — you know, to be at the Home of Golf with my dad. We don’t get to see each other as much as we’d like, and when we play golf we can really relax and enjoy it.”

Els has played in five of the seven previous Presidents Cups. In 2003, when it was played in his homeland, South Africa, Els and Tiger Woods started to face each other to break a tie, but then captains Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player agreed to share the trophy.

As far as going from the Georgia to Scotland to California, Els, who turns 40 on Oct. 17, said, “I’ll give the Heinekens a week off. I’ve got a G-5. It flies straight in. I’ll do a lot of sleeping, a lot of resting. It’s just the [8-hour] time change, that’s all.”

On target

The Americans are considered the favorites, based on recent history and world rankings. It has the current version of the “Big Three” — Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker, not only ranked Nos. 1-2-3, but winners of the last three playoff events on the PGA Tour. It has five of the top 10 players in the world, and it’s lowest-ranked player is Justin Leonard at No. 37.

Newsmakers

Harding Park
The golf course’s most picturesque hole is the par-4 18th, requiring a drive over the corner of Lake Merced. But Mike Bodney, the PGA Tour’s senior V.P. of The Presidents Cup, said statistics showed a typical match ends on the 17th hole. So, Harding was rerouted with numerous hole changes, among those the 18th becoming the 15th hole, the 10th the first, the first the 16th and ninth the 18th.

Geoff Ogilvy
If The Presidents Cup, held only seven times previously, lacks the tension of the Ryder Cup, which began in 1927, that’s understandable. America didn’t really care about the Ryder Cup until it started losing to the Great Britain-Europe teams. The Australian Ogilvy sees that as a solution for The Presidents Cup, pointing out, “It’s going to take the International team winning a few times to annoy the U.S. and get them geared up like they are in the Ryder Cup.”

Match play

A closer look The Presidents Cup is match play. Low score wins the hole. If each team has the same score, a hole is halved. As an example, should the U.S. make par on the first hole and the International team bogey, the U.S. is 1 up. If the Internationals then make bogey on the second hole and the U.S. double bogeys, the match is even. A match ends when one side is farther ahead than holes remaining.

By the numbers

606 Length of the fifth hole in yards, the longest on the course

164 Length of the 14th hole in yards, the shortest on the course

7,137 Total length of course in yards

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: Tiger shows he’s human at PGA

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner


SAN FRANCISCO — Rocky Marciano was the exception. A heavyweight champ who never never lost a fight. Retired without a blemish. For a while there, we thought Tiger Woods was similarly perfect. We should have known better.

That’s the thing about sports, no matter what sort of competition. The favorites — the 49ers of the 1980s, the Yankees of the 1960s, the Lakers of the 2000s — usually win. But not always. And sometimes when they lose, we’re in disbelief.

As when Mike Tyson fell to Buster Douglas. Or when Dennis Eckersley gave up that home run in the bottom of the ninth in the first game of the ’88 World Series to a limping Kirk Gibson. Or when Ben Hogan was beaten by a driving range pro named Jack Fleck in the 1955 U.S. Open at San Francisco’s Olympic Club.

Or when Tiger Woods was stunned on Sunday by a Korean named Y.E. (for Yong-Eun) Yang in the PGA Championship back in Minnesota.

We love the underdog, except in golf and tennis. The world was right when Arnie and Jack were champions, when McEnroe and Connors were winners. Nor was it so bad around here when the Niners were picking up Super Bowl trophies.

But change is inevitable. Surprise is inevitable. No way 37-year-old Y.E. Yang could beat Tiger. Until he beat him. Then golf became just that much more intriguing.

There’s something called the Presidents Cup coming to Harding Park in October. It’s like the Ryder Cup, except instead of facing a European-British squad, the Americans meet an international team, players from Australia and South Africa and South America and, yes, Korea.

It isn’t the PGA or the Masters, it isn’t a major, but the Presidents Cup will give us Tiger-Yang, redux. We can only hope they play at least one match against each other, singles preferably.

You know this by now, Yang, who didn’t start playing golf until 19, just smacking balls on one of those multideck driving ranges in Seoul, is the first Asian male to win a major. Korea’s going mad, as well it should.

Now it has its own entry in the game’s pantheon. Hagen, Hogan, Y.E. Yang. Great play is not the exclusive possession of any nation.

A tough year for the Stanford guys. Tom Watson, at age 59, comes within a shot of winning the British Open. Tiger Woods, at age 33, holds or shares the lead for four days of the season’s last major and gets beat.

It was stunning. Yet it was overdue. If not this tournament, then some major. The gods of sport eventually make their presence known.

Nobody’s won three Super Bowls in succession, and yes in the mind’s eye we still cringe as Roger Craig fumbles Steve Young’s handoff in the 1990 NFC playoffs.

Something goes wrong. Or for the other side goes right. Favorites lose, underdogs win. Y.E. Yang was as big an underdog as we might imagine, which made the win all the more unbelievable. And captivating.

It may never happen again, but once was enough. We thought that like death and taxes, Tiger Woods with a lead in the final round of a major was a sure thing. We should have known better.

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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http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Spander-Tiger-shows-hes-human-at-PGA-53632862.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company