S.F. Examiner: Persistent Ko repeats as Skirts champ

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

DALY CITY — This kid’s got it, big-time, the game, the composure, the success. She’s No. 1 in the LPGA rankings, and she’s only 18. As of four days ago. Lydia Ko already has been called the Tiger Woods of women’s golf, a 5-foot-tall giant from New Zealand who hits her woods a mile and her putts into the cup.

Two years they’ve held the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic at Lake Merced Golf Club. Two years Ko has won. A year ago with a birdie on 18 to hold off Stacy Lewis. This time with a birdie on 18 to win a sudden-death playoff over Morgan Pressel that lasted two holes.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Inkster turns back clock at Swinging Skirts

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

DALY CITY — The beauty of the game. That’s how Juli Inkster phrased it at Lake Merced Golf Club on Thursday. She wasn’t talking about those who play women’s golf, although that would not have been inappropriate, but of the nature of the sport.

That she at 54 can be competitive against ladies who are the age of her daughters.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

Global Golf Post: Thomas Already Has Big-Time Game

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By Art Spander
Global Golf Post

PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA — This is Hogan's place, actually "Hogan's Alley," a label that stands as surely as does the statue of Ben adjacent to the practice green at Riviera Country Club.

History counts here. History and reputations. Justin Thomas seems destined to create both. "Justin Thomas," said Graham DeLaet, "is part of the future of golf."

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2015 Global Golf Post

Global Golf Post: Riviera's Short 10th Long on Difficulty

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By Art Spander
Global Golf Post

PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA — The sixth hole is a par-3 with a pot bunker. In the middle of the green. The 10th hole is a par-4 that's drivable. And perplexing.

Riviera Country Club, where the tournament is now called the Northern Trust Open but began existence in the late 1920s as the Los Angeles Open, is yet another example there's more to a golf course than length.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2015 Global Golf Post 

S.F. Examiner: Harding Park a rich piece of SF sports history

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

These are good days in the old city that remains forever young.

We start, of course, with the Giants and AT&T Park. Couldn’t get much better than that, could it?

Then we look a few miles west, beyond Twin Peaks and Mount Davidson to another venue of champions, TPC Harding Park, the muni golf course that in some ways is a miracle.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

Global Golf Post: Comebacks Anything But Easy

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By Art Spander
Global Golf Post

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA — Such an appropriate nickname. "The Big Easy." Golf, however, is nothing but easy, even for the man with the relaxed, easy swing, Ernie Els.

"I've been to the dark side a couple of times," said Els.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2015 Global Golf Post

The Sports Xchange: Snedeker wins in record style at Pebble Beach

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — He previously was No. 4 in the World Golf Rankings. Not just the U.S. PGA Tour, which uses the FedExCup standings. The world. Before he mysteriously lost it.

As happens in golf, where livelihoods, prestige and success are all too dependent on putts that miss by inches or drives that take weird bounces, in a matter of months, Brandt Snedeker was No. 63 as he entered the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Furyk takes lead at Pebble Beach Pro-Am

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The promotional slogan for the PGA Tour was and is, "These guys are good." And when the sun shines and the winds quiet at Pebble Beach, those guys are phenomenal.

The Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce absolutely loved Saturday. The temperature along Carmel Bay soared to the upper 70s. The guys swatting golf balls the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am loved it too.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 The Sports Xchange

S.F. Examiner: Pebble Beach brings out the star power

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

PEBBLE BEACH — The golf almost is secondary. Bing Crosby understood that. People make the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am what it is as much as pars or birdies.

As through the decades people, personalities, made the tournament we once knew as the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am what it was — Northern California’s annual winter party of occasional wild weather and constant enjoyment.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

Newsday (N.Y.): Jason Day earns Farmers victory in a playoff

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN DIEGO — It was a day of sunshine and fog, of birdies and bogeys and of a lead that couldn't be held until the final par putt.

That came from Jason Day on the second playoff hole of the Farmers Insurance Open that, without Tiger Woods (bad back, withdrawal) or Phil Mickelson (missed cut), may have lacked star power but didn't lack for excitement.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Farmers Insurance Open loses juice with Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson gone

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN DIEGO — The first few minutes of the CBS telecast Saturday from the Farmers Insurance Open were videos of swings by Tiger Woods. Which might be all you need to know about the current state of PGA Tour golf.

Woods hasn't been here since Thursday, when he withdrew because of back spasms.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Balky putter causes Phil Mickelson to miss the cut

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN DIEGO — The Farmers Insurance Open lost its second star in two days when hometown guy Phil Mickelson, putting "beyond pathetic," missed the cut Friday. Tiger Woods withdrew from the PGA Tour event Thursday because of a bad back.

Mickelson, who grew up playing Torrey Pines, shot a par 72 on the easier North Course after a 2-over 74 Thursday on the South, the one on which Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger Woods withdraws because of back pain

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN DIEGO — The questions about Tiger Woods before he teed off Thursday dealt with his game. Now, once again, they are about his back, and at age 39, his future.

Woods, in obvious pain, withdrew after only 11 holes in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, a course where he had flourished. He has eight wins here as a pro, including the 2008 U.S. Open, his last victory in a major.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Bleacher Report: Dream of Vintage Tiger Woods Returning Is Dead After Torrey Pines Withdrawal

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By Art Spander
Featured Columnist, Bleacher Report

SAN DIEGO — It seemed as symbolic as it was sad. There was the man, Eldrick Woods, the one and only Tiger, driving away into a coastal fog that, if it didn’t obscure his future—he’s done—it certainly did the future of golf.

Why does it always have to end like this for the great ones—injuries and ailments and worst of all an inability to perform with the magnificence they once did?

Read the full story here.

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

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger Woods trying to find his game

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

Even the weather seems to be against Tiger Woods.

Coastal fog, not unusual this time of the year in southern California, delayed Woods -- and everyone else -- by two hours at the start of Wednesday's pro-am for the Farmers Insurance Open.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.

S.F. Examiner: Will withering Woods find Tiger of old?

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

They are so good for so long, and then suddenly we’re wondering — they’re wondering — how and why the great players go into decline.

Why can’t Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum get the ball over the plate any more? How did the Niners’ Vernon Davis last season go from star to question mark? And what has happened to Tiger Woods?

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

Global Golf Post: Tiger Woods' Unkindest Cut

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By Art Spander
Global Golf Post

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA — The sign attached to the second-floor patio railing intentionally was visible from the adjacent fairway. "Welcome back, Tiger," it said in properly large letters.

Such a delightful greeting. Such an unexpected response.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2015 Global Golf Post

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger Woods finishes with career-worst 82

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Tiger Woods may have lost his touch — his 82 Friday in the second round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open was his worst as a pro — but he retained his sense of humor.

"I'm only doing this so I won't get fined" was Woods' opening comment to the media. Clearly he's been watching the interviews with Marshawn Lynch, whose Seahawks will play the Patriots Sunday in Super Bowl XLIX in nearby Glendale.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger Woods scrambles for 73 in return to PGA Tour

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Tiger Woods' return to PGA Tour tournament golf for the first time in 5 1/2 months was a struggle to be expected by everyone aside from the man himself.

Woods, who turned 39 at the end of December and hadn't competed in a full-blown event since the PGA Championship last August, started erratically, 4 over par in his first four holes, then rallied impressively and shot a 2-over-par 73 in the opening round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Bleacher Report: USA Getting Dominated Means Ryder Cup Is More Irrelevant Than Ever in America

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By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

GLENEAGLES, Scotland — When Andy Roddick, the now-retired tennis star, was asked about his rivalry with Roger Federer, he answered, “That’s not a rivalry. He keeps winning.”

The same could be said for the European team's dominance against the United States in the Ryder Cup. Once it was a rivalry. Now it’s an irrelevancy. At least in the U.S.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.