By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND, Calif. — Every few minutes there’s another email, another postponement or cancellation, another disappointment.
The Kentucky Derby to September; the PGA Championship, the one at San Francisco’s Harding Park, from May to who knows when; the Ryder Cup from September to next year.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND, Calif. – “Those are the last fans you’ll see this tournament,” or words to that effect, Dan Hicks told viewers on the Golf Channel. “And there aren’t that many.”
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — He said he was delighted to be in the same final grouping as Rory McIlroy, who just had moved atop the world golf rankings. This way, Adam Scott told us, he would, “see how I stack up.”
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Bill Veeck was a promoter. He also owned different baseball teams, the St. Louis Browns (who were to become the Baltimore Orioles), the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox. He understood sports and the public’s acceptance or rejection.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — He was 2-under-par after one hole. An eagle 3 to open, an auspicious beginning. But you on know the sporting cliché. It’s not so much how you start, it’s how you finish.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — What’s not to like? Rory McIlroy asked the question, and indirectly he provided the answer. Which, of course, is “Nothing.”
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — It used to be Bing Crosby. Then Bob Hope. But is there a singular figure from the dozens of 21st-century entertainers and sporting heroes both famous enough and connected to the game to host his own golf tournament?
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — For a moment there, when he was 3-under-par on the first six holes, it seemed Phil Mickelson, back on the course he loves, was going to show us again it didn’t matter how old he was or how few fairways he hit — that it was magic time once more.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif.--You know the line, that in golf it ain’t how, it’s how many, that what matters is the score not how you got it. Except the way Phil Mickelson plays golf.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It was Jason Day’s darkest hour. He was in pain. He was in doubt. Nothing is more important to any athlete in any sport than his body.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — He finished strong, a birdie on 17. Sure, Jordan Spieth after a 2-under 70 is a mile out of the lead. But he played a much tougher course, Spyglass Hill, than the guy, Nick Taylor, who shot a 63 at Monterey Peninsula.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — For years, golf was not a game for left-handers. In part because left-handed clubs were as rare as snow on the Monterey Peninsula.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NAPA, Calif — No, Tony Romo didn’t make the cut. He didn’t even come close. No, Adam Scott didn’t retain the lead he had the first round of the Safeway Open. He didn’t come close.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NAPA, Calif. — So there’s a Masters champ tied for first place after a round of the Safeway Open, and a British Open winner a shot behind? Those guys, in order, Adam Scott and Francesco Molinari, are pros.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Tony Finau is the baggage handler’s son from Salt Lake City who turned down a college basketball scholarship — he was a great rebounder in high school — to become a golf pro and play on the mini-tours. He got his education on the greens instead of the classrooms.
Copyright 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — It was a triumph for a man, and no less for a land. Irishman Shane Lowry on Sunday won the first British Open played in Ireland in 68 years, clutching the famed claret jug for himself while sharing joy with his elated countrymen.
Copyright 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The chants rolled across the fairways and down to the sea. “Ole, ole, ole, oh-lay.” An Irishman was leading the British Open, the first one held on Irish soil in 68 years. Shane Lowry’s countrymen were shouting their glee.
Copyright 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — This is what the Open Championship, the British Open, is supposed to be: Birdies and bogeys, big names and no-names, and halfway through practically everybody in contention.
Copyright 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — One last putt. That’s all Rory McIlroy needed to make the cut, to make his countrymen ecstatic, to make himself proud.
Copyright 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved.