PGA Championship Quiz: 1) Name the two foreign golfers to win the championship in the 1960s and 70s. 2) Name the four foreign golfers to win it in the 1990s. Answers below.
Whistling Straits
I’ll go with Justin Rose to win this weekend. I am fired up for this one. Fun course to watch on television so hoping for fireworks on Sunday.
Jordan Spieth can become the fourth player with top-fives in the year’s four majors; joining Rickie Fowler (last year), Jack Nicklaus (1971, 1973) and Tiger Woods (2000, 2005).
Spieth is 9-2, Rory McIlroy 9-1. I know Rory looks good and all after his injury, but I’m not sold four grueling days won’t take a toll on him.
Dustin Johnson, who suddenly has a round three and four problem, not just round four, is 12-1, while Jason Day and Bubba Watson are 14-1, according to Bovada. Rose is 18-1, Rickie Fowler 20-1.
Boy, I’d take Zach Johnson at 40-1…wouldn’t you? Or Jimmy Walker and Paul Casey at 70-1.
–I missed last time that opposite the WGC-Bridgestone event was the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship in Reno, Nev., and J.J. Henry bagged his third Tour title, defeating Wake Forest’s Kyle Reifers in this Stableford format.
For Reifers it was easily his best finish in 90 career events (just 3 top tens), but it is enough to get him into the FedEx Cup playoffs. Good for him.
–Sunday’s are tough trying to put together a Bar Chat, cover as many sports as possible, while attempting to squeeze in an hour or two of exercise. [Example No. 675 of why I’m still single.]
So it was impossible to cover the impact of Shane Lowry’s win at the WGC-Bridgestone on his native Ireland. This is one very, very popular guy.
Tuesday, Vince Hogan had some of the following in the Irish Independent:
“Someday soon Shane Lowry’s going to have to stop this silliness of always smiling at the world and mistaking every fan for someone’s parent, sibling or child.
“He doesn’t get it, does he? Lowry needs to understand that professional sport is Hollywood now and the celebrity it offers should deliver you to the personal bubble of a life behind ropes, darkened glass and the hopeless banality of corporate-speak.
“Follow him on Twitter and you’ll understand just how urgently he needs a tutorial in self-importance, a PhD in evasion. This is a guy who INVITES questions for pity’s sake. Stuck in an airport departure lounge, his instinct isn’t to clamp on giant headphones and shut out the squinting world. It’s to open doors.
“He did last on August 2: ‘Have a half-hour to spare if anyone has any questions.’
“And, suddenly, in a rat-a-tat exchange, he’s just Shane Lowry of Clara, Co Offaly again. Sports nut, GAA* fan, big, grinning kid-next-door.”
*GAA: Gaelic Athletic Association…mostly about hurling.
“Here he is arrowing into the world’s top 20 golfers now, yet Lowry seems as rooted as a great, hundred-year-old oak.
“He palpably loves his Ma, Da and extended family….[Ed. here Vince Hogan goes into detail on various hurling matches and Shane and Dad (Da) taking it all in.]
“He signs visors with a smile. He even talks to people while scribbling, as if seeing them as more than just semi-functioning blood-clots, taking up his time. He doesn’t seem on speaking terms with any discernible ego.
“So you feel stupid trying to second-guess what’s going on in his head because he makes absolutely zero effort to conceal it.
“Shane Lowry is no gym Nazi, we see that; he’s not a teetotaler; he doesn’t view life as the endless punching of a puritan’s time-clock.
“Some people take pot-shots at his physique and he’s just too open, too honest to do the wise thing and press ‘delete.’
“On June 28, one brave chap upbraided him for a poor Sunday front nine at the BMW Open in Munich.
“ ‘How about some time in the gym this week and a visit to a good barber?’ suggested the Tweeter rather caustically. ‘How about no!’ responded Lowry. When Wise-Guy came a second time, suggesting Lowry was ‘not doing your talent justice,’ that durable Offaly patience finally snapped.
“ ‘U don’t know me or what I do on my weeks off so do me a favour pfo,’ he answered.
“That, of course, is incidental when you live your life as openly as Shane Lowry. He doesn’t mistake the job he does for a life in neurological science. ‘Pro golfer most of the time and having the Craic the rest of it,’ is the CV atop his Twitter page.
“He may play golf with the courage of a matador and the touch of a concert pianist, but maybe the most beautiful thing about Shane Lowry is his refusal to become some kind of antiseptic corporate brand for whom life beyond the golf course is a 24/7 yawn.
“The out-pouring of joy triggered by his victory in Akron last Sunday night reflected that. People don’t just admire him, they like him. Here’s hoping he doesn’t change. Ever.”
–The other day I noted how screwed up next year’s PGA Tour schedule is going to be due to the Olympics, and now the European Tour has made a big announcement. It will not co-sanction the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone because of a clash with the French Open, both tournaments to be held June 30-July 3.
A statement from the European Tour read, “The Alstom Open de France is the oldest national open championship in continental Europe, and has been a fixture on the European Tour international schedule since the tour’s formation in 1972.”
By not co-sanctioning the Bridgestone, the European Tour will not award money or Ryder Cup points – and 2016 is a Ryder Cup year.
Last week, 28 of the 77 players in the Bridgestone were also European Tour members, including Shane Lowry.
Mets 61-52
Nats 58-54… 2 ½ back.
Tuesday, Matt Harvey (11-7, 2.61) threw eight brilliant innings, four hits, no walks, in the Mets 4-0 win over the Rockies, while the Nats were being shut out by Zack Greinke and Co., 5-0. Greinke went six scoreless to go to 12-2, while lowering his ERA back down to 1.65.
Yankees 61-50
Blue Jays 62-52… ½ back!
The Yankees lost their fourth straight, 5-4 in 16 innings in Cleveland as A-Rod and Mark Teixeira continued to slump (a combined 1-for-12 last night), while Toronto won its ninth straight, 4-2 over the A’s, with Oakland shortstop Marcus Semien committing his major-league leading 30th error.
—Correction: Sunday I said the Yankees were shut out in consecutive games for the first time in 2,066 contests. I was relying on what I heard directly from Yankees’ broadcaster Michael Kay. It turns out it was 2,665 games, since May 1999.
–The other day I mentioned the St. Louis Cardinals’ superb pitching staff and in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, Andrew Beaton shows just how good.
The Cardinals have allowed 2.87 runs a game – best in the league by more than a half run. “More revealing, though, is that those 2.87 runs are 30.7% fewer than the league average of 4.14, according to Stats LLC. Only one team since 1900, the 1906 Chicago Cubs, performed better, allowing 2.46 runs a game compared with a league average of 3.62 – a difference of 32%.”
–Nice home debut for Johnny Cueto on Monday night in Kansas City, a four-hitter for his sixth career shutout as the Royals defeated Detroit 4-0. Great pickup for October.
NFL…freakin’ Jets!
“Same old Jets.
“Only the Jets could deliver this kind of punch line: reserve linebacker IK Enemkpali socks starting quarterback Geno Smith in the jaw over what rookie head coach Todd Bowles labels a ‘childish’ incident that will send Smith into surgery and to the sidelines for six to 10 weeks.
“The late Saddam Hussein might have called it Sock And Jaw.
“Over a $600 debt the idiot reserve linebacker wanted paid for the starting quarterback canceling a charity appearance in Texas because of the death of someone close to him. Smith had planned on paying the debt.
“Letterman would have needed a Top 50 list to adequately chronicle the litany of Stupid Jet Tricks over the years.
“It’s bad enough the franchise hasn’t won a Super Bowl since Jan. 12, 1969.
“But long-suffering Jets fans have been forced to endure more wild and wacky episodes of dysfunction, outrageousness, mindlessness and amateur-hour silliness than fans of any other sports operation.”
Todd Bowles, after the team immediately fired Enemkpali, later told reporters no Jet deserves “another opportunity when you sucker punch a guy and break his jaw,” while making it clear he wasn’t happy with Smith, either. “It takes two to tango,” Bowles said.
Smith reportedly put his finger in the face of Enemkpali, which hardly diffused the situation.
“Smith appears to be as clueless as ever and, frankly, the same could be said of the Jets. Sheldon Richardson, a great football player, had already embarrassed the organization this summer before Smith, a not-so-great football player, contributed (in some way) to a fight that did the same.”
So now the Jets are relying on journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick.
–The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Salfino had a piece on Adrian Peterson, who is 30, and the ineffectiveness of running backs at that age.
As Salfino points out, according to Stats LLC, here are the number of 1,000-yd rushers during the peak years, ages 24-27.
24: 84 rushers
25: 88
26: 96
27: 77
30: 23…best, Tiki Barber, 2005 (1,860)
31: 12…Curtis Martin, 2004 (1,697)
32: 6
33: 2
34: 1…John Riggins, 1983 (1,347)
So can Peterson approach his personal best: 2,097 at age 27, that was eight yards short of Eric Dickerson’s NFL record 2,105 (when he was 24)?
[By the way, I thought for sure Jerome Bettis had a post-30 1,000-yard season. Au contraire. His last one was at 29. But, Jets fans, Thomas Jones had 1,000-yard seasons at age 30 and 31 for us. He was vastly underappreciated.]
–Aside from the Geno Smith story, this one has you scratching your head. Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham, out for the season with a torn ACL suffered in Sunday’s preseason game while attempting to make a tackle on the opening kickoff of the second half.
Suisham was the only kicker on the roster and made 29 of 32 field goals last season.
College Football
—CBS Sports’ Preseason Rankings have…
1. Ohio State
2. TCU
3. Baylor
93. Wake Forest!!! …We’re 93! We’re 93!
126. E. Michigan
127. Idaho…poor Vandals fans…My Idaho Vandals football shirt is one of my favorites for running. But I might have to take it out of the sportswear rotation. Mostly I wear Oregon track and cross-country garb. [For new readers, I’m one of the few outside the state of Idaho who actually went to a game about five years ago in Moscow, ID. Indoor stadium…like a basketball arena with enough room for a football field….bizarre atmosphere.]
128. Charlotte (as the school begins a long, long climb into hoped-for respectability as a D-I program).
–Kind of ironic I mentioned Buddy Baker the other day, and then he dies on Monday at the age of 74. He was one of the first NASCAR drivers I became familiar with, a hard-luck one at that who had 19 wins, including the 1980 Daytona 500, but most felt, including Baker himself, he could have had a lot more. [He finished in the top five 202 times.]
Baker was the first NASCAR driver to exceed 200 miles per hour on a closed course. He was 6 feet 6 inches and known as NASCAR’s Gentle Giant.
Baker was born in Florence, S.C. and his father, Buck Baker, was a two-time NASCAR champion and member of the sport’s Hall of Fame (which Buddy himself was inducted into in 1997).
He died of lung cancer at his home in Lake Norman, N.C. [A beautiful spot.]
—American Pharoah’s trainer, Bob Baffert, is acting like his horse may be headed to Saratoga and the Travers Stakes on Aug. 29 after all.
“We’re trying to make it, but he’s going to have to really convince me. I have to be all in and feel really confident, because if he comes here I know he’s going to have to run hard,” Baffert said. “It’s a tough, demanding racetrack, but he’s handled everything thrown at him so far.”
Pharoah had his first post-Haskell workout in Del Mar, Calif., Sunday, and Baffert said he’ll decide after another workout next week.
–So having attended the last two U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, OR, I’m very familiar with 800 meters champ Nick Symmonds and have written of him before. He won the 800 at the U.S. Trials for this year’s world championships in Beijing this month, but he won’t be making the trip after failing to sign a statement of conditions required of him by USA Track & Field.
The deal is, Symmonds decided to take a stand in order to push for more rights for his fellow athletes. In this instance, the statement of conditions says everyone must wear designated team uniforms at official team functions, which means Nike apparel.
Symmonds, who had been with Nike for years, switched to Brooks in January of last year and he says it’s not clear what counts as an official function and he didn’t want to compromise his relationship with Brooks.
Well, it’s complicated because Nike just signed a new 23-year deal with USA Track & Field that reportedly pays the organization $20 million a year beginning in 2018 and ending in 2040.
But Symmonds claims elite athletes are only going to earn roughly 8 percent of the USATF’s annual revenue, compared to other major team sports where athletes get around 50% of gross revenues received, as reflected in the salary caps.
Runners, like golfers, are independent contractors. USATF counters they pay stipends, travel expenses, take care of promo for television, etc.
But here’s what I don’t understand. Symmonds is giving up the chance to take home the winner’s share, $60,000 from the IAAF, but also a six-figure bonus from Brooks. Haven’t really heard what Brooks thinks.
Symmonds says he won’t make more than $13,000 this year from USATF. The head of the organizing body says he’ll earn $25,000 in stipends and benefits.
–The team doctor for the U.S. squad at last week’s World Junior Rowing Championships in Rio “says she believes 13 team members suffered stomach illnesses after competing in the polluted Rio lake that will host aquatic events at next year’s Olympics.” [Matt Bonesteel / Washington Post]
Stephen Wade / AP: “The Americans were by far the hardest hit at the regatta that concluded over the weekend, with reports of vomiting and diarrhea….
“On July 30, the Associated Press published an independent analysis of water quality that showed high levels of viruses and, in some cases, bacteria from human sewage in all of Rio’s Olympic and Paralympic water venues.”
—NBC has retained the rights to broadcast the Premier League through the 2021-22 season. The six-year agreement is worth about $1 billion.
In 2013-14, NBC and NBCSN’s initial season of Premier League games, the networks averaged 438,000 viewers a game, up 118 percent from the audience Fox Soccer and ESPN had the season before.
Last season, viewership rose 9 percent to 479,000. [Richard Sandomir / New York Times]
—Lots of animal tales that came to the fore in just the last 48 hours.
“Six suspected tiger poachers have been shot dead in a gunfight with Bangladeshi police,” as reported by BBC News.
This is good. But, sadly, police seized three tiger pelts which they said were from animals freshly killed.
This was in the Sundarbans, the famous forest in south-east Bangladesh that is home to the rare Bengal tiger, No. 3 on the All-Species List behind Dog and Elephant.
A recent survey found only about 100 tigers remaining in the area. There were 440 just ten years ago. Man, this sucks. [And ‘Man’ will never sniff the 200s ever again, as it is demoted to No. 332, behind the snail darter.]
Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, it appears one of Cecil the lion’s cubs was killed by another big cat – realizing the fears of conservationists. Cecil was the leader of his pride of three lionesses and eight cubs, so other males moved in to kill his cubs and mate with the females, which is why ‘Lion’ will never be a top ten.
A source at the Hwange National Park told the Sunday Mail, “The lionesses fended off his advances but it is unlikely they can continue to protect the cubs for much longer.”
Stateside, “A woman is recovering after being attacked by an alligator that bit off her arm while she swam in a river in central Florida.”
Now get this. The victim was swimming in the river with a group, but left to swim somewhere more secluded and was attacked.
What is it with Floridians and their fascination with swimming in rivers and canals in which they know monsters lurk?!
The offending gator was found, by the way, and euthanized. Our sympathies to Gator Nation.
Separately, from Peter Holley of the Washington Post:
“Authorities believe a Montana man who went missing in Yellowstone National Park on Friday was killed by a grizzly bear, according to a statement released by the National Park Service.
“The victim, whose name was not provided, was described as an ‘experienced hiker’ who had lived and worked in the park for five seasons, the statement said. A park ranger found him partially consumed a half-mile from the Elephant Back Loop Trail in a ‘popular off-trail area he was known to frequent,’ the statement said.”
Well, I’m sure that’s not exactly what the park ranger thought he was signing up for…seeing half-consumed bodies. Based on the tracks at the scene, authorities believe an adult female grizzly and at least one cub were there.
“Between 674 and 839 grizzly bears are thought to roam the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, according to the National Park Service.”
Personally, I’d send 100 Grizzlies, No. 6 on the ASL, to the Sunderbans to team up with the tigers to go after the poachers. Like have the tiger briefly expose its position, while the grizzlies sneak up from behind and take out the poachers. [This of course would make for a thrilling, straight-to-video flick. Throw in an obligatory Miss Universe swimming in a lagoon scene for added measure.]
“A 77-year-old man has been mauled to death by a group of wild boar while walking his dogs in the Italian countryside.
“Sicilian Salvatore Rinaudo was reportedly ‘bitten to death’ after trying to defend his dogs as charging boar approached them.”
The poor fellow’s wife suffered multiple injuries while attempting to save him.
The wild boar population is in actuality exploding over much of the world. Yet another reason to always lock your screen door (and replace the mesh with reinforced steel).
One more, via Marc Santora in Wednesday’s New York Times. I’ve long said the International Shark Attack File drastically undercounts the number of shark attacks, especially fatal ones, pointing to Vanuatu in the South Pacific.
But as Mr. Santora reports, Reunion island in the Indian Ocean, until recently best known for surfing, has seen at least 18 people attacked by sharks, seven fatally, since 2011!
Reunion had heretofore been a world-class surfing destination, but the government introduced a ban on nearly all surfing and swimming in 2013.
–Finally, a few weeks ago, loyal reader Dr. John wrote me to say, ‘Check out Jason Isbell – Something More than Free – follow-up to Southeastern.’
Well, I apologized to the good doctor last night because I just got around to YouTubing it and that’s when I went, ‘Doh!’ Why I saw this guy on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” just the other day. Great story. Look it up, easy to find.
And to the rest of you, I read every note and take it all under advisement. Don’t be afraid to write.
[What I do is print everything out. What isn’t Week in Review in nature is part of a different pile. I’ve asked God for a 25th hour a number of times but my plea must be in a rather large pile of His own.]
Top 3 songs for the week 8/12/72: #1 “Alone Again (Naturally)” (Gilbert O’Sullivan…one of the most depressing tunes of all time…makes you want to blow your brains out…) #2 “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” (Looking Glass…big hit when I was at Wake years after…not sure why…) #3 “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right” (Luther Ingram…title too long for my feeble brain…)…and…#4 “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast” (Wayne Newton…yes, that Wayne Newton…) #5 “Where Is The Love” (Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway…great tune…) #6 “Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)” (The Hollies) #7 “I’m Still In Love With You” (Rev. Al Green) #8 “Too Late To Turn Back Now” (Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose…another good one…) #9 “How Do You Do?” (Mouth & MacNeal) #10 “School’s Out” (Alice Cooper)
PGA Championship Quiz Answers: 1) Foreign winners 1960s and 70s: South African Gary Player, 1962 and ’72; Aussie David Graham, 1979. 2) Foreign winners 1990s: Aussie Wayne Grady, 1990; Zimbabwe’s Nick Price, 1992, ’94; Aussie Steve Elkington, 1995; Fiji’s Vijay Singh, 1998.
