I'm taking a quick detour this morning. Feel free to come along, or not. Your choice.
Admission: I didn't do a NCAA bracket this year. I won a bracket pool last year and I just never did one this year. A combo of factors but bottom line, I didn't get one filled out. There I said it. This allowed me to continue with a long-standing thought of mine: Once Syracuse's hoops season ends, it's the first signal that baseball season is around the corner. So once 'Cuse got blown out on Friday night, I had very little interest or investment in the rest of the games this weekend. As a result, I got to watch golf on Sunday.
I love playing golf but haven't been able to play much (kids and all) over the last few years. I, like many others, don't watch golf regularly, but will make it must-see TV when Tiger's playing. If it's Sunday and he's in contention, definitely. Yesterday afternoon, I managed to catch the back nine in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. And I wasn't remotely disappointed. My sons even joined me for parts of it (we play Tiger Woods on the Wii, so they have an understanding of the game and I got a kick out of my 5 year old asking if "was that a flop shot or a wedge?"). I had to remind them that Tiger is doing this agains other pros, the best in the world, and making it look almost easy.
You know, by now, how it ended and the best part was seeing it live with my soon-to-be 9 year-old and my wife. I KNEW Tiger would do it, just as if we were watching a movie and we knew the ending, but we were watching a slightly different script. His mental strength around the green is just absurd and fun to watch. I hope everyone got to see it, or at least the highlights somewhere.
It was just incredible.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Off topic: Tiger's pretty good, eh?
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8 comments:
I thought this was a sports blog? Golf is not a sport, and watching it is less exciting than watching paint dry.
- ditmars1929
ditmars1929: for the most part, I agree. But I challenge that statement watching the last three holes last night. 7:15pm - 8pm was as compelling 45 minutes of sport as I have seen in a while (since the Super Bowl).
"as compelling"
But it's still not a sport, Jason. I suppose you could call it a game, or a hobby, or something to amuse yourself with when you're too old to jack off. But golf is certainly not a sport.
You should do a reader poll on that. I'll present an argument as to why not, you can present an argument if you think it is a sport, and we can go from there. Might be fun.
Golf compelling??? I grilled some chicken over the week. I'm great with beef, but inexperienced with chicken. Trying to get it right and not overcook it was the most compelling experience I've had in a kitchen for quite some time. Then I cleaned up my son's toys in his bedroom. That was pretty riveting too.
You guys can't say it wasn't compelling if you didn't watch it. I watched the last hour or so and while its not on par with the Steelers Super Bowl from earlier this year, it was still compelling enough to warrant a non-golf guy like myself to watch it.
It might not be a sport in your eyes, but for a short period of time, it was as compelling a DRAMA as I have seen for a while. And I don't watch many of the TV shows (24, etc.).
if Rich Garces, David Wells and even little David Eckstein can make it in MLB, I can choose to enjoy the lovely gut of a guy like John Daly or the man-boobs of Phil Mickelson.
As for the chicken, you have to do it "low and slow".
And Steve said it as well as can be said.
Jason,
Attracting some snobs to the blog, I see. Hey, they all count as hits, right?
HIM knows that these PAMSIES who think golf is not a sport:
A- Never played it!
B- Can't play it!
C- Can only play games electronicly!
D- Don't understand the value of the locker room or golf course for 5 hours!
E- Can't draw the ball or probably throw it or catch it!!
F- Never putted for an eagle (and made it) after a 1 iron to an elevated, guarded green.
G- Believe sports is for betting on not playing!
Change your panty shield and be a man you wussy!
I didn't get a chance to catch the match this weekend, but I know what happened. That's phenomenal, and furthers my opinion that Tiger Woods is better at golf than any other athlete is at their sport (that is, the gap between Tiger and the next best golfer in history is larger than the gap between Jordan/Ruth/et al and their closest competitor).
And to the other opinions being mentioned here: while golf can at times be rather boring, let's not forget that baseball can, at times, be rather boring. I mean, do you really want to see a game between the Nats and Pirates in late August when they're both throwing out their #5 starters? that is rarely exciting baseball. Or, was anyone looking forward to that Chiefs-Lions tilt from last November/December, when the two worst teams in football (history?) were playing each other? Sports can be rather boring.
But a good golf match, just like any other sport, can be some of the most exciting stuff out there. If you like the one-on-one matchup of a Santana-Pujols at bat in September, you've got to love Tiger going for birdie on 18 1-stroke down in a Major. And, honestly, as much as I love football, the Super Bowl is rarely ever as exciting as when Tiger's playing for a big tournament win on Sunday (even this year's Super Bowl, as exciting as the 4th quarter was, was really rather boring and ugly for the first 3 quarters).
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