Masters: Which do you think is the better story: celebrating the victorious return of a golfer that left the PGA tour because he cheated on his wife, or celebrating the 3rd green jacket for a player that left the tour to be with his wife while she battled breast cancer?

I think it was divine intervention at Augusta this past weekend. Phil Mickelson played some of the best golf I have ever seen in my life. His shot during the final round on the 13th hole was epic. Phil not only handled the pressure, but thrived and conjured up his best play.

The whole world had to be extremely moved as “Lefty” hugged his wife after walking off the 18th green a winner. In my Masters preview, I was hopeful that Tiger would use spite as a catalyst for success. However, the real emotional story was Phil Mickelson and his wife. It seems like only yesterday that Phil was labeled as the best player “never to win a major”. Moreover, how many affluent, country club and silver spoon individuals can capture the affection of so many Americans that otherwise typically embrace the blue-collar underdog?

NHL: The Washington Capitals won the first “Presidents Cup” trophy in franchise history by posting the best regular season NHL record. The 121 points earned by the Capitals is the most EVER for a non Original-Six hockey team. The Caps will play Montreal in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and this is the million dollar question: Do the Caps have the defense and goal-tending required to hoist the Stanley Cup?

UFC: Dana White is furious in the aftermath of UFC 112. After watching Frankie Edgar pull off a historic upset to capture the UFC lightweight crown, White sat and watched Anderson Silva prance, dance, and run from Demian Maia in a battle for the Middleweight championship.

This is my take on both fights: B.J. Penn must have been injured before his loss to Frankie Edgar. B.J. was not himself, and entered the ring with a wrap on his knee. Because he made excuses following the “Grease-gate” loss to St. Pierre, I am sure Penn was reluctant to bring up the injury at post-fight interviews for fear of being criticized again. I will tip my hat to Edgar for being quicker, and for putting together a good game plan; but he shouldn’t have beaten a healthy B.J Penn. The Lightweight division will get interesting in the next 18 months, as one of my favorite fighters, Kenny Florian, will certainly get the first shot at the title. Can you say Florian vs. Penn II in late 2011?

This is my take on the Anderson Silva debacle: most fans think that Silva should apologize to them and Dana White for “The Spider’s” ridiculous display on Saturday night in Abu Dhabi. I think the UFC should apologize to Silva for failing to produce even one fighter that can remotely challenge him at all. Maia had ZERO chance of threatening “The Spider”, and I think that he is simply bored and irritated that over the course of his Octagon career, not one single fighter has given him a real fight. Chael Sonnen, a friend of the show, will likely get the next shot at Silva and the Middleweight belt. Reached for commentary post-fight, Sonnen said that it was his “moral obligation to beat up Anderson Silva.” Sonnen is a warrior and will not be afraid to stand and bang with “The Spider”. Hopefully he can present Silva with a viable challenge, so that fans get to see Silva perform at his best. Sonnen has been very outspoken and critical of Silva, so it should give “The Spider” a reason to give his best. If Silva moves up to Light Heavyweight full time, it is conceivable that a bigger fighter with heavier hands could stun him with a shock knockout. But I doubt it….

MotoGP: Nine-time champion Valentino Rossi won the 1st race in the 2010 Moto GP season with a victory in Doha, Qatar. Australian Casey Stoner, who has won this race the last three years running, crashed out after grabbing the lead 10 laps into the race. The race was tightly contested, but Rossi remained undaunted and made no mistakes in taking the checkered flag. Americans Nicky Hayden and Ben Spies (the latter is in his first year on the GP circuit), each put forth a great showing and just missed the podium, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.

MLB: Last but not least, the Orioles are just AWFUL. Mike Gonzalez took ALL the wind out of this team’s sails, and the Birds are now 1-5 and facing the most difficult stretch of their season. The O’s may very well be 10 games below .500 by mid-May. New faces, new expectations, new Spring training facility—same old results.

And for those of you that think the Orioles have good offense, think again. Let me reiterate that Toronto walked our #3 hitter to get to our clean-up hitter! What a joke…This team has ZERO power, and will have to win National league-style games with suspect pitching and erratic defense. The O’s cannot hit with runners on base, and Tejada offers ZERO protection to Jones & Markakis, who are both off to horrible starts themselves.

By the way, how do you feel about Jones blowing a bubble right before he dropped the ball in the 1st inning against Toronto, on Opening Day?
Typical O’s.

Woodman – at least I have the NHL playoffs & NFL draft to cheer for

So basically Tiger apologized to his family, his fans, especially the kids, and the people who work for him; he admitted that he cheated and was in treatment; asked the press to leave his family alone; denied doing steroids and that Elin attacked him; apologized to Accenture and his fellow PGA members; didn’t give a return date, but didn’t rule out coming back in 2010; and hugged his mom, family, and friends.    Did I miss anything?

Everything about the event seemed awkward, contrived, and pointless to me.  You don’t owe an apology to anyone besides your family Tiger.  The only useful piece of information that you could have delivered today was the date of your return to the PGA.  Instead you and your PR machine tried to take the first step in rebuilding your empire.  I think a better route would have been to hold a real press conference where you took questions from reporters.  Instead you played control freak and tried to set up the perfect sterile environment.  The general public would have respected you a lot more if you stepped up and took the heat in person.  That would have been the quickest and most efficient way to get back in the public’s good graces…that and start dominating the PGA again. 

The thing is that I don’t even care if he takes it on the chin in attempt to make amends for his actions.  I was never much of a Tiger fan or even a golf fan for that matter, but I always respected Tiger for his ability on the course and that alone.  It’s like that old Charles Barkley commercial, “I am not a role model.”   People need to stop acting like celebrities personally wrong them when they do something terrible, because at the end of the day you don’t know them and they don’t know or care about you.  I thought Bill Clinton was a great president, because America was in a much better spot when he was running the show.  I couldn’t care less that he was catching bjers in the oval office, that’s between him, God, and his wife. 

Lastly, I think the timing of Tiger’s address was extremely lame, but Ernie Els and the rest of the golfers that are openly critical of Tiger need to realize where their bread is buttered.  Tiger is, for golf, what MJ, Bird and Magic where for the NBA.  He launched the sport into another stratosphere.  The other golfers need to realize that, because of Tiger there are more zeros in their bank account.  So you can think he’s a douche all you want, but realize that he is great for the sport and you need him back ASAP.

Just my two cents.

~ Pat Cary

Let me get to my point before the message I’m trying to deliver is misconstrued.

We hear story after story after story about the lifestyles that professional athletes and rock stars alike lead behind the scenes. While I’m sure there are many falsehoods to what you may read in the New York Post or on TMZ.com, the overriding theme seems to be that the majority of professional athletes are not faithful to their significant others. From stories about Alex Rodriguez to Jason Kidd to Kobe Bryant, true or not, the common denominator remains the same: temptation.

Please don’t take what I’m saying as a blast against the sanctity of marriage. Marriage is a great thing. It’s simply not a great thing for today’s athlete in his 20’s or 30’s. The average American male is happy if a member of the opposite sex so much as strikes up a conversation with him at the local watering hole on a Friday night. For most of us, such a flirtation would simply lead to some bragging to our buddies the next day. But for even a middle-of-the-pack American athlete, these encounters occur on not just a regular basis, but at the grocery store, while walking down the street, while waiting for a taxi or taking the dog for a walk. Take the temptation the average American male has staring him in the face and multiply it by 1,000. That is the life of the American athlete, single or involved in a relationship.

Another thing, let’s keep in mind the era in which we live. Mickey Mantle was a notorious boozer and womanizer. He would have been on TMZ.com every day during his playing days, but he grew up in an era when a professional athlete could get away with things. I mean, Dr. J had a kid in the 70’s that no one found out about until the 1990’s…we would have known that girl’s middle name, who her mother was and what her favorite color was 15 minutes after she was born in 2009. Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez simply can’t keep anything in their personal lives “private”. While we can argue until we’re blue in the face about whether the media has crossed a line in going into players’ personal lives, privacy will never exist for the professional athlete again. 

While the whole Tiger Woods story hasn’t come out yet, one thing seems to hold pretty true. There are very few A.C. Greens among modern athletes.

So, if you aren’t ready to be a one-woman guy, please don’t put on a facade and try be. You WILL get caught. While Wilt Chamberlain (a hero too many) embraced the lifestyle and didn’t try to hide anything, imagine if he had tried to. Imagine if Wilt was married with kids today and tried to hide his many nights on the town, how well would that have worked out? While there are a few athletes who can handle the temptations, most seemingly can’t. Wait until your playing days are over to tie the knot.

Just my opinion, but I’m sticking to it.

-Tim

Tom Watson denying us memories on 18

After watching Watson’s putt to win come up woefully short (and right) on the 72nd hole last weekend at The Open in Tunberry, Scotland, I couldn’t help myself from reminiscing about the infamous choke by Jean Van de Velde and his triple bogey seven (and complete yack job of blowing the 1999 British Open needing only a double-bogey six to win the Claret Jug). Sorry Jean, that truly was a choke for all time. I don’t think Watson’s bogey on 18 was as epic as Van De Velde’s collapse, but Watson’s inability to par the closing hole on Sunday robbed golf & sports fan’s around the world the privilege of witnessing history and celebrating with a man who is a class act on and off the course.

It’s safe to say that we will never see another 59 year old with a better chance to win a Major Championship. Watson played almost flawless golf for four days. He admittedly had a game plan coming to Turnberry and showed he still is one of the best ball strikers on the planet. Shot after shot after shot ended in up in the middle of the green. With European stalwarts, Lee Westwood & Ross Fisher, sporting big white belts and huge Euro choppers, spraying shots in the deep fescue, Watson’s final round seemed almost boring. Even Watson’s putting looked adequate enough to win, as he made a few unexpected bombs on the back nine on Saturday. However, his effort on the 72nd hole showed the world why a 59 year old cannot win a major…. nerves. Whether you are playing for a $1 skin and the local muni or staring over a putt to win the Clarett Jug, you feel it. The ABC commentators, Jack Nicklaus via phone call, and the Turnberry crowd, which witnessed Watson’s unbelievable triumph in ‘77 by besting Nicklaus in the “Duel In The Sun,” felt helpless as Watson stood over the final putt in regulation. And Watson’s Achilles Heel poked its ugly head. Watson would have had many more victories than his already impressive totals of 39 PGA Tour wins and 8 Major Championships if he was able to make that late five foot birdie on Sunday or make that four foot sand save putt to keep it going during a final round.

Even with Tiger missing his second cut as a professional at a Major, golf fans were stoked to witness Watson’s improbable victory. Watson is likeable. He gives excellent interviews, as he has been honest about the nerves in his putting, his willingness to continue to play and his love for links style golf. However, Watson will be most remembered for his relationship with his long time PGA Tour caddy Bruce Edwards. Edwards was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease in 2003. With Edwards still on the bag, Watson fired an opening round 65 during the 2003 US Open bringing the gallery and fellow Tour players to tears. A few weeks later, Watson contended in the US Senior Open. After that, he was in the mix at the Ford Senior’s Championship. He desperately wanted to get a last win for Edwards. Finally, later that summer, he won the Senior British Open and dedicated that win to his friend who could not make the trip. In April the following year, Edwards passed away at the age of 49. Since then, Watson and author John Feinstein, the author for “Caddy For Life,” which chronicles Edwards’ life, joined forces and created the Bruce Edwards Foundation for ALS Research. Since its inception, the foundation has raised more than $2.5 million, which has gone directly to research.

Golf fans were not just rooting for a 59 year old to win the British Open, they were rooting for Tom Watson, the man.

Dan Walters – Bucks County/Jack of All Sports correspondent