A Sports Fan Speaks

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

When the final cheers of the celebratory, visor-clad, slightly over-stuffed pimento cheese sandwich faithful surrounding Augusta National’s 10^th green died down… when Stevie Williams finally got his classless, albeit Major-winning frame out of the picture long enough for a vanquished former Champion to offer his congratulations… when Jim Nantz finished feigning impromptu rehearsed lines like wedding vows… when Tiger wound down quite possibly his last post-round shot analysis interview EVER… when the 14 year-old low amateur who plays at the speed of smell and who, like the new Champion, anchors his putter but annunciates better than Chairman Billy Payne, steals the show in the Butler Cabin… when all of this happens in a mere 4 days in early April, one realizes that the Masters gets it right almost every time – unless of course it involves how to drop the ball – pun intended.  Congrats to Adam Scott… Oi, Oi, Oi.  

You’re My Boy Boo

It used to be a fairly regular Sunday occurrence when a man named Boo would scare a PGA leader-board… weekly one might say.  Recently though, the Florida Panhandle native with the Larry the Cable Guy drawl and the cultivated look of a forgotten Duck Dynasty relative has been about as forgotten on Tour as the teachings of David Leadbetter.  And that my friends…is a shame, because Boo Weekley is a character, he has southern panache and flair and while he may think on any given day that these things are pastries or wrestlers, he brings a freshness to a post-round interview that the modern cookie-cutter Tour pros would do well to emulate.  As with the Paul Azingers and Bubba Watsons of this world, I will never be able to stomach their politics and overt religion but what they lack in basic common sense, they all make up for in steadfast honesty and their stories run much deeper than the scores they sign for and the dreaded 5 minutes spent with Peter Kostis and his Bizhub.  Anyway y’all… Thanks for listening…

Flawed Floyd

I am now prepared to add Raymond Floyd’s name to a list of names that includes the Baseball Writers Association of America, Skip Bayless and Bill Walton amongst others who continue to preach pulpit morality about a sports world that has long since passed them by.  In case you missed it this week, the man who once famously said; “If you travel first class, you think first class and you are most likely to play first class,” has decided it is now just best to offer up random insults to World Golf Hall of Fame inductees from his seat back in coach.  “The bar has been lowered.  Guys get voted into the Hall of Fame who don’t belong, who lack the numbers,” and the suggestion is that at least 2 Majors should be a minimum requirement… John Daly just snickered uncontrollably and started writing his speech… but guys like Bob Charles, Lanny Wadkins, Fred Couples and Colin Montgomerie did more for the growth and health of the game of golf in an afternoon than Floyd did in his 7 cynical decades.  Remember when you rooted for a Floyd win?  Yeah, neither does anybody else… As always, thanks for listening…