sportsblog

The NBA Draft is one of the sporting world’s biggest crapshoots. Teams spend months and months working players out and scouting them at pre-draft minicamps and still there is no guarantee that any of the players drafted will ever make it big or even be a rotation guy in the NBA. This year’s draft was no exception. In fact, it was even more of a whirlwind than usual.

I’m still not sure I know who has ended up on which team because there was so much movement on draft night. I think it was just a sign of how unsure teams were about hwo they wanted and who would be the best fit for their team. Some teams just had bizarre drafts. I’m not sure I understand the Bobcats taking DJ Augustin. Maybe, as Chad Ford says, he’s an upgrade of Raymond Felton, but I’m not sure that I agree and I think that the Bobcats have more of need for more of an inside presence. Even if they did want a guard, I think Jerryd Bayless was a much stronger pick than Agustin. I also didn’t understand the Bucks drafting Joe Alexander on the same day they acquired Richard Jefferson.

I’ll never understand why teams draft only on upside and ignore what a player has done in college. I know everyone believes that DJ Augustin is a better player than Mario Chalmers, but Chalmers was a key guy (if not the key guy) on a National Championship team. He’s showed (on the biggest stage in college basketball no less) that he can be a great defensive stopper, distributor and that he can hit a big shot. How do teams pass on him and take guys like Jason Thompson from Rider (especially when the Kings need a point guard)? I mean c’mon Maloof brothers, seriously? If you care that little about your NBA team, sell them and just live out your days in your Casino and your clubs. Time will tell and I am hardly a soothsayer, but I have a hard time believing tht Mario Chalmers won’t have a better career than Jason Thompson. And don’t give me undersized. If a guy can play a guy can play. I give you Charles Barkley and Shawn Bradley. Undersized guys can make it if they can play. Chalmers can play.

With that said, I think it is obvious that the Miami Heat had a fantastic draft. I’m going to put aside for a moment that I think Michael Beasley is overrated and could easily become a Karl Malone type player: putting up great numbers for a team that just can’t win. I just don’t have faith in Beasley as an NBA player. However, he is easily the most talented player in the draft despite what I think about his future. So in that regard he is certainly a solid pick and certainly the best pick available at number 2. OJ Mayo would have been a huge reach. In addition to landing the most talented player in the draft they also drafted one of the most NBA ready players in Chalmers. Chalmers will be a big help to Dwyane Wade in the backcourt and Beasley gives them a really explosive frontcourt duo with Marion. If they can move Marion this year (or Haslem really) for a big guy (I’m thinking someone like Elton Brand, Rasheed Wallace or Marcus Camby each of whom may be available) they are going to be a force in the East. One thing is for sure, with a healthy Wade all year, they are going to be a lot better than last year.

Two more thoughts for now on the draft. What are the Sixers thinking with Mareese Speights? I mean I know everyone thinks the guy has talent, but when you can choose between an out of condition guy with (maybe) a lot of talent and a proven winner and a guy who John Hollinger called the fifth-best prospect in the draft, why choose the wild card? I don’t get it. The Sixers would have been better off with Darrell Arthur.

Lastly, I am thrilled for fellow Georgetown Alum Patrick Ewing, Jr. getting drafted in the 2nd round. I didn’t think that he’d get drafted and I know that most don’t think he is going to stick, but I think if he’s given a chance early in the season (and on the Kings he better be given a chance, I mean what do they have to lose?) he can show that he will be able to contribute to an NBA team. He could end up being a Leon Powe type player bringing energy off the bench and really contributing to a winner. Good luck Patrick.

I just can’t express how tired I am of having to hear about Pacman Jones (and no I won’t call him Adam; he’ll always be the same old Pacman to me). Seriously, the guy hasn’t played a down of football in well over a year. He’s done more pro-wrestling than football. And yet, there is something new from the guy that we have to hear about everyday. Can’t he at least get reinstated before we have to hear about him everyday? I mean, even waiting for the start of the three ring circus that will be Dallas Cowboys training camp would save us all a month of Pacman stories.

Not that this last story was entirely his fault. I mean if he wasn’t such a problem and then such an angel none of this would have happened anyway. But this time really wasn’t his fault. Imus is back in the headlines. If there is one person who deserves it less than Pacman, it’s Imus. He never should have been hired after the last debacle. It was bound to happen in some capacity again. If people were really going to listen to him again then put him on satellite radio. I just can’t believe that it is newsworthy that this guy slipped up again and caused controversy. Of course he was going to do something dumb.

I know that neither of them are going away, but I just can’t stand hearing about them anymore. Hopefully, this controversy will just blow over and Imus can go back to being a regular talk show host. And then maybe Pacman will be reinstated and go back to being a regular NFL cornerback so we don’t have to hear about him outside of what he does on the field. For Pacman’s sake, I really hope so.

I got a chance to catch some of the Phillies’ games this past week and the Philadelphian in me is very worried. When that offense isn’t clicking, the Phillies are going to struggle because their pitching just isn’t going to shut people down. So far, they’ve managed to keep the Phillies in games, but the offense has struggled to put up more than 4 runs this week and if that trend continues they aren’t going to win many games.

Obviously, the problems in the offense are driven a lot by the struggles of Chase Utley. This bodes well for the Phillies because he just isn’t going to struggle all year. He’s too good and works too hard to continue to struggle like this. So, while I’m worried, I’m not alarmed and I’m by no means saying the Phillies aren’t going to put up a lot of runs and win a lot of games. I think they will end having a very good season. But, whether they have a great season will hinge on if their offense can stay consistent enough to support the pitching staff (which, by the way has exceeded expectations, except for Brett Myers).

While some of the things that have happened this week have worried me a little bit, there are still some things about this team that give me a great deal of confidence in them. I wrote about their killer instinct in an earlier post and while their effort recently has worried me a little, that instinct is there. I think this is embodied perfectly by Jimmy Rollins. There is a reason that guy won the MVP last year and that instinct in the moment is a big part of what he brings to this team. He has only recently begun to look like he has his legs underneath him and that gives me great hope, because as great as Chase Utley is, this team will only go as far as Jimmy Rollins can take them. When he’s on, he can take them pretty far. He had a couple hits (one an RBI double), a walk and a couple stolen bases on Sunday and he really looked like the guy who won the MVP last year. Once Chase Utley starts clicking behind him, if Rollins can stay hot he is going to be the perfect catalyst (again) for this team.

This is not to forget that the Phillies remain in first place without a great performance from Ryan Howard, a month without Jimmy Rollins, struggles from Shane Victorino and now Chase Utley. I don’t think for a second that this team has played their best baseball (over a week at least; those two games with over 20 runs are hard to argue) and that gives me great hope for the rest of the year. I think this team is going to re-group on this travel day off and I really think they are going to explode this week in Oakland and then Texas. I hope so anyway.

I’m not going to be the first person to talk about Tiger’s knee injury and I’m sure I won’t be the last either, but I just don’t think enough can be said about what this new information about his knee means. The fact that he played 91 holes of golf on the longest course in US Open history with ONE LEG is just dumbfounding. A torn ACL and two (TWO!) stress fractures of his tibia all on his left leg and the guy still managed to WIN THE US OPEN!? This is more than the stuff of legend. This is a transcendant performance in sport. There are maybe 5 other performances that could be mentioned in the same breath as this IN THE HISTORY OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS. The man walked 7600 yards five days in a row (that’s over 20 miles) and managed to stop every couple of hundred yards and put an enourmous amount of stress on a leg that essentially didn’t work and still did all of that better than anyone else (with two completely healthy legs) did. I know that I’m gushing and that it’s pretty clear that I’m a little biased, but that was simply unbelievable.

I have to admit that it took me a couple of hours to get to the point where I was gushing about how incredible his performance at the Open was. This is because my first reaction was feeling cheated of what was shaping up to be his best season yet. Obviously now we know his season would not have been the one we were anticipating, but think of what Tiger had done so far this year and if his knee was getting better like we all thought (rather than in shreds like it actually was/is). His season would have been unreal with another Tiger-Slam well within reach and losing in another tournament looking very unlikely.

So that’s why my initial reaction was to feel cheated out of what could have been. You can tell when you are watching Tiger that you are watching a once in a lifetime (hell, once in forever) athlete so to not have him out there on the golf course for around 9 months or however long it is going to take is kind of a bummer. Ultimately though, with Tiger’s drive he’ll be back and I’m betting he’ll be back to win. In the meantime, we’ll have to enjoy watching the highlights of the US Open, still shake our heads in disbelief at how unbelievable that performance was and wait for another golfer to seize this opportunity without Tiger.

Well I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from a Game 6, but I know that wasn’t it. I mean the Celtics totally obliterated the Lakers. I’m sure Pau Gasol felt a tinge of familiarity with his old team after that debacle. The Lakers looked a lot like the Grizzlies last night (and Kobe looked a lot more like Rudy Gay than the heir to Michael Jordan).

I am completely impressed with the team atmosphere that the Celtics created. They completely embraced the concept and bought into every little thing that helps a team win. They genuinely seem to like each other (unlike the Lakers who took 5 games to start helping each other up after someone got knocked to the floor) and genuinely defer to the team concept. They were the best team in the NBA during the regular season, but struggled out of the gate in the playoffs. No problem, they thrived on making adjustments throughout and got better with each series.

Last night, they really put it all together at once. Their defense was stifling with Rajon Rondo causing serious problems all over the court and a myriad of different guys bothering Kobe. The offense sputtered early in the first quarter, but once they got going there was no stopping them. Garnett had a fantastic all-around game and Ray Allen kept the Lakers at bay most of the second half nailing 7 three-pointers throughout the game. Rondo played one of his most complete games as a pro and was just all over the place on the defensive end and the offensive glass. He is such a pest out there on the court and when he is playing like that he is really fun to watch.Paul Pierce didn’t have his best game of the series, but he really managed the game last night. He picked his spots, got everyone involved and continued to play great defense.

The Celtics really could not have asked for a better end to the series. They played outstanding basketball and got strong performances from their Big Three and got to do it all at the TD Banknorth Garden in front of an absolutely fantastic crowd. That crowd was completely energized the entire game and really made the entire event so much more fun to watch. I have to say I’m not exactly the biggest fan of Boston these days. Frankly, I’m tired of all the winning they’ve been doing and having to hear about them every freaking day. But, the connection the whole city had with the Celtics was great to watch. I’m not sure that any of the Lakers (or the city of Los Angeles) would have appreciated winning a championship as much as Boston and this team of Celtics.

Three more quick thoughts for now:
1) Kevin Garnett is certifiably insane. I mean, that interview after the game with Michelle Tafoya was just unreal. I’ve never seen anything like that. He went so many different ways in the three minute span of that interview: speechless with head down; screaming at the ceiling; crying; going Joe Namath on us and telling Michelle she looked pretty. Basically the only thing he didn’t do was answer one of Michelle’s questions. That was amazing.

2) The Kobe-MJ thing is over. Never again can this be brought up. I was probably one of the first to bash this argument, but even Mark Jackson (a big supporter of the comparison) said he was backing off. Kobe is an otherworldly talent, maybe even more talented than MJ, and may win a championship or two down the road. But, MJ never would have let that happen to his team in the finals. Never. End of discussion.

3) Funniest subplot of the Finals: Jeff Van Gundy using the broadcasts as a job interview. I really enjoyed the broadcasting team. They have great chemistry and really know the game. But Van Gundy was hilarious with his, “Here’s what I would do…” line that he used at least 10 times in the course of the game. The weird part: a lot of what he said made sense and the adjustments never came from the Lakers. Hmmmmm…

In a move widely anticipated, the Mets fired Willie Randolph this morning. They basically had fired him about a month ago, but they didn’t do the actual firing, making the Mets a lame duck team with a lame duck manager. I have never been a fan of firing a coach at this point in the season. I think if you are going to fire a manager you do it earlier in the season (which the Mets essentially did except for the actual firing part) or you do it in the offseason. Willie probably should have been fired after last season. After that collapse the team needed a fresh start.

The Mets may rebound and start playing better (I certainly hope not as a Phillies fan) and everyone will attribute that to a new manager, but I have hard time believing that it would be because of the manager. The Phillies underachieved for much of last year and then started to play better in the second half and they didn’t change managers. Teams generally find a way to play at their talent level (the Tigers and Yankees being pretty good examples as they slowly start to play better: 8-2 and 7-3 in their last ten respectively) and changing the manager 10 games before the midway point has little to do with getting them to play that way.

As for the Phillies, they played a very complete game last night against the Red Sox and continue to lead the division. They have a tough next few weeks (with series against the Red Sox, Angels, Braves and Mets all within the next three weeks) and they are going to need to keep winning games to stay in the lead. The Marlins, Braves and Mets don’t really seem to be going anywhere so the Phillies could be in for a long divisional battle. If the offense can keep rolling with the top 5 (Rollins, Victorino, Utley, Howard, Burrell) continuing to lead the way and the role players continuing to make big impacts and the pitching can remain consistent, the Phillies can really make some noise this season. They have shown a knack for playing from behind and, with Brad Lidge anchoring a surprising bullpen, they can certainly play with a lead. The Phillies are maddeningly inconsistent at times, but they really can play with anyone as long as their pitching can keep them in ballgames. Here’s hoping they keep playing that way.

Now that’s a finish. When the USGA established the 18-hole playoff to determine the US Open Champion this is what they had in mind: having it come down to a monster birdie put on the 18th hole and then one more sudden death playoff hole. I have to admit, I had my doubts about yesterday. I thought there was a chance that either Rocco or Tiger would have a three or four stroke lead with three to play or something and the whole day would seem a waste.

In reality, the day was kind of a waste. It took us 18 holes to find out that we needed a sudden death playoff. But that’s definitely not the point. The whole day was exciting. The least exciting hole of the day was the 11th hole, which Tiger went into with a 3 stroke lead. After that, it was back to every shot meaning something. The Championship hung on essentially every shot. I can’t even remember how many times Johnny Miller said something like, “This is a very important putt.” Yes, it took all day and 19 holes to determine a winner, but I’m not sure one person who watched yesterday could complain. You just don’t get better days of golf than that.

(Quick side note on Johnny Miller: I usually can’t stand the guy, but this week I could actually stomach him in small doses. I think he finally figured out that no one really cares anymore about the 63 and that there is a chance that Tiger Woods is better than him, something we all have known for years.)

You had to love Rocco hanging in there with every shot. At the beginning of the tournament most people would have said that the guy had no business being on the same course as Tiger, but he sure as hell played like he belonged. He played with an appreciation for the stage that you just don’t see all that often. He loved just being out there and the fact that he hung in with the best there’s ever been for 90 holes was just an added bonus. Tiger couldn’t have had a better adversary yesterday.

Tiger battled right back with Rocco too. He battled all week, and not just Rocco (who was test enough all by himself this week), but his knee and the rust that comes with 6 weeks off. He submitted one of his all time performances and this from the same Tiger Woods who obliterated the field by 12 at the 1997 Masters and by 15 in setting a US Open record at the 2000 US Open. I’m not sure Tiger can ever match this performance. Hobbling around the course and looking like he should have taken another couple of weeks off and still managing to hit simply unbelievable shots and hit just enough of them to win. I’m already excited for Royal Birkdale and the Open Championship. Let’s hope Rocco and Tiger both show up like they did this week…a man can dream can’t he?

It’s not over yet (who’s excited for this 18-hole playoff?), but I can’t let this morning go by without at least mentioning the US Open. It has just been a great tournament to watch, starting with Tiger and Phil battling on Friday and Tiger crushing the front 9 (his last nine holes of the day). Saturday, in the second to last group, Tiger struggled most of the day, but exploded on the back nine and took the 54 hole lead. His chip shot on 17 and eagle putt on 18 were classic Tiger. The laughter (a rare show of raw emotion from Tiger) was awesome to see after the unbelievable chip in for birdie on 17. There was never a doubt about that putt on 18 and watching him stand there with a sly grin on his face and his fist clenched, you just knew you were just watching something special.

All the while, though, Lee Westwood and the seemingly unflappable Rocco Mediate hung tough and kept right at Tiger’s heels setting up some interesting golf on Sunday, and boy was it interesting. No one can battle quite like Tiger, but no one was more consistent this entire week than Rocco. I am just plain ecstatic that I got to watch on Sunday and that we get 18 more holes on Monday (granted, I’ll have to watch at work, keep the volume down and try not to yell, but it will still be awesome).

Rocco smiling all week, Tiger grimmacing after every shot both good and bad. It just doesn’t get much better than what happened on Sunday despite the fact that neither of them played particularly well. They both played just well enough to lose, which set up the tie and that awesome birdie putt by Tiger on 18. Of course, the fact that neither of them played that well didn’t make the theater any less compelling or exciting, because DAMN was it exciting. The USGA and NBC certainly got what they wanted: an exciting prime time tournament with Tiger involved down the stretch. The ratings are going to be great and the excitement generated for the game of golf has been just fantastic.

Monday, Rocco Mediate has the pressure of having to go one-on-one with the best golfer ever. Sure, on Sunday he and Tiger were both there, but there were others around the top of the leaderboard to take some of the pressure off. Tiger, on the other hand, has never had to play an 18-hole palyoff after holding the 54-hole lead. And he has to play his fifth round in five days on a knee that is clearly not 100%. Will his knee wear down enough for Rocco to take advantage? Will Rocco handle the pressure well enough to keep hitting fairways and greens? We don’t have to wait long to find out now and man I hope it is as exciting as it has been to this point.

With two of the best games of the NBA Playoffs so far (obviously both in the Finals) and a great US Open, this was one of the best sports weekends of the year so far. It was just a great weekend to be a sports fan. Let’s start with the Finals.

I turned on Game 4 a few minutes into the 1st quarter and was completely blown away that the Celtics were getting worked as badly as they were. I was losing interest in the game fairly quickly so I went with some friends to watch the rest of the game at a bar. I kept my eye on the game the rest of the first half and when the Lakers held off a run towards the end of the 2nd (aided by Doc yanking around his rotation for the last minute) I was convinced it was over. Then the 3rd quarter happened.

As the 3rd quarter moved along and the Celtics slowly began to chip away, more and more people in the bar started to watch. I really couldn’t believe that the Celtics were making the kind of run they were. I was sure they would make a run to cut it to ten or so, but never expected this kind of run. This was a team that struggled playing from behind all season and especially in the playoffs. By the time the Celtics cut the lead to two at the end of the third, everyone in the bar was watching and cheering. They turned the music off and turned the volume on all the TVs up. No one saw it coming, but we had ourselves a basketball game.

The 4th quarter seemed to just fly by with the teams eseentially trading baskets. Kobe slammed one home to give the Lakers a 4 point lead about halfway through and that’s when I thought the Lakers had finally began to close the door, but after a Boston timeout, Posey nailed a three and the Celtics were back within one. Everyone in the bar was watching the game, yelling at the TV. Posey had one more huge three to put the Celtics up 5 with around a minute to go and the place just went nuts. The Celtics hit their free throws from then on and sealed the game. It was a great game and a great finish and I watched it in a great atmosphere. The Tim Donaghy scandal was pretty far from people’s minds watching that game, which is exactly what the NBA needed.

If you had told me before the series that one team would blow a 20 point lead and the other would seal the win with big shots and free throws once they grabbed the lead, I never would have guessed that the Lakers were the team that gave up the lead and the Celtics held it. I thought, given Kobe’s presence, the Phil Jackson advantage and how the Celtics had played in the first three rounds, the Lakers would be the far more superior team in terms of mental toughness. So far, that certainly has not been the case. This was shown again in Game 5 on Sunday night.

The Lakers took another huge lead early and the Celtics made a game of it in the 2nd quarter. The Lakers took another sizable lead in the 3rd and beginning of the 4th, but the Celtics pushed them again and made a game of it again. Game 5 was another great game to watch, especially watching Paul Pierce play like a man possessed. He had a simply fantastic game. It is tough for the Celtics to lose a game in which Pierce played so well, but they still have some positives to take away from this game.

First, the Lakers don’t seem to have any idea of how to put the Celtics away. Even up 6 with under 20 seconds to play, the Lakers gave Eddie House an open look to cut it to 3 and then almost gave the ball right back to the Celtics before Derek Fisher came away with the ball and got fouled. There just seems to be no mental toughness coming from the Lakers right now. This is going to be an even bigger problem in Boston. If the game last night was played in Boston, the Celtics win no problem.

Another takeaway for the Celtics is that Kevin Garnett really didn’t play well last night. You wouldn’t really know it from his stats (13 points, 14 rebounds), but after he got his second foul in the first quarter Garnett looked really out of sync. He couldn’t play as aggressively on the defensive end and he just looks nervous on the offensive end. Those two free throws he missed late in the game really cost the Celtics and I don’t think he misses them in Boston. The Celtics cannot expect the same kind of game from Pierce in game 6, but Garnett will probably play better than he did.

The Celtics have also done just a fantastic job of defending Kobe Bryant. After the 1st quarter, his shot wasn’t falling and he seemed to be playing passively the rest of the game. The Celtics can’t expect that same stroke of luck, but some credit has to be given to their defense. They can’t keep holding Kobe to three below-average (for him, at least) games out of five just because he isn’t playing well. The guy hasn’t had that many bad games all season let alone in a five game span. Kobe probably isn’t playing his best, but the Celtics deserve some measure of credit for bothering him on the defensive end. They can play better defense than they did (the loss of Kendrick Perkins hurt more than anyone really thought it would), but holding Kobe to the kind of game he had was a pretty good place to start.

The Lakers defense, on the other hand, has been downright atrocious. Mark Jackson kept calling it “fake hustle.” They don’t stay in front of anyone, they don’t take charges and they have no prayer of stopping dribble penetration. This is why they’ve let the Celtics back into games. They need to find a way to fix their defense or they have no shot of winning in Boston.

There is good news for the Lakers though. Kobe Bryant has not played near his best basketball, they have shown (in the first quarters of the past two games) that when they are clicking on all cylinders they are a better basketball team than the Celtics and Paul Pierce probably isn’t going to play as well as he did in game 5. They still have time to fix their defense, but they had better do it quickly because Boston probably will not miss the same opportunities that they had in game 5 once they are back in Boston. The Lakers still have hope (mostly because of two guys named Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson), but they have a lot of work to do if they are expecting to win two straight games in Boston.

I know this is going to get lost amidst the plethora of US Open commentaries (not to mention the fact that I have about zero readers anyway), but neither of those facts has stopped me so far so off I go. Let me start by saying that I love the US Open, but all of the coverage and talk leans more and more each year to the difficulty of the course and away from the skill of the field. It all becomes about what the USGA has done right or wrong in setting up the course and the length of the rough and the speed of the greens and that drives me crazy. The course is always one of the toughest of the year, the rough is always long and the greens are really fast. I know that. I would much prefer to hear about how players in the field prepare for the event and whose game is setting up perfectly for the course and the right time, outside of the obvious two. (By the way, have you heard that this US Open is like a home game for Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson?)

Outside of that though, the US Open is an awesome event each year. There is rarely a more challenging tournament in a given year and the winner really is more aptly the survivor. For as much as I hate the talk about the difficulty of the course, I love how difficult it is. You need to be a complete player to win the Open. You need to make the fewest mistakes, because even small mistakes can kill you. You need to handle what mistakes you do make (because there will definitely be mistakes) very well and not let them turn into more mistakes. Don’t get me wrong, I love to see the world’s most talented players attack a golf course and duel down to the finish with really low scores. In fact, I much prefer it. But I really appreciate the US Open for what it is: one of the hardest weeks of the year.

In this year’s tournament we have the added story lines of Tiger and Phil (and world #3 Adam Scott) playing together on Thursday and Friday (and if all goes to plan, Saturday and Sunday too), Tiger coming back from knee surgery, Tiger and Phil playing close to home and Tiger’s past dominance of Torrey Pines. It should be a very exciting weekend.

As far as predictions go, a two year old could pick Tiger Woods, but that’s not stopping me. I happen to be a Tiger guy. Everyone knows by now that you can’t be both a Tiger guy and a Phil guy. You have to pick one and I love Tiger. I know he is a machine and everyone thinks Phil is a better guy, but seriously have you SEEN Tiger Woods play golf?! There is not another athlete who is as good at what they do. You simply cannot tell me that his greatness is not fun to watch. As a sports fan, I am always waiting to catch a glimpse of greatness and Tiger is the very definition of the word.

I just don’t get the same sense of excitement watching Phil. When Phil is on TV I don’t stop everything and say to myself, “I am never going to see another golfer like this ever. I have to use every opportunity I can to watch him.” That is how I feel about Tiger, not Phil. Phil is an excellent golfer, one of the best of his era, but I just don’t get excited watching him play. Rick Reilly implored everyone this week to root for Phil for once because Tiger always wins and Phil hasn’t won a US Open and he’s on his home course and he is a great guy. I don’t disagree with any of that, but despite how boring a person Tiger is, I can’t help but root for him on the golf course and this week is no different.

Tiger, as in any week, is the favorite this week, but he certainly isn’t the prohibitive favorite. His recovery from knee surgery, the difficulty of a familiar course and Phil being at home are all real challenges for Tiger. Phil has an excellent shot to win this week. The field has as good a chance this week as probably ever given the circumstances. I know all of this and maybe I’m hoping for it more than predicting it, but Tiger is still my pick to win this week. The cliched answer as to why is that it is hard to pick against him, but it is true. He is just a lot better than anyone else and I really think he will show it again this week.