Soon enough, Tiger was summoned. As he walked down a narrow corridor toward the interview area, Sabbatini was being led out. Space was so tight that they almost brushed shoulders, but there wasn't even the slightest hint of acknowledgement between the two, much less a nod or an exchange of hellos. Like ships in the night, but in broad daylight.
Greg Norman at the British Open
It would have been one of the greatest victories in golf history, certainly in the top 10, if Norman hadn't faded Sunday and cleared the way for Padraig Harrington to retain the claret jug. Upon taking the 54-hole lead Saturday evening, the Shark had generated a buzz not unlike the atmosphere scene at Torrey Pines a month earlier, when Woods forced an 18-hole playoff with a dramatic birdie on the 72nd hole.
Tiger's mere presence ignites a five-alarm inferno of commotion, but Norman, now the ex-superstar, is accessible and affable, a man who gushes charisma when he's in the mood. This was one of those times, and with new bride Chris Evert there to take questions and offer pearls of hope, it was quite a night to be a golf writer. Win or lose, Norman had made it a memorable week.
The scene around the 17th green on Ryder Cup Sunday
This was the gathering point for the victorious U.S. team after clinching the winning point vs. Europe. With a few thousand spectators providing a backdrop of pure delirium, the 12 American players might have set an all-time record for hugs and high-fives. No warm-blooded creature could not have felt happy for this bunch, many of whom had been on the wrong end of the nine-point losses in 2004 and 2006.
A few years back, a rule was made stipulating that all singles matches would be played to their conclusion regardless of when the overall outcome was determined. It ranks as one of the great decisions in Ryder Cup history, as far as I'm concerned -- you can talk to players in an unstructured setting, which is ideal because you get your own material.
That period lasted about 45 minutes at Valhalla, more than enough time to fill a notebook with good stuff. I wrote a 2,200-word article in Golf World and I don't think I used a single quote from the team press conferences.
All week at the U.S. Open
If I've covered 200 golf tournaments in my years at Golf World, this was the best from head to toe. The 2004 Masters had a more spectacular finish. The 2000 PGA Championship also produced an overdose of late-Sunday drama, and in terms of sheer historical punch, Woods? performance at the 1997 Masters will forever be hard to top. The 1999 Ryder Cup didn't exactly disappoint, either.
That said, the 108th edition of our national championship was as close to perfect as the whims of competition will allow. Every day had a terrific storyline, from the Woods-Phil Mickelson-Adam Scott pairing in the first two rounds to the weekend fireworks and the outrageous Monday playoff. Tiger's string of logic-defying heroics really began when he willed himself into playing in the event, but it wasn't until he birdied the first hole (his 10th of the day) from the cart path Friday afternoon that the Miracle on One Leg began to take shape.
His back nine Saturday was over-the-top good, the energy level throughout the grounds higher than description will allow as herds of happy fans dispersed in the evening twilight. As the buses filled and headed toward the spectator parking lots, I saw Steve Williams, Woods' caddie, making his usual inconspicuous getaway. I ran him down and we talked for a few minutes, a conversation that ended with him saying, "Mate, when this is all over, you're not going to believe how amazing this is."
We were only getting started at that point, and now that it is long over, I concur with my colleague Jaime Diaz, the best golf writer in the business, who wrote that Tiger's performance at Torrey Pines was the greatest in the history of golf. Unfortunately, that bumps the person who makes the desserts at the Players Championship into second place.
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