Speaking of Sports.....

Idle sports thoughts from an idle mind..... 

A sixty foot putt in the rain to win the Open!

The United States Open Golf Championship was contested at the venerable Oakmont Country Club last week and was won by J.J. Spaun with a score of one (1!) under par. The mostly unheralded Spaun was at or near the top of the leaderbaord for the first three rounds.  Playing in the next to last group on Sunday, Spaun bogeyed five of the first six holes and shot 40 on the front nine, and it looked like he was about to fall back into the unheralded oblivion from whence he came.   However, through a rain delay, Spaun soldiered on and got back into contention as those around him kept falling back, and it was along about the time he played his 12th or 13th hole that I decided, "this is the guy I'm rooting for!".  He shot 32 on the back nine and had a birdie-birdie finish when he sank a 60 foot putt on the eighteenth hole to win the Open.  It was an epic performance for J.J. Spaun., and full credit and cheers for him.

(As an aside, Sam Burns, leader after three rounds, was royally screwed by not one, but two, officious USGA rules officials when he wasn't allowed a drop from casual water late in the round.  It probably wouldn't have made a diffidence in the final result, but we'll never really know that, will we?  If you were watching, you know that I am talking about.)

Okay, those are the facts of the matter, now for an opinion.  Spaun's win, especially his last two holes "saved" the US Open for this golf fan/viewer, because up until then, The Open was a slog of an event where we watched the best golfers in the world hack it around the golf course in much the same manner that I and my colleagues in the Tuesday Retiree Golf Group kick it around various public golf courses throughout southwestern Pennsylvania every summer.  That is not what I want to see when I watch golf being played at its highest level.  Of course, we get the standard "We don't seek to embarrass the best golfers, we seek to identify them" line of bullshit from the USGA, and the arrogant Oakmont members can continue to boast about how "they have to cut down the rough and slow the greens speeds for the pros when the Open comes here".  More bullshit.

I realize that my opinion is probably a minority one, and I agree that watching the pros go thirty-one under over four days at a routine Tour stop may not be the all that much fun either, but in the words of Bill Cowher, the 2025 US Open "wasn't a Mozart."

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Tomorrow night we will be treated to one of the best events in all of sports - a Seventh  Game of a Playoff Series, and it is in the Championship Round, no less.

I have greatly enjoyed following the NBA Playoffs this spring, and the Finals series between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder has been particularly enjoyable.  Both teams are likable and are filled with very good players, one of whom, the Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander , or "SGA", could become one of the great players in the League over the next decade or so.  The second and sixth games of the series were one-sided affairs that the two teams split, but the other four games were hotly contested and Game One was an absolute classic.. In that game, the Thunder led convincingly throughout the game, but Indy mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter and won the game on this shot

by Tyrese Halliburton with :00.3 left on the clock.  It was the only time in the game that the Pacers led, and it gave them a 111-110 win. It was one of those games and moments that make you say "THIS is why I follow sports."  Had that game been a Game Seven, Haliburton would have become Bobby Thomson or Bill Mazeroski.

At this point I have absolutely no clue as to which team will win tomorrow night., but I can say that a win by either team would be a satisfactory conclusion to the series and mean it.  The game is at OKC, and the Thunder have had double digit leads in five of the first six games.  Put a gun to my head and tell me to make a choice, I'll pick the Thunder, mainly because they are the home team and in SGA, they have the best player on the floor.  They are 7.5 point favorites, but if the Pacers won this one, I would not be the least bit surprised.  (How's that for waffling?)

As  I watch NBA games with some degree of regularity as I have over these last few months, I am inclined to shake my head whenever someone tells me that college basketball is a superior product.   I understand loyalty to the old Alma Mater, and the sport is a good one, but please don't tell me that the NBA play is inferior.  I mean....

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The National Hockey League season ended on Thursday night when for the second straight year, the Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers  to win the Stanley Cup.  The championship series ended in six games.  In this household we were rooting for the Oilers because we wanted to see the best player in the game today, Connor McDavid, get to hoist the Cup.  Alas, it was not to be.

Admittedly, my hockey acumen and knowledge cannot hold a candle to that of my wife's, but it was apparent to me that while the Oilers had the best player on the ice, the Panthers were the better team, so their victory was deserved, despite the fact that the detestable Brad Marchand was/is one of their stars.  It is also notable, that the Panthers were able to hold McDavid to only one goal over the six games, and that one came in garbage time of a 5-2 Edmonton loss in Game Five.

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And on the local front, THIS GUY showed up and participated in teh Steelers mandatory mini-camp last week.

In the words of Jerry Ford, "Our long national nightmare is over."

Or at least it is until the Steelers experience their first loss of the season.