Great weekend
I start a week’s vacation today. I’ll check in with blogs every day but won’t be writing for the paper. And it’s a great weekend to be off.
Father’s Day. U.S. Open with Tiger Woods hot on the trail. Can’t think of any better viewing for sports.
I love golf’s majors as much as any sporting event. They rank right with a college football Saturday (which I get to experience via couch potato only once or twice a year), an NFL playoff weekend and the first two days of the NCAA Tournament.
I love the majors because they are absolute and they are historic. NASCAR is an individual sport (sort of) that embraces some convoluted scoring system that renders victory not all that important. Tennis has a similar majors setup but is always dominanted by the same three or four players. Boxing is a mess. But golf has four tournaments a year that define greatness, and no one quibbles. Those four tournaments determine the greatest players of the year and forever.
And of the four, I love the U.S. Open. the most. It’s egalitarian; anyone can enter. It’s tough; it’s not a birdie contest. It’s on a variety of courses, from Pinehurst to Torrey Pines, from Shinnecock Hills to Southern Hills. It’s got great drama; golfers can win from behind, unlike the Masters, where frontrunners usually win.
And now we’ve got a weekend with Tiger hot and in contention. Golf is at its best with the U.S. Open, and at its best when Tiger is in the hunt. This is one weekend I’m looking forward to.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment