As the PGA Tour progress through the past five decades, some of the old adages have faded away. Fields were smaller and not as deep, meaning you could probably pick the winner any week out of a pool of about 20 players. Jack Fleck beating Ben Hogan was a huge story on tour, given Hogan’s standing and Fleck’s lack thereof. Golf course design and advances in agronomy made the competition tighter and certain players seemed well suited for different courses. Augusta’s design was famously if not subtly changed when Bobby Jones commented on Jack Nicklaus’ game as “something I’m not familiar with.” Jack’s length and his ability to hit a high fade presumably gave him an advantage at Augusta National.

But all of that seems to have changed. Certainly there are courses that will always favor certain aspects of a player’s game, particularly prodigious length. But as the popularity of the game advanced and more and more prize money was offered, some top athletes started to look at the game as a profession instead of the traditional, football, baseball, basketball, hockey options. It’s not hard to imagine Tiger Woods as a defensive back in the NFL, or Dustin Johnson brining the ball up for some NBA team. While professional golfers in the last 40 years of the last century came in all shapes and sizes, an emphasis on fitness and technology has brought a standard body type to the Tour. Very few guys out here who compete week in and week out don’t also look like they’d be comfortable putting in a few miles on the treadmill. Gary Player was considered a bit out of the box with his emphasis on fitness as a player. Today, he’s the standard bearer of what’s happening on Tour. Greg Norman took those ideas to the next level, and Woods looks like he could be the light-heavyweight champion of the world.

So how does that play into who the favorite is at The Players?

Actually, it doesn’t. And that’s the beauty of this golf course and this championship.

Looking over the winners at the Stadium Course, it’s about as varied a group of champions as you’ll find at any event. It doesn’t favor long hitters, nor great putters. It’s not tilted to somebody right or left-handed, a player who hooks or fades the ball as their natural shot. Greg Norman holds the course record at -24, and he’s considered the longest, straight driver ever on Tour. But Tom Kite, Justin Leonard and Lee Janzen have won here as well, none considered among long hitters in their era. Phil Mickelson won here, and barely hit driver all week. David Duval’s plan was to just hit fairways all week, and it lead him to victory in 1999.

So what thread runs through the Champions Locker Room at The Players? That week, they had control of their entire game.

“This course will make you use every club in your bag,” Tom Kite once told me during a practice round. “And if you’re not hitting all of them good, you’re not going to win.”

Some players think it’s a drivers course, others believe it’s all about the second shot. Twenty years ago a shot on the green on the wrong side was a recipe for an automatic three putt. “You just can’t get it close,” Nick Faldo once said. “Too severe, too fast.”

The golf course has changed, and the names and games of the players have changed as well. But the constant is playing the Stadium Course with the idea that you’re whole game will be tested. Anybody playing well will have a chance to win. You’ll never be comfortable out there.

Greg Norman summed it up after winning here in 1994.

“You have to learn to get comfortable with that uncomfortable feeling,” .

As the last qualifier for The Players, JB Holmes has quite a story. He was a well-known quantity on the PGA Tour. A popular player with galleries and a two-time winner in Phoenix, one of the most raucous stops on the circuit, Holmes embodied the ‘grip it and rip it” bomber style popular on Tour. Then all of the sudden he was diagnosed with a rare brain disease, recovered from that, was allergic to the resin that kept things in his head in place, and recovered from that. Hurt his elbow hitting balls trying to get back on Tour, but didn’t have surgery on that until he suffered a broken ankle and figured he wouldn’t be playing anyway so he finally got it fixed. Then, of course, he was back on Tour playing on a medical exemption and won one of the toughest events, getting him into the Players this year and the Masters in 2015.

Because Holmes wasn’t already eligible for the Players, he pushed Ryo Ishikawa into the first alternate spot. JU’s Russell Knox stays in the field of 144.

As well as he’s playing; it’ll still be interesting if Holmes contends this week. The Stadium course doesn’t favor anybody who just stands on the tee and kills it. It’s a bit too demanding in the landing areas, and the players haven’t been able to overpower that part of the golf course. Yet.

That’s why somebody like Luke Donald should do well here. Not particularly long but accurate and a good putter. When he won in 1994, Greg Norman shot 24-under, setting the tournament record. He took advantage of how long and straight he drove the ball in comparison to his peers. Plus his putting touch that week was impeccable. Nobody seemed to enjoy that, except for Norman and the runner-up Fuzzy Zoeller. Add Jeff Maggert to the mix and those three lapped the field. Everybody else was down near -10 and in single digits. It was enough of a low score though to change the golf course to make it harder and faster and more difficult. The funny part is that the last three years, ’11, ’12 and ’13, the winning score has been the same: 13 under.

Look at the winners over the years and there’s not one thing that binds those guys together. Some long hitters, some short knockers have won, but that week, they all were able to manage their game perfectly. “It’s not a golf course for scatterguns,” former PGA Tour Commissioner once told me during a round at the Stadium. I’ve always thought that the golf course identifies the player who has command through his whole bag. He’s driving it straight, he’s accurate with his irons, he’s chipping well and rolling it well with the putter. That’s how Justin Leonard and Jodie Mudd won here. I’m surprised Nick Faldo never won at the Stadium as meticulous as he is.

Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Stuart Appleby and Matt Kuchar (again) are likely candidates to be near the top of the leaderboard. Matt Every and Bill Horschel have the regional knowledge to contend. I’d say Camillo Villegas but he’s been nowhere for so long. Harris English has played well here as well. And while Phil Mickelson said he played “two great rounds and two pathetic rounds” at Charlotte, he likes it here and of course is a former champion.

In other words, it’s wide open!

In addition to Tiger Woods, add Jason Day’s name to the list of PGA Tour players not participating in next weeks Players. Day is still recovering from a thumb injury and has decided he needs at least another week of rest before reentering competition. The 26 year old Australian won the Match Play Championships in February and has only played once since, at the Masters, because of the injury. He had his left hand put in a cast as a precaution last week but now it appears he might not play until the Memorial. Day is the 6th ranked player in the world.

Most of the world’s top players will be here next week for The Players, traditionally the strongest field of the year. In addition to Tiger and Day, Victor Dubuisson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, David Lynn, Scott Piercy, Bob Estes and Chez Reavie are the only players eligible who are not in the field because of injury or otherwise.

It appears that JB Holmes will make the field by way of his FedEx cup points after this week’s tournament in Charlotte. That would may Ryo Ishikawa the first alternated. Former JU Dolphin Russell Knox would then be the last qualifier and could only miss the tournament if this week’s winner isn’t already in the field.

“Its about the angles and that makes it tough.”

And with that, Tiger Woods explained why the TPC Stadium course is so difficult for the best players in the world.

Pete Dye intended that way, and Tiger acknowledged that in his annual pre-tournament press conference.

“It’s pretty typical Pete. There aren’t many holes where you can just let out the driver. You have to find the right angles. And if you miss on the greens, you have some of the funkiest chips and lies you’ll ever see,” he explained.

Woods’ average finish is 21st at The Players at the Stadium Course. He won in 2001 but doesn’t see the course in it’s current form favoring any type of player.

“You have to hit it straight,” Tiger added to no one’s surprise.

“But you also have to have it in the right spot to come in to the green from the right angle.”

The change to Bermuda greens has also made the course more difficult according to the world’s number one player.

“Since the change to Bermuda it’s made some of these greets hot. It’s tough to get it close. And if you miss, you need a little luck.”

After his appearance at the Masters, Tiger said he took a week off and did nothing to do with golf and got back to training and working on his game about a week and a half ago. He’s a bit trimmer than he was a year ago, probably attributed to his ability to work out at the level he wants to without being injured.

When asked about his game after playing only 4 holes and going to the range, Tiger said he’s “very pleased,” with his game, which of course, is bad news for the rest of the field.

He’s part of the afternoon/morning tee grouping on Thursday and Friday at this year’s Players.

I don’t know if it was the weather or just everybody’s mood but this year’s Players had a whole different feel from Monday through Sunday. It’s always been a party, and for a long time, that seemed to be the main focus of the people attending. But this year the events themselves, from the Military Appreciation Day on Wednesday to the final round on Sunday all seemed to have a purpose and a full draw when it comes to what the week has become.

People wanted to be there. They wanted to be a part of the military job fair on Monday. They wanted to see the stars play on Tuesday and hear what they had to say. They wanted to hear Luke Bryan on Wednesday and they wanted to watch golf when the first ball was in the air early Thursday morning.

With the unseasonably mild weather in the second half of the week, the fans were out in record numbers. There were more people there on Friday than I’ve ever seen at the tournament. And attendance figures show there were even more fans there on Sunday. People seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The players all praised the golf course as “Tough but fair. And the greens are perfect.” So all the years of moaning about the Stadium course seem to be something of the past. Not every player has to like every course, but this year, the criticisms were muted. There were plenty of new places for fans to sit, get out of the sun, cool off, get a drink and watch golf on TV.

The tournament’s new Executive Director Matt Rapp has a vision that the Players should be Jacksonville’s Kentucky Derby. He’s from Louisville and wants to bring that feel to this event. So far, he’s been successful, putting in at least a dozen places where the average fan felt like they had their own chalet pass. They’re planning on doing more next year.

The one thing that bothered me was the heckling of Kevin Na during the final round. If you spend one minute with that guy you can’t help but root for him. He’s accountable for his recent slow-play problems and says, “It’s my fault and I’m trying to fix it.” But for some guys to boo him and heckle him during arguably the biggest round of his life was wrong and unfair.

It reminded me of Hal Valdez in 1987 when he jumped into the water right before Jeff Sluman had a putt in the playoff against Sandy Lyle to win the tournament. As a spectator, it’s not our place to have a hand in the competition. It’s akin to jumping on the field and catching a ball in a baseball or football game. Na’s a nice player and I hope he gets his demons in order.

There aren’t too many better places to play golf in the world than here in North Florida and South Georgia. We can play year-‘round and some of the most desirable golf courses in the country are in our backyard. No matter where you look, north to Sea Island or Amelia, any one of the courses here in town, the places in Ponte Vedra or St. Augustine and even south to Palm Coast and Daytona, you can’t go wrong. Each one better than the next.

The interest in golf here is so high, it’s one of the reasons the PGA Tour has their headquarters here. Then Commissioner Deane Beman saw the support the Greater Jacksonville Open had among the fans and volunteers and along with the Fletcher brothers offer to sell the Tour the land for $1, a whole destination, community and world famous tournament sprung up under our noses.

There’s plenty of history surrounding the game, and not just what has happened at the Stadium Course at the TPC at Sawgrass.

The Jacksonville Open was part of the barnstorming tour of professionals going around the country. Hyde Park on the Westside was it’s home and the top names in golf were playing here for prize money. The 6th hole at Hyde Park is known as “Hogan’s Alley.” It’s a par three where the future Hall of Famer made an eleven. When asked how he made an eleven on the par three, Hogan reportedly looked at the lone reporter there, took a long drag on his cigarette and said, “I missed a five footer for ten.” (It’s a line that parodied in the film “Tin Cup” by Kevin Costner.)

The Ryder Cup was scheduled to be played here at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club in 1939, but the matches were cancelled because of WWII.

The whole concept of the Greater Jacksonville Open, the GJO, got it’s genesis when local golf pioneers Dick Stratton, John Tucker and others were sitting on stools at Silver’s Drug Store in Jacksonville Beach. Those guys knew Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus personally and figured if they could get the big three to come, the tournament would have a chance.

There’s a plaque in the fairway at Selva Marina’s 18th hole commemorating Jack Nicklaus’ double-eagle on his way to victory. Arnold Palmer owned Hidden Hills and the tournament there and the associated reverie raised a lot of eyebrows in town. And there’s the story of a famous player who played in the afternoon in Thursday’s first round when the GJO was at Deerwood and emerged from the bushes on Friday morning wearing the same clothes for his second round. Apparently the party at Deerwood after hours was pretty good!

Could you imagine a location called the “Swingers Tent” going over in our current politically correct environment? But that was the name of THE place on A1A when fans, players and officials alike left the golf course and headed north from Sawgrass Country Club. That tent had it’s own set of stories. As the home of The Players, the Stadium Course has it’s own share of stories as well, although most are now confined to the course. To clear out underbrush on that island left of 14, a bunch of goats were brought in, (thus the name “Goat Island”). One night when the water was low, the goats made their way to the clubhouse and climbed on the roof, eating away at shingles and causing all kinds of havoc. Beman was not happy.

Most players didn’t care for the course or the tournament early on. From Lee Trevino’s “We shouldn’t have to putt on dirt,” to Nicklaus’ “I don’t think you should have to hit 4-iron into the hood of a car,” Pete Dye’s design was not met with universal acclaim. But Jerry Pate jumped in the water, Fuzzy Zoeller wiped Greg Norman’s brow, Davis Love hooked a 1-iron out of the woods and onto 16 and the legend started to grow.

Although the tournament belongs much more to the PGA Tour now than to us, it’s still part of our history. A rich history of golf that’s exciting, dramatic, and quirky all at the same time.

There are certain invitations you don’t turn down. A chance to have lunch and spend a good part of the day with Arnold Palmer is one of those.

Palmer’s Bay Hill golf course went through a major renovation this summer. As is customary, the Palmer Course Design Company invited some media from around the country to preview the course and to talk to Arnold about the changes in Orlando last Tuesday.

I’ve known Arnold Palmer for a long time and I’m sure he makes everybody feel like they’re actually his friend. I’m asked often about whether my job is any good and my stock answer is, “I’ve had beers with Arnold Palmer and I’ve flown with the Blue Angels. How much better can it be?”

I have had beers with Arnold; I’ve had “guy” conversations with him. I’ve been with him at lunch in Ed Seay’s office. He encouraged me to get my pilot’s license and since I have, we talk about aviation and flying now each time we meet. I’ve learned a lot from Arnold.

In fact, my playing partner, David Couch of APCD at Bay Hill confirmed what I’ve thought for a long time: A lot of us have learned a lot from Arnold and in turn, from Ed Seay.

Being on television in one town for nearly 30 years doesn’t make you a celebrity but it does make you recognizable. So people want to talk to me often, and I’ve always tried to take the lessons I’ve learned from watching Arnold deal with everybody he meets. He’s warm and gives you his full attention.

I learned a lot of how manage in a professional setting by watching Ed Seay, Arnold’s partner. And often, Ed would explain that he got a lot of that from Palmer himself. Friendly, firm and forward thinking, Arnold Palmer probably doesn’t get enough credit for his ability to run a business and keep people around him motivated and productive.

It’s obvious that Arnold was involved in the process of sprucing up Bay Hill. They brought in over 200 trees; they re-shaped and even moved some of the bunkers. They changed the fairways and put new grass on the greens. The most dramatic change is the “beach bunker” in front of the 17th green. It’s still a tough hole, but like the rest of the changes it’s perfect.

It’s just what Palmer likes: tough, pleasing to the eye.

A hole that takes a real golf shot to get it close and make birdie.

“It’s not about length,” Palmer told me standing behind the 8th green. “We can stretch it to 74-hundred yards but I want it to be risk/reward. I want it to be a challenge but not impossible.”

They’ve made changes strategically, moving bunkers out of the range for regular play and right in the spot Tour players are trying to hit it to. Suffice to say, I liked everything about it even though I didn’t play very well. It’s playable but with a big, championship course feel.

Palmer hosted a get together afterwards and talked about how he got involved with Bay Hill (“I tried to buy it after playing in an exhibition in 1965. We closed in 1974”), his first birdie on the new course (“number two”) How Bay Hill had changed (“I love Disney but if I had my druthers, it never would have come”) and his trip to Washington the following day to accept the Congressional Gold Medal (“I think I’ll go.”)

Politics aside, Palmer said one of the great joys of his life has been his relationship with President Eisenhower and that he was never more honored than when he was asked to present Ike at the World Golf Hall of Fame induction in November.

He hears better than he used to, and is gracious as ever.

I asked him about his birthday celebration two weeks ago and he said, “I’m gad it’s over. I wish it was a few birthdays ago! Eighty’s not bad, it feels pretty good right now.”

“Eighty’s the new fifty,” I joked with “The King.”

“Let’s just say it is,” he responded with a sly smile.

I’m still learning from him.

Nearly flawless in the first round. Brilliant in the second. Solid in the third, Tiger Woods had a lead at the PGA at Hazeltine and just about everybody was handing him the Wannamaker Trophy for the 5th time.

Except Y.E. Yang.

The Korean was solid throughout the day and the chip in eagle at 14 gave him the lead. But Tiger didn’t go away. He made a six-footer for birdie there to stay within one. And he made every other 4 and 5 footer to keep the pressure on. I found myself rooting for Tiger. Not to just win, but to make some birdies coming in and beat the other guy. I didn’t want Yang to fall apart a la Padraig Harrington (again). You don’t expect a three time major winner to make an eight on a par three but that’s what knocked Harrington out of contention.

Tiger had his chances but unlike in the past, he:

1. Didn’t make everything he looked at
2. Didn’t have the kind of distance control he’s famous for.

Faldo is the last guy to be able to control his irons as well as Tiger usually does. It’s the old joke.
Hogan: (to his caddy) “How far is it?”
Caddy: “142, 143.”
Hogan: “Well, which one?”

Faldo won three Masters being able to control his irons down to the yard. Think about it: Every time Tiger takes a swing, you expect the ball to be close. On Sunday, that wasn’t the case. And he didn’t make everything. So Y.E. Yang played steady down the stretch, didn’t fall apart and hit a couple of shots that made the difference.

Like Tiger usually does.

The question is, does Tiger come back and destroy the next field he plays or is this the new version? He’s the best athlete out there, and the best golfer. He’s always been the best putter, as well as the most prepared. I don’t know which one of those could possibly go away, but it was obvious a couple of times on Sunday; it just wasn’t his turn to win.

One of his famous lines as a young player was “Second Sucks.” In this case, I don’t think so. He’ll work harder, figure out why he didn’t win, and he’ll be back to compete as hard as ever. But it does embolden the other players that it can be done. Tiger can be beaten. He has to cooperate, but he can be beaten.

The best thing about the competition is that it actually was a competition. Tiger made some clutch putts, kept it close but the guy he was playing didn’t fall apart, didn’t disappear in the face of the magnitude of the moment.

Yang’s win might grow the game in Asia as you heard the CBS announce crew talk about. But it’ll just make it all that more interesting in America the next time Tiger tees it up.

I wasn’t sure who to root for, or against for that matter.

I like to get behind somebody in major golf championships. Sometimes it’s actually Tiger but othertimes it’s just somebody who looks like they need the win or they just got struck by lightning.

At this year’s US Open I was somewhere down in the field with Tiger, Phil and David Duval among the guys I wanted to see play well with Ricky Barnes and Lucas Glover on the other end of the spectrum. Barnes did his job and disappeared easily enough. Duval just about drove me out of my mind with a triple on his first hole Sunday to all but disappear: until he made it back after the turn.

I wanted Tiger to make a run because I wanted to see which one of the guys up front would fold up just seeing him within striking distance.

Phil’s story was easy. Wife Amy wanted him to bring the silver trophy back to her for her hospital room during her recovery from surgery for breast cancer. So Phil definitely had my support, just like everybody else watching. Wasn’t every woman watching rooting for Phil? Of course! But I also wanted David to win. So I was a bit torn, except for hoping that Glover would remember who he was and go away.

And it looked good for a while.

Tiger was lurking (does everybody say “lurking” when talking about Tiger?) and Phil and David were hanging near the lead. Until Glover decided this was the one tournament he was going to hang in there and win. Admittedly, both Phil and David made mistakes coming in, costing them a chance at winning, but wasn’t Glover supposed to have some massive blowup hole somewhere along the back nine?

In the end Glover wins, but Phil and David win too. Right?

Mickelson was the runner-up for a record 5th time and said “Oh well” when asked about another second place finish, further endearing him to everybody watching. Duval said exactly what I expected him to say: “While very happy about how I played, I’m very disappointed as well. When I got up this morning, there was no question in my mind that I was going to win the golf tournament.”

Exactly.

That’s at least what I hope David was thinking because that’s exactly what he needs in order to start being relevant again in golf. What if he hadn’t made triple on that first par three on Sunday? Would he have done that somewhere else? I don’t know but I do want him to play again soon. It just seems to me that he’s been right all along.

“I’m playing better than my scores reflect,” he said before the US Open started. “I still consider myself one of the top ten players in the world.”

That comment drove a lot of the assembled media to distraction, or snide laughter. Of course that was before they all jumped on his bandwagon. I actually hope the tires go flat on that bandwagon soon.

Duval can still play. He has some other priorities in his life and perhaps has lost 10 years of his prime career time. But he’s figuring it out and if he stays healthy, he’ll continue to play well, and win. Soon.

Just about anybody in the top 15 who shot 66 in the final round of The Players was going to walk away with the trophy and the $1.7 million that goes with the title. Alex Cejka seemed a likely candidate to not get the job done based on his past. Tiger Woods usually scares off the competition just by appearing in the final group wearing a red shirt.

Cejka lived up to his reputation as a good player but not a strong finisher.

In about 42 minutes his five-shot lead had evaporated, a double-bogey on the fourth hole sealing his fate as a non-winner. Tiger never got anything going, not even making birdie on the second hole to serve notice on the field. So with the tournament wide open, about a half-dozen players looked to be eventual winners: Retief Goosen, a two-time major champion, Ben Crane, John Mallinger, Ian Poulter and Henrick Stenson.

Of those, Crane’s notoriety came from his deliberate play, Goosen as icy-cold in tough conditions. Mallinger as an unknown, Poulter for his finish last year at The Open and his clothes, and Stenson for taking his clothes off at Doral earlier this year to hit a shot out of the water. Nobody seemed to notice that Stenson also happens to be the fifth ranked player in the world and at 33-years old has won 10 times around the world. He might not be a star in the US but as a true international player, he’s in the thick of things.

I had a chance to talk to Stenson after the round and asked if he was watching scoreboards to determine how he played. “Once I made the putt on 11 I felt like I could take control of the tournament. The putt on 13 gave me a lead and when Ian birdied 15 I topped that and figured if I kept walking I should win.”

He made it sound so simple but it was anything but. Stenson played a nearly flawless round, missing one fairway (14 and still made par) and posting six birdies enroute to a 66, the best round of the day.

“We know he has the talent,” Tiger said afterwards. “But in these conditions, impressive. Pretty incredible.”

And that’s from the best player in the world.

Talk all you want about Tiger’s lack of smiling, his big arms, his knee, whatever, but when he’s impressed by what somebody did on a golf course he just walked off of, you take notice.

Unlike Craig Perks, who I thought would validate his victory after the 2002 Players, I don’t think Stenson will disappear at all. It should move him to the forefront when it comes to the big tournaments and especially the major championships.

“This will give me confidence when it comes to the majors,” Stenson said afterward. “If I can play like this on this course against this field, I should be able to do it in the majors as well.”

I think he’s right about that.

He strikes me as a very even-tempered player (he is Swedish after all) with tons of game. It really comes down to the putter, like with most players out there, but Stenson will put himself in position to be successful in the future and his name will be heard on leader boards for a while.

Two other stories played out this week. Tiger’s just fine but perhaps still a little rusty. “First time I’ve played back-to-back weeks, something I was wondering about. The knee’s fine. I can practice.” That’s good news for Tiger, his fans and the Tour.

It’ll be interesting to see if that’s what’s going on with his game, just some rust, or if it’s fatherhood, distractions, age, whatever. He’s still incredible and looks like the light-heavyweight champion of the world. I know Johnny Miller said Tiger was too bulked up to play, and although I disagree, Miller should know. When he moved to his farm in the mid ’70s’ he bulked up enough that he stopped winning.

I do agree with Miller that Tiger doesn’t smile anymore. While that doesn’t matter it does appear he’s playing a joyless game. I don’t know if that goes with the territory as one of the most famous athletes in the world or he just is grinding all the time. Hindsight will give us an indication.

The other story is Jeff Klauk. Klauk finished a 3 under and represented himself very well. As the son of the superintendent for 20 years he estimates he played 1000 rounds at the Stadium course and knows it from mowing fairways and raking traps. He had a local contingent of fans giving him support and I’m sure he felt some pressure in his first appearance at The Players.

But he didn’t fold at all and at one point was tied for 7th.

A bad back nine on Friday cost him a shot at the first page of the leaders but he showed everybody, and perhaps most importantly himself, that he belonged out there with the best players in the world.

“My goal is to play in the Tour Championship,” Klauk revealed on Sunday. In order to do that, he’ll have to finish in the top 30 on the money list. Maybe not that far fetched if he keeps this kind of play up.

“If I can replicate what I did on several nines this week over 72 holes, I’ll be just fine.”

More than that Jeff.

You’ll be a winner.

“History is made here every year.”

That’s how Phil Mickelson described Augusta National and the Masters and what makes it different from the other Majors. Mickelson knows the history of the game and showed it when he quoted years and players regarding the memories that are made at Augusta National.

“Gene Sarazen in ’35, Jack in ’86, what happened to Freddie at 12 in ’92. Those are things you remember from year to year. At US Open at Pebble Beach we remember what Tom Watson did at 17 in ’82 or what Tiger did to everybody in 2000 but those are years apart. Here it happens every year.”

It was about as succinct an answer ever given for the mystique of the Masters. It’s not the oldest Major, or the most difficult to win. Yet it’s the one that everybody yearns for.

This year was as dramatic as it was heartbreaking. Obviously when Tiger said “you have to plod around here now,” after last year’s final round 75 won it for Trevor Immelman, the members at Augusta decided to turn back the clock and listen for the roars that came from the “second” nine on Sunday. The days where a 30 in the final nine holes can propel you to the Green Jacket are back.

Based on tee position and pin placements, if you had control of your game, you could make a run, create some excitement, make the guys behind you hear the roars from 13 and 15 and post a number good enough to make the leaders pay attention.

That looked like just what was going to happen when Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson shot up the leader board with birdies and eagles on the first nine, putting them into contention. “My number was 11,” Tiger said after the round. “I knew if I could get to 11, those guys in the front would have to beat it.”

Alas, Tiger never got there.

Whether it’s the rust from not playing or a seismic shift of how the world works, not every putt went in as it usually does and instead of keeping his foot on the gas, Woods bogeyed 17 and 18 to finish at 8 under without scaring the leaders. Mickelson really had it going on the first nine holes, turning at 10 under, but missed very makeable putts on 15 and 17 and dunked one in the water on 12 to make double.

“A terrible swing,” Phil said afterwards. On that swing, and the two putts, Mickelson admitted to not committing to what he believed and it cost him each time. He finished at nine under. Good, but not good enough.

Meanwhile, in the final group, Kenny Perry was cruising along with pars through 11 holes and Angel Cabrera was knocking it all over the place and still keeping pace. He was no factor at all for a long time. Between Tiger and Phil, Perry holding onto the lead and Chad Campbell making enough birdies to keep pace, Cabrera was an afterthought.

When Perry hit it to a foot for birdie on 16, he had a two shot lead over Campbell. And, oh by the way, Cabrera also made a 7 footer to stay two behind. Two up with two to play, Kenny Perry suddenly realized he could win the Masters with a par on either of the final two holes. Like Ed Sneed, Raymond Floyd and David Duval before him, Perry had one arm in the green jacket but couldn’t finish it.

Seventeen and eighteen are both difficult driving holes but pretty simple if you do hit a good drive and play it from the fairway. Perry’s drive ended up in the fairway after hitting it in the right trees. Even his second shot (six iron) was OK. But that’s when the wheels started to come off.

“I skulled that chip,” Perry explained of his third shot on 17. “And I hit a great drive on 18, right down the middle, but it found it’s way into the bunker.”

It was a little painful to watch.

After going 23 straight holes without a bogey, Perry was about to make back-to-back fives to fall into a three-way tie and a playoff. Chad Campbell had posted 12-under and Cabrera made a four-footer to get in as well.

“Augusta is the most precise course in the world,” 3-time Masters champion Nick Faldo has said many times. Add the pressure of a Major championship and a playoff and even the best players in the world start to do funny things.

Cabrera hit his drive on 18 straight in the trees while Campbell and Perry knocked it down the middle. Cabrera then hit a tree with his second and it luckily caromed back into the 18th fairway. With 7 and 8 irons in their hands, Perry and Campbell had the clear advantage, but it is the Masters and it is a playoff and neither hit the green.

Cabrera’s out of it right? He hit sand wedge to six feet and made it. Perry chipped up to a tap in and Campbell hit a nice bunker shot, only to miss a four-footer. Perry and Cabrera hit great drives on 10, only to see Perry pull his second shot left of the green. Almost a sure bogey. Cabrera’s 8 iron was below the hole, two putts from victory. His tap in par gave him a second Major.

Amazing that the guy who is behind always seems to have the upper hand at Augusta.

But that’s what makes it the Masters.

Again.

Everybody’s got an opinion about The Players. It’s always been that way for some reason. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer always downplayed its significance. Both wanted their tournaments to be the next “big” thing and didn’t like how then Commissioner Deane Beman was going about promoting the “TPC.”

Nicklaus once said he didn’t think it was right to have to “hit a 4-iron into the hood of a car,” when asked about the Stadium course. Lee Trevino once said, “it’s hard to read dirt,” during one of his numerous complaining conferences about the golf course. “Somebody’s making birdies out there,” was the usual response when the negative comments were brought up.

Since the tournament was moved to the Stadium Course, the winning score has always been under par. Not so at Sawgrass country club when twice the winner was at one over. They’ve moved the championship several times on the calendar. It started the first week of March and eventually settled on the third week. The first week was just too windy and unpredictable when it came to the weather. Even though it was far enough away from the Masters, it just wasn’t the right spot either in the month or geographically.

It moved around the country before settling on north Florida. Ft. Lauderdale, Texas and Atlanta all hosted the “Tournament Players Championship” the flagship tournament of the PGA Tour. But it wasn’t until it moved to its permanent home that it really started to take a beating. That’s because it was something different than just a regular Tour stop.

Beman had bigger plans. He wanted it to be a Major. “Don’t call it the TPC anymore,” one Tour staffer told me about 20 years ago. “Dan Jenkins says TPC sounds like something teenagers snort and Deane doesn’t like that,” was the reason given. I just shrugged my shoulders and complied. Their tournament, they can call it what they want.

As the Tour got further into golf course building and designing and running the tournament, The Players Championship came under more and more criticism. Some of it was valid; some of it was just about animosity aimed at Beman. So he retired and Tim Finchem stepped in. Finchem has presided over the Tiger era, so it has been hard for him to do anything wrong. The Tour has seen unprecedented growth and their flagship tournament has gone along with it.

Two years ago they made another big leap, moved the tournament to May, changing the name (again) changing the golf course, building a new clubhouse and upping the prize money. All in one year. Having been around this thing for more than 25 years it was obvious the Tour was taking the next step. And not a small one. Massive electronic scoreboards, actually giant televisions were placed on every hole. Information about every golfer on every shot was easily accessible. You never had to leave your spot. And the corporate hospitality tents started to multiply and become more lavish. They started popping up everywhere. Not just along 18 and on 17. They were on nine. Next to sixteen. The Benefactor Pavilion behind the 17th tee looked like a cruise ship had parked there.

It was becoming real stadium golf. With a bunch of skyboxes. Ever been to a skybox for a football game? It’s a lot of socializing mixed in with watching the game. Some live, some on TV. And that’s what watching this tournament as become as well. There was some thought that the crowds weren’t as big in 2008, maybe because Tiger wasn’t there.

Not true.

Look at who was on the fairways and greens. Mainly people who didn’t have access to some chalet somewhere. Or those who were making their way to one. There’s so much corporate hospitality that everybody’s in a skybox, in the air-conditioning, having a cool cocktail watching the golf, some live, some on TV. With 22 hours of coverage over the 4 days, you saw just about everything that was significant, no matter where or when it happened.

And that’s what the PGA Tour is about.

It’s a corporate entertainment venue. It’s a once a year appointment for sponsors and guest to get away from the office in a whole different environment. Go to any Tour stop and you see that on a smaller scale. At The Players, its super sized. And going to get bigger.

With Ron Cross leaving to join Augusta National, the new executive director of The Players will be charged with expanding the tournament on a national and global scale. Getting “Golf Dubai” and “Lufthansa” to use the Players as a hospitality destination will be more of the goal than getting “Bono’s” to buy a skybox. There still will be tickets to buy for the general public. And for now they’ll still be available at Publix.

But this tournament isn’t the GJO anymore. It’s not even the TPC. It’s the PGA Tour’s showcase event and the PGA Tour is an international organization. Even if they’re in our backyard, their market is the entire globe. And they’re going to take advantage of that. It’s different, and I think better.

The focus will be on Ponte Vedra and Jacksonville for the whole week. People from around the world will want to come visit and play that golf course. More luxury hotels and good restaurants. Better shopping and a real spot on the map. No, this isn’t the tournament with the “Swingers Tent,” on A1A. It’s bigger. And better.

Get used to it.

I know it’s become very popular to just bash John Daly. Say he’s tormented, he’s full of demons, and he’s a drunk and a disgrace to the game. You could make a case for all of those based on his actions, but as much as I think he’s responsible for a lot of his own problems, jumping on the “Daly’s a loser” bandwagon is just flat out wrong.

I’ve spent some time with Daly in professional situations and he’s been up front, professional, polite, sober and on time. It’s very vogue to call him a “functioning alcoholic” but that’s a very clinical term and the fact is, we just don’t know. I’ve been around plenty of people in my personal life and in my career that were loaded but still getting the job done.

And I knew it.

There are signs, and if you’re paying attention, they’re pretty easy to detect. I understand that alcoholism is an insidious and tragic problem and some people have a very difficult time beating it. But stop making the blanket statement that “Daly’s an alcoholic.”

We don’t know.

We know that he likes to have a good time. That in public he occasionally drinks too much. That he likes to drink. And gamble. That he’s been drunk. And he’s lost millions at the tables. By society standards, he’s out there, a failure. A two-time major winner, no question Daly has talent. And he has squandered it to the point where we can now ask: What might have been?

When he first burst on the scene Pat Summerall and Frank Chirkinian both told me that he’d win a half dozen Masters or so. “It’s the perfect golf course for him,” was the consensus. Shortly thereafter he was drinking with a few friends of mine at the Freebird Café in Jax Beach and the next thing you know he was tearing up his hotel room at the Marriott at Sawgrass.

“The boy’s got issues,” Fuzzy Zoeller whispered to me after he was summoned in the middle of the night to get Daly straight. Since then Daly has won, and lost on the PGA Tour. Remember the great sand shot he hit at 18 in San Diego to seal the win? Also remember the 3-foot comebacker he missed to lose in a playoff to Tiger at a WGC event? He smacked a ball while it was moving in a major championship. He turned toward the audience once during a clinic and hit a driver over their heads from about 15-yards away.

He’s been on both sides of the spectrum. He has problems, no doubt. But on one level he could be a regular guy who likes having a good time and goes over the edge occasionally. Anytime he does that it’s pretty public and he pays a price. When he was drinking in the Hooter’s tent in Tampa on Sunday during the tournament he was vilified by much of the media. The CBSSportsline writer, Steve Elling, (who I’ve never heard of) absolutely destroyed Daly for his actions and said he was disgracing the game.

What a sanctimonious position! Elling got his information secondhand (he admitted he wasn’t there) and even recounted a conversation between a fan and Daly about drinking a beer together. What’s that got to do with anything? One of the highlights of my career was beers with Arnold Palmer on a Wednesday night before the Players Championship. And Arnie had an early tee time the next day.

Butch Harmon’s announcement that he was “firing” Daly as a client was ludicrous. I know Harmon is from a storied golf family and he has a lot of respect for the game and is in turn respected for it. But that was just grandstanding. Harmon could have easily just said to Daly, “Hey John, this isn’t working so let’s call it a day.” Instead he made a bunch of public pronouncements about how Daly’s top priority was “getting drunk” instead of golf. Even Daly said he just wished that Harmon would have called him and called it off. We all know that Harmon is a publicity hound, just ask Tiger, right before he fired him as his swing coach.

When Daly missed his Pro-Am tee time at the Arnold Palmer Invitational the reaction was “told you so!” It’s not like he turned up on the first tee wearing yesterday’s clothes, stumbling to the ball and carrying a beer. He says he got the wrong tee time when he called the tournament office the day before, receiving his Thursday time instead of his Pro-Am time. He knows he should have done more investigating than one phone call but that was his story.

Pretty believable.

Somewhere in there is the truth but I really think we don’t know what it is. I hope John can get his life together and keep it there. A lot of people have tried to help John but haven’t been successful. Remember, professional golf is full of country club, silver spoon types who have a big holier than thou attitude. Daly’s always been an outsider and remains so.

We’ll see where this goes but for now, I’m withholding judgment.

His friends from Jax Beach called him “Poogie” an endearing name from his childhood and high school days at Fletcher. Around the world he was know as Ed or Mr. Seay and as Arnold Palmer’s golf course design partner. Today, Ed Seay died after a long illness at his home here in town. He was 69 years old.

Ed joined with Arnold in 1971 and formed the Palmer Course Design Company in 1972. He has been involved in the design of over 300 golf courses all over the world. From Japan, China, Russia, Europe, Ireland, his ideas have been involved with some of the world’s most famous courses, including the K Club, which recently hosted the Ryder Cup and Tralee, Old Tabby Links in South Carolina and Aviara in California.

After I had a chance to play Old Tabby Links a while back, I mentioned to Ed that I had been there and that it was fabulous. “Why didn’t you call me?” was his typical response, looking for a way to make my day there even more enjoyable. “Nice work there Ed,” I said. “You liked it? Oh, yeah, that’s pretty good there,” he finished, obviously happy with his work there.

Ed sent me to a course called “The Oasis” about an hour outside of Las Vegas a few years back. “They’re not running the place right,” he lamented. “But you won’t see a more spectacular place.” And of course he was right. I drove to the middle of nowhere to get to “The Oasis” but the memories of that day still linger.

Locally, Ed crafted Sawgrass Country Club, the Plantation and Marsh Landing in Ponte Vedra. Ed served as a Past President of the American Society of Golf Course architects and was honored with their lifetime achievement award two years ago. He also was a member of the American Society of Landscape architects.

Although Palmer resides in Orlando and Pennsylvania, his design company was, until about 1 year ago, always here in town, on Ponte Vedra Blvd across the street from the Lodge.

Having spent hours and hours both personally and professionally with Ed, I can tell you he was gracious, generous, sometimes hilariously profane and loyal to a fault. Ed was dedicated to his family, friends, Arnold, whom he always called “Boss,” the Florida Gators and the United States Marine Corps. He was an expert at liar’s poker. His holiday parties are the stuff of legend.

To say the least, Ed cut a large swath wherever he went, and he made sure you were part of the “inside” crowd. His office in Ponte Vedra was like a museum, but it was also a comfortable and welcoming place to just spend a few hours in conversation, or should I say listening to Ed. There might have even been a cocktail or two shared there among friends.

I could go on and on, and I’m sure outlets like the Golf Channel will have long retrospectives on Ed’s life and career. But I’ll echo the words of Erik Larsen, the Exec. VP of PCD who said, “He’s one of the greatest people I’ve ever known.”

Ed is survived by his wife Lynn, his son Mason and Daughter Tracy and two grandchildren. The funeral is Saturday at 10AM at Christ church in Ponte Vedra with a reception following at PVIC.

Comparatively, I didn’t know Rick Murray for very long. We met in the parking lot of a church in Palm Valley leaving Bruce Edwards’ funeral. Bruce was Tom Watson and Greg Norman’s caddie for years and I knew him starting in the early ‘80’s. He moved to Ponte Vedra and was diagnosed with ALS, and his funeral brought people from all over the country.

Rick stopped me on my way to my car. I say stopped me, but he actually just spoke from the side of his van, sitting in his wheelchair as I admired some of the “Go Navy” stickers on the van. “I have ALS,” Rick told me at our first meeting.

Outside of being in a wheelchair, he didn’t look very infirm. A Naval Flight Officer, Rick had been active in all kinds of sports, especially tennis and cycling. So seeing him in a wheelchair, he looked like a guy who was convalesing from something like a broken leg and he’d be back on his feet in no time. But the prognosis was not good. Three years to live, max. Little did I know that he had already exceeded that expectation and planned to “live” a lot more. We had a nice conversation, he introduced me to his wife Sherry, and we went on our way.

Somewhere in the not so distant future from that meeting, I had donated a visit to “The End Zone” to a charity auction, and Rick bought it. When they called to redeem the prize, I told them all about it, but they said, “Rick’s not getting about too well and was wondering if you’d just go by and have lunch with him.” “Sure,” I said, and we set it up.

Turns out Rick and Sherry didn’t live far from me in Mandarin so I went by with the instructions to, “Just come around back,” which I did. When I got a look at Rick I was a little stunned. He’s stuck in his bed with a contraption hooked to his head that kept him breathing. “Fourteen times a minute,” he explained to me.

He couldn’t shake hands anymore so I tapped him on the palm and sat down. For the next couple of hours we talked about sports, flying, sports, women, sports, people, sports, reality and sports. Rick knew what he was talking about. Could quote stats and dates with the best of them and was really sharp. I hadn’t dealt with anybody in his condition before so it was a hard juxtaposition to see somebody with such a fragile body have such a strong mind. I knew I had met somebody I could talk with who had an objective view of things but was never afraid to let you know where he stood.

Our conversations over the next couple of years were varied both in topic and duration. Sometimes we’d just watch a game, others we’d solve the world’s problems. Once when I was there I could tell he was a little down and I asked him “What’s up with you?” He kind of motioned to himself as if to say “all this” so I stood at the foot of his bed and looked him right in the eye.

“Do you understand how important you are to so many people? Do you know what an inspiration you are to everybody you meet? Look, I draw inspiration from you every day so don’t you dare start to get down,” I said, as sternly as I could.

“I’m slippin’,” Rick said softly and after a short pause followed that up with “but thanks” and a small smile. I tapped him on the palm, kissed him on the head and walked out of the room, crying of course.

Each time I’d see Rick after that he’d say, “I’m getting’ worse,” but that’s about all we’d say about his condition. It became more and more difficult for him to speak, a sign that ALS patients are sliding down a slippery slope. I had to lean in closer each time to hear him, and after a while, it was more non-verbal communication than anything else.

And then last week he was gone.

I had really torn feelings about that, knowing how much he had suffered but also knowing how much he loved living. “Persistence wins again,” was one of his favorite sayings and that really stuck in my mind.

I could go on and on about him writing a book, about his Harley passion, about the cycling trips after his diagnosis but suffice to say when I hear the word “courage” the next time, I’ll be thinking of Rick.

I’m a member of a small business group that meets once a month to discuss trends and happenings in Jacksonville. We get together for dinner and usually have a speaker from a charity, a business or a portion of government. And sometimes we step away from our “mission” to have some fun. This was one of those months as one of our members brought Jim Furyk as our guest for the evening.

Furyk is currently the #2 player in the world and just returned from Hawaii when he played the opening two events of the year on the PGA Tour. Our group is pretty informal, with everybody sitting around the table chatting up the speaker while dinner is served. Furyk fit in perfectly with the group with his easy-going manner and his honest, forthright storytelling.

While attendance at our monthly meeting us usually solid and sometimes spotty, this one was packed. Most of the members are golfers, and a chance to hear a former US Open Champion and one of the top players in the world talk about the game, his fellow competitors and life on tour.

Furyk’s an interesting guy because he has a story. Raised in Pennsylvania, his father became an assistant golf pro the year he was born. Furyk always had a passion for the game, but his father pushed him toward other sports instead. “If it had a ball or a glove, I was involved with it,” Furyk said while recapping his youth.

He played football and baseball, but was mainly interested in golf, as early as 8 years old. “My Dad said I wasn’t old enough to play yet, so I asked him to give me an age. He said 12, so when I turned 12, I held him to it and made him let me play.”

Furyk was passionate about the game, in the summer. That’s when he’d play all day during the week at the local muni, taking lessons from his father, “Standing in the kitchen,” at night and on the weekends. He played football early in high school and baseball a little longer until golf took over. “I played in 8 tournaments one summer in high school and won 6 of them, so I figured golf was the sport,” he explained.

Furyk was competitive and a winner in Pennsylvania, but that’s not considered a hotbed of golf. “So I started to play in some junior tournaments around the country and Arizona was the best college situation for me, so that’s where I ended up,” Jim said matter of factly.

“Of course I was interested in getting far away from Pennsylvania at the time,” he added with a laugh.

He might be #2 in the world now, but Furyk has played on just about every mini-tour and shared a social life with other players of his era on the road. So he knows those guys, and they know him. He didn’t hide at a country club or just show up at the US Amateur. Furyk played, and made himself an elite player.

“If there’s one thing about my job that I don’t like, and I’m not really complaining, it’s the travel,” he said when I asked him about “life on tour.” His earnings are in the millions, but Jim isn’t all about luxury. He flies commercially when it makes sense (Hawaii and Europe) and uses the PGA Tour’s personal trainer as opposed to importing his own.

In other words, he’s normal. He’s a pro’s pro, a big sports fan, plays golf with friends and honest with the people he deals with. He’s easy to root for.

I spent the weekend in Atlantic City at the Roger King Invitational golf tournament. King is the premier syndicater in commercial television, handling shows like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and Oprah. He’s a big supporter of the Miami Project for the Cure for Paralysis and the Buonoconti Fund and the proceeds from his tournament go directly to the fund.

The Washington Post Company, the parent company of my station, Channel 4, is also a patron of the Miami Project and a sponsor of the golf tournament. So, our General Manager invited me to go along for the banquet and the dinner. The banquet had a very extensive silent auction with some fun sports memorabilia, some jewelry and some exotic spirits. The Trump organization, through the Taj Mahal on the boardwalk was also a big supporter, and also donated a check for $250,000 at the banquet.

The golf was nice on a links course that really felt like Ireland with the winning team finishing at 20 under (not us!). Anyway they raised a lot of money, over a half-million dollars and had a bunch of celebrities involved from Bob Griese (who played with us and was more personable that he’s been when I’ve been around him in the past) to Bob Beamon and Gerry Cooney (whose team won!). Cooney was a hoot by the way, as funny as anybody and really just enjoyable to be around. I don’t know if it’s an act but if so it’s a pretty good one.

I saw my friend Scott Clark, a sportscaster in New York and spent some time with Garo Yepremian and his family (very nice people). Leonard “Truck” Robinson was there and I spent a few minutes with him talking about playing at Raines High School. He told me he was a much bigger baseball player than basketball but he made a good living at basketball as a pro. He’s living in Phoenix now.

But the most impressive part of the weekend was to hear, watch and experience the commitment Nick Buonoconti has to his son and to the Miami Project. Mark Buonoconti was a linebacker at the Citadel when he dislocated his neck 21 years ago and lost the use of all of his limbs. His father, Nick, the Hall of Fame linebacker, made a commitment that night to raise money to look for a cure for paralysis.

And I mean a commitment.

Buonoconti was, and is convinced that all it will take is money to find a cure for paralysis. Not research, not desire, but money will fuel all of those things and find a cure.

And he might be right.

After raising millions of dollars, the Miami Project is past the research phase and onto clinical trials of different “cures” for paralysis. They’ve been able to restore movement in paralyzed lab rats in nearly 75% of the tests. And they think they can implement those treatments directly to humans. That very exciting for the people involved and their families and if it happens it’s because of one dad’s love for his son.

I mean the bond and commitment between Nick and Mark Buonoconti is the most impressive thing I saw all weekend. I hope it happens for a lot of reasons, but also to validate the commitment they’ve made to find a cure. It’ll show that love and hope can get things done. I know that’s hokey sounding but they’re the driving force behind this search for a cure

Right now they’re working on about 60 “cures” at the Miami Project and believe that they’re going to get it done soon. “I’m sick and tired of seeing my son in a wheelchair,” Nick said from the podium on Saturday night. “I want him to stand up and put his arms around me and give me a hug.”

“I’m sick of it too,” Mark said from his wheelchair when asked to speak on stage. That was followed by Mark thanking his parents for allowing him to become the person he has (while being stuck in a wheelchair!)

Pretty powerful stuff.

If you’d like to learn more about the Miami Project, their website is
http://www.miamiproject.miami.edu

I try not to root for any particular player or team when I’m covering an event. I always like to see the home team win. It makes the fans happy, most of my friends are happy and certainly it makes a reporter’s job easier. Players and coaches are much more willing to talk after a win. At a golf tournament I like to see good play, good shots, an aggressive approach and somebody win instead of everybody else losing. And I do root for certain players. You get to know some of the guys when you hang around long enough, and you can’t help but hope they play well.

This brings us to Fred Funk.

He’s an easy guy to like and being a Maryland guy, I’ve always followed his career closely. I tried that with former PGA Tour player George Burns and that was a disaster. Burns was just gruff, rude and mean spirited, almost the exact opposite of Funk. Growing up in Tacoma Park, near the Maryland campus, Fred graduated from Maryland and became the golf coach there as well. So he’s no silver spoon guy. To the contrary, he even was a circulation manager for a newspaper for a while. A regular guy, with a regular job who just happened to be a very good golfer.

He was playing so well, he was encouraged to try the PGA Tour, and qualified as a Tour member in 1989. Like a lot of guys, he picked Ponte Vedra as his home to be near the practice facility at the TPC as Sawgrass. Funk might play more events than anybody else on the PGA Tour, so he really could live anywhere. Within the last year he was ready to move to Orlando, but at the last second changed his mind. So living in the area and also being a Maryland grad, it’s pretty natural that we’d have a connection.

I always check his scores in the agate type, and usually seek him out when I’m at a Tour event, if only to say hi. Last week he was his usual accommodating self leading up to the Players Championship, again making it easy to wish him well as the tournament drew near. A 65 in the first round showed that the golf course was not favoring the long hitters like a regular tour stop, and showed that Funk had his putter working, glaringly the weakest part of the game. Between the weather delays and the wind on Monday it was hard to predict who would emerge as the winner, and for the longest time, there really wasn’t a favorite. Until Funk birdied 12 and 13 to pull ahead of the field and declare himself as a contender.

At that point he had a two shot lead and almost anywhere else, the tournament is over. But that’s when he made it interesting. “I don’t make anything easy on myself,” Funk said after the final round. Three putt bogies on 14, 15 and 17. You could see the tournament slipping away from the fan favorite. “I said to myself in the middle of the fairway on 16, ‘How many more chances are you going to get?” That’s when he made his final birdie of the tournament, the insurance that he would eventually need.

How he played 18 was textbook in his approach if you want to win. Risky, but textbook none the less. Fade the ball down the left side of the fairway with your drive: Smooth a six iron from 170 that “I caught it on the toe,” according to Funk. Bunker shot to 5 ½ feet, and one putt for par. “I just wanted to put a good stroke on it,” Fred said right before the celebrating began. “I didn’t want to walk off 18, make or miss, thinking I didn’t hit a very good putt. My caddie reminded me it wasn’t over, but I said ‘It is for me!’ I had finally made something.”

When Fred was standing over that putt on 18, it was as quiet as I’ve ever heard it on the final hole at the Players Championship. There have been important putts there before. You only have to go back to last year’s finish when Adam Scott needed that 12 footer to avoid a playoff. But this was different. You could almost hear the silent prayers from the stands trying to will the ball in the hole. I was far enough away that I was able to say out loud “Let yourself do it Fred.” One of the guys I work with was standing next to me, and when I said that he gave me a startled look. I guess it was something out of character for me, but I really wanted him to make it. “So did everybody else,” a guy told me at the gas station later. I laughed, but got his point. Funk’s popularity cuts across all kinds of lines through the gallery. Everybody can relate to his game and his story. Now that story is a little richer. The right guy won.

I spent a few hours over a couple of days with David Duval last week. I was glad to see him since he’s faded out of the picture over the last few months. Duval was married in March and moved to Denver with his new wife and their three children. Denver, you might ask? Not exactly the place to work on your game in the off season. But Duval isn’t worried too much about his game, or appears not too worried, and that’s OK.

Having known David for the better part of twenty years, (here’s where I drop into my “sage old grizzled veteran role”) I’ve watched his development as a player, and also as a person. From junior golfer at Timiquana and the Plantation, to collegiate star at Georgia Tech, to a hiccup joining the PGA Tour, to bonafide Tour star, David was singularly focused on a goal: see how good he could be. Not to become the best player in the world, but to see how good he could be. Turns out, that quest did lead him to a number one ranking and a major championship at The Open. But David is a smart guy, a very smart guy, and the win at the Open, while gratifying as a payoff for hard work, was not satisfying as an end all-be all achievement. And it affected his motivation. What other mountains were there to climb? Throw in an emotional breakup with his long time girlfriend and a variety of injuries that changed his swing, and all of the sudden, David couldn’t break an egg.

For so many athletes, they keep pounding away, trying to find the answers, only to become more and more frustrated. But most do that because that’s all they know. Duval is much different. Golf is just one of the things he knows and exploring the other parts of his life is as important to him as anything he could achieve in golf. Those couple of days I spent with David were enlghtening for me and for a lot of us who’ve known him for a long time (there I go again.) He’s as happy as I’ve ever seen him. He’s content, he’s centered. That arms length, aloofness he displayed in public has been replaced by a genuine warmth, complete with a straight look in the eye and a smile.

Duval’s travails in life have been well documented, and they shaped his personality. So it would make sense that two very positive things, marriage and kids, would also shape his personality. When I asked him the standard newlywed question “How’s married life treating you?” He grinned ear to ear and said, “Awesome!”

His step-children, two boys and a girl from 13 down to 8 years old, are attached to him as if he’s been around their whole lives. He talks to his kids with that combination of love, tenderness and authority that can’t be taught. I know he’s only been married for a couple of months, but he and his wife certainly seem like a match.

I didn’t ask him when he’d play again, but just about everybody else did. He didn’t really have an answer, except something vague about when he’s ready. Which is perfect. Money is not a problem, and even though his sponsors, (Nike, Oakley et al) are running a little thin on patience, Duval isn’t about to step back into professional golf until he’s ready. He looks healthy, more healthy than he has when he’s on a strict diet and exercise regime. He’s committed to the U.S. Open, but it’s doubtful he’ll play there. Even the (British) Open Championship might not get him back. David and his father, Senior PGA Tour player Bob Duval, are scheduled to play in Johnny Miller’s Father-Son Tournament in August and it could be until then before David returns to competition. Don’t be surprised if he returns to the Tour at the International, outside his current home, Denver, also in August. But don’t worry about David. He’s just fine. In fact, he’s better than that.

I spent about an hour with the engraver from Waterford crystal standing next to the 18th green yesterday at The Players Championship. A friendly Irishman, he joked that if Paddy Harrington won, “we’d need a bigger trophy.” “A-d-a-m-S-c-o-t-t, short and sweet,’ and we both laughed. “When do you think I can start,” he asked. “When he hits his second shot on 18 in the middle of the green,” I answered. The TPC at Sawgrass is fraught with peril through the final three holes, where the championship can be easily lost, or won, with one swing of the club. “It’s brutal,” is how Scott described it standing outside the media center.

His second shot on 16 wasn’t a good sign when he pulled it left into the rough. Though he made a nice chip and an easy par, left isn’t good on 17 or 18. So when he hit his pitching wedge in the middle of green on 17, left of where he was aiming, there was a little jitter in the crowd. Padriag Harrington went to the practice tee to warm up, even though Scott had a two shot lead. Harrington knows left is not good on 18. But when Scott smartly drove a 2-iron down the right side of the fairway on the final hole, the engraver started. Then stopped when Scott’s 6-iron second shot landed in the water, left of the green, never touching earth. “Not a good swing,” is how Scott described it, “just one of those things that happens around here.”

Just one of those things? Only when you’re 23 can you think that way. “A chip and a putt to win,” is how Scott recounted his thought process. Now that’s putting a positive spin on things. I just hit it in the water on the final hole of a big championship and am about to go down in history as the biggest choke in the history of the tournament, but “just a chip and a putt to win” is running through my mind.

Scott freely admits that he’s had fellow Aussie Greg Norman as his hero throughout his golfing life. Perhaps it was fate that he bumped into Norman in the practice area on Wednesday and asked for help with his chipping. The 1994 champion spent an hour trying to get Scott to accelerate through the ball on short shots. Apparently it worked, with Scott giving Norman credit for the variety of up and downs he made throughout the week.

“I wasn’t thinking about it, but I definitely used the new technique,” Scott said when I asked him about the lesson and his chip on 18. “It was the only shot I was kind of nervous over, but I said to myself, ‘just a chip and a putt to win.’ “There’s no way I would have been able to make that kind of chip with my old technique. Once it got up there, I didn’t let myself think of anything else but making that putt.” Maybe Scott didn’t think of anything else, but everybody else certainly was. Where does the playoff start?, was the thought on everybody’s lips. But Scott calmly made the putt, and the place exploded. “You should make that putt every time on perfect greens like these,” he explained. And that’s why he’s who he is. At 23 and already a two time winner on tour and 6-time champion around the world, everybody says he’s got the game to compete at the top. But it was those thoughts, those positive thoughts, those mental adjustments that showed who he is.