Sam’s Commentary

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Players 2014: Will The Greens Be Up To Par?

Tee times for the first two rounds are out fo the 2014 Players. They’ll play in threesomes and start at 7:15 as expected, going off the first and the tenth tee. If you’re a morning player on Thursday, you go in the afternoon on Friday and vice versa. In the morning on Thursday, last week’s […]

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Players 2014: Who Can Win?

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 […]

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Players Preview 2014

For most of it’s existence, The Players signaled the beginning of the golf season for many fans. While the Masters was a sign that spring is here, The Players in March is where golf fans started to focus on the season and the sport. Many of the top players skipped the California swing (private jets […]

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The Players : Wide Open

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. […]

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The Players Update: Monday Afternoon Some greens still closed

For a while it was a murmur, then some idle chatter but the talk about the greens at the Stadium Course for this years Players has grown into a full-blown conversation today. It’s been customary to allow players to practice on the Stadium course starting on the Saturday before the tournament, accommodating those who either […]

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Pre Draft Jaguars Ramblings

It’s annually called the “Pre-Draft Luncheon” and it qualifies as that because it is before the draft and they do serve lunch. (Great potato chips and nice BBQ sliders this year). It’s mainly a chance to get the powers that be with the Jaguars on the record about their philosophy when it comes to the […]

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The Players Field Almost Set

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 […]

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Jaguars Buzz is Real

It’s been a while since there was this kind of buzz around the Jaguars. While the national media has always considered putting a team in Jacksonville “a mistake” and has always looked at Jacksonville as an outpost, they couldn’t ignore the early success the franchise had particularly in 1996 and 1999. Although they tried. In […]

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Final Four Bigger in Big “D”

It’s just cliché enough to say “Things are bigger in Texas.” And it’s generally true. Bigger buildings, bigger roads (and lots of them), bigger traffic jams and certainly bigger aspirations. It’s not that bigger is better, but for their first time hosting the Final Four at ATT Stadium, the locals and the NCAA have decided […]

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Gators in Elite Eight: Want More

As expected, it wasn’t easy. Florida withstood a run by UCLA in the second half with poise and tough defense as they beat the Bruins 79-68 to advance to the Elite Eight for the fourth consecutive year. “Done it before,” Will Yeguete said in the post-game locker room. “Go back to the hotel, get some […]

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Gators vs. UCLA: Toughest Test Yet

It’s like a traveling road show when teams go deep into the NCAA tournament. Like that old saying, this week it’s “If it’s Wednesday this must be Memphis.” Adapting to that kind of travel and schedule, new arena’s, new locker rooms, new environments favor a veteran team in college basketball and certainly the 2014 Gators […]

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Bradley Looking To Upgrade Team, Self

While looking for a constant upgrade in the draft and through free agency, Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley isn’t forgetting what last year was like. The ups and downs, the teaching and the learning and how he can take that and move forward. “I know this sounds bad,” Bradley qualified his statement before going on […]

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Gators Change Mindset, Beat Pitt

It really is all about defense for the Florida basketball team. And while that’s a given for most teams, the Gators have bought into it.’ “This was about to our standard,” Senior Patric Young said in the post-game locker room after Florida’s 61-45 win over the 9th seeded Pitt Panthers. “We can’t always control whether […]

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Gators “Survive and Advance”

It’s difficult to be such a favorite in college basketball. A team that shoots well, and executes their game plan, no matter what their talent level, size or speed, can make things difficult. Florida found that out in the first half against the Albany Great Danes in their first game in the NCAA tournament in […]

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Gators Ranking Doesn’t Matter

It would be pretty easy for the 2013-14 Gator basketball team to strut into Orlando with an attitude. They’ve won 32 games; they’re the only team to ever go 18-0 during the regular season in the SEC. They won the SEC tournament by beating Kentucky for the THIRD time this year and they finished the […]

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Gators in Orlando For NCAA’s

No 16 seed has ever beaten a #1 seed in the history of the NCAA tournament. I thought I’d get that out there right away so if there is some kind of jinx, it’ll fade by game time on Thursday. But the Gators won’t need it. As the top ranked team in the country for […]

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Jaguars Free Agency: Impressed, Not Surprised

I’m not surprised, but I am impressed. For what seems like forever, the Jaguars in free agency were a non-factor. And even when they were a factor, it didn’t matter. Jerry Porter, Drayton Florence and Tory Holt were supposed to make a splash. They did, more looking like a belly flop. A bunch of journeymen […]

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Gabbert Gone

Walking off the practice field last summer during Gus Bradley’s first training camp as the head coach of the Jaguars, I found myself at the back of the pack walking with the Jaguars new leader. “What the biggest surprise,” I asked as the two of us made our way to the locker room. “Just the […]

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Gators Still “Chasing Greatness”

“This is just goal number one,” Patric Young said with a big smile on his face after the Gators finished an undefeated regular season in conference play. Florida jumped out to a 21-point lead at halftime over Kentucky, weathered a 15-0 run by the Wildcats in the second half and finished with an 84-65 win […]

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“Personal Foul” on the Dutch

I guess we should just be amused when people who don’t know anything about America try and come up with reasons why Americans are, well, Americans. We are somewhat iconoclastic, doing things our way in our almost 240 years as a nation. We drive on the other side of the road than the British. Our […]