Mickelson, Tiger Among Leaders At Masters

The game of golf can't be more happy to have Tiger Woods back. There hasn't been this much positive buzz surrounding the game since Woods last stepped on the golf course over six months ago.

Currently Woods sits just four shots back from the leader Lee Westwood with a score of 8-under par.

As for Phil Mickelson, he sits in a much more comfortable position after he had a remarkable third round to bring his overall score to 11-under par. He had back-to-back eagles on 13 and 14 to ignite the Augusta gallery.

Mickelson has been in this situation plenty of times before at Augusta. He's a virtual lock to always finish in the top ten, but he's choked his way out of a green jacket a few times before.

Both Woods and Mickelson have dealt with their own set of circumstances outside of golf, which makes it even more remarkable at how well they're playing right now.

To go back to Woods, everyone has been paying close to attention at how Woods handles his emotions during this tournament. He's been under a lot of scrutiny for the way he has presented himself in the past whenever he hits a bad shot.

There was a little bit of that today with the most memorable remark by Woods saying to himself, "Tiger Woods...you suck!". He is clearly locked in on wanting to win his fifth green jacket, and that makes him ever so dangerous going into the final round tomorrow.

The critics should back off and not make a big deal about the expletives he said under his breath today. He's only human and he's extremely passionate about the game.

I did have a problem with whenever he slammed his clubs down in disgust, but he hasn't really done that during the Masters. That's a good sign that he has worked on controlling his emotions and respecting the game of golf.


There are several other talented golfers who are in the mix going into the final round. The most notable of those are Ian Poulter, Fred Couples, and K.J. Choi.

Couples is a great story here, much like Tom Watson was at last year's British Open. Couples is also at 8-under and has a great chance at pulling off the unthinkable.

If Westwood continues to play as consistent as he has the first three rounds then it will be hard for anyone to overtake him for the lead.

It's going to definitely be another photo finish and golf has definitely returned back to the spotlight of the sports world, thanks mainly to Tiger Woods.

Masters Leaderboard After Three Rounds

1. Lee Westwood (-12)
2. Phil Mickelson (-11)
3. K.J. Choi (-8)
4. Tiger Woods (-8)
5. Fred Couples (-8)

Notables:

T-14. Tom Watson (-2)
T-16. Kenny Perry (-1)
T-22. Angel Cabrera (E)
T-31. Ernie Els (+3)
T-38. Sergio Garcia (+4)

Memo To Tiger: Your "Apology" Was a Load of Crap

Nothing like waking up to a robot like creature giving a speech on your television. Oh wait, how careless of me. That was Tiger Woods attempting to apologize for his actions that he displayed.

I'm sorry but when you wait three months to make a public statement and then follow that silence up with what seemed like an insincere apology that was well-rehearsed, then you're getting no sympathy from me.

There were times when Tiger would look blankly at the camera in front of him and then look back down at the podium to gather his next thought.

I'm no speech writing expert, but shouldn't you be able to give a heart-felt apology without the aid of a sheet of paper on a podium?

Here's the main issue I have with these formal public apologies that Tiger and many other athletes have given in the past. How do we know who actually wrote this apology? For all we know he could've hired a speech writer to handle the whole thing. He's certainly got the money for it.

And one more thing. Why didn't Tiger allow the media in the room to ask questions? I can probably answer that question already. Because he simply didn't want to handle the situation on his own. Instead he would rather say whatever he wants to say and be done with it. Many of the people in the room were hand picked by him.

Well that won't last for long once he decides to return to golf. The media will hound him with questions regarding this situation for years to come until he decides to man up to his actions and answer the questions that the public has.

Toward the end of his speech Tiger began to somewhat lash out at the media, and some of it was well deserved. The media has no right to drag his wife, Elin, or his two-year-old daughter into the middle of this. Tiger deserves all of the media scrutiny in the world, but not his family.

However, Tiger then brought the spotlight back onto his own selfishness by denying that he's ever done performance enhancing drugs.

What does that have to do with anything? Stop trying to make a case for yourself. You screwed up and now it's time to deal with it like a man, not like a puppet.

Tiger Deserves Every Bit of Scrutiny

Star athletes always seem to take some sort of a step back in their respective careers.

Guys like Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Kobe Bryant, and Alex Rodriguez all experienced a fall from grace. However none of those examples amount to what Tiger Woods has squandered in just a matter of weeks.

Woods was one of the most respected athletes in the world two weeks ago. He was on top of his game and the outright best golfer of his generation. He had tons of endorsements that made up 90% of his earnings.

He foolishly threw that all away by getting caught up in the fame. He was running around with numerous women, possibly up to nine, while his wife was who knows where.

Now he's a punching bag of the media, and he deserves every punch.

Since all of this has been going on Woods has acted like a coward in handling this situation. He has hid behind his website and not even made one single public apology. For all we know his apology on his website may have been completely written by an adviser.

Woods has now said that he will take an indefinite leave of absence from golf to focus on his issues. That's a small step in the right direction, but he still has a ton of work to do before I ever think about respecting him again.

Even before all of this went on I still had less respect for him than the average fan. Sure, I thought he was the best golfer in the world, but I thought he acted like a child when things didn't go his way on the golf course. Slamming his golf clubs in disgust and yelling out profanities will not earn you much respect from me. Especially on a golf course where etiquette is pretty important.

It's going to be close to impossible for Woods to return to his dominance that he once had. To be frank, I don't see how he'll ever face the media again. He rarely spoke with the media before anyway.

This whole situation has dominated the sports news wire for the last two weeks now and I'm sick of hearing it. This will be the only thing you hear from me about the situation. Draw your own conclusions, but all of the negativity that Tiger Woods receives from this is well deserved.

Watson Comes Up Just Short In Claiming the Claret Jug

After leading the British Open for almost the entire four rounds, Tom Watson just didn't have enough gas left in the tank to take home his sixth Claret Jug. It would've been his first since 1983.

Instead, Stewart Cink took home his first victory in a Major championship, and it was probably long overdue.

Cink had won five times on the PGA Tour coming into the The Open Championship, and had multiple top 10 finishes in past Major championships.

He almost came up short again, but instead sank a clutch birdie putt on hole 18 to force a playoff with Tom Watson.

Perhaps an even bigger story in this year's Open Championship was that Tiger Woods missed the cut on Friday for only the second cut in a Major championship in his career.

Even the really good golfers on the PGA Tour miss a number of cuts each year. That's probably why not seeing Tiger even participating in the final two rounds of a major championship was even more shocking.

The British Open had plenty of excitement thanks to the playoff between Cink and Watson, but this weekend proved that without Tiger and Phil in the mix, this sport just isn't nearly as exciting.

Final Leaderboard
1. Stewart Cink -2
2. Tom Watson -2
T-3. Lee Westwood -1
T-3. Chris Wood -1
T-5. Luke Donald E

Notables

T-8. Ernie Els +1
T-27. John Daly +4
T-34. Jim Furyk +5
T-38. Sergio Garcia +6
T-38. Vijay Singh +6

The U.S. Open Lives Up to the Drama

The 109th U.S. Open proved to be just as exciting as many others have been in the past. The leaderboard was jam packed going into the final round, but Tiger Woods wasn't really among them.

For much of the tournament it was a two-way duel between two unexpected guys; Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes. Glover ended up taking home his first major by two strokes over Barnes.

Barnes at one point led Glover by six strokes in the third round before gradually dropping strokes and closing out at a respectable 2-under par for the championship.

There were a few faces that people did recognize, one of them being the gallery-favorite Phil Mickelson. The other familiar face was former number one ranked golfer in the world, David Duval. The two ended up finishing tied for second with Barnes, which were both great stories in their own separate ways.

We all know what Mickelson is going through with his wife Amy recently being diagnosed with breast cancer. Just about every fan in the gallery was cheering for Mickelson who came up just short in the end with a score of 2-under par.

David Duval had basically been in hibernation since winning the British Open over seven years ago. This weekend's finish marked the first Top 10 finish for him since 2002 in Las Vegas.

And then there was Tiger Woods. Tiger was easily the clear-cut favorite going into Thursday after winning his last event at the Memorial tournament, but another bad start for Tiger marked a comeback that was even too much for Tiger.

Tiger still only finished four strokes off the lead, which makes me think he would've won his 15th major if not for his opening round 4-over par. You also have to wonder if things would've been different for Tiger if he hadn't have had the bad luck of playing in horrible weather conditions on Thursday that others didn't have to face.

Another great U.S. Open championship is in the books and I can't wait for next year's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach!

U.S. Open Final Standings

1. Lucas Glover -4
T-2. Phil Mickelson -2
T-2. David Duval -2
T-2. Ricky Barnes -2
3. Ross Fisher -1
T-4. Tiger Woods E

Notables

T-10. Sergio Garcia +2
T-16. Retief Goosen +3
T-27. Vijay Singh +6

Tiger Remains in His Slump After Sluggish Finish to TPC

Tiger Woods entered the final round of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass tied for second place on Sunday. The problem was, he was five strokes back. That use to be easy for Tiger to comeback from, but ever since his run at the Masters, Tiger has looked simply ordinary.

He trailed Alex Cejka, a Czech who had never won an event on the PGA Tour in almost 200 attempts. He failed just like Tiger, and Henrik Stenson pulled out only his second career PGA Tour win. He's been on the PGA Tour since 1998.

Many people are starting to wonder what could be wrong with the world's greatest golfer. After all, his stats were pretty ugly on Sunday. Woods only hit 6 of 14 fairways and 10 of 18 greens. He still managed a +1 for the day. Definitely not living up to Tiger's expectations however.

What's funny about this "slump" that people are saying Tiger is in is the fact that many of golfers would love to be in Tiger's "slump". During Tiger's so called slump he's still managed to finish in the top 10 in 16 straight stroke-play events.

Everyone should quickly get out of panic mode because I guarantee you Tiger isn't panicking. He'll be back before we know it sinking those 15-foot birdie putts to win championships, sending us in shock and awe like he has his entire career.

Totals at The Players Championship (4 rounds)

• 13 Bogeys
• 15 Birdies
• 1 Eagle
• 8th place (-7)
  

Masters Update-2nd Round

The 2nd Round of the Masters is underway in Augusta, Georgia and everyone is waiting for Tiger Woods (-2) to make is signature comeback. As of right now, there's a lot of ground to make up, even if you're Tiger.

Tiger Woods has a habit of always making his comeback on Saturday and Sunday in Major tournaments. Tiger might have to have one of his biggest comeback in his illustrious career to win his 5th Masters, which would put him only behind Jack Nicklaus.

Currently Chad Campbell is stealing the show as he sits at the top of the leaderboard at 9-under par, including a 2nd round score of 2-under par.

Campbell was actually in reach of a Major tournament record for lowest first round score but had bogeys on 17 and 18 to end the day. Campbell wasn't the only one to end slow.

Tiger had a shot at going to -4 after the 1st round but let a fairway shot get away from him on 18 that ended up in the crowd of spectators. Tiger went on to bogey the hole. However, Tiger was still pleased with his opening round score.

Here's the leaderboard as of noon today:

1. Chad Campbell -9 Thru 12
2. Kenny Perry -6 Thru 8
3. Jim Furyk -6 1:52 PM
4. Todd Hamilton -5 Thru 17
5. Huner Mahan -5 Thru 10

Notables

• T13 Tiger Woods -2 Thru 7
• T23 Vijay Singh -1 1:30 PM
• T44 Phil Mickelson +1 1:52 PM
• T44 Sergio Garcia +1 2:03 PM