What can you say about this man? Here he is two months off of his third surgery on the left knee, the pain is registering on his face and demeanor shot after shot as he torques that knee again and again, he’s made more double bogeys in this U.S. Open than all of the other major title matches he’s played in, combined, and he’s made miracle shots to claim the lead on the final hole he played on the third round… The man is simply amazing as he limps toward his fourteenth major championship.  

If you are an outdoorsman, then you know that an animal is most dangerous when it has been wounded, and it appears that this may just be the case when it comes to this type of Tiger too.

Woods will be paired with Englishman Lee Westwood as the last twosome to step off in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines this afternoon. Can he pull off this unlikely win and add yet another epitaph to his ever growing legend?

I’m here to tell ya folks, this is the greatest golfer to ever come down the road, and we all get to watch him play!

Will Tiger win in honor of his Father today?

In many sports you can point to one person who has earned the title of "Best Ever". It might be based upon one sterling effort, like the all-time best time in the 100 meter dash, or the title might be earned over the course of a career's worth of accomplishments... There are those that like to separate a particular sport into eras and then handing out the accolades, and then there are those that like to compare a past great champion to the best individual participating in that sport at this time.

Over the last few days we've seen a couple of posts by people in the Fox Sports Community that brought attention to the individuals participating in various sports. jaguarjoe72  wrote a series entitled

The first in the series deals with the NFL... This was followed by Faces of the franchise-MLB  

and then Face of the franchise-NBA

These highlight certain football, baseball and basketball player's accomplishments that earned them consideration as to whether they had attained enough status to be deemed synonymous with the team they played for, and then there was a NASCAR post by RLGuido entitled

The New Kings ....... there is only one King

Now this last one is getting to the heart of the matter.

So, with this in mind, I'd like to pose a question...

Who are the all-time greatest performers in each of the following sports, or, to borrow from jaguarjoe72, Can we put a face on these sports?

1. Baseball - MLB

2. Basketball - NBA

3. Boxing

4. College Football

5. Golf

6. Hockey

7. NASCAR

8. Professional Football

9. Tennis, Men

10. Tennis, Women

Here are my astute selections:

He won 14 Grand Slam titles and 11 Grand Masters events... Nuf' said? 

10. Tennis, Women

Always the lady, She battled all challengers from the baseline and through pure willpower, she would put them away... Chris Evert!

18 Singles Titles and 3 Doubles Titles in 18 years of Grand Slam tennis defines her, Chris Evert the greatest women's tennis player...

All right, you've seen mine... Let's see yours!

     In the early 1930’s, near a sleepy little town in Georgia, an old tree farm was converted into one of the most challenging golf courses in the world. One of the men responsible for developing the Augusta National Golf Club is also recognized as one of the greatest athletes to ever swing a golf club; one Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones Jr. Jones had retired from competitive golf after the 1930 season, when he had won what became known as “The Impregnable Quadrilateral”. This phrase was then changed to a slightly more understandable “The 1930 Grand Slam” in which Jones, who always played competitively as an amateur, had swept both the United States and the British opens and amateur championships, a feat not duplicated since. Having competed in golf since the age of six when he won his first children’s tournament, Jones then surprised the golfing world as he retired at the age of 28. Bobby Jones, while winning one golf title after another, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1922, a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Harvard University in 1924. He then passed the Georgia State Bar Exam after only one year of studying at Atlanta’s Emory University in the School of Law. Jones, who had also married at the age of 22 in 1924, settled into practicing law in Atlanta after he retired from golf, but his interest in the sport never wavered, and he kept involved with the development of the Augusta National Golf Club.

     Bobby Jones envisioned building a top quality course and formed a partnership with an investment banker, Clifford Roberts. Jones then hired Alister MacKenzie, a well-know golf course architect to co-design the course with him. Mr. MacKenzie once described his style of course design, “In discussing the need for simplicity of design, the chief object of every golf course architect worth his salt is to imitate the beauties of nature so closely as to make his work indistinguishable from nature itself." Together, Jones and MacKenzie designed what would turn out to be Mr. MacKenzie’s last course in a long line of top golf courses he designed around the world as he suddenly passed in 1934 without ever seeing a Masters Tournament played there.

     The new course opened in January, 1933, and in April of the following year, the inaugural playing of the “Augusta National Invitation Tournament” came to pass. Jones was initially not in favor of calling it the Masters Tournament, but after five years he finally relented and allowed the name to be changed.

     Augusta National has been the recipient of many changes over the years and primarily these were physical in nature. These physical changes were meant to insure that as golf’s technology advanced so too did the course’s layout and the ensuing difficulty of play. A change of a different sort took place after many years of vocal criticism aimed at the Club’s exclusion of black Americans. In 1990 this ended as the first American of African descent was admitted to membership. Another visage of old time society has yet to fold under withering criticism. The Augusta National Golf Club still does not accept female members…

     The course’s physical changes include lengthening the course by 745 yards, from it’s original 6,700 yards to 7,445 yards after the latest adjustment in 2006. This lengthening process has drawn criticism from past champions, who questioned the seeming favoring of the long strikers, but to no avail. The original wide-bladed Bermuda grass putting greens were deemed too slow and were switched to much faster bentgrass in 1981. A higher cut rough has been used in recent years that acts to slow wayward balls. This adds some measure of good and bad. Distance is cut down, but lie may be enhanced. Even the type of sand used in the Augusta National Golf Club’s sand traps has been changed from a beige #### sand to a now signature pristine white in 1975.

     Over the years there have been three great golfers beyond Bobby Jones who have etched their names into Augusta National’s Masters Tournament lore. Arnold Palmer won four Green Jackets in the late 50’s into the early 1960’s. Jack Nicklaus then won six Green Jackets across a span of 24 years. Finally, beginning with his first Masters Tournament as a professional golfer in 1997, Tiger Woods has won four Green Jackets. (Since 1949 when Sammy Snead won his first of three Masters Tournaments, the tournament winner has been awarded a Green Jacket, emblematic of membership in the Augusta National Golf Club. The current champion can take the Green Jacket with him  for one year, and then it must be returned to Augusta National. The jacket may then only be worn when the past champion is on the Augusta National Golf Club grounds. Each winner is awarded his Green Jacket by the past year’s winner in a post tournament ceremony. Only three winners have  won back to back tourneys and of these only Jack Nicklaus [1966] put on his jacket unassisted. Nick Faldo [1990] and Tiger Woods [2002] were assisted by the chairman of Augusta National.)

     This week marks the 72nd playing of the Masters Tournament. Here is a quick look at the course courtesy of Augusta National’s home web site, http://www.augusta.com/masters/coursetour/
and Golf Digest's Site http://www.golfdigestsa.com/index.php: <
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HOLE 1: Tea Olive
Par 4 | Yards 455 | 2007 Field Average: 4.474 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 2. Tee shots can easily find trouble either in the right bunker or in the trees to the left. Changes made before the 2002 tournament force players who used to use a wedge or 9-iron to take two or three more clubs on the approach.  

HOLE 2: Pink Dogwood
Par 5 | Yards 575 | 2007 Field Average: 4.776 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 17. This second hole is a dogleg left, reachable in two by the longest drivers. For the shorter hitters, it's one of the more difficult drives. Many players will choose a 3-wood to help avoid the left bunker on their first shot, while large, deep greenside bunkers take special attention on the second shot.

HOLE 3: Flowering Peach
Par 4 | Yards 350 | 2007 Field Average: 4.138 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 13. The shortest par 4 hole with a small L-shaped table-top green that requires the utmost delicacy with the approach shot. The tough pin position is on the left, the arm of the "L."

HOLE 4: Flowering Crab Apple
Par 3 | Yards 240 | 2007 Field Average: 3.417 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 4. A fine one-shot hole that can require a wood shot from even the long hitters. The green is wide. A shot sent to the wrong side of the green can leave a putt as long as 75 or 80 feet.

HOLE 5: Magnolia
Par 4 | Yards 455 | 2007 Field Average: 4.314 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 8. Now measuring an extra 20 yards for the 2003 tournament, the bunkers on No. 5 were also moved right and 80 yards forward. Players now must aim farther right off the tee, leaving longer approaches to a green that features a large hump in front.

HOLE 6: Juniper
Par 3 | Yards 180 | 2007 Field Average: 3.189 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 12. An elevated tee looks down on this hole with a giant hump at the right of the green. The pin position at the top of the hump is one of the most difficult on the course.

HOLE 7: Pampas
Par 4 | Yards 450 | 2007 Field Average: 4.295 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 10. Trees line both sides of fairway of this hole, the tightest on the course. A large tree between the tee and the No. 6 green creates a narrow chute for the players' first shots. After changes made before the 2002 tournament, players now take more than a sand wedge for their second shot to a small, well-guarded green.

HOLE 8: Yellow Jasmine
Par 5 | Yards 570 | 2007 Field Average: 4.766 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 18. Only the longest hitters can get home in two, and they face a tough route. Since trees block the way to the green from the left side of the fairway, players have to flirt with the bunker on the right in order to reach the green in two.

HOLE 9: Carolina Cherry
Par 4 | Yards 460 | 2007 Field Average: 4.138 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 14. Trees on the right can catch errant drives, especially since the ground slopes to the right. On their second shot, players have to consider the greenside bunkers. Then, they face a green severly sloping from back to front.

HOLE 10: Camellia
Par 4 | Yards 495 | 2007 Field Average: 4.375 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 6. The fairway encourages a drawn tee shot which can kick off the hill and produce tremendously long drives. A drive hit too far to the right can require long second shots off a slanted lie.

HOLE 11: White Dogwood
Par 4 | Yards 505 | 2007 Field Average: 4.510 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 1. The first of the water holes. The tee shot is through a very long chute, but once players reach the landing area it's wide open. More than length, the course demands accuracy off the tee, or the second shot becomes a perilous introduction to Amen Corner.

HOLE 12: Golden Bell
Par 3| Yards 155 | 2007 Field Average: 3.401 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 5. The shortest and maybe the deadliest of them all. The narrow, canted green is guarded by Rae's Creek and threatens not the easiest of shots in the little pitch across the water after your tee shot splashed into the creek.

HOLE 13: Azalea
Par 5 | Yards 510 | 2007 Field Average: 4.846 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 16. The hole is jealously guarded by a little creek that runs along the left side of the fairway before crossing just in front of the green and running past it to the right. Tee shots need to be hit long and straight just to reach the bend of this dogleg left.

HOLE 14: Chinese Fir
Par 4 | Yards 440 | 2007 Field Average: 4.321 | 2007 Difficulty Ranking: 7. A fairly straight hole -- the only one on the course with no bunkers -- with trouble on the putting surface. This hole has one of the most difficult greens on the course, with a large hump running across the front it -- definitely three-putt country.

Back in the 80’s I owned a custom farming business in Central California and worked on a commission basis as a pest control advisor. As an advisor I was affiliated with a local farm chemical sales company.

Every year at about the end of the growing (busy) season several of the large farm chemical manufacturing companies joined forces and put on one heck o####olf tournament. It was known as the PPGA or “Poison Peddlers Golf Association”. The association would strike a deal with one of the exclusive private country clubs in the area and rent the facilities for a full day, so you were automatically assured of playing a really nice course. Every hole on the course had a sponsor and what that meant was that every hole either had a farthest off the tee contest, a closest to the pen (par threes) contest, or a longest putt contest, plus there were free refreshments of one sort or another but primarily they were watering holes. The prizes for winning one of the hole contests were things everyone would like to take home, so everyone would try to put forth their very best effort. The tournament format was four man best ball and the teams were set up on handicaps with one excellent golfer, two middle-of-the-road golfers, and one high handicapper. I didn’t play that much and consequently was the high handicapper. Each year the teams were made up by drawing names from each of the three handicap categories, so nine times out of ten you would be placed on a team with three people you probably didn’t know. Chemical company executives as well as many of the fieldmen (chemical sales people like me) in the San Joaquin Valley showed up to play. It got so popular that the organizers had to limit the entrants to 800. Now think about this… They had a shotgun start so each foursome was assigned a starting hole and with 200 teams there were at least three teams on each hole. Each of the long holes had one or two teams waiting to tee off, one on the fairway, and one on the green, while there would be a long wait on the par three holes. It certainly made for a long day of golf and adult beverages in the early autumn sun, let me tell you. After an early morning start it was late afternoon before you were done with 18 holes. Once the round was complete there would be an open bar and casino games going on in the clubhouse until dinner was ready and it got rip roarin’ by that time! The meal was usually a thick juicy bar-b-cued steak with salad, baked potato and dessert. You’d think the evening would be over after they got done handing out the tournament trophies, but not this tournament. The last thing on the agenda was one of the best drawings you’d ever want to be involved in as TVs, music systems, expensive golf clubs, gold watches and on and on were handed out, all for a $200 entry fee that was covered by the company I worked with. Man, it was a lot of fun and I was hooked. I went every year when I could make it work out.

This particular year the tournament was held on a Thursday and I was able to get one of my best friends, Randy, to take the place of another fieldman who couldn’t go at the last minute. Well we show up at the Belmont Country Club in Fresno and as we are registering and meeting our teammates I notice that a new feature had been added. They were taking win, place and show bets at $2 a pop. You could bet on any team you wanted. Well, I plunked down $6 on my team to win, place, and show. It made sense to me! I made the bets while the others were off to our assigned tee that just so happened to be number 10. My teammates that year were all from different areas and we didn’t know each other. One thing was certain, the low handicapper had a definite need to win and he made it clear. It was about that time that I noticed my other two teammates were nodding their heads in agreement. So here I am the lousiest golfer of the bunch and they’re all checkin’ me out while I’m trying to look confident. Now what a four man best ball means is that every teammate tees off and you then decide who had the best shot. The other three go pick up their wayward balls and gather at the best ball. Then all four take their next shot and follow the same best ball procedure until the first team member's ball finds the bottom of the cup. Being the questionable striker, I’m informed that I will take my strokes first without exception and I’m good with that. The reasoning is that if I happen to make a nice shot then the good golfers can let it hang out and really try to knock a good lick. So off we go. You can imagine that under this format, there are going to be some nice scores. It worked out that one of the guys I work with, Joe, is playing in the foursome immediately in front of ours and so there’s some good natured bantering going on between us. That guy is a pretty fair golfer and he knows I fall into the “duffer” category. It must have been about the seventh hole we were playing (number 16) when the first omen of things to come occurred. My teammates and I had been waiting on the fairway for Joe’s group to clear the green and when they did, as was our procedure, I stepped up to address the ball. My problem has always been that I try to hit the ball too hard and so I have to concentrate on maintaining a fluid motion and stroke through the ball, while not trying to “kill” it. To do this I use maybe one or two clubs longer than if I was trying to nail it. So here I am with a five iron instead of a seven, and I’m going to knock the ball about 140 yards straight on to the green. Well I guess I forgot about the fluid motion and stroke through the ball part as I unwound and hit it good. The ball is heading straight at the pen when I realized it was going to fly the green. Joe’s group had just arrived at the next tee where another team was waiting to tee off. That’s when my teammates and I started yelling “FORE!” It was about that same time that my ball hit a big metal trash can where all these guys were standing. You could hear the BOOM all around the area and everyone of them jumped like they’d been shot! The ball was suddenly rolling right back toward me. It had just enough momentum to crest the rise at the back of the green and slowly trickle down right next to the cup! You wouldn’t want to hear what these guys are yelling at me and then, to add insult to injury, I got to stroll up onto the green in front of them and tap the ball in for a birdie! I surely caught hell! We had a long wait on that tee and I went ahead and cracked open my second beer of the day and began analyzing my play to that point. I was feeling kinda confident. Why with the exception of that 5 iron shot, everything was going along pretty good and my teammates seemed to be pleased. We were doing all right!

The very next hole, our eighth and the seventeenth on the course, was about a 400 yard par 4. You teed off and it was another straight fairway to the green. After teeing off and selecting the best drive, I was once again first up to hit. Our drives hadn’t been that good and we still had about 200 yards to the green. So I’ve got my 3 wood out. I’m standing over the ball and studying where I want to knock it. Finally I hit the ball and for some reason it starts a big round house slice. Located about 50 yards away from the green, back towards the area I’d just hit from, was the back side of the clubhouse building, right of the fairway. That ball sliced right over to that building and ricocheted off the metal panel on the roof that hides the air conditioning units. POW! Everyone looks to see what made the noise. Wouldn’t you know it, I looked to see my ball bouncing along towards the green and it once again rolls quietly up near the pen!  Now Joe’s group is going bananas as they turned at the ricochet sound and watched the whole thing. I couldn’t believe it, there was no way! This time I had to really study the putt because it was a toughie. It was about 15 feet above the cup and the greens were fast. That second beer must have done the trick as I tapped the ball and it trickled its way right into the cup. Back to back birdies made in the most improbable way! Once again I was catching hell… Our low handicapper called us together as we waited on that tee and pointed out that we were having a very good round. We got par on our ninth hole (the eighteenth) and made our way over to the scoring table to turn in our front nine score where we found we were tied for second at that point. That’s when I asked my partners if they had placed a bet on our team. Not one of them had…

We continued on with our round and I mean these guys are serious! My game receded back to normal and yet I was able to contribute and we continued a very impressive round with three more birdies by the time we reached our eighteenth hole (number nine on the course). Now this hole is a dog leg right lined down both sides with great big, tall eucalyptus trees. It was a par 5 of around 500 yards. I’d had about five beers by this time and maybe one VO water and I was doing just fine on this warm afternoon, thank you very much. We tee off and have a decent drive of about 225 yards and a clear view to the green another 275 yards out. So I get up to make my second shot using that trusty 3 wood that I invariably slice the ball with. After careful consideration, I make sure this is no exception as the ball starts off just great flying low and then it slices off running under the row of trees on the right. My teammates had been imbibing adult beverages as well and every one of their shots went cockeyed… The low handicapper looks at each shot and pronounces mine as the best shot since it’s inbounds on the neighboring fairway and pretty close to the green as it had run a long way out there. I’m thinking “Okay, I guess I can run the ball under the trees and try to roll it onto the green because there is just no way on God’s green earth that I can knock the ball over those trees. My gosh, they were planted like a hedgerow and looked to be better than fifty feet tall. So here I am, about 120 yards from the green with these trees blocking the way. I pull out my 2 iron and walk over to the ball when the good golfer asks what I’m planning on doing. I run through my plan and tell him why. He says “No… You’re going to take your 9 iron and you’re going to knock the hell out of that ball and fly over the top of those trees and land it on the green!”

I tell him this is nothing but an impossibility, but he won’t listen. Okay… I go get the 9 and take a couple of practice swings all the while picturing the ball getting gobbled up by one of those trees. It’s about that time that I here someone yelling my name. I look down toward the veranda at the clubhouse and here’s Joe and his crew all yelling at me… They were telling anyone that would listen that we were having a darn good round and now everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch. Great! I just want to get it over with now. I step up and take a full swing and SHAZAAM! That ball took off and climbed right over the trees and settled within three feet of the pen while all those non-believers (me included) looked on! My teammates were all dancing around and shaking my hand. It was almost as wonderful as when I once again walked up onto the green and holed out my third birdie putt of the day! There was a big cheer from the clubhouse and then we found we were leading the tournament by two strokes…

It took another hour or so before all the teams had completed their rounds and then we found that our two stroke lead had held up! The news came as I was pocketing money over on the #### table, another drink in hand. After dinner and the trophy presentation (nice two foot tall trophy by the way…), I was once again called to the podium where I received over $600 as the only person to bet on our team to win. When I won this nice gold wrist watch in the drawing the catcalls were getting tiresome… 

This marked the beginning of one of the most unbelievable weekends in my life… There’s more to follow.

I hope everyone has this kind of experience sometime in their life!