A Few Thoughts on the 2007 PGA Championship

• So Sunday I hiked about 17 miles over three mountains in the Adirondacks. I got back today, excited to flop on the couch and watch golf. I turned on the TiVo to watch the entire Sunday broadcast. After I flipped forward to Tiger teeing off, I got out my computer to check my fantasy baseball team, then my email. Insanely, I had an email from PGA.com with the subject: "Tiger Wins the PGA Championship." Bears eat beets! I was more incredulous then angry. Why the heck did PGA send me that email? I didn't open it. Just deleted it. Of course, I still ended up watching golf for four hours.

• Tiger won. That's 13 majors. If you haven't watched him play, you've got plenty of time. He's gonna be the best golfer in the universe for the next 15 years still.

• I just realized the CBS golf broadcasting team is unbelievable. Jim Nantz anchors with the funny and insightful Nick Faldo, the best wingman in golf broadcasting today. Gary McCord is hilarious. David Feherty is hilarious AND interesting. Nobody breaks down a slo-mo swing as well as Peter Kostis. Those are just the big names. After that, you've got Ian Baker-Finch, who is very well-spoken. There's Bill Macatee, who is good enough to anchor. And, oh by the way, "Gentle" Verne Lundquist is out there as well. Peter Oosterhuis has an excellent last name. And Bobby Clampett has hilarious hair. I'm very happy CBS has two of the four majors these days.

• I caught a bunch of the Crowne Plaza ads with Feherty, (writer) Dan Jenkins, (golfer) Natalie Gulbis, (Latino) George Lopez, Lee Trevino, and Alice Cooper. Clearly a rip off of those "Man Law" commercials, but who cares? They're as hilarious as Bobby Clampett's hair. Find them on YouTube. Watch them. Download them to a DVD. Lock that DVD up in a safe. Take it out in a year and watch them again. They're that funny.

• Part of the reason why no one can catch Tiger on Sunday at majors is Tiger's conservative approach when he has the lead. He never gives up strokes, so he forces everyone else to press to catch up. And it's even more difficult if you're playing with Tiger. He'll be slamming drives into fairways and dumping shots safely on the green and the guy playing with him will feel that much more pressure to hit a better shot. We have an old saying in Monster Croquet..."Conservative Comeback." And I think we can all agree that what's true in Monster Croquet is true in golf.

• Ernie Els cannot beat Tiger. The two majors he won after Tiger joined the PGA Tour both came with Tiger out of the running. He missed some short putts Sunday that would've put him neck-and-neck with Tiger. I think it'd be cool if Tiger kept a notebook with all the pictures of the top 200 golfers who have ever been in a tournament with him, then crossed out their picture with a big red sharpie whenever he felt like he owned them. Last week he crossed out Rory Sabbatini's name. Stephen Ames was crossed off when Tiger beat him 9 & 8 in the 2006 Match Play championship. Els was done back in 2000 when he lost to Tiger by 15 and 8 at the U.S. and British Opens. Now it always feels like he's 8 strokes behind Tiger on Sunday at a major.
  

• Speaking of 2000, Tiger won his first major (1997 Masters) by 12, his third (2000 U.S. Open) by 15 and his fourth (2000 British) by 8. Since then, he's only won two majors by as much as 5 (2005 British and 2006 PGA). And, of course, he's never duplicated the "Tiger Slam" of 2000-01. So I'm still waiting for him to regain his early career dominance.