Unbeatable

Friends,

Just as I have said that I was amazed even to be doing a "motocross post", I am also amazed that it has taken me this long to post a message on perhaps the greatest sport ever invented (next to soccer, of course)...and that is golf. I have had the privilege of being able to enjoy this sport -- hard to imagine this -- for 35 years (albeit at varying times and costs). I have had (and currently have) some great golf partners...my dad, Gary, Nate, Dennis, Johnny, Willard, Leon and Randy. As much as I enjoy the challenge of golf, even more so, I enjoy playing with good, fun people with whom I can laugh and have a good time. It really is all about the fellowship to a great degree. I also have to say, what fun it is to watch -- I think it's safe to say, or at least it soon will be -- the greatest golfer ever to play the game. I do not watch golf on television regularly, but it is hard not to want to watch Tiger Woods at work. He pulled off yet another one of his amazing finishes yesterday, sinking a long putt for a birdie in order to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational by one stroke -- his fifth win in a row! One would think that it would get old watching the same guy win, week after week, but it really doesn't, because we are all just so amazed by what he does on the golf course. I mean, Tiger may have his off days with the driver or the putter, but he still is (typically) the class of the field. It would be difficult not to be a head case if you were ANY other pro golfer, because the self talk would have to be that, on most occasions, "I am realistically playing for second place." What a catch 22...you know how good it is to have the most powerful figure in sports leading the way in your sport, but what a bummer to have such a small opportunity for victory. I used to always root for the underdog in most sports, but, for some reason, it is so difficult to root against Tiger. I don't know what it is, but I just find myself pulling for him...and I hear so many other people say the same thing. It just has to be that he is truly such an amazing, one-of-a-kind player...so set apart from everyone else that people just want to see him rewrite every record in the record book. (I guess it really is Brett Favre syndrome -- one just wants to see it happen for someone so dominating in so many ways). Anyway, I just have to tip my hat to the guy who now stands tied for third place all time in victories (64) with Ben Hogan (soon to be first) with only 219 starts, (which is half of the starts of Jack Nicklaus (73) and Sam Snead (82)), and he is already second all-time to Nicklaus (18) in "wins at the four majors" with 13 -- the Masters, the U.S. Open, The Open (British), and the PGA Championship. If he stays on any reasonable course, he is going to just cruise by these guys in short order. A generation from now, people are going to marvel at just how truly great a player was Tiger Woods. And for the rest of us...we'll just enjoy it now.

Don