Alex Kreitman - Stealing signs

I said I wasn’t going to tell too many vacation stories, but I had such a good time I decided I just have to tell all the sports-related ones.

On Thursday my friend Ricky, Brendan and I woke up super early, 7:20 a.m. is wicked early for vacation time, and hit the links. We made an 8:10 a.m. tee time which looking back might not have been the best idea. We were struggling after a late night soaked in booze.

We barely made it to the course on time. We were in rough shape. The round went so-so for everyone. The front nine was miserable, the back not much better for me. But the scores aren’t the story.

The course, Charleston Municipal Golf Course, was crowded all morning and the design of the course had the tee boxes right behind the greens, disaster for a long shot with the large crowds.

On I think hole No. 4 I hit my tee shot just off the fairway to the right, probably about 225 yards or so. My ball landed in a good spot with a nice shot at the green, but was under a huge weeping willow tree. The course was lined with these trees which were more for beauty than obstructing shots.

After the group ahead left the green, I was first to hit. I took out an 8-iron thinking I was about 150 yards away, but turns out it was only about 110 yards. Big mistake.

As I went into my back swing I made excellent contact with the ball and it felt good. I couldn’t see the ball at first with the branches of the tree blocking my view. As I dodged out from under the tree I found the ball and it was headed right for the flag stick. But as the ball got closer it looked like it was going to be long and then at the last second I saw the group ahead of us at the tee box.

In a weak attempt to warn the group I shouted “Fore!” OK, I’ll be honest; the other two guys in my group could hardly hear me yell it. It was one of those last-minute attempts because I wasn’t noticing the people, just the shot and its proximity to the green. Selfish I know, especially considering what happened next.

The ball came in hot and as it got closer to the ground, a short man came into focus in the direct path of the ball. With a shattering stop, the ball came crashing down on what appeared to be his right shoulder. It was official, I had actually hit a guy on the golf course and he wasn’t happy about it.

We stood in shock and amazement, not sure if it actually hit the guy or not, but what the man did next confirmed our beliefs. He charged from his tee box back onto the green and began shouting and pointing at me, screaming words of profanity I can’t list in this blog. Most of them began with the letter “F” and he threw a few mothers in front. I yelled back an apology, saying that I didn’t see him and the ball until the last second which was true, but I still felt bad.

For the next 14 holes I avoided that group at all costs. I have never walked on egg shells while playing golf before. If I hit a shot near the next tee box, on that side of the hole, I walked slow, or took the long way to get there. I wanted to avoid confrontation at all costs.

I wish I could say that was the last run in with that guy and his group. We didn’t hit anyone else, but we yelled “Fore!” quite a few more times, causing all five players, yes, they were playing with five, to cover their heads and duck.

Now I know what you’re saying. “They were playing with five? Well he deserved to be hit then.” My thoughts exactly, but man that must’ve hurt and left a mark for sure.

It seems like an eternity since a young Sergio Garcia dueled with Tiger Woods at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medina Country Club.

That 19-year-old boy has grown up without winning a big tournament, until now. Garcia won The Player’s Championship on Sunday in thrilling fashion with an island-green playoff victory.

The ending couldn’t have been more dramatic even after his opponent Paul Goydos plunked his tee shot into the water. Garcia, really only needing to avoid getting wet, followed with a beautiful shot within a few feet of the cup.

Finally, Garcia was able to win a big tournament on the PGA Tour. After blowing last year’s Open Championship I thought he might be cursed. Here’s a guy who was one of the most talented youngsters in golf back in ’99, but never really amounted to much since then.

I’m glad Garcia finally got to win a big event, but his words after winning solidified my claims in last week’s blog. Garcia thanked Tiger Woods for not playing in the event, saying that it makes things much easier when he isn’t out there.

With Woods out with an injury, he was unable to play the event, but should be back for the U.S. Open in June and hopes to return to play before then.

Another note from The Player’s Championship is that Goydos, the runner-up, was such a good sport. I was pulling for him to win a little bit just because of how cool he seemed. Even after tanking on the playoff, Goydos was all smiles and joked with Sergio on the way to the green. He complimented and congratulated him at every opportunity. He even wrote “Mom” on his golf ball for Mother’s Day. I hope we see more of him this year.

So, I played in the Alamance-Caswell County Hospice Golf Classic on Monday at Alamance Country Club. To no surprise, my team didn’t win, but we might have come close. We shot an even-par 71 in the Captain’s Choice format and that score isn’t impressive by any standard, but the way the tournament was set up, we might have had a shot.

The organizers divided all 35 teams into four flights, with a winner for each flight. The winning teams shot 58, 62, 66 and 70. That’s right, one of the teams was just one shot better than mine. There were several teams better than 70 that didn’t win, but apparently all the teams in the 70 flight were just as awful as mine. Too bad we didn’t shoot one stroke better, we may have won $500. But that point could be mute since we might have been in the flight with the score of 58 all along.

I wasn’t happy with our score, but I guess I can’t be disappointed either. None of us had played in this event before and none were too familiar with the course. I’d played there just once about three years ago. Also, the conditions were tough with gusts over 30 mph blowing right into our face.

Also, we made the mistake of not purchasing a lot of mulligans. They had a table set up before the event to buy mulligans for $5 a piece. I didn’t see the table, therefore didn’t get any. Our team had three and we used them, but they didn’t help us at all. Who knows how many other teams bought, but from watching other groups take about 10 putts on the last par 3, I think they had a lot more than we did. Rookie mistake. I’ll know better for the next time.

But as my Dad says, a bad day on the golf course is better than a good day at work. And it wasn’t a bad day of golf, it was really nice.

It’s May and we’ve already watched The Masters and golf is supposed to be in full swing. But not this year.

With Tiger Woods missing in action due to injury a usually fun to watch tournament like The Players Championship has lost its appeal.

The winner for this tournament and every other Woods will miss is tainted because they didn’t have to beat the best.

Every tournament Tiger is the favorite because he’s the world’s best and maybe greatest ever, but with him on the sidelines the competition level seems down, or just nonexistent.

It’s always, how is anyone going to beat Tiger? Now it’s just who cares who’s going to win.

It’s not completely anyone’s game which I think might be good for golf to try and develop some other dominant players while Woods is gone, but in the long run, when Tiger returns, it will be back to the same old story. Tiger is the favorite and Tiger wins.

I realize Woods doesn’t win every tournament he plays in, but he seems to always be in the running. So, until he comes back, I probably won’t watch much golf. I plan on playing a little bit, but I’ll stay in the woods and off the couch.

I’m actually playing in a tournament Monday with some other folks at the Times-News. It’s at Alamance County Club which I’ve played once before, compliments of my friend Ricky. But I didn’t turn in a good score that day; in fact it was one of the worst efforts in recent years. Hopefully I’ll have better luck this time around.

It’s a Captain’s Choice format, but I’m not sure how many of my scores we’ll be using. I plan on heading out this weekend to try and sharpen my skills, but I’m sure they’ll stay pretty dull.

Tiger Woods underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Tuesday and this news is huge.

Not only will Woods miss at least a month for recovery, but it hints that he wasn’t 100 percent during The Masters, perhaps the reason why he didn’t win.

The surgery repaired cartilage damage and is the second operation on the same knee that Woods has had in five years.

Woods’ rehab schedule should have him missing The Players Championship, but it’s likely that he’ll play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

Golf experts are predicting that Woods will come back stronger and better than ever, but as I wrote the other day, will whatever he does really mean that much?

After losing The Masters there is no chance of winning a grand slam which seems like the only big feat Wood has left to accomplish. Since it’s early in the golf season and that goal is already unreachable, who really cares how good Woods is the rest of this season?

Of course I’ll watch him crush the field at the British Open and the rest of the majors and big golf events, but it won’t mean anything, so I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.

But one thing is for sure, the media sure does. I’ve seen the headline “Woods has knee surgery” everywhere since Tuesday, probably in too many places.

Another thing I’m sick of people talking about is Spy gate. I watch “Mike and Mike in the morning” on ESPN every morning while getting ready to come to work. I enjoy the radio show, made television show and they usually have great guests and good stuff to say. But today was different. Mike Greenberg started to annoy me. He is a big New York Jets fan and his hatred for the New England Patriots has become unprofessional.

His show is watched and listened to by millions, yet he continues to drag out the Patriots Spy gate incident.

He said this morning that fans want to know the truth behind it and that it is still buzzing around the country. He’s wrong.

I haven’t heard anyone mention anything about it except him. The only reason it’s still occasionally talked about is because people like him keep bringing it up.

He said today that he gets e-mails and phone calls from people telling him to let it rest and move on, but he said he wasn’t going to because the ordeal wasn’t over, but he’s wrong. The NFL wants nothing to do with it anymore and they’re trying to end the whole nightmare. But people like Greenberg won’t let it rest.

I hate that I do this, but every Sunday I pull for Tiger Woods.

I know he’s always the favorite and he’s the best golfer in the world and everyone else pulls for him, but I just have to.

I like the guy and I enjoy watching him play and win. I like nothing better than seeing him creep up the leaderboard on Sunday. This time, that didn’t really happen.

Sure, he crept up the leaderboard, but he really never contended.

All the talk leading up to The Masters was about Woods finally completing the grand slam, winning all four majors in the same year. But losing the first makes the rest of the season almost pointless. I know there will be great golf tournaments, awesome shots and exciting finishes, but in April, we already know there won’t be a grand slam. Tiger finished second.

But I do have to credit Trevor Immelman because he stayed on top of the leaderboard for most of the tournament and never caved under pressure. Even with windy conditions Sunday, he never slipped far enough down for Woods to catch him. Her also lucked out that Woods only shot even-par, but he didn’t blow up, which makes him deserving of the green jacket.

I was able to sneak out for a round of my own Sunday. I hit up Indian Valley Golf Course for a round of 18. I’m trying to get out on the course more often to improve my game and it seems to be working.

I shot an 87 yesterday which is a good score for me. A few years ago I used to flirt with 100, but now I seem to be flirting with 90.  Basically, I’m keeping the ball in play and hitting it straight. The biggest accomplishment for me yesterday was avoiding the blowup hole.

I always seem to have at least one blowup hole. Usually a hole in which I throw a club, curse loudly, get really pissed off and of course finish with an 8 or worse. But Sunday I didn’t have that and my worst score was a double-bogey 6. I had five of those, mixed in with a lot of pars and bogeys. I missed three birdie putts by inches, so I feel like a left a few strokes out there. Hopefully next time out I can get those putts to drop.

The Red Sox and Yankees closed out their first series of the series with my beloved Sox taking a 2-1 series victory. New York took Game 1 on Friday night, but Boston fought back to take the last two.

It wasn’t a super exciting series, but still had some good story lines. New York’s prize pitcher Phil Hughes choked last night, getting the early boot in the third inning after allowing what seemed like 10 runs, but was more like seven.

Hughes, pitching in his first game at Fenway Park was obviously nervous for the rivalry. A-Rod stunk, going 0-for-4.

The rivalry took on a new twist last week after it was discovered that a construction worker working on the new Yankee Stadium buried a Red Sox jersey in concrete in the new stadium.

Saturday, the Yankees had the jersey dug up. It took five hours to remove the David Ortiz jersey that Gino Castignoli, a longtime Red Sox fan planted there to supposedly start a curse against the Yankees. Click here to watch video.

To me it’s kind of a funny story, but the part that is ridiculous is that the Yankees are now talking to the New York district attorney about filing criminal charges against Castignolli. Filing charges would be ridiculous.

This was a harmless prank. There are plenty of people out there doing much worse things that it is so unnecessary to waste the DA’s time with this. This man isn’t a criminal; he’s just a diehard fan like me. Granted, I wouldn’t go to his extremes, but either way, it didn’t hurt anyone, just laugh it off and let it be.

I think the Yanks are just bitter that they seem to be on the short end of the rivalry these days.

Every year I associate the start of spring with the first round of The Masters.

Last year was more difficult to do so because of cold weather and rainy conditions, but this year, so far, it looks like spring and golf are one again.

I love to head out to the course and play a round of golf and I’ve done so a few times already this season. But after The Masters begins, I always want to even more. Luckily for us North Carolinians, the weather is similar to that in Augusta, Ga,

It’s about 80 degrees here with bright sunny skies. I wish I was out on the links right now instead of stuck in the office.

There’s just something about watching The Masters that really brings out one of my favorite seasons. Maybe it’s watching the perfectly groomed green grass or the beautiful décor of the azaleas in full bloom. I’m not quite sure. All I know is that I’d love to go to Augusta and witness one of the greatest sporting spectacles in the world. The Masters is so rich in tradition.

As for this year’s tournament, who will be the winner? Tiger Woods is obviously the favorite as he is in every tournament, major or not.

Trevor Immelman (-8) leads Brent Snedeker (-7) by a stroke midway through the second round. Woods doesn’t tee off until later this afternoon.

Phil Mickelson, one of my favorite players, is making a charge. He’s 3-under par today and 4-under for the tournament.

I hope it’s a memorable final round come Sunday.

The nice weather might inspire me to head out and play 18 on Sunday morning, we’ll have to see.

I had high hopes of winning a couple March Madness pools and taking home some cash, but those aspirations came crashing down Saturday.

I went 0-for-2 in the national semifinals with UCLA falling to Memphis and North Carolina bowing out against Kansas.

Both games were blowouts and both didn’t go my away.

I knew it was over for me when the Bruins lost in the early game because I had them winning it all. With that in mind, I continued to pull for the Tar Heels since I have a lot of friends that are Carolina fans. I was stunned they lost.

I was in a Charlotte bar packed in with hundreds of Tar Heel blue clad fans surrounding me and they were all in shock.

Kansas’ defense did what I didn’t think was possible, it shut down the Heels. Carolina only had five players score which is embarrassing. The Tar Heels only shot 36 percent, a credit to the Jayhawks swarming defense.

That’s all I’m really going to say about those games though because they were both boring to me. I was glad I chose to go to the Celtics game against the Charlotte Bobcats instead. I had to miss part of the games, but caught a lot on screens around the arena. Boston slaughtered the Bobcats and the game was a lot of fun.

I’m almost uninterested in tonight’s national championship. I’ll probably tune in for a little of it, but if something better is on, I’ll make the switch.

I’ve got more interesting topics to write about than college hoops today.

I played golf Sunday afternoon with a friend down in Charlotte. It turned out to be a nice day, but the course was soaking wet with all the recent rain. Several fluke things happened during our round.

First, on the third hole, a 160-yard Par 3, we were convinced I’d hit a hole-in-one. My tee shot was headed right at the flag stick, then landed and rolled just short of the cup. It was so close to rolling in. When we got to the green it was a few feet short of the cup and I made the gimme putt for birdie.

On the back nine it was my friend Ricky’s turn for an almost hole-in-one. On a 220-yard downhill Par 3, a very challenging hole, Ricky hit a soaring drive a little left of the hole, but it started to curve right and towards the flag. The ball bounced once and then hit the inside of the cup before eventually landing a few feet to the right. He also made his putt for birdie.

The most bizarre occurrence of the day and perhaps of my life on the golf course came on No. 7.

Ricky and I hit our tee shots into the fairway which went downhill. Let me first mention that from the tee box you can’t see if anyone is in the fairway playing the hole. I play my shot short of the green and now its Ricky’s turn.

As he approaches the ball for his shot I hear what sounds like the group behind us tee off, so I look back towards the tee to try and watch for a ball coming at Ricky while he’s shooting. As I’m looking back he takes his shot. As he hits, I hear an awkward sound. I hear him swing, make contact with the ball, then what sounded like the ball hit his foot. I turn away from the tee box and watch his shot trickle down the fairway about 25 yards away.

I assume that he’s just hit a really bad shot. Ricky immediately says, “What the heck just happened?” I told him, I didn’t really see it and that it must’ve hit his foot because I heard it hit something after the club. So, I’m over it quickly, thinking that’s what happened and it’s not a big deal.

Ricky walks up to his ball a short distance away and is still scratching his head in confusion. He hits the ball and immediately turns back and says, “No, that’s not my shot, that’s the group behind us. It’s their tee shot.”

I shout back, “Are you kidding? There’s no way that’s possible. I saw it roll downhill after you hit your shot. Unless it magically rolled under your feet, that’s yours.”

At this point I think Ricky has lost his mind and we argue back-and-forth for a few minutes about the topic which I think is not debatable.

We get up to the green after I demand he just hit and stop worrying about it. When getting there, Ricky finds what he says is his ball, the one he played on his second shot from the fairway. The ball is nowhere near where he hit his third shot after the errant shot off his foot. He now knows what happened and I still don’t.

As he starts to explain, the group behind us is now searching for one of their tee shots in the fairway.

Ricky fills me in on what actually happened.

As Ricky hit his second shot, the tee shot from the group behind us came down hill and hit Ricky in the foot. Ricky’s shot soared over the green, while the group’s tee shot trickled 25 feet away. What I saw was the tee shot roll forward and assumed it was his shot. He was so caught off guard by being struck in the foot with the other ball that he took his eye off his shot and had no idea where it went, also giving in and thinking that the ball in front of us was his.

But it wasn’t. We then went to the group behind us and asked what ball they were playing. Sure enough, it matched. The odds of their tee shot hitting Ricky at the same exact time he took his shot and the ball looking like his errant shot, is unreal. It’s the strangest thing I’ve seen in awhile. But it made for an interesting round of golf.

The Boston Red Sox home opener is Tuesday so I’ll have plenty to write about tomorrow. Prepare yourself to read line after line of me praising Fenway Park, the city of Boston and the rich history of its fans, while of course watching the game on my computer at work.

Everyone knows by now that Tiger Woods is probably the greatest golfer to ever live. Woods won the Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson, Ariz. on Sunday.

If you’re keeping score at home, Woods has won three straight World Golf Championship events, five of the last six and seven of the last 10.

On the PGA Tour, he’s won four straight and six of the last seven. He’s also won five straight official tournaments around the world. Basically, he’s playing out of his mind.

Woods is unbeaten in every tournament he’s played in this year. I don’t think going perfect in a golf season is possible, but it’s being talked about for Woods and so is winning a grand slam.

If anyone can go unbeaten and or win a grand slam, it’s Woods. The dominant player picks and chooses which events he attends, usually just the big ones, and so he doesn’t play as much as everyone else. But when he does, he’s almost always in the mix and as of late, he wins every time out.

In World Golf Championship events, designed to include only the world’s best players, Woods has won 15 of 26 events. That’s a 58 percent winning percentage which is ridiculous considering he’s competing against the very best in the game. Hell, that’d be good even he was playing against my friend Mike Pulse or Brendan Clearkin who seem to show me up by about 25 strokes a piece. My friend Ricky’s percentage against me has grown to about 75 percent, also impressive. I need to keep practicing.

The only thing my golf foursomes could beat Tiger at is drinking beer and recklessly driving a golf cart. In Tiger’s case, he can’t even ride in a cart on tour, so he definitely can’t drive one drunk like we commonly do. Oh yeah, we could also beat him if we were having a who can lose the most balls in the woods contest or if we opened up a box of Franzia on the links.

I watched an interview with Woods on Sunday after his victory and he was asked an interesting question. He was asked where the next Tiger Woods is and he didn’t know. I don’t know where he is either. In every sport we have outstanding players who completely dominate, but we usually see more than one at a time. And when we see one who stands out among the rest, shortly after they’re finished, a new guy comes along. Michael Jordan was that athlete, but now we have LeBron James and Kobe Bryant trying to fill his shoes.

In Tiger’s case, he’s still the world’s best, but he’s 32. He’s no longer the rising star. I think the game of golf might be too spread out talent-wise for us to ever see another dominant figure like Woods. But who knows, maybe the son my friend Ben O’Meara will never have, will become the next Tiger Woods. Doubtful, but it’s a thought.

The Buick Invitiational starts today, with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson headlining the PGA’s first real golf tournament.

My question is, are we ready for golf yet? Sure, you can play golf year round in Hawaii, Florida and most of California, but while golf’s sluggers tee it up, the rest of the country is still winterized.

Here in North Carolina it’s barely warming up from the snow, ice and below freezing temperatures we’ve been dealing with the last week. And that’s nothing compared to up North where in New England and the Midwest they’re in the heart of winter. Up there hitting a golf ball sounds more like a painful sting of the hands than a relaxing getaway with the boys. I think the 350 beers we take out to golf with us would freeze by the time we made the turn.

I got a new sand wedge for Christmas, but the weather hasn’t been ideal for golf so I haven’t been able to try it out. I’m sure the first 50 times I use it I’ll end up right back in the sand. But that’s not really the club’s fault; it’s usually the 2 liters of Franzia consumed by No. 15 and my lack of talent.

Although usually I improve the more I drink, perhaps it loosens me up. I do know this though, after about six cups of the Franz, if Ben O’Meara slices, which he does quite often, watch out, he may come after you with his pitching wedge.

But not Mike Pulse, he’s calm, cool and collective on the tee. That is unless his pack of Camels runs out or he’s in a fight with one of his girlfriends.

Oh how I miss the links. It better warm up soon so I can head out to the Valley and make some divots and trudge through nearby yards looking for balls that are out of bounds, but that I’ll put back in play anyway without even thinking twice. I wonder if I can still pass for an Elon discount with my Phoenix card.

But, winter or not, the PGA season starts its engine and I guess in a way I’m glad. For one, it’ll give me something to watch on Sundays. Hopefully fireworks spark this weekend and Tiger and Phil go neck and neck at the Buick. Tiger has won the last two times, but never count out Leftie.

I’m going to say that Tiger wins by four strokes. I know, I know, not a bold call by any means, but he’s the best and it’s too early to tell who else is going to be any good, so I’ll play it safe.