Sports Horse Racing

Kelli Shean almost certainly will not win the U.S. Womens Open on Sunday, even if she did become an instant gallery favorite after Thursdays opening round Oakmont and surely stirred the hearts of her countrymen back home in South Africa with her stunning and totally unexpected performance.

After an opening 70, Kelli Shean fell back a bit Friday with a 79. (AP) For 17 glorious holes on a steamy summer day, Shean, a 22-year-old amateur playing in her first Open and only second professional event, was atop the leaderboard of a tournament being contested on arguably the most demanding golf course most of the women in the field have ever played.

Only an errant driv “the longes kept her from becoming the first amateur since 2005 to lead the Open at the end of a round. Instead, her 1-under 70 left her in a four-way tie for second, and she is believed to be the first deaf golfer ever to perform at such a level in Americas national championship of womens golf.

Shean will not hoist the trophy this week, though low amateur is certainly a possibility. Her game, so solid on Thursday, was off considerably in the second round when she opened with bogeys on two of her first three holes and ended with a double bogey at the 18th. She posted an 8-over 79 and is at 7-over 149 at the halfway point. Still, shell make the cut in her first Open attempt, her main goal when she arrived here Monday, and shes still loving every minute of it.

“I couldnt sleep last night,” she said Friday after completing her second round three hours before play was suspended for the day at 4 p.m. when a massive thunderstorm crashed into Oakmont. “This whole thing is just crazy.”

Shea totally deaf in her left ear, with 70 percent hearing in her right with the use of a hearing aid. Without it, her father, Stephen, told reporters, she cant hear at all, adding that when the wind blows, even with the hearing aid “she cant hear anything.”

Shean prefers not to talk much about it. Shed much rather discuss her improbable journey from Cape Town to her first major championship, a feat accomplished only eight years after she first took up the sport at 14, the same age as three competitors in the field this week.

Shean is a major beneficiary of a program started by fellow South African Ernie Els, a three-time major championship winner who helps fund junior golf back in his home country. She was in the program for three years and rapidly rose through the junior ranks, representing her country in the World Amateur Team Championship in 2006.

During the tournament, Shean had an epiphany regarding her own future when she began talking to many of her fellow competitors about their own plans.

“Out of 150, about 140 of them went to college [in the U.S.],” she said. “I needed to find myself a college to go to.”

She eventually settled on the University of Arkansas, a match that has been mutually beneficial for both. She has been a stalwart on the Razorback womens team, the leading scorer in nine of its 11 events last season, and will return for her senior season in the fall before graduating in May with a degree in human resources.

“My first couple of years at Arkansas, I used to be a pretty arrogant, selfish player, and just go for everything,” she said. “Ive grown up a lot as a person. I think you have to when you pay your own bills and your apartment and youve got a car and all that stuff. Its just a transition in life.”

Ten months ago, she also met her current boyfriend, Chandler Rackley, in a communications class, and theyve been virtually inseparable ever since. Rackley, at 6-feet-6, towers over the 5-6 golfer, and hes caddying for her this week, even though he has never been much into golf. She says it doesnt matter, that his calming presence on the course has been a great help.

“She has that hearing problem, but shes one of the best communicators Ive ever met in my life,” Rackley, an Arkansas native, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Shes so good with people. Thats what first appealed to me about her. Shes a catch.”

Said Shean: “Hes just made me love life so much more and everything. Hes caddied for me a couple of times, and I havent lost anything with him on my bag. And I have the best time of my life out there, so hes really important to me.”

And so is Els.

Shean credits the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation with turning her own life around. The organization f purchasing equipment and paying for extensive training and travel throughout the year.

Els caddie, former Pittsburgh Penguins center Danny Quinn, sent a text message Thursday to long-time Oakmont professional Bob Ford telling him that Els, playing in the Scottish Open this week, wanted Shean to know he was watching her on the tournament telecast. When she was told about it, her voice cracked with some emotion.

“Thats kind of unbelievable,” she said. “Back in South Africa, I joined the Ernie Els Foundation. They got me around. They got me everywhere I needed to go. He taught me all the things I needed to know. Being able to interact with him and have any kind of relationship with Ernie Els is unbelievable. I just hope that hell be happy with everything that he pushed me into actually helped me get here, and that he knows that.”

When Shean made it into the Open by winning the qualifying tournament in St. Louis, her mother informed her that Oakmont was the site of Els first major victory at the 94 U.S. Open.

“I was like, Oh my gosh, thats awesome,” Shean said. “Its a privilege to be able to come and just join in the first step. I dont know for sure if Im going to win or not, but just being able to be here and experience something that hes experienced is awesome.”

She was up until 2 a.m. Friday, answering friends on Facebook, responding to her mothers constant text messaging and basically, “just too excited” to close her eyes and get some sleep.

“The whole thing has been so amazing,” she said. “Ive been so blown away about how many supporters, friends and family and everybody is just going crazy over everything.”

And Shean is trying to soak it all in as long as she can.

“I mean, Im an amateur,” she said. “Its not like I can take any money home or anything like that, so Im just going to go out there and take all the experience and the memories as the prize of making it this weekend.”

Even before this season, when perfect games began falling out of baseballs clouds like hail, it ranked right up there with the rarest feat Goydos needed only 22 putts for 18 holes. (Getty Images) Over the past decade, there have been huge leaps in golf equipment and driving distance, the global talent pool has never been deeper, course conditions and PGA Tour sites continue, and more players than ever are beating a daily trail to the fitness center.

Yet it had been 11 years since somebody shot 59 on the PGA Tour.

The fourth man to hit the milestone figure, Paul Goydos, was as much at a loss to explain the drought as he was to explain why he was the man who accomplished what he rightly characterized as “an iconic figure.”

“Golfs hard,” he said Thursday. “Hard for everybody. Eventually, it gets to everybody.”

Almost everybody.

Goydos became the first tour player to shoot a 59 on a par-71 course Thursday at the John Deere Classic, and chalked up the feat as much to divinity as affinity.

“Someone was smiling on me,” he said. “Today, all the bad bounces, three-putts and balls buried in [bunker] lips evened out. Every good thing that could happen happened.”

Pardon the redundancy, but these levels of happenstance dont happen often.

Roughly 150 players each week tee it up at around 45 events per season. Yet the last guy to post a 59 was David Duval in 1999, when he eagled the last hole at the Bob Hope Classic. Myriad players have fired 60s in the span since, but nobody has scaled what appears to be a significant psychological mountain.

For last of a better explanation, Goydos guessed that theres a Roger Bannister issue on tour, though once the British distance runner cracked the 4-minute mile, it became downright commonplace. That hasnt been the case since Al Geiberger fired the first 59 in 1977, though the professional talent ranks are probably two or three times stronger than a mere 20 or 30 years ago.

“Theres a little bit of a barrier there, a slight psychological barrier,” Goydos said.

He pretty much embraced it this time around. Goydos had three holes left and knew he needed birdies on all of them to deliver the goods. He said he never talked about his score with his playing partners Jonathan Byrd or Cliff Kresge, or caddie Chris Mazziotti.

“They talk about being in the zone, but its a chicken-and-the-egg issue,” he said. “My game got better and better as the day went on. So, 16 and 17 are not the hardest holes …

“Everything was good and I got on auto-pilot a little bit.”

He knocked a 7-iron from the 18th fairway to 7 feet above the hole and curled in a left-to-right slider to match the tour record. Goydos, who has career wins at Bay Hill and the Sony Open, said he was never more nervous in his career. He finished with birdies on eight of the last nine holes.

His best score on tour had been a 62, recorded twice, including a round in Texas while playing alongside Tiger Woods, who shot 61 that day. The talkative Goydos had never posted a 59 in a casual round on lesser courses with friends. He has 10 career aces and three double-eagles and remembers them all vividly, he said. This trumps it all.

“Its like a bucket list for a tour player,” he said. “This is just the cream on top.”

That Goydos holed the last putt was hardly shocking. For the day, he canned putts totaling 187 feet 7 inches, according to the tours laser-guided measuring system. He had five putts between 10 and 20 feet and made them all. He had 22 putts in all, hit 16 of 18 greens and missed one fairway.

This from a guy who had one top 10 finish all season, back in February, and started the day ranked 99th in putts per round.

“Theres something going on thats maybe a little unexplainable,” he said.

Funny enough. but inexplicable is the only word that describes the head-scratching rarity of it all, too.

Used to be, we scribes and media snipers didnt have to experiment much with various live baits, work our way through the tackle box or fiddle with the lure selection.

It was real, reel easy.

On its face, Oakmont is a genteel country club. The course is something else. (Getty Images) Every year at one of the two national championships, it was simple to find somebody who would proclaim it to be the hardest U.S. Open course in history. Sometimes, they swallowed the bait without prompting, if not sang out a group response in 156-part harmony.

Then, philosophically, things changed over the past five years under the U.S. Golf Associations new rules and competition staff, which generally has made Open courses for both the men and women less Draconian, and arguably less dramatic. Grousing and griping disappeared, for the most part.

Before this weeks U.S. Womens Open, anyway, where Oakmont Country Club will almost certainly live down to its reputation as the most dastardly, cruel course in the country.

Nobody is hiding from that fact, and in a welcome switch reminiscent of the old days, they are actually embracing it. Even genial Mike Davis, who handles the course setup and agronomy particulars for the USGA, is fronting the chorus in singing a familiar Open lyric from years past.

“If Oakmont is firm,” Davis said this week, “it will be by far the hardest test the women have ever seen.”

Unlike on the railroad line and turnpike that run through the middle of Oakmont, which is situated a few miles outside Pittsburgh, the scores at th due north. Temperatures have soared into the 90s, and if it stays that way, the mercury readout will almost certainly match some of the scores.

By design, Open is supposed to be golfs toughest test, both between the ropes and between the ears, in major-championship golf. Hold it at Oakmont, and whole new levels of pain and suffering can be inflicted. Recall that in 2007, the sensory-overload sadists at Oakmont hosted the mens Open, and some members actually complained that the USGA made the course too easy. Mind you, Angel Cabrera ultimately won at 5 over, matching the highest winning total relative to par in 33 years, but members truly relish the clubs rep as the most killer track in the game.

Add that to the notion that, over the years, playing in the Open has been called akin to breaking into jail, tiptoeing through hell or extricating an electric eel from a bucket of slippery Gulf saltwater. OK, so I just added that last part, but that doesnt mean the characterizations wrong.

Its supposed to be like riding the meanest rodeo bull, and after a brief respite, this week is right back in our voyeurism and TV-watching wheelhouse. Well get to more of the hand-wringing particulars in a minute, but for you savvy golfniks, the most jarring information is contained in the following sentence: Oakmont will play to a projected course rating of 80.8 strokes with a slope of 147 for the Womens Open.

For comparison, a Golf Digest project recently estimated the ratings during the Masters at Augusta National to be 76.2 and 148. So, in other words, Oakmont has everything but hot coals.

Typical greens at a regular LPGA event, which are rarely overly punitive, run at around 10 or 11 feet on the Stimpmeter, the device that measures green speeds. By Tuesday, the greens are Oakmont were nearing a linoleum-like 14, or about 25 percent faster than the norm, and players were accidentally putting balls off the greens.

Oakmonts eighth will be one of the longest par 3s the Open players will see. (Getty Images) Newly minted world No. 1 Cristie Kerr, a former Open champion, won the last womens major by a record 12 shots and is playing the best golf of her career. Mentally, she is already prepared to take her antacids. For instance, she tried three times to hit a wedge out of a fairway bunker in practice and failed.

“This course really is about taking your medicine,” she said. “I said, You know what, being a hero is not going win this U.S. Open. Its whoever is going to take the medicine their best, save as many pars they can, and move on.

“Just try and save some pars, make some birdies, and just take your medicine. Youre going to have the patience of a saint here.”

The short game of somebody who cut a deal with the devil wouldnt hurt, either.

Davis has been asked myriad times to compare the setup to when the men played Oakmont three years ago, and only minor concessions have been made because of the differences in strength vs. the males, he said. The course has been trimmed by roughly 600 yards to 6,613, the greens are a shade softer and the rough isnt quite as deep.

But compared to what the women typically see at pushover layouts at regular events, its insufferably penal. At the first tee, they ought to hand out bandages with the scorecards.

“All in all, the goal for this week is to kind of replicate what happened in 2007,” Davis told a USGA video crew this week. “Oakmont might be the toughest test there is in the mens open, and we dont want it any different in the womens open.”

Select favorites were trying to psyche themselves into believing the setup might be advantageous for them in certain regards. Michelle Wie, who hits the ball fairly high, imparts some spin on the ball and is longer off the tee than the average female professional, might have a decent chance. She might also need some convincing.

“Yesterday we were like, Wow, these greens are firm and theyre only going to get firmer,” Wie said. “So, you know, I think that helps, I guess. Thats good.”

As long as shes sure. Oakmont, one of seven courses to stage both the mens and womens Open, hosted the latter in 1992, when Patty Sheehan won at 4 under. Unless it rains, its hard to envision anybody sniffing red numbers this week.

“Um, well, I played 18 today,” said Ai Miyazato, a four-time LPGA winner this year. “Seems like a really, really difficult golf course, like I never play like this situation, I guess.”

Players said there was a fair likelihood that some will be embarrassed this week by the numbers they are posting.

“I mean, everybody knows this golf course is hard,” Paula Creamer said. “Everybody knows theres not going to be 20 birdies made. I think its obvious thats not gonna happen. “You have to take what the golf course gives you. It wants you to do more, but you have to kind of, you know, be less aggressive. You cant be a hero. You have to go out there and just hit the fairway, hit the green, get your two-putt, and move on.”

If some figurative blood is shed this year, so be it.

“So will you see some higher scores? Absolutely,” Davis said. “But I also think that when we set up a golf course up, what were trying to do is identify a national champion.”

The forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of sto if the course isnt already dry-roasted by then.

“Its hot, its humid, its gross,” Creamer said, drawing some gallows-humor laughs. “You know, this golf course just eats you alive mentally. Its going to be the battle of the fittest, battle of whos going to stay the sharpest for 18 holes out there. “If you dont sleep well after every round out here, then somethings wrong with you.”

A short but sweet field will be vying this weekend at Hollywood Park in the mile and a quarter $500,000 Gold Cup and the winner will join an established group of A-listers that have won the race over the decades.

Rail Trip will be attempting to become a multiple winner of this fixture like Native Diver and Lava Man.

Seabiscuit kicked it off with a win in the inaugural running. Gallant Man, Exceller, Affirmed, Ferdinand, Best Pal and Cigar also heard the cheers from Inglewood after success.

Although 15 nominated probably no more than 9 will likely face the starter.

Awesome Gem is one of them and he will be a price. He is 0 for 4 this year, has limited speed, but has stepped to the plate and knocked it out of the ballpark in big races before evidenced by his near $2 million bankroll.

Compari is a youngster compared to some and his brilliant speed must always be respected. Hes made most of his money on grass but did win here on the Cushion Track last year in the Snow Chief after cutting out :46.59 and 1:10.69 splits. He will at least muddle the pace.

Cigar Man would likely light up the tote. He has been spanked a couple of times by Rail Trip recently and is 0 for 6 at Hollypark.

Brushburn is taking a glance at the race but he is just a reformed claimer that is coming off the race of his life when third in the Grade 1 Whittingham.

Victory Pete will have his work cut out after just one race this year, a press and fade 7th in an allowance event.

Tres Borrachos gave backers a nice 23-1 thrill in this race last year when he tried to steal the event but had to settle for a second. His trainer Beau Greely is taking the high road according to quotes in the Hollypark notes; Greely: Hes got ability, hes been training well, theres nothing wrong with him and hes got a good record at Hollywood Park.

Richards Kid is a scary proposition. He has to overcome a possible Dubai bounce as he was 7th in the World Cup in his last race and his trainer, Bob Baffert, did not appear to be overly optimistic in his recent quotes.

Baffert: I think its a good spot for him to start back. He needs to be going long and it should set him up good for Del Mar. I think Rail Trip will be awful tough to beat.

Speaking of Rail Trip, he is just a serious horse. In the money in all 11 starts with 8 wins, hes never been out of the exacta in Inglewood and he should get a perfect stalk and pounce trip.

An interesting runner that could be a hint of a price is Tap It Light. He is three for 5 since entering Mike Mitchells barn. His trainer has had awesome success over the years with runners like this, former claimers. He plucked Ever a Friend from a seller back in 2007 and watched him take the Grade 1 Kilroe 4 months later. He turned $50,000 claimer Church Service into a Grade 3 winner and won the Grade 2 Murray after claiming On the Acorn for $40,000.

There is plenty of pace to set up Lights kick.

Look for Compari and Tres Borrachos to fight for the lead with Rail Trip in the garden spot and Tap It Light not losing contact with the field.

Cigar Man, Awesome Gem and Richards Kid will be trying to save ground for the money run.

At the top of the lane Compari will put away Borrachos, Rail Trip will get to him with a 16th to go and they will both be hard pressed to hold off value play Tap It Light.

The board reads Rail Trip, Tap It Light and Compari when the smoke clears.

With the British Open just next week in Scotland, the short game is in transition, because everybody knows that those tricky, baked-out links courses require some imagination to navigate. So this week, CBSSports.com senior writer Steve Elling is flipping the weekly Up & Down chart, listing the worst first and saving the best for last.

Not in my neighborhood, pal Presumably, this guy doesnt live on your street, because he darned sure doesnt reside on mine. Last week, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem waxed about the infusion of successful young players who have taken the tour en masse. Wins by under-30 players like Justin Rose, Bill Haas, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Hunter Mahan and Anthony Kim have indicated that there might be life after Tiger after all. Finchem had a decidedly odd take on the profusion of youth, however, that underscored just how embarrassingly out of touch he is with real-life issues. “I often tell the story of the doctor that lives down the street from me that, when his kid was 12, about seven years ago, he had a swing coach, he had a trainer, and he would go to Orlando once a month to visit with a sports psychologist on how to win,” Finchem said. “You know, you see that repeated all over the country.” Yeah? That must be why there was such a hue and cry for nationalized health care, because so many parents didnt want to use their personal psychologists on something as lame as sports coaching. The real reason why youth has taken over? Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson have one tournament win between them in 2010. Over recent years, they have annually accounted for between 10-12 wins combined. We would not be having this discussion otherwise.

What rhymes with Eldrick? The site of the two-day Irish charity tournament was County Limerick. Why not bust a rhyme, given that Tiger Woods shot a horrific 79 in the first round of the J.P. McManus pro-am on Monday to continue a frequently dreadful stretch of golf (winless in six PGA Tour starts this year, his longest drought to open a season since 2004)? While the pro-am outing was obviously unofficial, this was his second 79 in just over two months. He followed with a 69 on Tuesday, then flew home to practice in Orlando after issuing a few terse comments to the Irish media. By the way, conjure up your own joke here, but McManus is the millionaire who co-owns Sandy Lane, the mega-high-end Caribbean golf resort where Woods got married to soon-to-be ex-wife Elin. Ah, the salad days.

He sees progress, others see regress Woods said he was pleased with how he hit the ball last week in Philly, but facts are, he was a forgettable T46, the first time he finished outside the top 40 in five years. He was 14 shots behind winner Justin Rose, the most he has finished off the lead after 72 holes since 2006. Hes 0-6 this year, his worst start to open a season since 2004, when he was 0-8 and working on a swing overhaul. In each of the previous five years, he had never gone longer than five starts without winning. Woods didnt break 70 all week in Philly, marking the first time in 11 years that he didnt better par over four rounds in a regular tour event. Eleven of his 21 official rounds have been at par or higher and he isnt in the tour top 40 in putting, fairways or greens in regulation. Of course, Woods again pointed out that hes behind schedule because he hasnt played in as many tournaments this year, which, he keeps neglecting to mention, was his own personal choice.

All that said, would you wager a few pounds on this man? Millions tuned in to the broadcast of the AT&T National on the weekend to catch a glimpse of Tiger Woods, and thats about all they got. He was hopelessly out of contention, was basically finished as the leaders began play and while he was apparently well-received by fans who had not witnessed a PGA Tour event in decades, he was the talk of the town for other reasons. The porn star (fast aside: why are all porn actors called “stars?”) who claims Woods fathered her 9-year-old son was making the rounds on Philly sport-talk outlets and dishing more dirt and innuendo about her affair with the world No. 1, including the fact that Paul Azinger introduced the two of them. Maybe this is why one of my old college roommates, who now lives in suburban Philly, jokingly calls it Filthadelphia. Woods is going to be a huge favorite at St. Andrews next week, but the only way I would bet a few quid on the guy is by betting against him. This is last of the three major sites this year where Woods was thought to have an advantage based on previous performances, but there are too many holes in his game right now.

Three chords and a clanging rimshot With a mobile home, four ex-wives and no steady day job, its no small wonder that John Daly is singing country-flavored tunes these days. Because he apparently has plenty of time on his hands since he lost his PGA Tour card, Daly has recorded a second music CD, again convincing some real musicians to help lend some credibility, if not actual talent, to the affair. His first effort is available for a listen for free, with vocal backing by Darius Rucker, a golf fanatic who mined gold with his former band in a 1994 release that went mega-platinum. In fact, maybe these guys could join up and, with a tip of the cap to Dalys rock-and-roll lifestyle, never-ending weight issues and fade into irrelevance, call the band Bloatie and the Whofish. Or, perhaps, the Lap Band?

Irish identity crisis This is going to sound like the splitting of hairs to most geographically clueless Americans, but Graeme McDowells victory at the U.S. Open has touched off another round of nationalism overseas. Technically, as a native of Northern Ireland, McDowell is a British subject and falls under the rule of the Queen. Like countryman Rory McIlroy, he carries a U.K. passport. But the Irish as a whole are a proud and independent lot, which prompted one prominent Republic of Ireland paper to opine, “describing any golfer from this island as British is politically and semantically incorrect.” Well, philosophically, anyway. One headline about McDowell described him as, “Mums a Catholic, Dads a Protestant, I was brought up Presbyterian but … Im Irish,” sort of summarizing the no-win complexities of the situation. Said McDowell, coyly, about the ebb and flow of religion and politics in the region: “Yes, I sit on the fence but why not? Theres no right or wrong answer. Im always going to upset someone, so why not sit on the fence?” The Republic of Ireland, by the way, is not part of the U.K. We Yanks lead the league in labeling folks, but its hard not to giggle about the British identity crisis, especially since the folks overseas get a little chafed when we call the third major the British Open.

Welcome to Penn station Its an odd confluence, like where those three famous rivers converge in downtown Pittsburgh, but the Keystone State has become the center of the golfing universe for the first time ever. Last week, the City of Brotherly Love suburbs hosted a PGA Tour event for the first time in years, with Tiger Woods in the field for good measure. Even though he never contended, fans turned out by the tens of thousands to hoot and holler, prompting the local media to agitate for a permanent tour stop. This week, on the other side of the state, the U.S. Womens Open will be staged outside Pittsburgh at the hardest golf course on the planet, Oakmont Country Club, where I expect the carnage levels to be incredible. Oakmont, during regular member play, is reputed to be tougher than most PGA Tour venues and members actually complained that the course was too easy when it hosted a mens Open in 2007. Masochists, grab your remote controls. Johnny Miller will hardly be able to contain himself. Hopefully, he wont theyre already here With panoramic July 4 weekend shots of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, it was downright comical that an Englishman won the title at the AT&T National on Sunday, prompting analyst and newly minted U.S. citizen David Feherty to crack on the air that he didnt think it was quite appropriate for a “redcoat” to win, given the circumstances. The laughs are on us, fellow Yanks, and we better get used to it, apparently, because the English have taken hold of the PGA Tour like King George was running the show. Surging Justin Rose, 29, has two wins in a month, marking the first time an Englishman has won twice in the States since 1988. Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood won earlier this year, giving the English four titles already. Incredibly, four of the top 16 players in the world are English, marking the nations highest tide since somewhere around the World War I era, before the game became popular here in the Colonies. To think that the English went four years between PGA Tour wins from 1998-2002, and the skid ended only when Luke Donald was handed a title at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic when the final round was canceled and he didnt have to hit a shot under duress. Well, they are earning em now, arent they? In quadruplicate. If not for Phil Mickelsons stellar play in Augusta that Sunday, Westwood would have won the Masters, too.

Rose is now a bouquet The statistics, as a rule, speak for themselves. According to golfstats.com, Rose was 0-5 with the 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour before winning at Aronomink, which included gagging up a three-shot overnight lead one week earlier at the Travelers Championship. Bluntly said, before Rose stormed from behind with a near-flawless final round to win the Memorial Tournament one month ago, his closing stretches frequently required stretchers. Too many times, Rose hit balls where the aphids reside and blew chances on the back nine. This time, he eagled the ninth hole with the best shot of the week and hung on despite a couple of shaky three-jack greens. As he heads to the British Open in Scotland next week, Rose will be a comprehensively solid pick in the ubiquitous U.K. betting parlors. As it stands, Ladbrokes has him posted as the seventh-best pick at 25-to-1, which sounds like a way better deal than Woods at 7-to-2, doesnt it? Rose finished second at the Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews in 2007. Sunday marked the seventh time in his past nine rounds that Rose ended the day atop the leaderboard.

Viva Espana Maybe theres hope for sputtering 30-year-old Sergio Garcia yet, because unlike Ponce de Leon, Miguel Angel Jimenez has found the fountain of youth. The Spanish veteran last weekend won for the second time in a playoff this year on the European Tour, claiming the French Open and posing with the trophy with his customary flaming stogie. Jimenez has more natural flair and savoir faire than a hundred contrived American players who seem to keep forgetting that style and substance cannot be invented overnight as a marketing tool. Unlike Garcia to date, Jimenez is getting better with age at 46. A tour-record 10 of the 17 European titles won by Jimenez have come since he turned 40 and hes now the eighth-oldest champion in E-Tour history. As is his custom, the freckle-faced, ponytailed Spaniard doubtlessly celebrated in high style, with a glass or two of pricey French vino. Which is almost as good as pricey Spanish vino. As for the Yanks, which rhymes with spanks, all three missed the cut in France, which probably doesnt bode well for the Scottish Open this week at Loch Lomond, which is swimming in America players.

Clip and save Theres a fine line between unbridled optimism and optometric blindness. Somewhere in between is where Finchem seemingly resides. Making a pit stop last week in Philly to trumpet the AT&T National event and schmooze with the media, Finchem indicated that he doesnt envision any contraction from the 2010 schedule going forward, even though stops in Hilton Head, Palm Springs, Miami and Memphis still need title sponsors or have already been propped up by tour dollars or a hodge-podge of smaller sponsors. So, on the chance that theres a Hilton Header or things become Bob Hope-less, heres what he said, verbatim: “With regards to Doral and Hilton Head, we have conversations going on right now, and we feel good about where were headed. I think the market is soft generally, but for our product it continues to perform well, and we dont anticipate any need for contraction.”

One of the ways astute horseplayers try to get a leg up on the competition is to not only isolate horses that had trouble but to find the not so obvious examples so that value will still be in the mix.

Last week there were some possible value runners that did not get the best of trips and should pay dividends in the future.

First, lets go to Belmont. Babies took the center stage for the second race and the horse that was intimidated by the rail should run huge next time.

The horse is named Settle for Medal and he will be going for the gold next time.

Trained by Mark Hennig, a former D. Wayne Lukas assistant who is very patient, the son of Medallist had just trained okay for the debut for a conditioner that is under 10% with first time starters in the last year or so.

At the break, this guy lunged and was scared by the rail to be dead last but yet finished like a horse with a future when completing the trifecta and was over 5 lengths clear of his nearest rival.

He has a right to have a bright future as both of his siblings to race won at 2, one in the debut and his half sister Mani Bhavan was a Grade 1 winner and banked over $260,000 taking half of her 6 starts.

With more real estate and a better post, Settle for Medal will be a handful next time.

Fortitude will not be a maiden long himself. He made the lead between calls in his second career start after catching a freak in the debut that won by over 11 lengths.

Trained by veteran Richard Schosberg, the sophomore son of Aptitude was much more keen to run with the blinkers in his second start and was only beaten a length and a nose for all the money while 3 lengths clear of the 4th finisher.

The blood is there for this guy to star. His dam banked over $600,000 and he is kin to three others, all winners including a full brother that banked nearly $200,000.

Double down if he gets a chance to go 8 and a half or 9 furlongs next time.

Now to the Left Coast and Hollywood Park.

Honesty is not usually a trainers forte but Ron Ellis was nothing but truthful last Sunday in his paddock assessment of his runner Truest Legend, and its a great example why bettors that gamble on the computer have to pay attention to the racing feed on TV.

On TVGs all access Ellis was telling jockey Victor Espinoza in the paddock that the horse he was about to ride, Truest Legend, will give you all he has but dont whip him. He said, the owners are okay with that and it was exactly the way the race unfolded.

Legend was getting out early, had the lead, was dead short as Ellis knew he would be going 6 and a half furlongs and Espinoza covered up on the colt in the stretch like a coddled baby.

Get down next time on Truest Legend.

Most long-time horseplayers agree the rail can be a negative for some horses especially young runners and a case in point is the filly Sipnzin.

She drew the rail in her debut and came out running but had nothing left when collared and was beaten by eventual repeat winner Cant Topper.

She again had to be hard used last week from the fence and was just zapped from the experience.

Bred to win early as her sire took his juvenile debut and won a Grade 3 at 2, the filly has 4 siblings that banked 6 figures including juvenile winner, Group 1 winner and near $250,000 earner Mecke Daughter.

Finally, Sipnzin is trained by a guy, Terry Knight, who is high percentage year in and year out without getting the top echelon stock.

Its only a matter of time.

Good luck.

With apologies to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tiger Woods is creating has his own version of the Scarlet Letter these days.

Tiger Woods says hes happy with his progress, but the reasons werent really in evidence this week. (AP) Its also a Capital A, in this case as in Awful, a word he used frequently this week at the AT&T National to describe some aspect of his golf game as he tried to regain the regal form that has allowed him to dominate his sport for most of the past 14 years.

Woods trotted it out a couple of weeks ago at the U.S. Open, when he made headlines describing the bumpy, inconsistent Pebble Beach greens as “awful” after his opening round. Now, apparently, he cant seem to get that A-word out of his head (even as the rest of the world cant seem get to get Hester Prynnes A-word, as in adultery, out of their own thoughts in the wake of Woods well-documented marital infidelities).

Thursday here at Aronimink: “I just putted awful, really,” he said after a first-round 73.

Friday, asked about playing the courses two par-5 holes in 1 over: “I played them awful, absolutely awful.”

A few questions later, talking about the current state of his game after a second-round 70, he added, “its not quite where it needs to be, not quite sharp yet. I hit it awesome, putt awful. I putt great, hit it awful. Its always something, isnt it?”

Saturday, when he opened bogey-bogey and recovered later with another even- par 70: “I got off to just awful start today … probably the worst start you could possibly get off to.”

And what about that poorly struck approach shot at the sixth hole, forcing another three-putt bogey?

“That was awful, wasnt it. That was just awful.”

Not quite so awful was Woods final round Sunday in the tournament that is his signature event on the PGA Tour. Instead, it was mostly mediocre. By the time the CBS cameras came on at 2 p.m., he was putting the finishing touches on his 1-over 71 in a week when he was at 4-over 284 and never did break par at this Donald Ross gem in the Philadelphia suburbs. For the first time since the 1999 Bay Hill Invitational, Woods was unable to break par in a single round of a 72-hole event.

De-frocked tournament as tournament host at AT&Ts insistence, Woods still had to be thrilled that more than 40,000 spectators a day made their way to the golf course, as well as by the warm reception he received from mostly adoring galleries. But he also left town surely wondering if he can turn things around in time to contend for a 15th major title at the British Open in two weeks at St. Andrews, despite his confident comments minutes after he finished.

“Im excited about the way I drove the ball this week, really excited. I felt like I drove it on a string all week,” he said, not mentioning he hit only 32 of 56 fairways off the tee and needed 31 putts both Saturday and Sunday when he needed to make something happen, and couldnt.

Still, he insisted, “I cant wait to get over there. … It does feel good to hit the ball as well as I did this week. I just need to get my putter organized a little better.”

The British Open will be his seventh start of the 2010 season since he began playing for real at the Masters following a four-month self-imposed exile from the game. This is obviously not the Tiger Woods of so many sizzling seasons past, when he won at least once in his first six starts every year since 1999.

Woods keeps insisting he sees positive signs in the way he has been playing, compared to the state of his game when he first came back to finish tied for fourth at Augusta in April. He also has hellacious history at St. Andrews, where he won in 2000 by eight shots with a major championship record 19-under par score and in 2005 by five shots, becoming at age 29 the youngest player ever to win each of the four majors twice.

“The more tournaments I play this year, Im getting better,” Woods said Saturday. “The feel is getting better. I feel more comfortable with what Im working on, and Im just going out there and playing in a competitive environment because its so much more comfortable than it was at the beginning of the year.”

Still, he has a long way to go. His numbers this year compared to 2009 speak volumes. For example, going into this weeks event, Woods was ranked 109th on tour in reaching greens in regulation. Last year, he was 16th for the season. In driving accuracy, perhaps his biggest problem this year, he was 147th through five events. Last year, he was 86th.

His driving distance averaged 298.4 yards a year ago, 21st on tour. This year hes dipped to 285 yards off the tee, ranked 78th, though that number should improve considerably after this week, when he averaged 304 yards using a new Nike ball that has a slightly harder cover and spins less than the version he had been playing. Still, the new ball in his bag didnt help him score. A year ago he averaged 68.5 strokes per round; this year its 70.1, and this week it was 71.

Over his past nine rounds, in fact, Woods has only one score in the 60s, that spectacular 66 in the third round at Pebble Beach to get him into the mix, only to be followed by a Sunday 75 when an even-par round in the Open would have forced a Monday playoff.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on Woods woes, with most naysayers obviously pointing to the state of his head following all those scandalous revelations, the breakup of his marriage, and a major hit his fortune will take when his divorce to soon-to-be ex-wife Elin Nordegren is complete.

On The Golf Channel Friday, former tour player Brandel Chamblee went so far as to describe Woods as being “emotionally and psychologically bankrupt.”

That seems a bit harsh from a studio pretty boy who ought to leave the psychoanalysis to shrinks with medical degrees. But Woods is obviously playing as if hes got more than the birdies and the bogeys on his mind these days.

“It must feel like everything is crashing in on top of him right now,” Jason Day, who idolized Woods as a youngster and took up the game because of him, said earlier in the week. “To play golf on top of that and to have the expectations of the whole of America, the whole of the world on top of his shoulders, its tough to play. I get stressed out if Im five minutes late for my tee time.”

Still, neither Day nor many of Woods playing peers believes that Woods wont eventually find his way back to the highest level of the game.

“Hes gone through some hard times,” Day said, “and Im sure hes going to work it out. Hes going to go back to the same old Tiger Woods as youve seen in the past. Hell get back to where he was, I guarantee it. Once he gets through all this stuff … once he starts winning again, its going to be very easy to get that back.”

Bottom line: Wouldnt golf be perfectly awful if he cant?

As Tiger Woods continued his Philly Phade to the back of the pack in his own signature golf tournament Saturday, the fortunes of Englishman Justin Rose have been on the rise over the last month, a continuing trend this week in the AT&T National at Aronimink.

The low round of the tournament, a 6-under 64 on Friday, left him the 36-hole leader. And a third-round 67 kept him on top of the board at 10-under 200, leading by four shots and in prime position to secure his second PGA Tour victory in his last three starts on Sunday.

Justin Rose weathered some tough times of his own after his breakthrough in the 1998 British Open. (AP) Rose, now 29, is clearly fulfilling the promise of his teenage years. Woods, on the other hand, is still trying to find his way back to the level of sustained excellence that earned him 71 PGA Tour titles and 14 major championships since he turned pro in 1996. He began badly on Saturday with bogeys on his first two holes, rallied to an even par 70, and was at three-over 213, tied for 47th and hopelessly out of contention in an event he won last year when it was played at Congressional in the Washington D.C.

Still, Woods insisted, he remains encouraged by his play this week, despite mediocre results. “Im getting better,” he said. “I feel more comfortable with what Im working on. Its so much more comfortable than at the beginning of the year.”

Rose can sort of relate to Woods woes on the golf course in the aftermath of an ugly scandal that still dogs the No. 1 player in the world virtually every day. The Englishman, ranked No. 35 this week, has been down but not out several times over the course of his own turbulent career, and he thinks he has some idea of what Woods is going through

“To bring your best on the golf course when youre probably being depleted in so many other areas mentally, its difficult,” Rose said, adding that hes certain Woods will not be down for long. “When he starts driving it well, you know his game is never far away,” he said. “The putting … thatll come with confidence. If he starts giving himself some good looks that will happen.”

Rose knows all about adversity, though obviously on a much smaller scale. He first burst into the golf publics consciousness with his final shot at the 1998 British Open at Royal Birkdale, holing out from 50 yards away for an improbable birdie and a tie for fourth place at the age of 17. The sonic boom roar when that shot went in the hole also seemed to signal his arrival as golfs next great prodigy. After all, this was a lad who broke 70 for the first time at age 11, carried a four handicap at age 14 and won the English boys championship at 15. At the age of 17 years and 10 days, he also became the first player ever to represent the United Kingdom and Ireland in the prestigious Walker Cup competition in 1997.

When Rose turned professional the week after his Birkdale heroics, greatness was expected sooner than later. Instead, it was sheer agony in his first full year on the European Tour in 1999, when he missed the cut in 21 straight events before finally breaking through in the Compaq European Open.

In the years since, hes had a modicum of success, with six worldwide victories. Last month, he finally broke through with his first PGA Tour win, prevailing in Jack Nicklauss Memorial event by three shots over the current hotshot kid, 21-year-old Rickie Fowler. And last week, Rose had the 54-hole lead at the Travelers event in Connecticut before a 39 on the back nine on the way to a deflating 75 left him tied for ninth place.

Still, if nothing else, Rose has always shown an admirable ability to bounce back from plenty of gut-wrenching setbacks, starting with that horrid streak of missed cuts that eventually was followed by his first win on the European Tour in 2002. This week, after his final round collapse at Hartford, Rose once again seems to have recovered nicely, and it did not take him very long to get over that bump in the road from Connecticut to Pennsylvania. It began about 90 minutes after he had walked off the 18th green on Sunday at the Travelers. He had been staying in a home not far from the ninth hole on the tournament course, and when he returned to the house he decided to walk out to that ninth green, putter in hand.

“I hit a couple because my putting was so bad,” he said. “I hit a couple putts, worked on it, spoke to some people about what went wrong with my putting and went to the same spot I missed a putt from on the ninth green and made it. I thought, OK, lets go to next week. Thats the way it is.”

Rose has been playing long enough to know not to dwell on the past and also not to beat himself up no matter what, a trait many of his playing peers would be wise to emulate.

“You can never prevent it from happening again,” he said. “Thats the first thing to accept. You cant be scared of it happening again. Youve just got to put yourself in that position, dig in, do your best. I didnt do a lot wrong at the Travelers to shoot 5 over. Its just golf.

“If you accept that, its a lot easier to go out there and play. Tiger, Phil, these guys get into contention a lot, and therefore it becomes more normal, and those feelings that they face become easier to deal with. It will be easier to deal with this weekend than it was last weekend, and the more and more I put myself into contention, the easier it will be going forward.”

And so, when he arrived here in the Philadelphia suburbs early in the week, Rose said he was determined to use Hartford as a learning experience.

“Closing out a golf tournament is difficult,” he said. “You do learn things. And when you learn something, youve got to practice it for it to become natural. So if youre not in contention that much, its very difficult to put into play the lessons that you learned. So this week, Im very happy to have the opportunity to go out there, test myself, put into play what I learned last week.

“Last Sunday, I really thought I went out there thinking very well. My game plan didnt change, my strategy didnt change and my commitment didnt change. I just felt a little more tight. Thats the human body. There are ways and means of getting over that and still performing to your best. I felt those feelings at the Memorial. Down the stretch there the heart was going. But sometimes, it just happens.”

Rose would like to believe that it will happen for him again on Sunday, when he will enter the final round with a four-shot lead playing in the final group for the second straight week.

Is there a Tiger-esque Philly Phade in this chaps future? Stay tuned.

Justin Rose was happy to be leading the AT&T National, especially because it was only five days ago that he threw away a chance to win with a surprising meltdown in the final round.

Tiger Woods? Hes happy to still be playing.

Rose played bogey-free Friday and wound up with the best score of the tournament, a 6-under 64, to build a one-shot lead over Jason Day and Charlie Wi going into the weekend at demanding Aronimink Golf Club.

Woods, who won this tournament last year at Congressional, hit the ball well for the second straight day. He again got nothing out of it, however, and missed a 30-inch putt late in the round that brought him back to a 70. He was at 3-over 143, which made the cut on the number, although he was never in serious danger of going home early.

“Im driving it on a string right now, and thats fun,” Woods said. “But if you dont make putts, no matter how good you hit the golf ball, youre not going to shoot good scores.”

The scoring improved slightly in the second round, especially in the afternoon as the wind began to calm. Rose said his round was helped by being in the same group with Sean OHair (68) and J.B. Holmes (69), who also played well. They combined for 13 birdies and only one bogey over the 54 holes they played collectively.

For Rose, the timing could not have been better.

In his first tournament since winning the Memorial by closing with a 66, Rose had a three-shot lead at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn., when it all fell apart. He shot 39 on the back nine for a 75 and tied for ninth.

“I turned up here Monday morning feeling like I was a better player than I was on Sunday, because you learn,” he said. “My game doesnt go away overnight. You have an experience like that, and if you ask yourself the right questions and if you deal with it in the right way, you become better.”

It might have been different had he not just won his first title in America. That allowed him to take the collapse in stride, and he sure hit his stride Friday on another gorgeous afternoon outside Philadelphia.

He never had a par putt longer than 5 feet, and he seized the outright lead late in his round with a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th, making it two straight weeks with the 36-hole lead. The idea now is to close better.

“Obviously, you have a day like today where everything goes your way and its easy to think, Well, this course isnt that difficult. But you just need to really keep your patience around here,” Rose said. “I think nothing really changes tomorrow.”

Day wasnt nearly that optimistic, missing fairways and greens down the stretch but dropping only one shot. And he made that up on the par-5 ninth with a tough chip below the green to about 5 feet.

Day, the 22-year-old from Australia, won the Byron Nelson Championship two months ago for his first PGA Tour victory. Wi is still searching for his first, and he got into contention by holing out from 166 yards in the 12th fairway for eagle.

Jeff Overton, who played in the morning, had a 68 and was at 4-under 136. Robert Allenby, who hasnt won on the PGA Tour since 2001 in western Pennsylvania, had a 67 and was in the group at 3-under 137 that included Bo Van Pelt (68) and Ryan Moore, who bogeyed his last two holes for a 70.

Woods is nowhere near the lead, even if it looked as though he would get right in the mix.

Morning wind kept anyone from putting together a good score, and when Woods finally found some momentum with b he was at 1 over and closing it on his goal of getting back to even par for the tournament. Then came a shot that covered the flag and landed 5 feet away.

Trouble was, Woods was trying to land his 7-iron on the par-3 fifth about 15 short of the hole because the green was so firm. It hopped hard and went into the rough behind the green. With a delicate chip, he advanced it only about 10 feet, still in the rough, then chipped some 7 feet past the hole and had to make that for bogey.

Woods one-putted five consecutive greens, a streak that ended in a surprising fashion. After a superb chip-and-run over a hump behind the eighth green that he nearly holed for birdie, he blocked his 30-inch par putt to drop another stroke.

A routine par allowed him to make the cut. Roses round in the afternoon made Woods prospects look even worse.

“Ive just got to put together two good rounds and see where that leaves me,” Woods said.

Who: Thoroughbreds Acclamation, Winchester, Take the Points, Big Red Mike, Hotep
What: Horse Racing Betting Tips The United Nations, The Queens Plate
Where: Monmouth Park, Woodbine
When: Saturday, July 3rd

Saturdays United Nations Stakes at Monmouth Park is loaded with quality, and should offer great value to the betting public. Likewise Sundays Queens Plate at Woodbine, where a pair of hard-knocking fillies will take on the boys. Lets see if we can ferret out a couple of overlays.

In The United Nations, theres an abundance of quality speed, with Get Serious, Acclamation and Straight Story all exiting back-to-back, front-running scores. Acclamations recent accomplishments are especially noteworthy due to the tougher competition he faced in the Grade 2 Jim Murray Handicap and the Grade 1 Charlie Whittingham Handicap, both at Hollywood Park. Also, those wins came at 1? and 1? miles, more in line with the United Nations 1 3/8th-mile distance. Get Serious and Straight Story might be more effective going shorter. Winchester should appreciate a battle up front, as hell be flying late. Three-time Grade 1 winner Take the Points gets in relatively light at 118 pounds, and could enjoy a perfect stalking trip. He worked sharply on June 27th, and appears set for a top effort. The pick at odds of 3-1 or better.

There are no standouts in Sundays Queens Plate, with Hotep the lukewarm morning-line favorite at 3-1. He couldnt make up any ground on the victorious Exhi last out in his prep for this event, but the fractions were relatively slow, so the loss can be forgiven. Theres not much speed in The Queens Plate, so jockey Patrick Husbands may have to keep him a bit closer to the pace than usual. Speaking of speed, the underrated Big Red Mike, winner of The Plate Trial at nearly 9-1, should find himself on or near a modest pace. He demonstrated his grit last out, and should do so again in the big dance. His quick 5-furlong breeze on June 25th indicates he retains his sharp form. The fillies Roan Inish and Moment of Majesty compare favorably on the Beyer scale to their male counterparts, and a victory by either would come as no

great surprise. Nevertheless, Ill bet on Big Red Mike to win at odds of 6-1 or better.

Those are my horse racing betting tips for the weekend. Best of luck and happy gambling!