Tiger made a great move not going to that silly memorial service for Payne Stewart the day before the tournament began. While most of the American players were crying and hitting golf balls in to the Pacific Ocean (what was THAT all about?!), Tiger and his pal Mark O’Meara were out getting ready (mentally and physically) for the tournament. I do not believe that it is a coincidence that the American players (other than Tiger) played rather poorly. BTW, how ridiculous was it that Tiger got questioned/criticized for skipping the memorial service when no one had the politically incorrect gall to ask those who WENT why they did or whether they felt stupid hitting a golf ball into the ocean? And why didn’t anyone ask Sergio Garcia why he wore knickers during the first round when he barely even knew Payne Stewart?

–Another reason the American players seemed to play worse than the European players is that the Americans appear to be even MORE intimidated by Tiger than the those who don’t see him all the time. Quite simply, the American players KNOW that they can’t “hang” with Tiger and they come up limp when his new gets on top of the leaderboard. There seems to be something truly primal going on here. The are certain members of the animal kingdom whose most dominant male member of a particular group actually physically grows larger while the less dominant males of the group actually shrink once they are no longer the biggest guy on the block. Quite literally, the rest of the PGA Tour is shrinking in the face of Tiger’s dominance! To put it another way, it seems kind of like a man trying to have sex with a woman he knows used to date Tommy Lee or Shack O’Neil, he knows he won’t be able to measure up on his best day so he ends up coming up even “shorter” than normal. That is the definition of intimidation!

–Did anybody else feel it was strange the way the NBC handled Tiger’s blast of profanity after he hit the ball in the ocean on the 18th on Saturday morning? After hooking his tee shot into the Pacific Tiger clearly yelled, “God Damn it, you fucking prick!” Tiger was asked about this and he apologized (wouldn’t it have been great if he had said that he just wanted to hit HIS ball into the Pacific since the media wanted him to participate so badly in that memorial service and that he was just damning God for having taken Payne Stewart so soon?), but when NBC showed the tape a couple of times later in the day they omitted the audio portion and made no mention of it. Was Tiger’s profanity (shocking!) a story or not NBC? Make up your mind!

–The TV ratings were once again phenomenal for this US Open, dramatically outpacing even last year’s thrilling finish. Which is more incredible, that a man (maybe he’s a man) won the U.S. Open by 15 shots or that a golf telecast with ABSOLUTELY NO DRAMA had ratings comparable to the NBA finals? As few as four years ago I never thought I would live to see the day that either event could POSSIBLY happen.

–When Tiger won the 1997 Masters by 12 shots did you ever think that it was possible that he could top that performance (especially at a U.S. Open)? Well, suddenly the 1997 Masters doesn’t look quite so awesome anymore!

–Are you not now convinced that something greater is going on here with Tiger? Are you not now ready to officially convert to the First Church?