SAUCIER — This is Jim Thorpe’s last rodeo. At age 66, and after 44 years of playing golf for a living, Thorpe knows the time has come. He still possesses an athlete’s build, a linebacker’s shoulders and a blacksmith’s forearms, but his creaky joints tell him how old he is on every swing. “The golf […]
SAUCIER, Miss. — Colin Montgomerie, the spectacularly accomplished Scottish golfer, was preparing to chip to the second green, his 11th of the day, at Fallen Oak on a windy, sun-kissed Friday afternoon. And then something — something big and blue, caught his eye. It was a sheriff’s deputy, walking in Montgomerie’s line of sight when […]
BILOXI — So, I saw Hugh Freeze leave it in the sand trap on the par-5 first hole at Fallen Oak. I saw Dan Mullen leave it in the trap from the 18th fairway. Lots of sand flew out of both traps. No ball. Both took it like a man here in the Champions Tour […]
BILOXI — Jeff Maggert, who does not resemble Kevin Costner, could have been excused Wednesday afternoon if he felt like he was playing Roy McAvoy in one of those trick shot scenes from the movie Tin Cup. There was Maggert Wednesday on the third floor pool deck at Harrah’s Casino on the inland side of […]
Three years ago, Fred Couples won the Champions Tour’s Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic at picturesque Fallen Oak in Biloxi, and two weeks later led The Masters after two rounds. Couples, who has made the cut in 20 consecutive Masters, has finished no lower than 20th in his last five visits to Augusta. Obviously, at age […]
Twenty years ago, Mike Slive introduced himself to me as “a recovering lawyer.” I laughed, and Slive said, “No, really, I am.” Two decades later, Slive, who has guided the SEC to unprecedented heights as the league’s commissioner, has recovered quite well. He will retire July 31. Two decades ago, Slive had just been named the […]
Saints fans, taking to Twitter, fan sites and other social media, are up in arms. “How can they trade Jimmy Graham?” is the stock post. That was my gut reaction, too. And then I thought about it. It very well might turn out to be an awful move. But, on second thought, it might not […]
Now comes the news that Patrick Willis, one of the great inside linebackers of his football era, will retire at 30, an age generally considered the prime of a football player’s career. Willis, the former Ole Miss standout and seven-time Pro Bowler for the San Francisco 49ers, would be walking away from a guaranteed $20 […]
