Brooklyn Nets guard Deron Williams is still reveling in the limelight of Team USA’s gold medal run at the 2012 Summer Olympics, as he added his star power to the Barclays Pro-Am golf tournament last week. At some point during his appearance at the golf tournament that bears his new arena’s name, Williams ran into former President and Gold Medal Poonhound Bill Clinton, as Williams Tweeted the above photo on Sunday. Unfortunately, it was not taken at a strip club, which is where I like to think all Clinton pictures should be taken.

For the Pro-Am, Williams was paired with Masters champion Bubba Watson, and it’s worth mentioning that Watson and Rickie Fowler won the 2012 Awesomest Golfers in the World award, as Watson agreed to stay in a house with three U.S. soldiers who had been wounded in combat, and Fowler had Air Force staff sergeant Nick Bradley serve as his caddy. Bradley was injured in an IED attack in Afghanistan four years ago, and doctors told him that he’d never walk again. So it’s pretty awesome that he was out there caddying a full round of golf. Because of that, I wish that it had been Watson or Fowler in the picture with Slick Willy. Or, you know, Nick Bradley.

Alas, it was just Williams. And while I still thought that was pretty cool, I remembered that it’s definitely not the coolest picture that Clinton has ever taken. No, that photo was taken back in May.

Read the rest of this entry »

Before Thursday, only Beau Hossler’s closest friends and family knew who he was, as the rest of us probably would have guessed country singer or Dukes of Hazzard character. But once the 17-year old golf amateur with braces made his rise on the leaderboard at the U.S. Open, he quickly became a household name. It also probably didn’t help that his mom, Amy Balsz, ain’t too hard to look at, amiright fellas?

But this is about a young man’s incredible triumph and not the inspiration to a Fountains of Wayne song, as Hossler withstood the pressures of the incredibly difficult course at the Olympic Club to finish in a tie for 29th at +9. Sure, “tied for 29th” doesn’t sound all that great, but we love a good underdog story, and that’s certainly what he gave us despite a forgettable Sunday round.

We may never hear from Hossler again, as feel-good golf stories come and go, but he sure seems like the kind of kid that has the right work ethic and head on his shoulders to be a leaderboard fixture for years to come. So I thought that in the wake of his introduction to the world, I’d climb around inside that big, ol’ cranium of Hossler’s and see what a 17-year old was thinking about as he competed against the pros.

Read the rest of this entry »

Or, “Tiger Woods Is Back! Is Tiger Woods Back?”

That’s the worst part of Tiger Woods momentarily reaching backwards through time to pull out his Ron Swanson sex shirt and sink a dominant, terrifying 60 degree wedge chip shot in the final round on the 16th hole at the 2012 Memorial Tournament — that no matter how much he gets his sh*t together and no matter how close he gets to being the “old Tiger”, every single moment will be covered from the perspective of someone dying for him to get his sh*t together and be the Old Tiger.

Regardless, the shot propelled Tiger into a first-place tie at 8-under par with Rory Sabbatini and eventually into his 73rd career PGA Tour victory. 73 wins ties him for second all-time with Jack Nicklaus, who was suitably impressed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better one. That was the most unbelievable, gutsy shot that I’ve ever seen,” Nicklaus said. “It was really, really unbelievable, particularly because of the position he was in. He hits it short the tournament is over. He hits it long the tournament is over. He put it in the hole. Unbelievable.”

Yeah, but is he back?

Asked about the endless chatter about whether his game is back, Woods eventually sighed and said, “I’ll let you guys figure that out.”

ANSWER THE QUESTION

Creepy floating heads edition.

When I’m wrong, I’m the first to admit that I was wrong. And boy did the NBA’s defending champs make me look like a fool. Last week, I predicted that no team would be swept from the NBA Playoffs last week, and to make matters worse, I boasted that it was a sucker’s prediction because only one team had the possibility of sweeping its opponent through Saturday, and that was the Oklahoma City Thunder. But I thought for sure that Dirk Nowitzki and Co. would show some scrap and claw back for one win. Wrong.

Oh well, I never said that the prediction machine was a perfect beast, but it’s close to perfect, because I was right about everything else, including the winner of the Kentucky Derby*. And that builds enough confidence for me to move forward with another round of brilliant sports predictions.

*I did not pick the winner of the Kentucky Derby in last week’s post, but I was totally like, “Oh yeah, bros, I pick I’ll Have Another.”

Read the rest of this entry »

I once thought that a great idea for a magazine would be Haters – “The publication devoted to people who hate sh*t.” It was my billion dollar idea until I learned that things take effort and I hate that sh*t. But lately I’ve realized that my idea would have just been a knock off of the magazine that already has hate down pat – Forbes.

When it’s not busy hating people who don’t have money, Forbes is going out of its way to compile lists of people and things that we all hate. This week, it’s the annual list of the Most Hated Athletes in America. Sure, they call it the Most Disliked Athletes, but read between the capitalist lines, amigos.

So who, pray tell, are the most heinous and villainous prick athletes in all of the land, Forbes?

Read the rest of this entry »

What do you do if you’re one of the most popular professional golfers in America and you have $110,000 burning a hole in your pocket? According to Golf.com’s Press Tent, you spend it on the original “Dukes of Hazard” General Lee Dodge Charger, of course. At least that’s what Bubba Watson did over the weekend at a car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, or as I like to call it – the city that is home to my very racist aunt.

Watson was elated when he made his purchase as he quickly took to Twitter to post a picture of him with his new pride and joy, calling it his “dream car.”

AutoBlog.com also justified Watson’s purchase, declaring it the most famous TV car in the world.

What’s “the most famous television car in the world”? We suppose that depends on who you ask, but to many, nothing but the General Lee could possibly hold the title. Of course, there wasn’t just one General Lee. In fact, scores of orange Dodge Chargers were filmed for “The Dukes of Hazzard,” and most of them never survived their first televised escapade.

And that’s where we’re going to agree to disagree, because I would gladly put KITT and the A*Team van over the General Lee any day. Hell, I’d argue that Becky Belding’s Mazda Miata was more important because it helped bring Jessie Spano together with her stepbrother Eric, but to each his own, I suppose.

There is one little problem that Watson may face down the road, and that’s resale value. This General Lee – the very first actual Charger used in the pilot episode of Dukes – spent most of its life in a junkyard because it was trashed after the first jump. And despite completely restoring it to perfect running order, the original owner was expecting almost a half million dollars for his effort.

But hey, if it makes Watson happy, then who are we to judge? One little request, though: Watson should make his caddy legally change his name to Cooter. And hire Natalie Gulbis to play Daisy Duke. That would be swell.