Wrap Up

As the first half of the year runs out, here are a few thoughts.

First on the U.S. Open golf from Los Angeles.  For me, one of the striking things about the U.S. Open is how rarely lesser-known golfers choke away their chances of winning it.  It's not that uncommon to see a player blow a late lead at the Masters, or even in a regular Tour event.  But the history of the U.S. Open is littered with results like Wyndham Clark over Rory McIlroy, and I think I know why.  At the Masters, or in a regular Tour event, you need to make birdies to win.  And that means that you have to play aggressively, even when you are in the lead.  You have to shoot at the flag, because if you don't you won't keep pace with folks like Rory McIlroy.  They will run you down unless you keep attacking.  But of course, if you keep attacking you are more likely to make mistakes.

But at the LACC a few weeks ago, it literally was not possible for McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler to make a run.  The course was set up in a way that made it extremely difficult to get your iron shots close to the pin, no matter how aggressive you were.  So instead of charging, McIlroy and Scheffler basically just settled for a long siege of pars and hoped that Clark would bogey.  But Clark didn't make too many bogeys, in large part because he could play very conservatively.

I'm sure the USGA panicked somewhat after the super-low scores of the first day, and set up the last three days to defend par as much as possible.  And the scores stabilized, but a lot of the drama -- and potential excellence -- was lost.

Second, on the College World Series.  After a month of hard-fought, low-scoring games, both LSU and Florida were just about out of pitching, and the wind in Omaha started to turn.  So after LSU won a 4-3 thriller in 11 innings on Saturday, Florida bounced back with a 24-4 win on Sunday.  As the Gators racked up run after run, I found myself wondering, "Are the Florida players not superstitious?  Do they not know LSU?  Do they not understand the possibility of revenge in Game Three?"  But in more evidence that Florida is different from the rest of the South, the Gators just kept running up the score.  Of course, as most Southerners could have warned them, LSU did get revenge on Monday night.  In front of almost 25,000 rabid LSU fans, the Tigers humiliated Florida 18-4, and won their seventh College World Series (but first since 2009).  After so much excellence and drama, it was fun to watch the last two games turn into old-school aluminum bat blowouts.

And so the 2022-23 sports year -- the first complete sports year without the effects of COVID since 2018-19 -- has come to an end.  Congratulations to Western Kentucky, who saw its football team go 9-5 and win the New Orleans Bowl over South Alabama.  Congratulations to Murray State, which survived its first year in the Missouri Valley Conference.  Congratulations to Washington State and Idaho, which renewed their ancient football rivalry (the Battle of the Palouse) for the first time since 2016.  Congratulations to Tennessee, which won the Orange Bowl and went to the College World Series.  Congratulations to Alabama, which won the Sugar Bowl and won two SEC Championships in men's basketball.  Congratulations to Kentucky, which beat Florida and Louisville in football, and which won a game in the NCAA men's basketball tournament for the first time since 2019.  Congratulations to Vanderbilt, which won its third NCAA Bowling championship.  Congratulations to LSU, which won the women's basketball tournament and the College World Series.  And most of all, congratulations to Georgia, which won its second consecutive NCAA football championship, in large part thanks to a missed field goal.

And thanks to God that we had the chance to have another full sports year -- we had missed it so much.

We hope everyone gets to go down the lake, or watch fireworks, or whatever else it is that normal people do when the SEC is not in action.  We're planning to read some books, but there's a great chance we'll actually just watch old football games called by Keith Jackson.