Go Rocco

My dislike of Tiger Woods is pretty well documented amongst those who know me. Mostly, it’s because people act like no one ever played the game of golf before he did. Yes, he is a great player, and yes he may turn out to be the greatest player, but whatever. That doesn’t mean I want to buy a pair of Nikes from him, or a Buick, or his own freaking brand of Gatorade for christsake. (Really? "Gatorade Tiger"? Is that necessary in life? And it apparently has more electrolytes, which god knows golfers need more than say, basketball players or soccer players who run around for the entire length of their matches. And I know Tiger is supposed to be a work-out machine, so he needs all those electrolytes, but that just makes him seem even more like he’s no fun. Like he's one of those old Soviet-era Olympic athletes who were picked as a child to be the next great swimmer or gymnast or Greco-Roman wrestler or whatever based on some glimmer of natural ability, so they were taken from their parents and put into some sort of sports training program/camp where all they did was work on their performance levels and achieving perfection for their entire childhood and grew to see the game as their job at which failure was not an option...and that really doesn’t seem in line with sports as a “game” for which people are supposed to have a love. But, I digress. Sorry, the Tiger worship gets me all riled up, ya’ll)

Actually, my dislike of Tiger truly originated with him dissing the 60^th anniversary celebration of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball the day after he became the first African-American to win a golf Major, to go open a sports bar, and because he didn't want to delay the start of his vacation by a day and a half, even though he was invited to attend personally by the President of the United States. Sigh, again, don’t get me started. That still pisses me off.

The point, of all this is, my Tiger issues aside, I’m rooting for Rocco Mediate to win the U.S. Open in today’s playoff. It’s a no-brainer; classic David vs. Golith. What would you rather see, the #1 ranked marketing machine win his 14^th major, or the 158^th ranked journeyman player win his first, while also becoming the oldest player to ever win the Open? Also, he seems like the anti-Tiger: amiable, funny, unassuming. Happy to be there and enjoying himself immensely.

And, he's planning to wear another crazy belt buckle (he wore the pictured peace sign on Sunday). I am alway pro crazy belt buckle.