From All Of Us Here...

My Shot: Sam Snead Clean fingernails, sirloin steaks, ice cream and the Lord's Prayer: A three-time Masters champion on the things that really matter.

You can't catch a fish unless you keep your line in the water. You have to be patient. A cold wind can be blowing and ice can be forming on your eyebrows, but you have to keep at it.

When I was in training for tournaments, I went to bed at 8 every night and got up at sunrise. But I never slept 10 hours straight. It seemed I would wake up for three hours during the night and just lay there and think about golf.

I've still got the four-string Gibson banjo I ordered from a Sears catalog when I was 14. It took me three years to save enough money to buy it. It may be the most precious thing I own. Nobody has played it but me.

Some people aren't cut out to play golf — mentally, physically or both. You've seen the people I'm talking about. It comes to a point where they should just find a different hobby.

My favorite meal has always been a sirloin steak cooked medium, a baked potato with nothing on it and a green salad with two tablespoons of oil and vinegar dressing. For 50 years I avoided dessert, but now I eat all the ice cream I want.

A lot of old people come to accept the thought of dying. Not me. Dying scares the hell out of me. I want to live forever.

I didn't touch a drop of liquor until I was in my 60s. I never saw the point in starting. When I was young I saw drinking ruin a lot of golfers and celebrities. Today, though, a Diet Coke with some dark rum in it takes away some of my aches and pains.

When I was a kid, I would take my rifle and hunt my way into school each morning. Eventually I hunted all kinds of game all over the world. But one day I just stopped. I came to a point where I enjoyed feeding animals more than killing them.

Could I have whipped Tiger Woods? Hell, yes. In my prime I could do anything with a golf ball I wanted. No man scared me on the golf course.

If you can't pay cash for it, you can't afford it. Except for a house.

The sportswriters started calling me "Slammin' Sam" in the late 1930s. I never liked it very much. I really preferred the nickname I got when I first joined the tour: "Swingin' Sam." That was the name that showed off my true strengths: smoothness and rhythm. Somehow people liked "Slammin' Sam" better.

The best things about being famous? I get good tables in restaurants, and the state trooper lets me go once in a while.

The best golf exercise is hiking up and down steep hills. It helps strengthen your legs, which drive your whole body. You build up your wind, too. Golfers need wind more than you think. Under pressure it's hard to breathe properly, and if you can't catch your breath, your touch will suffer. You can't concentrate, either.

Every man should learn to cook, sew and garden. If you can do those three things, you'll always be able to take care of yourself.

I told my son Jackie that when I'm gone he should never sell the Snead farm. Because no matter how bad things get, he'll always be able to grow enough to eat.

It still drives me crazy when a man doesn't take his hat off indoors, have his shoes shined or have clean fingernails.

A man on TV the other day said we should capture those terrorists and give them a fair trial. That made sense to me for a minute. Then I looked at some pictures of my grandchildren and thought, we should take no prisoners. Because those people want my grandchildren dead.

__Never make a golf bet__where you have to shoot even par (with your handicap strokes) to win. Always figure you're going to shoot three or four over par.

I've never gambled in a casino. On the other hand, I've never played a round of golf where I didn't have a bit of money riding on it. With golf it wasn't gambling, because the outcome was always under my control.

People always said I had a natural swing. They thought I wasn't a hard worker. But when I was young, I'd play and practice all day, then practice more at night by my car's headlights. My hands bled. Nobody worked harder at golf than I did.

When Ben Hogan died, I said it felt like I'd lost a brother. Some people didn't understand that, because Ben and I never socialized and rarely talked. But we were like brothers, because we both made the other guy better. A lot of blood brothers can't say that.

Putting: It's not how, but how many. My sidesaddle style wasn't pretty to look at, but I would have putted standing on my head if it would have helped.

I've had the yips off and on for the last 55 years. I'm convinced they come from putting on different kinds of surfaces over a long period of time. You get to the point where your mind can't figure out how hard to hit the ball.

__My golden retriever,__Meister, died four years ago. I cried like a baby when I had him put down. He understood me when I talked to him; for a dog he had a big vocabulary. And he loved me more than any human ever has.

I've bought carpeting and organs for churches. Sometimes I bought homes and cars for people. But it wasn't true charity, because I always expected a thank-you in return. True charity isn't like that.

The 2 ½ years I spent in the Navy during World War II, dead in the middle of my prime, was good for me. It helped me grow up, gave me a better view of the world. I think every single healthy American boy should go into the service for a spell.

I didn't go to church much as an adult, even though my dad was a Sunday school teacher for 50 years. I used to say it was because I was usually playing golf on Sundays. But the truth is, I have a hard time relying on anyone, including God. Deep down I believe, though. I know the Lord's Prayer by heart.

As I get older, I like being taken care of more and more. I like getting my hair cut, my back rubbed, my finger bandaged if I get a cut. My favorite thing is pedicures.

__It goes without saying__that my biggest disappointment was never winning the U.S. Open. I'm reminded of it all the time. It hurts when people remember you for the things you didn't do, rather than for the things you did do.

__People who talk really fast__or dart around generally have a hard time playing golf.

Most big-time swing teachers have never been under the gun, so they don't understand how a person's swing changes under pressure. As a young player, the first thing I'd want to know is how to handle the heat.

No doubt about it, a drive that flies dead-straight is the hardest shot in the book to pull off. But I tried to hit it dead straight anyway. That way, if I hooked, sliced, pushed or pulled the ball by 10 yards, it would still be in play.

I have a reputation for being tight with money, and I guess it's accurate. But I can't help it. The biggest Christmas I had as a kid was when I found 15 cents and a pair of socks under my breakfast plate. Poverty will make you respect money.

Tiger Woods is something. But from what I see, he doesn't like putting the short ones. That makes me afraid for him. He's too young for that.

I don't understand how an autograph can be worth money. How can a famous person's signature be worth anything to anyone other than the person who asked for it?

My dad was the best checkers player in the world. He saw at least five moves ahead. I never heard of him losing, and he was a checkers player his whole life.

__I detest the fact__that I endorsed cigarettes years ago; I didn't even smoke. Lucky Strikes, Viceroys Chesterfields, Granger Pipe tobacco — I endorsed them all. At The Greenbrier they had those ads on the walls as decoration. I made them take them all down.

If you want to know how good you are, go to an empty field with your 9-iron, perch up a single ball, and program yourself to hit the ball exactly 125 yards. Hit the shot, then pace off the yardage. If you came within five yards, you're a player.

I could have been a better father when my kids were young. But I was gone so damned much of the time. It's never too late, though. Jackie and I see each other every day, Terry is nearby, and I can't imagine father and sons being closer than we are now.

Terry is handicapped mentally. He caught a bad fever when he was 2, and he didn't develop normally after that. But having a handicapped child has taught me to look at what they might be capable of, instead of dwelling on their limitations.

Mean dogs and ornery cats are nice to me. I've walked right up to deer and even a bobcat. I trained a bass to let me lift him out of the water. It's just a gift I have. All I do is look at them softly and move in a slow, kind way.

I can't play golf anymore. My legs won't let me walk even nine holes. But I know I'll be able to play again in the spring, after I ride my bicycle through that Bermuda grass they have around my winter home in Florida.

Charles Howell III explains what he loves — and hates — about golf

Golf is a maddening game. Amateur golfers know that all too well. But flipping on the television every week to watch the best on the planet play the game, it’s hard to remember that even the best players often feel the same way.

Charles Howell III, once golf’s next can’t-miss prospect that never fulfilled the lofty expectations that were once set upon him, captured his first win in 11 years at the RSM Classic at Sea Island over the weekend. My colleague Dylan Dethier recapped Howell’s outpouring of emotion following his long-awaited return to the winner’s circle, but there was one part of his victory interview that especially stuck out to me: Howell talking about what he loves — and hates — about golf.

What He Loves About Golf

“I love most about [golf] because it’s all on you, it’s all on the player. Golf is never about one competitor versus another and it never will be. It’s against the player versus himself and versus the golf course. At no point today or whatever was I thinking it’s me against Cameron or it’s me against Webb or whatever. It’s just you against you, and as crazy as that sounds, it’s the way that it is.”

What He Hates About Golf

“What I hate about it is that you can work and work and work and get absolutely no results from that, and I know that there’s a lot of industries and a lot of areas where that also applies, but golf for certain. You can speak to any Tour player out here past or current and I think they would tell you the same thing, that you can go down a rabbit hole and work and work and work and literally on the back end nothing come out of it, and I think that’s the hardest part to swallow.”

Howell’s quotes are so refreshing — and so true. They offer the kind of perspective we don’t always hear from golfers at the top end of the game. And more than anything else, they’re the kind of comments that can apply to golfers everywhere, regardless of skill level. Next time you’re playing poorly, don’t blame your clubs, or the course, or anybody around you. Embrace what Howell loves most about golf: That it’s all on you.

Matt Kuchar just set a career milestone known only to him and his family (and his accountant)

The only number Matt Kuchar was thinking about on Sunday at the Mayakoba Golf Classic was eight, as in grabbing his eighth PGA Tour title. OK, maybe four, as well, as in ending a four-year victory drought.

But with a closing 69 at El Camaleon Golf Club in Playa del Carmen, Kuchar has a couple other numbers to smile about: 10 and 45 million.

Let’s explain: With the victory, the 40-year-old tour veteran earned $1.296 million. That brings his career tour earnings past $45 million ($45,019,237 to be precise), making him just the 10th player to ever break that threshold.

Indeed, Kuchar’s performance in Mexico allowed him to jump past Davis Love III ($44,666,934), Zach Johnson ($44,516,011) and Steve Stricker ($43,947,237) into the No. 10 spot in all-time career earnings.

The running gag with Kuchar is his ability to squeeze top-10 finishes out of nowhere on a regular basis (he now has had 99 in his 417 career tour starts as a professional). Suffice it to say, all those T-10s—back door, front door, doggie door, whatever—add up. Just ask Kuchar's accountant.

Golf Is A Great Gift To Give

Never Say Die – The Jason Day Story

30 years old, Jason Day has an impressive list of accomplishments: In his 11-plus years on the PGA Tour, he has a dozen wins, including a major, has reached No. 1 in the world and has played on four Presidents Cup teams. Yet at this point of his career, the Aussie says he has underachieved. We caught up with Day at his home course in Ohio, the Double Eagle Club, a private but unpretentious retreat in a quiet, leafy 'burb outside Columbus, where he talked about missed opportunities, LeBron James' golf swing, becoming friends with boyhood idol (and fellow golf nerd) Tiger Woods, dealing with a zombie-like sleep routine, and why he bought his son, Dash, a punching bag.

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HOW MANY PLAYERS TODAY ARE PLAYING FOR HISTORY? ARE YOU ONE OF THEM? I'm definitely one of those guys. There are probably five to 10 right now. You can look at the top of the world ranking and pretty much figure out most of them. The rest? They're trying to make a good living, enjoy life and go on about their way. I don't want to put a number on majors or victories or goals, because sometimes you get to a point where you're just struggling to get to that number. But let's say you have 20 to 30 wins and multiple major championships. Not a lot of guys have done that. I'd also like to win the [modern] career Grand Slam. Only five guys have [Sarazen, Hogan, Player, Nicklaus and Woods]. That, plus being No. 1 in the world and 20 to 30 wins, yeah, that's a pretty phenomenal career. ● ● ●

HAVING SAID THAT, DO YOU CARE HOW YOUR CAREER WILL BE EVALUATED 25 OR 100 YEARS FROM NOW? No one's gonna remember. They remember Jack, Tiger, Arnie, Gary, but that's the 1 percent of the 1 percent. The one-name club. I know how hard I work, and I'm trying to win as many tournaments and majors as I can for me and my team, but I know one day I'm gonna be gone and forgotten. I was just talking to someone the other day who played in the Greg Norman Junior Masters. I know Greg Norman and what he's done, but kids back home go, "Who's Greg Norman?" Everyone gets to a point where you're forgotten, unless you're in that one-name club. ● ● ●

SPEAKING OF THE ONE-NAME CLUB, WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO LEBRON LEAVING CLEVELAND AGAIN? It's not as bad as the first time he left. The way they did it in 2010 with "The Decision," the whole production and "I'm going to take my talents to South Beach," it cut a lot of people deep, especially diehard Cavs fans. People were burning jerseys. It was nuts. But he won them a title when he came back, so I think that lessened it. I'm a Cavs fan, but I'm an adopted Cavs fan. I live here and have a buddy who has seats on the floor. So at the end of the day, as long as LeBron's happy and his family is happy, that's all that matters. ● ● ●

HAVE YOU TRIED TO GET LEBRON INTO GOLF? No. I've seen him swing, and it looks terrible. Just awful. To be honest, I don't really know him that well. When it comes to celebrities, I try to stay away... ● ● ●

... UNLESS THEY CRASH INTO YOUR WIFE. [ELLIE DAY SUFFERED A CONCUSSION IN DECEMBER 2015 WHEN JAMES COLLIDED WITH HER WHILE ATTEMPTING TO REACH A BALL AT COURTSIDE.] Exactly! If they reach out to me, I'm happy to respond and maybe spend time with them or get to know them, but when it's someone as big as LeBron, he's always got people clawing at him. I remember what it was like for me when I got to No. 1, so I can't imagine what his life is like. Lebron’s golf game? ‘I’ve seen him swing, and it looks terrible. just awful.’

HOW SCARY WAS THAT IN THE MOMENT WITH ELLIE, AND WHAT KIND OF INTERACTIONS HAVE YOU HAD WITH LEBRON SINCE THEN? I was in shock. If you watch a replay of it, there was a moment when I was sort of smiling and laughing, which is weird, but when something bad happens, that's usually my reaction, for some reason. When I saw her on the ground, it was obviously really scary. But when I could see that she could move her arms and legs, I knew it would be OK. J.R. Smith and LeBron came over to check on her. Later on, LeBron texted Ellie. I don't even know how he got her number. He didn't need to reach out, though. He was just doing his job. But just recently, before he became a free agent and left, he sent a signed jersey with a note saying, "Please come back to a game," because she hadn't been back to one since it happened. ● ● ●

WHAT WAS THE REACTION AFTER ELLIE MADE HER MISCARRIAGE PUBLIC LATE IN 2017? Oh, man. The support we got was amazing. But it's still tough to talk about. ● ● ●

YOU AND DASH DID A GOLF DIGEST FATHER-SON COVER STORY A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO. IS HE PLAYING ANY GOLF THESE DAYS? He does, but he's really into boxing. My uncle was a Golden Gloves boxer, and my dad taught us how to box. When we got bullied at school, he got us a boxing bag and told us, "Go punch that every day." He taught us—and this is so bad, but it's that old-school mentality—that when you get bullied, the first thing you do is knock that person out. That was his mentality. I was more scared of my dad than whoever was bullying me. I remember telling my sister, too, the first thing you do is walk right up to that girl and punch her in the face. Jason Day and Family Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesDay and his wife, Ellie, pose with their children, Lucy and Dash, on the 18th green after winning the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship. For Dash's birthday, he got a little speed bag. Mama doesn't want him to box, but I want him to—it creates good hand-eye coordination, and if you can do it properly, you can work on power and take that back into golf. In golf, you use the ground to create the forces to hit it far, and it's the same thing in boxing with throwing a punch. You have to start with your feet. I'm trying to work on a few technical things with him, like how to get back off the ropes when you're covering up. He loves it.

Jason Day: How To Get Your Little One Started In Golf

YOUR CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN WELL-DOCUMENTED. YOUR DAD WAS AN ALCOHOLIC, AND IT WAS ROUGH. YOU EVER THINK ABOUT THAT TIME? I can't remember my life when I was a kid—maybe intentionally. I talked to a psychologist about it the other day. I blocked it because of certain memories, but I think that's very natural. If I stayed where I was, no doubt I would've been an idiot. It was a learning experience, and unfortunately it was a blessing when he passed away. If he was with me now, I'm not sure anybody would stick around me. He would have been hard to deal with. ● ● ●

WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS INJURY-PRONE OR ACCIDENT-PRONE? YOU SEEM TO SUFFER INJURIES OR ILLNESSES MORE THAN MOST PEOPLE. Really? No, I don't think so. But I don't sleep well. I average about five hours a night. Two days ago, I slept for 2½ hours. I'm always up. I can't sleep. When you don't sleep, you don't recover, and if you don't recover, your immune system is down, and if your immune system is down, more things can happen. ● ● ●

DO GUYS ON TOUR GIVE YOU GRIEF ABOUT IT? Not really. Maybe. Not to my face. I don't pay attention to it if they do, anyway. Tiger can't give me crap, because I know how injured he's been. But my back has been phenomenal ever since the start of this year—I don't have any issues whatsoever right now. I wake up with little aches and pains, but it's not like it used to be when I had back problems or my shoulder was bothering me. I'm glad I'm past all of that. ● ● ●

HAS THE VERTIGO SUBSIDED? [DAY COLLAPSED DURING THE SECOND ROUND OF THE 2015 U.S. OPEN AT CHAMBERS BAY.] I was on antivirals for about a year and a half just to suppress the virus from growing in my ear. I wasn't supposed to be on them that long, though, so I just cut it off, cold turkey. Every now and then I'll get a bout of it, and it's the worst thing ever. It's actually happened this year maybe two or three times, but it was only for nine holes. I didn't say a word to anyone about it other than my caddie or my wife. ● ● ●

WHAT'S YOUR RESPONSE TO CRITICS WHO SAY YOUR HIGH-SPEED SWING MIGHT MAKE YOU PRONE TO INJURY AND AFFECT THE LENGTH OF YOUR CAREER? I can understand people having concern, or someone giving analysis. But let me put it this way: If you had a cough, and I said it means you've got the flu, well, how do you know? It's the same way with the swing. How do you know what someone's body is doing—if they have enough rotation or limiting rotation? You don't know what their body chemistry is. Someone might have bad hips, so they have to swing a certain way. It works the same the other way. So when it comes to people commenting on a golf swing, I understand it, but I don't agree with it. I just laugh because they're blowing smoke. ‘I can’t remember my life when I was a kid—maybe intentionally... if I stayed where I was, no doubt I would’ve been an idiot.’

AT THIS POINT IN YOUR CAREER, HAVE YOU OVERACHIEVED OR UNDERACHIEVED? Underachieved. I feel like my game is set up to win more majors than I have and more tournaments than I have. The only thing holding me back is myself. Sometimes it's a desire thing. Look at Tiger—what made him so dominant for 13 years? It was the same thing for Michael Phelps, who didn't miss a day of training for five straight years. What makes that person do that? Deep down, there's a level of motivation that makes this person work harder than anyone else. And to do it for that long and that many years is incomprehensible. ● ● ●

YOU'VE BECOME PRETTY GOOD FRIENDS WITH TIGER. HOW'D THAT COME ABOUT? His caddie, Joe LaCava, said to my caddie at the time, Colin Swatton—this is back in 2013—"Why don't you have Jason text Tiger?" We'd met before, but I didn't have Tiger's number, so Joey gave it to me, and I think I was the one who texted first. I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was something with some swear words in it, because that's how we talk to each other. I'd known him well enough I guess at that point that we could give it to each other. We still text and talk all the time, and I've been to his house a few times, but he's still very private and introverted. We talk about personal stuff, but it never gets too personal. It's mostly just how's the family, that kind of thing. We talk more golf, because he's a golf nerd, and I'm a bit of a golf nerd, too. ● ● ●

HOW OFTEN WOULD YOU SAY YOU'RE TRULY IN "THE ZONE"? BEST EXAMPLES FROM YOUR CAREER? I've already been in it twice this year with my wins at Torrey Pines and Quail Hollow. You usually get in it when you're around the lead. When you're nervous, it's easier to get into the zone, too. It can come right before you tee off, even on the range. Once you get in that rhythm, that's when it comes. But it comes and goes. It generally doesn't stick around for the whole day or even very long, though sometimes it might. Being in the zone, for me, is not caring about the outcome. Even though I was hitting it terrible the last day at Quail Hollow this year, I was still in the zone because my short game was so good. I knew it didn't matter where I hit it, because I knew I'd get up and down. I never really panicked because of that. You just know when things go bad, you always have an answer for it. You don't worry about the outcome. There's just a level of calmness that takes place, and I wish I could get into it a lot more. ● ● ●

ON THE FLIP SIDE, WHEN WAS YOUR CAREER AT ITS LOWEST? Oh, man, 2012 was pretty bad. Dash was born, and I really struggled being a dad for the first time. [The Days' daughter, Lucy, was born in 2015.] I mean, I was really bad at it. You have to understand, golf is a selfish game, especially when you're trying to achieve what I'm trying to achieve at the highest level of the sport. Being selfish and having responsibility and not putting yourself first, that's very difficult. I struggled with how to do that for about a year. At the end of that year, we had a team meeting, with my coach and caddie, my wife and my agent. We have one at the end of every year. It got tense. I didn't like what I was hearing, even though I needed to hear it. I didn't wanna be on the golf course. And then when I went home, I didn't wanna be at home. And I didn't wanna practice. I didn't know where I wanted to be. It was like I wanted to run away. It was easier to do that than face the challenges of being a dad and playing professional golf at the highest level.

Last year was pretty bad, too. My mom had cancer, and that was difficult and always on my mind. I was burnt out from being No. 1 in the world as well, and all the time and energy that went into not just getting there but what goes into it once you're there. It's a lot harder to stay there than get there, which is what makes what Tiger did for so long so incredible. ● ● ●

YOU BEAT YOURSELF UP PRETTY GOOD OVER LEAVING THE PUTT SHORT ON THE 72ND GREEN OF THE 2015 OPEN AT THE OLD COURSE. DOES THAT STILL POP INTO YOUR HEAD? No, it's the opposite. I beat myself up in the moment because I didn't give myself the opportunity to win by not getting the ball to the hole. It can't go in if it doesn't get there. I'd rather ram it five feet by than leave it a couple inches short. But it was pretty much gone the next day. I remember talking to my agent on the plane ride back and telling him I was going to win that next week, and I did. I shot 68 the last day at Glen Abbey in Canada, Bubba Watson shot 69, and I won by a stroke. I have a pretty good short-term memory when it comes to losing. You have to have that when it comes to golf.

RELATED: 19 Things You Should Know About Jason Day ● ● ●

IF THE RULING BODIES OR AUGUSTA NATIONAL WERE TO INSTITUTE A LIMITED-FLIGHT GOLF BALL FOR PROFESSIONAL EVENTS, WOULD THAT BE GOOD OR BAD FOR THE GAME? First off, people would still play the Masters. But if they did that, then they better shorten the tees again. If we have limited-flight balls, we're going to have 4-irons into No. 7 and things like that. But do I want the ball to go shorter? No. Why? Isn't it fun watching Dustin Johnson crush a drive over a lake 300 yards away? No one wants to see someone plod it down the right and not take it on. That's boring. If you push trying to rein it in too far, then people will stop watching golf. People want to see risk.

The problem is the architects—some of them, anyway—decided that because the ball is going forever, they need to make courses longer to make them harder. No, you don't. Just be a better architect.

‘Being in the zone, for me, is not caring about the outcome.’

YOU WON THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP THREE YEARS AGO AT WHISTLING STRAITS. SHOULD THE CHAMPIONSHIP TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD? I don't mind it either way. I really don't. I'm still going to play it, of course. We're moving toward a world tour, anyway, so it wouldn't surprise me if they did do that at some point. If they did, the key is, it has to be in a location, a country that can and will support it from the standpoint of logistics to fans coming out and getting tourists there. But the PGA is also based in America, so it's fitting for the tournament to be in America. Jason Day Jamie SquireDay earned the biggest prize of his career in 2015 at the PGA Championship. ● ● ●

DO YOU SEE HOPE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENTS CUP TEAM? [THE U.S. TEAM HAS WON 10 OF 12 COMPETITIONS, WITH ONE TIE.] WHAT WILL BE THE SOLUTION TO MAKE IT COMPETITIVE? I don't know. The U.S. team is so heavily stacked. It's really difficult for us. I'd love to see some changes and think there could be some down the road. It would also be cool to play more singles matches—we usually do all right in those. I never got why the number of matches and format aren't the same as the Ryder Cup, though. The PGA Tour wants to have its own identity with it, yet the International team had to fight over points. We're getting our butts whooped. That's all well and good—if we're not good enough, we're not good enough. But if it's so lopsided, who's going to watch? That's not good for anyone.

Jason Day IS THERE EMBARRASSMENT IN THOSE DEFEATS? It's beyond that—it's become normal. You get whooped so many times, it just becomes the norm. But I think there's a question of whether the guys even care at this point. Some do, some don't. You get whooped every time, and you start to ask, "Why are we even turning up for this?" ● ● ●

DID THE LATE PETER THOMSON, AN ICON IN AUSTRALIA AND WORLDWIDE, EVER SHARE SOMETHING PARTICULARLY INTERESTING WITH YOU? I didn't realize the accomplishments the guy had. The five British Opens, everyone remembers, of course. Then he decided he wanted to play the senior tour in the States and won a record nine times in 1985. He was also the president of the Australian PGA for 32 years. I didn't meet him until late in life, at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in 2011, and then again at the World Cup there two years later, but he was very cut and dry. Unfortunately we only met in passing. He congratulated me on a nice career—it was like the stuff your grandparents would tell you, telling you the nice stuff. But he'd tell you what he was thinking. He had this great, dry wit about him. RELATED: Swing Sequence: Jason Day ● ● ●

WHO'S THE FUNNIEST PLAYER ON TOUR TODAY? Matt Kuchar. He's so dry and sarcastic, and he's quick. Like the story of how Phil ran into him on the range with these alligator-green shoes and belt and said to Kuchar, "You have to win three Masters to wear these," and Kuchar shot right back that he hopes he wins only two. Tiger can be funny, too. We give each other crap all the time. One time at Bay Hill he hit one so far right on 16, and he's just cussing at me, and I'm giving it right back to him. What he said isn't fit for print, and I can't say what I said back to him.

Greg Norman hopes golf isn't going to put 'all their eggs in one basket again and be all Tiger'

The emotional journey for many golf fans during Tiger Woods’ 2018 comeback moved from tempered expectations to mild surprise to giddy excitement to out-and-out awe as the 14-time major winner had a pain-free season that culminated in his first PGA Tour victory in five years at Tour Championship. So what should we continue to expect from Tiger in 2019? At least one World Golf Hall of Famer worries it might go too far.

Greg Norman, speaking on the Yahoo Finance Sportsbook podcast, offered praise to Woods for all that he accomplished this past season before tempering his comments with a word of caution—wrapped with a hint of irritation.

“I think he’s done an excellent job of going from where he was over a year ago, saying I may never play the game of golf again, to where he is today,” Norman said. “Massive leap, quite honestly, in 12 months. God bless him. He did everything right, stepped up to the plate and won. It’s good for him, there’s no question. It’s good for the game of golf, no question. But I hope they don’t put all their eggs in one basket again and be all Tiger and forget about all this other wonderful, fantastic talent even coming out of Korea and Japan and South Africa and Australia. There is an unbelievable amount of talent bubbling up around the world, and I’d hate to see them get lost again in that Tiger talk.”

There is wisdom in Norman’s insight; relying too much on Tiger to move golf’s needle is a trap the sport should be wary of. Yet at the same time The Shark has made a habit of speaking out about the publicity that Tiger gets, causing his message to at times get lost by the delivery of the messenger.

Early in the year, as Woods was just making his latest return, Norman noted that he was “disappointed” that coverage of Woods was overshadowing other players and sounded skeptical that Woods could finally be competitive again after other failed comeback attempts.

It’s hard not to appreciate how Woods’ return has rekindled interest in golf among general sports fans. Audiences watching the events Tiger compete and contended in have jumped. Yet Norman doesn’t want to concede it all to Woods.

“TV ratings are up because of what Tiger Woods does to every other player,” Norman said while appearing on Yahoo Finance’s Midday Movers program. “It’s not just about the one player, it’s about all the supporting cast who are equal if not better than him. He’s just pulling them along to make them more standout.”