"The Stack" 8-13-18
Tiger Woods looked like the Tiger Woods of old on Sunday, but he fell just short of winning his 15th major. Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship, his third major championship in the last six majors.
The Stack is back on this Monday and I don’t know about you, but I am really sad that Tiger Woods didn’t win the PGA Championship yesterday. We’ll have reaction to Woods placing second plus some baseball thoughts and NFL preseason talk (sorry, no breakdown of the NBA schedule here), so let’s get right to “the stack” for today, Monday, August 13th:
Tiger charges, but falls short at PGA Championship, Koepka wins
What a magical Sunday at Bellerive in St. Louis. Unfortunately for most of the patrons there and for many people watching on TV, midnight struck too soon for Tiger Woods as he fell short in the PGA Championship. Woods was on pretty much right from the first tee…except for teeing off. He tried the driver, but it was not working. He was 0-for-7 in hitting fairways on the front nine yet still shot three under thanks to some miraculous recovery shots. His putter was on. Seriously, some of the shots and chips he had were unreal. It was the Tiger Woods of old. He lost by two strokes to Brooks Koepka, who won his second major of the year (US Open and PGA Championship) and third major out of the last six (he won the U.S. Open last year too) and two shots that immediately come to mind are the bogey on the par three sixth hole after he sailed his drive into the bunker and the putt on the eleventh I believe that needed one more revolution to go in the hole for birdie. How it didn’t go in, I will never know. Remember when he had that chip at the Masters over a decade ago (was it the 16th or the 17th) that hung on the lip of the cup forever and eventually dropped? It wouldn’t do it this time. He made birdie on the 17th and couldn’t one to go on the 18th. He made it though so that Koepka would have to make birdies himself which Koepka did. Birdies on 15 and 16 would be enough to give Keopka a two stroke cushion. He would win by that margin finishing at -16 (sixteen under) while Woods finished second at -14 (fourteen under). I really hope Woods wins a major here again and Sunday he showed that he still has it. It was a glimpse of the old Tiger. No offense to Koepka, but he is no Tiger Woods…yet. He could certainly win some more majors, but it wasn’t him that the majority of people wanted to see win on Sunday. It was Tiger Woods. Maybe next year Tiger…assuming that no back injuries occur. Fingers crossed they won’t.
Baseball thoughts
We don’t talk a whole lot of baseball during the regular season in “the stack”, but there were several interesting developments from the weekend that we should discuss. The AL West is getting really interesting now. The Seattle Mariners, with their backs seemingly against the wall, went to Houston and swept a four game series with the Astros. Combine that with the Oakland A’s taking two of three from the Los Angeles Angels (DON’T DO IT!) and the three teams now are separate by just four games. The New York Yankees better watch out, because the two wild card teams in the AL may be some combination of the Astros, Mariners or A’s.
Elsewhere, the Chicago Cubs beat the Washington Nationals on Sunday via a walk-off grand slam. They are three games clear of the Milwaukee Brewers for first in the NL Central. The St. Louis Cardinals are closing in though having won five games in a row. They sit just 5.5 games back.
The NL West is incredibly interesting as well where the Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies are separated by just 1.5 games. I would love to see the Diamondbacks or Rockies win this division, but you know the Dodgers are going to close strong. Maybe we see three teams from the NL West make the playoffs.
And what else can you say about Chicago White Sox outfielder Adam Engel? He continues to rob homeruns, the latest being yesterday with some incredible timing and jumping ability. Two against the Yankees. One against the Indians. I know Laureano from Oakland had an amazing throwout from the warning track in Saturday’s game against the Angels, but I think I lean towards what Engel did this week as being more incredible. Can’t go wrong with either one.
NFL preseason thoughts
Week one of the preseason is in the books and I know you shouldn’t go making bold proclamations and putting a whole lot of stock into what you see for how it translates to the regular season, but man did the Cleveland Browns look good against the New York Giants. Tyrod Taylor and Baker Mayfield both played really well. Taylor rightfully should be the starter, but Mayfield certainly impressed. The Browns offense could be pretty good this year. Lamar Jackson looked good. Josh Allen looked eh…okay.
The new helmet rule is going to be a problem this season unless the NFL swallows their pride and adjusts the rule because there are some instances that leading with the helmet or helmet-to-helmet contact is unavoidable. It wiped out a turnover in the Chargers-Cardinals game. It’s going to be an issue all year long. Football is a violent game. Yes, you want to put safety precautions in place and try to make the game safer, but sometimes you cross a line and change the complexion of the game and that appears to be what the NFL has done with this rule. They need to change it…immediately!
Coming up later this week: Reaction to top stories and headlines in the sports world
