Sixty-Six

The more things change, the more they change the same.

It's late-March, so that can only mean one thing: It's time for Tiger Woods' annual victory at Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill tournament.

Last year, Woods won in dramatic fashion, sinking a clutch putt on the 18th hole to knock off Bart Bryant.

This year, in his third PGA Tour event after a lengthy layoff rehabbing from surgery following last June's U.S. Open to repair a major knee injury, it was deja-vu all over again.

Woods started the day five shots back of Sean O'Hair, but methodically tracked down the youngster and finished it off with a 15-foot putt that clinched his sixth win at Palmer's tournament and his 66th PGA Tour victory.

Next up: The Masters, in two weeks.

Rough Week

First, the Lakers lose the NBA Finals in historic fashion.

Then, Tiger Woods shuts down his season due to injury.

Now, Italy gets bounced from the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 on penalties by Spain.

Both sides played a lackluster 90 minutes, with Spain mustering less than a handful of genuine opportunities to score and Italy even fewer.

Extra time proved equally uneventful, and so both sides squared off from the penalty spot.

Of course, the last time Italy was in a penalty shootout in a major competition, they made the most of it and won the 2006 World Cup.

This time, it was not to be. Spain's Iker Casillas got his hand to two Italian tries, and those two key saves made the difference for La Seleccion.

Spain will face Russia in one semifinal, while Germany and Turkey will square off in the other.

Best. Tournament. Ever.

Three months ago, I tapped out a post in which I declared Tiger Woods to be the most amazing sports figure I've ever witnessed.

This week's events at the U.S. Open, golf's second major of the year, did nothing to change that opinion.

Dragging a surgically repaired knee around Torrey Pines for five days, Woods produced a half-dozen "are you kidding me?-type moments and survived a 19-hole playoff today to defeat hearty journeyman Rocco Mediate on the tournament's 91st hole.

The win gives Woods 14 professional majors, just four behind the legendary Jack Nicklaus.

UPDATE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18: Not only was Tiger Woods recovering from April surgery to remove cartilage in his left knee, he was also playing with (1) a ruptured left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) that he injured in summer 2007 and (2) a double stress fracture of the tibia, which he incurred in May, while rehabbing from the knee surgery.

What's amazing about the ACL situation is that Woods says today on his website that he injured it while running at home following the British Open last summer.

He decided to forego surgegy, and then managed to win five of his next six tournaments in 2007 -- tying for second in the one that he didn't win -- and led the U.S. to victory in the President's Cup.

He won his first four tournaments of 2008, finished fifth at the WGC-CA Championship and second at the Masters before having the cartilage surgery in April.

He then suffers the double-stress fracture of the tibia during his rehab, which is discovered in May, causing him to drop out of the Memorial.

He returns to golf at the U.S. Open, wins, and then is finally forced to shut it down for the year to have reconstructive surgery on the left knee's ACL.

Amazing. Anyway, here's hoping he comes back healthier than ever.

Shock Value

The big sports month continued today, with professional golf's second major of the year -- the U.S. Open -- commencing in San Diego, the Lakers squaring off against the Celtics in game four of the NBA Finals, and day two of the second round of soccer's Europe 2008 championship kicking off in Austria and Switzerland.

And, of course, nothing went according to plan.

Tiger Woods -- returning from a lengthy layoff following knee surgery -- made double-bogey six on the first hole at Torrey Pines but rallied to finish just four shots off the lead at one-over par, recovering from a second double-bogey on the back nine.

International soccer powerhouse Germany was upended by fiery Croatia, whose 2-1 victory propelled them into the quarterfinals of the tournament. Germany can still advance by beating Poland on Monday.

Finally, the Lakers jumped out to a 24-point first-half lead, withstood a strong Celtics run to maintain an 18-point advantage at halftime ... only to flop completely in the second half and lose the pivotal game four in a collapse of historic proportions.

The only good part about the Lakers loss was meeting up with an old friend to watch the game over dinner. So I had that going for me. Which is nice.

El Tigre

I'm 38 years old, so I'm too young to have witnessed Muhammad Ali in his prime, but I was front and center -- generationally speaking -- to watch Michael Jordan throughout his remarkable college and professional basketball career.

That said, the most impressive sports figure I've seen is Tiger Woods.

At age 32, Woods has 13 professional major championship titles to his name, only five behind the immortal Jack Nicklaus. Yesterday, he won Arnold Palmer's annual tournament at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Fla. for the fifth time, sinking an incredible 24-foot putt on the 18th hole to beat Bart Bryant by a stroke.

The win was Tiger's 64th on the PGA Tour, tying him with the legendary Ben Hogan on the all-time victory list.

Oh yeah, this was his fifth consecutive Tour victory and seventh tournament in a row, counting Dubai and his Target World Challenge during the PGA off-season in December.

Amazing.