A few days before the PGA, someone asked me if I wanted to see Tiger Woods win the PGA Championship. I said it would be kind of cool for Minnesota to be part of Tiger's heritage, but that since he wasn't going for the Grand Slam, I'd be fine with someone else winning.
"But don't you always want Tiger to win? I do," this person said.
Well, not really. The same person or team winning all the time gets boring. And had Tiger won the PGA and this past weekend's NEC Invitational, we wouldn't have had two great stories.
First was Rich Beem, who left pro golf to sell electronics for a time. This past week, after winning one of golf's major tournaments, Beem went back to Seattle to visit the people he used to work with at the store.
Then was Craig Parry, a solid golfer who has never won in the United States. The Australian has needed years to recover from just missing winning the 1992 Masters, then had to cope with stumbling over the last few holes of the 1999 British Open and missing the playoff by one stroke.
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I don't need to wish Tiger ill. He doesn't need my cheering to help him win. I like seeing stories like Beem's and Parry's now and then.
Craig Swalboski
swalbo@postbulletin.com
