PGA Tour – The Sports Fan Project

The Fan Teaser: Week 153 Solution

September 28, 2025September 19, 2025DouglasTHillLeave a comment

In our neverending quest to be a bit timely, the final day of play at the 2025 Ryder Cup is ongoing at Bethpage Black Golf Course in Farmingdale, NY.

It seemed as good a time as any to reflect on what occurred just up the Atlantic seaboard 26 years ago at The Country Club in Brookline, MA, at the 1999 Ryder Cup.

BBC broadcaster Alistair Cooke, in his weekly commentary “Letter from America” called the entirety of this particular 3-day Ryder Cup “The arrival of the golf hooligan.”

To say it was a tense and rowdy environment is an understatement and it was, in many ways, the forerunner of the raucous crowds that now populate both the Ryder Cup and the President Cup men’s team golf events.

^{Team USA’s Justin Leonard celebrates after draining a 45-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole during the 1999 Ryder Cup at The Country Club in Brookline, MA. His birdie, coupled with Team Europe’s Jose Maria Olazabal miss guaranteed Leonard a halve in the match and clinched the Ryder Cup victory for the American side. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Allsport)}

So when Team USA trailed 10-6 entering Sunday’s Singles Play, the crowd was amped and the American players seemed willing to feed into it. U.S Captain Ben Crenshaw front-loaded his lineup with his (on paper, at least) strongest players. It worked, as the U.S. swept the first six matches to take a 12-10 lead, and then surged to within half-point of clinching the Cup when second-time Ryder Cup player, Justin Leonard, lined up a 45-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole. If he could somehow win this hole against Jose Maria Olazabal the U.S. would clinch.

As the putt slammed into the back of the cup Team USA players, coaches, and families rushed the green despite the fact that Olazabal still had a putt to tie the hole and force a winner-take-all 18th. He missed the putt, Leonard’s clinched the half point, and, while played, the outcome on No. 18 was moot.

The photo used for this week’s Fan Teaser of Leonard was captured just after his birdie putt dropped. As an observational aside, did none of Leonard’s teammates feel it worth mentioning to him that he missed his final belt loop?

^{Justin Leonard’s birdie putt on the 17th green that ultimately clinched the 1999 Ryder Cup for Team USA.}

^{Jose Maria Olazabal’s putt to tie the 17th hole following the Team USA celebration.}

Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.

And Another One …

June 30, 2025June 30, 2025DouglasTHill2 Comments

With all due respect to DJ Khaled, it was the month of June’s final Sunday that produced another hit. As referenced in a blog post from Saturday (read it here, if you happened to overlook it), the month of June’s Sundays had been sports fan banger after banger.

And, sure, what I’m sharing from June 29th probably doesn’t carry the same gravitas as, say, that epic Sinner-Alcaraz French Open Men’s Singles Final or Spaun’s remarkably resilient U.S. Open Championship or even the Men’s College World Series or a nip-and-tuck Game 7 in the NBA Finals. But it was still a heck’uva lot more exciting than some of those humdrum NFL Sundays in mid-October.

Here’s what we witnessed:

F1 Austrian Grand Prix – McLaren Dominance

McLaren F1 Racers — **^{McLaren teammates Lando Norris, left, and Oscar Piastri during the Austrian Grand Prix. (Photo by Reuters)}**

Team McLaren continued its season-long dominance, taking positions one and two on the podium (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri) at the Austrian Grand Prix. The two battled head-to-head much of the race, following a first-lap incident behind the duo that took out perennial contender Max Verstappen (Red Bull). With his win, Norris shaved seven points off his teammate’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship.

Rocket Mortgage Classic – 5 Playoff Holes!

What seemed, at times, like video game scores emanating from the Detroit Golf Club at its annual Rocket Mortgage Classic, wound up turning into a scintillating finish.

Three players finished 72 holes tied at 22-under-par and headed to a playoff: Aldrich Potgieter, Max Greyserman, and Chris Kirk.

Kirk missed a potential winning putt on the first playoff hole and then a 4-footer to remain alive on the second.

That left Potgieter (a 20-year-old tour rookie) and Greyserman (a grizzled veteran, by comparison, at age 30) remaining; each seeking their first PGA Tour win.

And play on they did. For not one additional hole, not two additional holes, but three additional holes, when Potgieter ended the festivities with an 18-foot birdie putt on the fifth playoff hold.

Did I mention this fella is only 20 and has lived on three continents already? Yeah, when I was 20 … well, I’d rather not mention what I was doing then;-)

U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team – PK Thriller

Not only did it win a match it should have and needed to, but it also made a star out of keeper Matt Freese whom I’d never heard of before, but then again my soccer bona fides are, shall I say, lacking. Having said that, it sounds like he’s a relative newbie making just his fifth appearance for the USMNT.

Yet, there he was in his banana yellow kit stopping three Costa Rican penalty kicks to send the U.S. to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

@foxsoccer
Every penalty from the shootout between @U.S. Soccer and Costa Rica 🔥 #goldcup #soccer #soccertiktok #usmnt #usa #costarica #concacaf
♬ original sound – FOXSoccer

Sunday Night Baseball – Skubal Shines Brighter than the Setting Sun

**^{Detroit Tigers’ ace, Tarik Skubal, was dealing on Sunday Night Baseball. (Photo by Lon Horwedel/Imagn Images)}**

ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball crew doesn’t visit Detroit’s Comerica Park very frequently (2017 was the most recent), so when it does, I always pull for a good showing from my hometown team and fans.

No, I didn’t pony up whatever the asking price was to sit in the stands Sunday nor did I opt for the standing room only option. I chose instead the comfort of a living room sofa where I also saw a 20-year-old South African golfer win over a million dollars after playing 77 holes, a relative unknown U.S. goalkeeper make a name for himself (and likely a few bucks), before I watched the reigning American League Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal, absolutely dominate the visiting Minnesota Twins.

After watching the first inning, my wife and I checked out an episode of The Bear before returning to baseball. His no-hitter recently broken up, Skubal looked even more dominant thane he had in the first inning. Fourteen whiffs over seven innings ain’t too shabby and the Tigers won, 3-0, before over 40,000 at the CoPa.

Remember that million-plus that Potgieter pocketed earlier on Sunday across town at DGC?

Yeah, Skubal likely earned several times that with his primetime performance. He’s a pending free agent and his representative, the loved/loathed (you decide) Scott Boras, no doubt added a few zeros to the total value of whatever package Skubal signs for.

The Fan Teaser: Week 119 Solution

February 2, 2025February 21, 2025DouglasTHillLeave a comment

**^{This fella was a true triple threat.}**

Seemingly, there weren’t many things Harry “Bing” Crosby Jr. couldn’t do.

He was an accomplished singer, actor, golfer, golf tournament host, and even a part owner of a pair of World Series-winning Major League Baseball teams.

We selected this image of Crosby – captured on the seventh tee at the Pebble Beach Golf Links in 1946 – because the annual tournament he began with a bunch of buddies back in 1937 at Rancho Sante Fe Country Club continues to this day (this week, actually) under the name of AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Bing Crosby at Pebble Beach Golf Links — **^{Bing Crosby tees off at the seventh hole of the Pebble Beach Golf Links during his 1946 Pro-Am Tournament. (Pebble Beach Photo)}**

Beyond the radio, movies, and singing work, Crosby was an avid golfer. His handicap fell to as low as 2 at tone point and he played in both the U.S. and British Amateur Championships and was a 5-time club champion at Lakeside Golf Club in Hollywood, CA.

He began his namesake tournament in 1937 at Rancho Santa Fe, inviting some friends and professional golfers alike to join him. He ponied up $500 of his own as prize money and when the playing was over a clambake ensued, thus the genesis of the tourney’s original name, “Crosby’s Clambake.”

Following a hiatus during World War II, the tournament moved to its current location on California’s Monterey Peninsula in 1947. The tournament has followed a similar format, including many A-list celebrities, and other’s who can foot the entry fee, to play with professionals during the week, making for an interesting intersection of fun and competition for all.

Beyond his love of golf, Crosby also owned a 25% share of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1946 until his death in 1977. He was part of the ownership group during the 1960 and 1971 Pirates’ World Series-winning seasons.

^{Highlights from the 1953 tournament set to the tune of Crosby’s 1948 song, “Straight Down the Middle.”}