[Phil Benedict]

Just as Ryan said, winning would have changed Rocco's life, whereas for Tiger it's just another notch in his belt. Rooting for Tiger to win is like rooting for Bill Gates to make more money.

[George Pazin]

Just as Ryan said, winning would have changed Rocco's life, whereas for Tiger it's just another notch in his belt. Rooting for Tiger to win is like rooting for Bill Gates to make more money.

Somehow I don't think Rocco's hurting, at least when it comes to enjoying life.

Off to check Microsoft's stock price....

[Scott Szabo]

Besides, to me, he is Public Enemy #1 as the poster child for Cheater Line usage.  If the man would line up his own damn putts the way every other great golfer in history did, then maybe I could root for him.  But every time I watch him play, I just start adding two strokes in my head to his score for every putt he hits and I have Tiger shooting 134, 132, 140, 138 or whatever for dead last in every tournament he plays in! 

As I was watching the slow motion replay (over and over and over) of his ball toppling in on 18 of the final round, seeing the "cheater line" over and over, I couldn't help but think that Shivas must be a bit disturbed by that 

[Kirk Gill]

As I was watching the slow motion replay (over and over and over) of his ball toppling in on 18 of the final round, seeing the "cheater line" over and over, I couldn't help but think that Shivas must be a bit disturbed by that 

I thought the exact same thing.

In an unrelated footnote, my recently-acquired GolfClubAtlas mini bag has a little cheater-line-maker attached to it. The disease is spreading !

[Ron Farris]

During the final round I actually heard my daughter root against Rocco.
I quickly explained to her in golf you root for someone to do better than someone else.  You should never root for someone to do worse than someone else.  Reward good play!  Something architecture should do.

[Phil McDade]

A Tiger win is historic; a Rocco or Bob May win is a footnote right there with Steve Jones.

That Steve Jones "footnote" allowed Rick Shefchik and me to climb from about 25th to 2nd Overall in a national Fantasy Golf contest. (We were the only team in the top 25 who "owned" Jones.)

We (and two other partners) won $5,000 for finishing second Overall, and $1,000 for winning our 100-team league.

Rick and I took our winnings and spent a good share of them just outside Mullen, Nebraska.

It was hardly a footnote, as far as we're concerned!

How in the world could two honest Minnesota guys root for Jones at the Open over Lehman, the Land-O'-10,000-Lakes gift to golf?!??$%&?&?

Money -- the root of our sporting desires. Argh...

[Bob_Huntley]

Besides, to me, he is Public Enemy #1 as the poster child for Cheater Line usage.  If the man would line up his own damn putts the way every other great golfer in history did, then maybe I could root for him.  But every time I watch him play, I just start adding two strokes in my head to his score for every putt he hits and I have Tiger shooting 134, 132, 140, 138 or whatever for dead last in every tournament he plays in! 

Dave,

Be honest. Did you, or did you not, line up the your ball when putting with the maker's name pointing toward the hole? For Pete's sake I've done it for fifty years and I would hardly call it cheating. Methinks you are getting paranoid about this and could act as a stand-in for John Cleese.

Bob

[Michael Powers]

Although I was rooting for Rocco, you really can't feel that bad for him.  He had 2 opportunities to win the open with a birdie on the shortish par 5 18th and failed to put the ball in the fairway either time.

[Glenn Spencer]

No shivas, when I was a kid, I rooted for Nicklaus.

If that doesn't explain things, nothing will.

I do tend to enjoy seeing history made in my time.  A Tiger win is historic; a Rocco or Bob May win is a footnote right there with Steve Jones.

It's funny, in every other sport I can and do root for the underdog.

So like I say, I get your take.  Truly I do.  It makes a lot of sense.

But I also feel very comfortable over here with sages like Lavin and Shefchik.

TH

ps - I was 14 years old when we first saw Darth Vader.   

A Rocco win would have been similar to Steve Jones? TH, what are you on? Jones beats Lehman and Rocco beats Tiger in a playoff and the tournament is just going to become a footnote? I am not buying any of that, absolutely none. Same would have been true of Bob May, you guys are completely missing who they are playing. I certainly don't consider Fleck and Ouimet footnotes and they were not up against the kind of dominance that Rocco was.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Miller has apologized for his remarks:

www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/sports/golf/21miller.html?ref=sports

[RJ_Daley]

I belong to a couple of Italian American organizations (I'm half Italian/half Irish) 

I received that chain letter from the Order of the Sons of Italy in America, and wrote back telling Barrata and their lawyer, Schiro - who wrote me, that they were lame in their response and appeared to be completely oversensitive.  I think that ethnic organizations should quite looking so hard to be offended by these innocuous turns of a phrase.  I informed them that I feel they have lowered themselves to the tactics of Al Sharpton, looking for every little transgression to play victim.  You may like Miller's bluntness of commentating or not, but I don't see that he should be taken as offensive in this case, whatsoever. 

OSIA and NAIF are out to lunch on this one.  They should stick to objecting to IAs constantly being projected as mafia thugs by the big wig Italian directors like Scorsese and leave alone the criticizing of guys that have to blather about golf for 5 hours at a time, off the top of their heads, and clearly mean no malice.

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