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The Back Nine comes at you after an amazing weekend that included rain but only at the best times for the 28th Bob Dooley Invitational. I think Dad was looking out for us.
10. This will be the last you will have to read about the tournament in this space for a while. It was a tremendous success and a perfect day. I want to sleep for a week and so does my brother Tim. And special thanks to Stop Children’s Cancer executive director Christy Gibbons who is the soul of the tournament. The sponsors and the players and the volunteers, I love you all. You too, Jeff Cardozo and everyone at Ironwood who put up with me for the last few months.
11. Seriously, don’t look at Ironwood, one of only four surviving courses in this golf-starved community, as anything but a great place to play. Kyle Voss and his crew had the course in the best shape I’ve seen in 20 years.
12. And I now feel like my life can get back to normal (as normal as it can possibly be) so, let’s talk a little baseball. I had reservations for a lovely afternoon meal, but Karen insisted on going to the baseball game on Mother’s Day. Yes, I outkicked my coverage. What a weekend for the team to sweep Vandy and jump into first place in the East. To win that series by a combined 22-4 despite having your Saturday pitcher only go one inning and without arguably your best player for the Friday game (Josh Rivera was in concussion protocol) was an impressive performance.
13. And now, it has come to this – Florida goes to Kentucky and Arkansas, the league leader by a game over Florida, heads to Vandy. There will be some major scoreboard watching with the league title on the line.
14.I knew Florida probably would not host and get sent somewhere. But as the softball bracket was being revealed, it seemed the committee was trying to stay regional until the Gators popped up in the Stanford Regional. It was almost like they forgot to include UF and just slapped them into a spot. Look, I’d be thrilled to go to Palo Alto and at least they will get a nice trip out of it. But let’s be real – this team has no chance to go to Oklahoma City and this whole tournament is going to be about whether Oklahoma will lose a second game this season.
15. You get so caught up in things and this story starts happening and you feel left out. But the possibility of the Jags playing a game or three in Gainesville makes some sense if they start rebuilding their stadium in a few years. The bigger question is whether Florida-Georgia will move back to the campuses for two years the way it did in 1994-95 or do the schools shop it around to make more money. And what that could mean for the future.
16. Tough way for the lacrosse season to end, to fight back from four down to tie it in the Sweet 16 against Notre Dame and then end your season on a goal with 10 seconds left. Humps are never easy to get over.
17. I settled in Sunday afternoon for a Game 7 and it was good for a half and then Boston outscored Philly 33-10 in the third quarter so I watched Jason Day win a golf tournament instead. So proud of Al Horford, still being a significant player at age 56. I’m kidding, of course.
18. I told you I would have a great playlist for The Bob but I was so afraid of running out of power I let my ringtone suffice because it is “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles. Here comes the next playlist:
* “Don’t Let The Darkness” by Band of Heathens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ5QZHw6Ej8
* “All I Really Wanna Do” by Devon Gilfillian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFMHcsHd1hk
* And for an older one, “Hip To Be Square” by Huey Lewis and the News.
