GOLF

In golf, the U.S. Open came to a close.  But the victor wasn’t a familiar name (i.e Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, etc…), but a guy that came out of nowhere.  His name:  Lucas Glover, a very quiet, soft-spoken southerner, who simply appeared and won the entire tournament by 2 strokes.  And those two strokes garnered 1.35 Million for Glover.  In his victory speech, Glover said of the U.S. Open Trophy, ‘There’s so many famous names on there, I hope having my name on it doesn’t tarnish it’.  A very humble sense of humor for Monday’s big winner.

TENNIS

And in the first round at Wimbledon, the superstar #2 ranked Roger Federer took his first round match in straight sets against Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan.  The scores:  7-5, 6-3, 6-2.  This is notable because Federer has been the Wimbledon king of past years, winning 41 of his past 42 matches.  However, everyone remembers his only loss.  It came in last year’s championship against Rafael Nadal, in what many hail as the greatest tennis match ever played.  Elsewhere, the American James Blake lost in the first round, and became the first ranked player to lose at the tournament.  (He was #17).

NBA

With the NBA Draft on the horizon, there’s still a debate about the age requirement.  In the past few years, the rule was implemented that a player must be 19 to enter the NBA.  This, essentially, forced the top High School players in the country to spend at least one year in college.  However, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding this rule, as many don’t think it’s fair.  This year, the spotlight has been cast upon Lance Stephenson, a 17-year old who has the nickname “Born Ready”, as in ‘Born Ready for the NBA’.  But, he’s not allowed to enter the draft.  Many argue that  players spending only 1 year in college is ruining the college game.  Some even say it’s disgraceful, as players show up and immediately bolt for the NBA as soon as their freshman year is complete.  Plus, Stephenson would be a high pick this year, and many first round lottery picks this year are much weaker than Stephenson.  But, as of now, the rule stands, so this debate will continue.

COLLEGE BASEBALL

Finally, it was the championship series in the College World Series Tournament between the LSU Tigers and the Texas Longhorns. It’s a best of 3 series, and the two played their opening game yesterday.  The Longhorns had 5 home-runs in the game, but the hero of the game was LSU’s Mike Mahtook.  He had 4 horrible at bats throughout the game, but in the 11th inning, he singled in the winning run, as the Tigers rallied past the Longhorns to win Game 1.  Game 2 is tonight, and if LSU wins, it will be their 6th National Title victory.  LSU 7, Texas 6.