Phil on Form

It has been almost two and a half years since Phil last hoisted a trophy. Some solace can be found in the fact that the trophy was the Claret Jug, which is one of the most prized possessions in the game, and brought Phil to the three-fourths point on his career journey to the grand slam. All things considered, the last few years have been desolate on the golf course for Phil though and, unfortunately, he is much more than three-fourths of the way though his playing career (at least his playing at an elite level career). With Phil hardly ever in contention over the last few years, one could not help but wonder if he would even win another tournament, forget another major or completing the career grand slam by winning the U.S. Open, which has evaded Phil to a degree that no other man has ever known.

After an extended hiatus, change in swing coach, and a tied for third finish in his PGA Tour opener, it appears that there is still gas in the tank, however. In fact, with just this small sample size of one tournament to go on, I think this is going to be a big year for Phil. With a chance to play in the Olympics and a chance to complete the career grand slam on the line, Phil still has a lot to play for as his forty-sixth birthday draws ever near. One can’t help but notice the locations of three of the four majors this year too. Of course Augusta is almost always a place where Phil contends, but the last two majors have intriguing locations as well. Royal Troon is the site of this year’s Open Championship, which is where Phil finished one shot out of a playoff between Todd Hamilton and Ernie Els in 2004. Baltusrol is the site of this year’s PGA Championship and also where Phil won the 2005 PGA.

I saw something last week. A Phil Mickelson that I have not seen much of in the last few years. A Phil Mickelson that it poised to have a big year. So, don’t be surprised if Phil wins at Torrey Pines this week, or at Augusta, or completes the career grand slam, or finds himself competing and maybe even winning in Rio in August. You know what? He might just do all four and more. I saw Phil on form and I am excited!

Alabama Adds to an Already Overflowing Trophy Case

I would like to start by tipping my Banning Junction hat to Clemson. They had an amazing season and surely with be the preseason number one come August. Even with Deshaun Watson returning, getting back to the national championship game will certainly be a difficult task though. With that being said, I would like to name Alabama as the 2015-2016 jasathletics College Football National Champion.

An early season loss looked like it might derail Alabama, but they proved to be resilient as they finished the regular season with only that one loss to Mississippi on their resume. One would have expected their first two games after the regular season to be difficult. However, they won both fairly easily. The first, the SEC Championship game, I have to say did not surprise me since Florida had no offense whatsoever after losing their quarterback Will Grier early in the season. The second did surprise me though because Michigan State had a solid offense led by Connor Cook and still proceeded to score zero points.

Alabama was finally challenged in the national championship game, which did not catch me off guard. In fact, I fully expected Clemson to win even though they were officially the underdog going into the game. Most of the game was evenly matched and Clemson took a slight lead into the fourth quarter. However, the fourth quarter is when the big play floodgates opened for Alabama ignited by a brilliant onside kick. Although Clemson scored a couple of late touchdowns, the onside kick was no doubt the turning point in the game, the punch from which Clemson was unable to recover.

This marks the fourth time in the last seven years that Alabama has won the jasathletics College Football National Championship. Not only that, Alabama also won the other national championship in all four instances. The only other team to complete this feat was Florida State in the 2013-2014 season. Also noteworthy, is the fact that Derrick Henry became the first player to capture the jasathletics College Football MVP award and the jasathletics College Football National Championship in the same year. Congratulations to Alabama, but I would like to remind the South that the North still owns the FCS.