Eagle News
You just can’t have it all
Beware Justin Thomas. A second PGA ChampionRandom ship, and a second major title, Thoughts achieved with a come-fromPhil Blackwell behind win at Southern Hills, further cements Justin’s place among golf ’s elite, helping him match Collin Morikawa and Dustin Johnson while getting close to Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy in terms of total major wins. Alas, we will want more. And soon. Go one or two majors without another win, and it’s forgivable. Go further, and it turns into a cloud, a shadow. Wait any longer, and the burden and pressure only increases, as if they’re running out of time even with years of prime ahead. Think this is an exaggeration? McIlroy, absent a major since 2014, gave it a go at the PGA, shot 68 in the final round but missed a lot of chances late, and took off, angry, without speaking to the press, unusual for someone so media-friendly. Spieth has now gone nearly five years since a major victory and he hears about it every day. People are already talking about a slump for Morikawa not even 12 months removed from his win at Royal St. George’s. Koepka has fallen back, hurt by injuries and sky-high expectations. See, it’s not enough, we keep telling them. They all must be superstars, must transcend the sport, must dominate and win and keep winning. Only then will they reach the exalted level Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson achieved. Ah, but one quick look at Tiger and Phil tells us that the price of extreme greatness can be an extreme downfall. The travails Woods has gone through, personal and physical, are more than well-chronicled. Yet it all stemmed from the same mindset – he had everything and wanted more. Was it greed? Was it a tragic flaw? Either way, the result was personal disgrace, from which Tiger has at least recovered to some degree, along with a physical breakdown that, exasperated by a near-fatal car accident, makes him more of a figurehead than he ever should be for a man in his late 40s. At least Tiger played (for three rounds) at Southern Hills, though the effort may have curtailed his chances in playing other majors this year, and who knows how more down the road. Mickelson, on the other hand, appeared, in 2021, to have given his career an exclamation point when he strode to a PGA victory at Kiawah Island and, a month short of 51, became the oldest major champion. Ah, but Lefty, too, wanted a lot more. His insatiable nature to gamble and go after greater riches and power lured him to a new golf league backed up by riches from the oppressive Saudi Arabian regime. Then he admitted to all of it. Suddenly, a career of built-up goodwill was in ruins. Sponsors fled. The PGA Tour may have suspended him, and Phil didn’t show up at Augusta National or at Southern Hills, Who knows when, or where, we’ll see him golf again. In short, the most famous golf figures of the last 30 years, in their own ways, have paid immensely while pushing for far more than they ever really needed. Yet we, jaded and spoiled by what Tiger and Phil did, expect golf ’s young guns to shoot for the same distant moon of glory, quick to pounce and criticize the moment reality hits and some other good players make runs of their own, then go after those players when they cool off, and so on. Here’s something different. Instead of waiting for a supernova that might never streak through the galaxy again, perhaps pay attention to the fact that there are several bright stars already in the sky that have the right to shine. Golf benefits from having this deep and talented group of young players on hand, ready to battle one another for the next 10 to 15 years, each of them having a good chance of steadily adding to Hall of Fame-worthy resumes. And if none of them ends up as Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, hey, that’s okay. Better that all of their careers have an opportunity to reach a reasonable level of fulfillment than try and make them larger than life, only to get burned when we find out that, hey, they’re human after all. Phil Blackwell is sports editor at Eagle News. He can be reached at pblackwell@ eaglenewsonline.com.
ACROSS
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SUDOKU
Years Ago in History By Cindy Bell Tobey
20 years ago – May 29, 2002
Help make the 28th annual Cazenovia Public Library book sale the biggest and best ever. Volunteers are off to a great start, sorting and storing books for this summer’s sale. But to make this sale truly great, more books are needed. Take a few moments to bring your gently used books to the library any time during library hours. Accepted are any type of book, CD or video except for encyclopedias, Readers Digest Condensed Books, magazines, textbooks or books in very poor condition. The sooner you can bring your books in, the better, so volunteers will have a chance to sort and organize books for the sale. The last date we can accept books is July 13.
15 years ago – May 30, 2007
Some folks call it flatball or chasing plastic. Others say, “I played that sport in gym,” but I doubt most of you have played this sport at the level 300 athletes will play it on the weekend of June 2 and 3 during this all day ultimate Frisbee event at the Sean Googin Sports complex on Fenner road in Cazenovia. Sixteen of the top-level teams from within a 10-hour radius of Syracuse will be back in Cazenovia to battle for the Cazenovia Ultimate Tournament (CUT) championship. All eyes this year will be on last year’s champion, Metal from Boston, as they sharpen their edges and go after their second championship. Come check out the competition and tell me if you have ever thrown a full field huck broke a mark or sacrificed your body the way these games will.
10 years ago – May 30, 2012
Elizabeth Carpenter, of Cazenovia, a regents and AP physics teacher at Chittenango Central Schools, was awarded Clarkson Uni-
Letters
From page 6 And I believe he is correct about the delight of an aquarium! I love the national one in Baltimore and the New England aquarium in Boston. Now, the question is… in this area that can barely support a minor league baseball team and with a struggling “mall,” can we rotate out the fish every two weeks like they do with the amphitheater more or less, and teach them to sing and dance! Then “people will come” -over and over - surely they’ll pay about $50 to $500 a ticket as they do a few miles away for other performers! Think about it! He cites the estimate by some calculator to be 490,000 visitors a year! If it closes only on Christmas, that’s about 1,347 visitors daily which means about 150 an hour on a 9 a.m to 6 p.m. day staring at these creatures and singing along. Sounds wonderful to me! It’s practically a “Sea World and Disneyworld of the North” rolled into one! Pay no attention to the 48% poverty rate in the city, the highest child poverty rate in the nation, the toxic levels of lead poisoning, and the lack of
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versity’s Inspirational High School Educator Award on May 11 and 12. Carpenter was honored at a special dinner the night before commencement and during the commencement ceremony the following day. Presenting the award to Carpenter were graduating senior Thomas Wilkowski, of Bridgeport, who nominated Carpenter for the award, President Tony Collins and Vice President for University Outreach and Students Affairs Kathryn B. Johnson. “Mrs. Carpenter takes the time to make sure her students understand what they are working on,” Wilkowski said. “She will forgo her free time to make sure her students are getting the best education possible. The skill of her commitment is few and far between in the teaching community. Mrs. Carpenter had a strong work ethic and that inspired us to work equally hard. Her commitment to her students was not matched by any other teacher I have had in high school or college.”
5 years ago – May 31, 2017
The 12th Regiment U.S. Infantry Company A (reenacting) and the Civil War Heritage Foundation will host the 25 th Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend. The 12th was first organized in 1798 and disbanded in 1800, raised again in 1812 and for the Mexican War. The regiment portrayed by the reenacting unit was organized by direction of President Lincoln on May 4, 1861. The 12th Infantry is still alive. As in many years past, the 12th (reenacting) will be encamped on the western half acre of the Peterboro Green and will be joined by several other military re-enacting units. During the weekend, along with the daily routines such as camp cooking, preparing for drill and medical services, there will also be drills for children, a discipline demonstration, a Sunday sermon, a town ball game and a skirmish each day at 2 p.m.
other meaningful jobs - details for non-visionaries! As one denizen of the deep said to the other, “let’s get kraken!” Dave Pasinski Fayetteville
Too many moments of silence To the editor: I write this in the wake of two or our latest, horrendous mass shootings, one in New York and one in Texas. We have had far too many moments of silence since Sandy Hook. Our children and community deserve real action to stop the epidemic of gun violence in our country. We’re not alone and we’re not helpless. There are many seemingly simple, yet powerful things we can do today! More and more of our neighbors are uniting to bring the change we need. The phones in Congress are ringing off the hook with calls for commonsense gun reform, peaceful rallies are growing in numbers in cities across the country, and families and friends are gathering together in their own living rooms to talk about bringing violence prevention pro-
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grams to their schools. The movement is growing and we must keep growing it. There is reason to have hope that we can prevent gun violence before it happens through sensible gun safety laws and programs in our schools and communities that help us identify the signs and signals before a shooting happens and intervene. To keep this hope alive and bring the change we need, I am asking everyone to take two simple actions today. First, call your member of Congress today and ask that he or she support gun violence prevention legislation to keep guns out of dangerous hands. Secondly, Make The Promise and help bring Sandy Hook Promise’s no-cost, violence prevention programs to our schools and community. Please, please. Do one small thing today to end senseless violence in our country, especially in our schools. Our young people deserve better. And, make the promise (sandyhookpromise.org). Maggie Nerz Iribarne DeWitt
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