The Shut Open & Hamas

It looks like Rory has literally shut the door on his competition after three rounds at Hoylake. Or maybe that should be “slammed the door.” The young Irishman on Saturday eagled two of the last three holes and he made it look easy. He goes into Sunday with a six-stroke lead over Rickie Fowler and seven over Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson. And the rest of the field lags severely behind. I really like Rory’s chances. The only hiccup could be if they get high winds and rain on Sunday and Rory shoots an 80. But with six strokes to play with, he could probably still win even if he shot 90. All right, now what about Tiger? Those who hate him will say he stinks and he’ll never get his game back. And they’re happy as hell about it. But even with rust all over his game, he’s still doing as well as or better than a bunch of the best golfers in the world. After two rounds, he was only one behind Martin Kaymer, the U.S. Open champ, and Henrik Stenson, and he was tied with Brandt Snedeker, Jason Day, Stewart Cink, Luke Donald, and Jordan Spieth. And look at who didn’t make the cut: Lee Westwood, K.J. Choi, Ian Poulter, Bubba Watson, and Ernie Els. Granted, Tiger isn’t making the putts he used to make and he doesn’t seem as mentally focused as we’re used to seeing, but he’s still only 38 with at least five or six good years left. Don’t count him out just yet. The Tiger will return.

I saw this political cartoon in today’s paper and it says exactly what the world should note about the situation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. How can the Gaza citizens continue to allow Hamas to endanger them with its assault on Israel? Are the people of Gaza completely under the control of Hamas? Why is Hamas so intent on shelling Israel? What does it hope to accomplish? Too many questions, too few answers. It’s all a mystery to me.