Sporting weekend
I delayed my post to report on the Super Bowl Tampa Bay victory in the early hours of Monday.
To both my surprise and loss though no expert on American football, Tom Brady won his seventh Superbowl ring aged 43 for the Tampa Bay Buccs.
However it was his team that bottled up Patrick Mahames, Tyreek Hill and Travis Delce – three of the principal reasons why the Kansas City Chiefs reached their second successive final.
I’m an early bird and though I did wake in the night I followed the game on the radio, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.
The commentator was UK football man Darren Fletcher and it was bizarre hearing an English accent for such an American event.
In golf, the lure of the Riyadh Rial appearance money sent many a top golfer to the European tour event held at the Royal Greens Course in Saudi Arabia.
Dustin Johnson, who won it, was there – as was Tony Finau, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau.
I was so pleased to see Justin Rose aged 40 finish second.
He needs a bit of form as he is no shoe-in for the Europeans in the Ryder Cup.
Over at Scotsdale – a traditionally rowdy US PGA event but of course with no crowd – the field was denuded.
Brooks Koepka won here but I was similarly delighted to see Jordan Spieth, after a couple of years in the wilderness, recover form to with a top five finish.
Spieth is still only 27 but has been off the radar since the calendar year when he nearly won all 4 Majors.
No mention of golf would be complete without reference to a row brewing up between the authorities and the golf manufacturers.
To combat big hitting the powers want to reduce the club shaft to 44 inches from 48 inches but golfers – who do very nicely thank you from the manufacturers whose equipment and baseball caps they carry and wear – are not so compliant.
You only have to watch golf for 5 minutes to see in the numerous ad breaks that “This programme is brought to you by [name of golf equipment company] X …”
Golf manufacturing is a billion dollar industry and I don’t expect the companies who dominate the market like Calloway and Titleist to react passively to a rule change that will affect their profitability.
I would have thought course adjustment to penalise the big hitters would prove less controversial.
Finally the weekend soccer.
Bookies are already paying out on a Manchester City title victory all but sealed by them beating a lacklustre Liverpool.
A top six finish in Saudi by Danish young prodigy Rasmus Hoejgaard brought some much needed juice into the Pargie betting body.
So, I was going to swerve the Liverpool/City game but I backed against City who have a poor record at Anfield.
They were easily superior and, with their and the Tampa Bay Bucks victories, the missus won’t be spending time online buying stuff for our home.
