Published: July 21, 2009 03:11 pm      

SPRUILL: There is always hope

As Tom Watson walked down the No. 18 fairway at Turnberry during the four-hole playoff, even though The Open had already been decided, I did have my reasons to keep watching.

Am I a Stewart Cink fan? Hardly. I wasn’t watching so I could see Cink hold the claret jug, I was watching the gallery hoping for some kind of miracle to happen. This may sound bad, but I was secretly wishing Jeff Gillooly would make his way over the yellow ropes and club Mr. Cink with a 9-iron.

Sports can be down right rotten at times.

Watson’s meltdown was painful to watch. It was like watching the Belmont Stakes hoping to witness your first ever Triple Crown.

I’ve watched and cheered on the likes of Silver Charm, Real Quiet, Charismatic, War Emblem, Funny Cide, Smarty Jones and Big Brown. All came up just short. All left me with a sick feeling in my gut. And all seven times I vowed never to watch the sport again. Hasn’t happened in my lifetime, but hope always pulls me back.

Watching Watson’s 9-foot par putt was slightly less enjoyable than watching the Buffalo Bills get trounced by the Dallas Cowboys in 1993 and 1994. Can’t stand the Cowboys, my heart belongs to the Philadelphia Eagles. And believe me, if you like heart break, the Eagles are your team. From coming up just short against the Patriots in ‘05, to just missing out on a Super Bowl berth last season during Arizona’s run.

That’s sport, though. It’s easy to get sucked into the hype. It is so much more enjoyable if you watch hoping to witness the impossible, something incredible, or just simply amazing. Sports have been bad to us lately. Steroids, dog fighting, murder-suicide’s, drunk driving, just bad stuff.

But let’s face it, what else can take you from chugging pepto, to cloud 9 in a matter of hours, without any real consequences.

As hard as it was to watch on Sunday, what a ride it was. Had it not been for Watson, no one would have watched. No one would have cared had Cink won from start-to-finish, especially with Tiger Woods on a plane ride home on Friday night.

But that’s sports. At any given moment something special can happen. And while Watson didn’t win, this year’s Open reminded us of just that.