The Players Championship Golf Tournament Was a Classic This Year

The Players Championship golf tournament, played in nearby Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida (just south of Jacksonville is one of those PGA events that attract attention beyond the sport's regular adherents.  This past weekend we saw Scotty Scheffler, perhaps the greatest golfer of this current era, struggling to defend from behind his previous year's title in the event.  Starting the final round yesterday, Scheffler was tied for sixth place, five strokes behind leader Xander Schauffele.  It seemed that only an incredible final round, combined with more restrained performances by Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Brian Harmon, the last two only one and two strokes behind, respectively, would enable Scheffler to repeat as champ.  But events unraveled exactly as Scotty would have preferred and he won dramatically by a single stroke at the end as opponent after opponent missed their achingly close birdie attempts on the 18th hole...it was a classic to be remembered.  I've never played "regular" golf before, only mini-golf, but I've enjoyed following the professional golf tournaments in recent years.  Before yesterday's action, I tuned in to the Golf Channel to hear their commentary and was dismayed to discover that they only seemed interested in setting up betting odds on the probable winners.  The only time I ever bet on spectator sports was in high school when I went in on an NFL pool for one weekend.  I came close to winning it with my predictions but, fortunately, narrowly lost to another kid...who ended up having to hassle many of the others in the pool to pay up.  I say fortunately because it helped to further steer me from gambling money, something I was already on guard against because my father, although a responsible provider who saved money and kept us all financially floating, had a weakness for betting the dogs at many of South Florida's tracks and seemed often preoccupied on a mind-numbing level with his various betting systems which he often changed around.  So no, whatever vices I have, gambling away money isn't one of them.  On our recent cruise there was a casino and Melissa and I passed through it on the way to somewhere else...the folks there were so intensely involved with their little machines and games that it frankly kind of freaked me out.  A couple of days later we were seated for breakfast at a table where the other two couples couldn't stop talking about their casino adventures and systems.  Well, I suppose if you're helping to financially prop up the cruise industry with your gambling so that I have better options with it, then go for it!  Besides, the more in the casino, the fewer clogging up the pool and deck...