Pine Valley hasn't held a tournament since the 1985 Walker Cup.ARDMORE, Pa. – Before he won the PGA Championship at Baltusrol in 2005, Phil Mickelson played there. Before he won the U.S. Open at Congressional in 2011, Rory McIlroy played there. And on Tuesday, another major winner played there in preparation for the 113th U.S. Open, which kicks off Thursday.

"There" is Pine Valley Golf Club, home to an 18-hole track most of America has never seen on TV or, perhaps, never even heard of. It's never hosted a major. In fact, it's hardly ever hosted a tournament. Yet over most of the last 30 years, Golf Digest, which has been in the rankings business for a half-century, has ranked it the No. 1 course in the United States.

Not Augusta National. Not Pebble Beach. Not Shinnecock Hills. Not Winged Foot.

It's Pine Valley Golf Club, only 20 minutes from Philadelphia – 30 from Merion Golf Club, site of this week's U. S. Open – and it's been a little bit of a good luck charm for some of the top players in the world.

"We've had an interesting group of people play

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ARDMORE, Pa. – Tiger Woods did the game of golf a favor by the way he handled Sergio Garcia's tone deaf and racist joke at his expense.

Unfortunately, the leaders of the sport did nothing in return.

The PGA Tour whiffed in its response to Garcia's "we will serve fried chicken" barb, announcing no punishment where one was clearly needed.

Garcia is sorry – he said so multiple times on Tuesday at Merion Golf Club, where he's preparing for the 113th U.S. Open – but PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem should be just as sorry for staying silent on the matter. He was in the room when Garcia dropped his stink bomb last month at an awards dinner.

"We don't comment on player disciplinary matters," said Tour spokeswoman Laura Neal in reply to an emailed question about whether Garcia was sanctioned.

"No comment" is not enough. The game of golf has a long history of unfair treatment toward minorities, notoriously keeping African-American members out of Augusta National until the 1990s. This was an

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ARDMORE, Pa. – By this point, after all these years, Tiger Woods has heard pretty much every media question imaginable.

Which is why it was so surprising – and fun – to see him stunned into silence during his press conference on Tuesday.

"The U.S. Open is usually one of the most grueling weeks of golf," offered a young woman seated amid the mob in the media tent. "So what would you do off the course in order to be at ease and relax?"

Cheyenne Woods at the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament in 2012. (AP)Not a hard-hitting question, but it came from a member of the media Woods knows quite well: his niece, Cheyenne Woods.

For a brief moment, Tiger was silent amid the chuckles of those in the room who recognized the questioner. Then he broke into a huge grin.

"Didn't expect that," he said.

Then he played along.

"Well, off the course, we have a great crew at the house and we're going to have fun," he began. "Tomorrow, make sure you're – is it 6:30 dinner? Is that all right? Okay. Perfect."

[Related: Tiger Woods still a big favorite to win the U.S. Open]

Cheyenne

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ARDMORE, Pa. – The most mysterious woman in the golf world will take her turn in the spotlight this week. (No, not Lindsey Vonn.) Her impact will be front and center, clear to millions of people, and yet even the folks at the U.S. Open have no idea who she is.

"I've been at this job for 12 years," says Andy Mutch, curator at Merion Golf Club, site of this weekend's 113th U.S. Open. "And I don't know."

The anonymous woman is in charge of making the famous wicker baskets at the top of the flagsticks here. A member of the grounds crew did the job until 1980, and since then it's been her. The baskets are taken down after every round to keep them from being stolen, which is ironic considering legend has it that the baskets were modeled after staffs European shepherds used to keep their lunch away from the animals. Mutch jokes the reason for the secrecy has some parallels there.

"Maybe she doesn't want to be bombarded with golf fans who want a wicker basket in their basement or man cave," he

Read More »from From wicker baskets to Yul Brynner, Merion Golf Club endures to host another U.S. Open

Leave it to the arbiter of conventional wisdom to punch conventional wisdom squarely in the jaw.

Every so-called expert in the NFL said Tim Tebow couldn't make it in the NFL. He can't throw. He can't learn an offense. He can't fall in line.

And of course, there was the circus! Think of the circus!

That was the conventional wisdom, until just after 5 p.m. ET Monday afternoon, when reports surfaced that Tebow was going to the New England Patriots to play for the originator of so much of the wisdom in the NFL: Bill Belichick.

It's a copycat league, and the league has been trying to copy Belichick for years. Ask the franchises who have hired former Patriots assistant coaches Josh McDaniel, Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Scott Pioli, and Charlie Weis. Everyone wants to be just like Belichick, and nobody has been able to do it.

That's because Belichick has always gone directly opposite of where all the so-called experts stand. He gave Corey Dillon a shot. He gave Randy Moss a shot. He gave a

Read More »from Patriots' signing of QB Tim Tebow could be coach Bill Belichick's latest masterstroke

Justin Gatlin reacts after winning the 100m men's race in Rome. (Getty Images)Seven years ago, Justin Gatlin had a decision to make.

He had tested positive for testosterone and faced a lifetime ban from track and field. Though he didn’t believe he took anything illegal, hard science said he did, and that put his career and reputation at stake.

So his decision came down to this: work with drug investigators or take the Barry Bonds/Roger Clemens approach and remain silent and stubborn.

Gatlin chose to cooperate. He chose to wear a wire, to make undercover calls, and to assist the U.S. government in its fight against performance enhancing drugs.

His lifetime ban became an eight-year ban, which eventually became a four-year ban.

Thursday, fresh off a bronze-medal performance in the London Olympics, Gatlin beat Usain Bolt for the first time. If not for the decision he made in 2006, he would have long been gone from the international stage – the male version of Marion Jones. Instead, he's making positive headlines and history, as the fastest 30-something man in track

Read More »from Alex Rodriguez could learn from Justin Gatlin

The stunning image is now bouncing around the world: Usain Bolt, fastest man in human history, watching an American sprinter cross the finish line in front of him.

It happened Thursday, as the once-disgraced Justin Gatlin ran a 9.94 in the 100-meter final at the Rome Diamond League. Bolt, the two-time 100-meter Olympic gold medalist known for cruising to early leads and then coasting to record times, couldn't catch Gatlin from behind and was reduced to glancing to his right at the line. He later blamed a stumble out of the blocks.

"I got the perfect start but stumbled after five meters," Bolt told reporters. "It's just one of those things.

"I guess I need to be stronger at the end of the race. I think it just needs some time to get it all back together."

Bolt has been dealing with hamstring issues, which explains him running more than a third of a second off his own world-record pace of 9.58, but the story of the day (and thus the track season so far) is Gatlin, who has literally raced

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Ed Lucas spent 10 years in the minor leagues before finally getting called up. (Getty Images)When he graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004, Ed Lucas announced to his baseball coach that he didn't want to be one of those 30 year olds still hanging on in the minors, "just playing to play."

This year marked Lucas' 10th in professional baseball, and in those previous nine seasons he had never played a single major-league game.

"I kinda chucked that plan," he said.

While his Ivy League teammates headed to Wall Street, boutique law firms and even major-league front offices, Lucas went on commercial flights in the morning and long bus trips at night. He was good enough to keep a uniform – a .399 career slugging percentage and a great arm, necessary for all left-side infielders – but not quite good enough to get "the call." He'd become his own worst nightmare: 31 years old and still playing minor-league ball.

He had logged time in Idaho Falls; Burlington, Iowa; High Desert, Calif; Wichita; Springdale, Ark.; Omaha; Lawrenceville, Ga.; Jackson, Miss.; Salt Lake City and New Orleans.

Read More »from Ed Lucas' 10-year wait is finally over