will take coaching, education and a universal buy-in to fix | Forum

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. Earl Campbell Titans Jersey . -- Tiger Woods was voted PGA Tour player of the year for the 11th time on the strength of his five big wins and return to No. 1 in the world. It was the third time Woods won the Jack Nicklaus Award despite not winning a major. He made up for that with two World Golf Championships and The Players Championship among his five wins. No one else won more than twice this year, and Woods won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average and the PGA Tour money title. "Its been an incredible year to have won five times, two of those World Golf Championships and one Players," Woods said on a conference call Friday. "Its been just a fantastic year all around. Its also an incredible feeling to be voted by your peers, and to have that type of respect is something thats very humbling." The PGA Tour does not release the percentage of votes won or even who finished second. Jordan Spieth was voted rookie of the year in a race that likely was no contest. The 20-year-old Texan began the year with no status on any tour. He won the John Deere Classic, lost in a playoff at another event, reached the Tour Championship, was chosen for the Presidents Cup team and wound up 10th on the money list with nearly $4 million. He will be the youngest American -- and first PGA Tour rookie -- to play in the Presidents Cup next week in Ohio. "I dont know if its a pinch me moment yet," Spieth said. "I think my mind is still really on next week." Woods was on the ballot with British Open champion Phil Mickelson, Masters champion Adam Scott, FedEx Cup champion Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar. Mickelson also won the Phoenix Open and was runner-up in the U.S. Open for the sixth time. Along with his first major, Scott won The Barclays. If either of them had won the Tour Championship, three wins and a major might have won some votes over five big wins and no majors. Mickelson, with more wins (42) and majors (five) than any player except for Woods dating to the Tom Watson generation, has never been PGA Tour player of the year, No. 1 in the world ranking or won a PGA Tour money title. The Jack Nicklaus Award began in 1990. In 24 years, Woods has won it 11 times and only two other players have won it twice -- Fred Couples (1991, 1992) and Nick Price (1993, 1994). It was the fourth time in the last five years that the winner did not capture a major. Woods nearly made it a clean sweep of all the awards. Steve Stricker narrowly beat him out for the Byron Nelson Award with a 65 on the final day at East Lake in the Tour Championship. That award is for lowest scoring average, though it is not as prestigious as the Vardon Trophy from the PGA of America. The Vardon Trophy dates to 1937 and requires 60 rounds (instead of 50 for the PGA Tours version of the award) with no incomplete rounds. It was the first time since 2009, right before his personal life unraveled, that Woods won these awards. Even though he has more of them than anyone in history, he said that it doesnt get old. "I know how hard it is," Woods said. "Ive had to work my way back from injuries on numerous occasions throughout the years. These last couple years is no exception to that. There were a lot of people saying I could never win again, and two years later Ive got eight wins on our tour. Im very proud of where Ive come from, from being ranked outside the top 50 to being ranked where I am now, and to have had the success that Ive had this year just makes it all the more rewarding." He said his biggest win this year was at The Players Championship, mainly because its the one golf course he plays regularly that has given him fits. His other wins this year came on courses where he won for at least the fourth time. "You start playing golf courses that you like and that suit your game," Woods said. "Guys generally play that schedule and give themselves the best opportunity to win tournaments and to have a nice living out on tour. For me, The Players Championship is the big event and against probably the strongest field we play all year. I havent had a lot of success since 2001. "To finally put myself there with the chance and the way I was hitting it to get it done on that Sunday, boy, it sure felt good." Woods and Spieth won two different awards, though both pointed to the area of improvement -- the majors. Woods has been stuck on 14 majors since 2008, though he had a chance in the final round this year at the British Open. Spieth missed the cut at the U.S. Open and PGA Championship and tied for 44th in the British Open. "I think next year Im really going to focus on those," said Spieth, who is No. 21 in the world. "Maybe build a schedule or game plan around how to have success and maybe compete at those four events, and I think that would be a better year for me." Bishop Sankey Titans Jersey . Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek defeated Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on the indoor hard-court at Belgrade Arena. The victory improved the Czech pairs impressive cup doubles record to 14-1. Justin Hunter Titans Jersey . Schenn scored the game-winning goal and added two assists to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday. http:///...-Jersey.html?cat=873 . Zvonareva, who won the tournament in 2009 and 10, couldnt handle her opponents big groundstrokes in only her third event back after 17 months out with a shoulder injury. Zvonareva made her comeback in January in Shenzhen and played in the Australian Open but lost her first matches at both tournaments.Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca! There is plenty of blame to be shared as a result of the most recent NHL player (Pittsburghs Brooks Orpik) to be evacuated from the ice on a stretcher following an ugly incident Saturday night in Boston. Its high time for the NHL brass, their Officiating Department and the NHLPA to put their collective heads together to provide meaningful player safety measures that arent being achieved through current attempts. Consistently applied player suspensions arent the only tool to curb dangerous and unwanted hits to the head. We need to take a step back and have a serious discussion, recognizing that education will be the key to effectively changing this destructive culture at all levels of the game. Players often seek out retribution for hits, even those deemed legal, that are delivered to one of their teammates. Following a "big" hit, the temperature of the game can immediately elevate to the near boiling point. At such times, the referees primary job is to take whatever measures necessary to control the environment. To do that, he has to have a "feel" for the game and what is required. A better job could have been done by the refs in that regard after Orpik delivered a hard, legal open-ice check that knocked Loui Erisksson out of the game on the very first shift. Credit must be given to the referees for not overreacting to Orpiks legal check and then sending Zdeno Chara to the box for his retaliatory cross-check at the first stoppage of play 21 seconds in. The fuse was lit, however, and the refs could have been more proactive in bringing the temperature down and containing the ongoing illegal push-back demonstrated by some of the Bruin players. At the 2:42 mark, Chris Kelly was allowed to shove Chris Connor to the ice from behind at the red line with a cross-check motion deserving of an interference penalty. On a subsequent shift, Kelly again took a charge at Connor and delivered a high finish hit that should have resulted in a timely call. While a roughing minor was assessed to Shawn Thornton for popping Orpik a couple times in the face at 5:44, a prime opportunity to douse the flames was indeed missed by the referee by not adding a 10-minute misconduct to Thornton for his attempts to incite a fight with Orpik. Thhat penalty, in addition to a conference needed with Bruins head coach Claude Julien would have sent a strong and clear message where the control in the game rested! The game was very unsettled at this point and you didnt have to be on the ice to feel it. Rashad Johnson Titans Jersey. Oddly enough, sometimes a fight can help bring the temperature down but the negative energy did not diminish following the fisticuffs between Milan Lucic and Deryk Engelland at 7:19. Unfortunately, the nastiness came to a head less than four minutes later when Sidney Crosby tripped Brad Marchand in apparent view of the trailing referee and no call resulted. The referee did react a second later by raising his arm when James Neal extended a left knee directly (and deliberately) to the head of Marchand as the Bruin was getting up off the ice. While the referee observed and reacted to the kneeing infraction, I have a major problem with the fact that it was only deemed to be a minor penalty. At the very least, based on the deliberate act by Neal, a major and a game misconduct would be required and a match penalty for deliberate attempt to injure was most deserving! (Neal remained in the game and scored a power play goal after stepping out of the penalty box from serving his minor for kneeing.) When play stopped at the other end of the ice, more retribution was being sought against Orpik; this time by Gregory Campbell in a scrum. Thornton ended it (and lost it) with a slew-foot that took Orpik down from behind. The subsequent gloved knockout punches delivered by Thornton after Orpik hit the ice resulted in immediate medical attention and the stretcher being required to remove the Penguins defenceman.  As I said at the outset, there is plenty of blame to be shared when these horrific situations take place. Much is needed and can be done across the board to curb and eliminate the needless violence that places careers and the future health of players in jeopardy. It took a complete buy-in and education of players, coaches, and referees to change the negative culture of "obstruction" following a return from the first lockout season. While lengthy suspensions might be the immediate remedy in these two incidents, it will take coaching, education and a universal buy-in to fix this problem in the long-term.  Its not exclusively the referees job to bring the temperature down.    Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys China NFL Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jersey ' ' '