In other news (apolitical thread)...

[betarhoalphadelta]

I’ll cop to this, I thought the old guys who won tournaments might have won at later ages than they did.

Yeah, he’s cooked.

There have been a few. Phil Mickelson won a major a month shy of 51 years old. There have been a couple others who have won standard PGA Tour events past 50. 

But Tiger's beat the shit out of his body, on top of the age problem. 

How must it feel to have come soooo close to being considered the greatest golfer ever, only to have that slip away?

Eh. I think most golf fans place him and Jack as a 1a/1b sort of thing, the only debate being which is a and which is b. And Tiger does share Snead's record for most wins at 82. So there are already some fans that consider him the greatest golfer ever--especially since as the sport has progressed, it's only gotten more and more competitive than it was in Snead or Nicklaus' days...

[SFBadger96]

I'm not a big enough golf fan to really know, but way back in the days that he was still winning major championships, my recollection is that even if he had taken that record from Nicklaus, Nicklaus still had an overwhelming number of second places. But, Tiger didn't get the major tournament record.

Agreed that it is more competitive now--that's also likely why it's only getting harder to win in your 40s (let alone later). Everyone hits the ball much further now. Pretty hard to do that through a tournament with a middle-aged body.

[Gigem]

I haven't followed it closely, but I feel like he never fully returned to form after his 2009 car wreck and the cheating scandle. And continued car wrecks just kept making things worse. Isn't there also a question about whether he was a steroid user, which might have lead to premature damage to his body? Definitely had trouble relating to drugs and alcohol. How must it feel to have come soooo close to being considered the greatest golfer ever, only to have that slip away?

I hadn't followed any sort of golf closely, ever.  But jesus, has it really been that long since the whole scandal broke?  He would have been in his early to mid-30's at that point.  I think I'm the same age as Tiger ('75), at least it seems that we're close in age.  I just remember there was a lot of noise about him not being able to play tournaments due to injuries, back injuries, a lot of different factors.  When he would play there would be a lot of noise about him doing well the first day or so and then by the end doing very poorly.  I never really considered how much abuse even a golfer could put on their body over time.  

[bayareabadger]

There have been a few. Phil Mickelson won a major a month shy of 51 years old. There have been a couple others who have won standard PGA Tour events past 50.

Yeah, I thought the ceiling was a bit higher. He's not much younger than Phil and has a big recovery ahead. 

[SFBadger96]

Teenage driver learned hard lesson yesterday. Took corner too fast, car broke loose, slid into curb. Snapped passenger side front wheel control arm (the part that holds the wheel in place). I really, really, really hope the insurance company doesn't total it. It can be repaired, it's just a question of cost vs. value. No one was hurt, and the only damage was to our own property (i.e., the car). There's a reason teenage insurance rates are higher.

[FearlessF]

there's a reason a teenager's first vehicle shouldn't be too expensive
most have something like this happen

[847badgerfan]

Ouch.

[jgvol]

Teenage driver learned hard lesson yesterday. Took corner too fast, car broke loose, slid into curb. Snapped passenger side front wheel control arm (the part that holds the wheel in place). I really, really, really hope the insurance company doesn't total it. It can be repaired, it's just a question of cost vs. value. No one was hurt, and the only damage was to our own property (i.e., the car). There's a reason teenage insurance rates are higher.

Glad for no injuries.

[SFBadger96]

there's a reason a teenager's first vehicle shouldn't be too expensive
most have something like this happen

Yeah. Ordinarily drives the cheap car. For a variety of stupid reasons, he had the better car. Sigh. Fortunately, our better car isn't that expensive.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Teenage driver learned hard lesson yesterday. Took corner too fast, car broke loose, slid into curb. Snapped passenger side front wheel control arm (the part that holds the wheel in place). I really, really, really hope the insurance company doesn't total it. It can be repaired, it's just a question of cost vs. value. No one was hurt, and the only damage was to our own property (i.e., the car). There's a reason teenage insurance rates are higher.

Ugh, that sucks. Glad nobody was hurt. 

Hopefully it's not too expensive. When I got rear-ended a couple years ago it was barely perceptible damage, and the other guy's insurance still ended up paying ~$4K for the repair plus getting me a rental for 4 days or so. And that was just a Ford Flex, so not some extraordinarily expensive car to fix...

[847badgerfan]

I just had some jerk hit my car and just drive off while we were eating. Of course, he had to scrape both doors. I was very pissed when I came out and saw it. Still am. It's gonna be expensive to fix, I'm sure. It's creased.

[SFBadger96]

Gross. That sucks.

[utee94]

I hate people.

@SF-- glad there were no injuries.  If they do total it just because of the cost, you don't have to accept a salvage title on the vehicle if you want it back.  If a fix gets it drivable enough to pass inspection then there's no cause for a salvage title.  That is of course IF you still want the car back.

[SFBadger96]

Yeah, if it comes to that, we'll just have to decide what we want to do. Maybe we want to use the total/salvage value to buy a new (or new to us) car. I don't think so, but that wouldn't be irrational. Will just have to see. The boy will get to pony up some of the cash related to all this. I'm not going to break him, but we will make him feel the impact. Hopefully the lesson will be (at least partially) learned.