IF the galleries at last week's British Open learned anything, it was: Don't mess with Supermex, otherwise known as Lee Trevino. Teamed with Britain's own Tony Jacklin in the third round, the gritty little Texan reacted to the crowd's partisan booing with typical machismo: "That only makes me fight harder." Fight he did. Scrambling as he had been doing all week, he started off the final round with four birdies on the first nine holes to take a seemingly insurmountable ...

Human failure is inevitable. Mechanical failure is unexpected. What makes Tiger Woods' story so compelling is that it's a case of both. Nowhere was that clearer than in his press conference on Friday. Woods' brand and golf game were built on his machine-like qualities. He was the guy who delivered the same result over and over. At his sport and in his business dealings, he was flawless, unfailing, programmable. So when his private behavior proved that he had ...

Eben MacBurney Byers, 51, popular Pittsburgh sportsman and ironmaster, fell out of an upper berth five years ago returning from a Yale-Harvard football game. He hurt his arm. His Pittsburgh physiotherapist, Dr. Charles Clinton Moyar, prescribed a patented drink called ''Radithor." It was distilled water containing traces of radium and mesothorium . The dope eased the arm pain, braced Byers up. He enthusiastically recommended it to friends, sent them cases of it, even gave some to one of his horses. ...

Lee Westwood finally takes No. 1 spot from Tiger Woods The Englishman becomes the world's top-ranked golfer after Woods held the spot for a record 281 weeks. Lee Westwood had little reason to think one year ago he could be No. 1 in the world, a position that looked "unattainable" the way Tiger Woods had been dominating golf for so much of the decade. Golf can take some peculiar turns, though, which Westwood knows better than most. Westwood reached No. 1 on Sunday for ...

Tiger Woods, at the Virtual Tee First The first time I met Tiger Woods, in 2005, I was shocked to find myself talking to a real person. Standing in a deserted Sheep Meadow in Central Park, he waved off his handful of P.R. people, and we spent about 15 minutes just talking about video games. Personable, gregarious and altogether down to earth, he lighted up as he told me how much he enjoyed the Socom special forces games because his father ...

The celebrities and the superrich who live in Isleworth, including Tiger Woods, would like to project a common touch. Every Halloween, residents of the gated golf community near Orlando, Fla., decorate their golf carts and drive trick-or-treaters door-to-door. They share lunches and dinners at the country club, play pickup basketball games and hold community events. "It's pretty normal," says Rav Mehta, CEO of a software-development firm who lives just outside Isleworth's vine-covered walls but has many friends inside. Normal ...

It seems the world of the golf cart is changing if certain industry manufacturers are to be believed. By shedding their normal surroundings, improving their dowdy image and hitting the streets -- "pimped up" carts may increasingly be seen away from the course.

There's something lurking in the depths of Loch Ness, Scotland and it has nothing to do with monsters. On a recent expedition to try and find evidence of the Loch Ness monster, U.S. research teams came across something quite unexpected -- not a prehistoric creature of the deep but thousands of plastic covered golf balls. Mike O'Brien of SeaTrepid explains: "At first we thought they were mushrooms, there were so many. But when we lowered the camera, we ...

A worldwide network of fraudsters conned thousands of people into buying fake golf clubs on eBay, a London court has heard. In allegedly the largest fraud uncovered by the online auction site, the counterfeit clubs, as well as clothing and other golf accessories, were sold "on a scale, it is believed, has never been seen before," prosecutors told Snaresbrook Crown Court. The mastermind behind the million dollar operation, Greg Bellchambers, from east London, has already admitted fraud and conspiracy. His ...

President Obama and his family are hoping for a chance to unwind during their weeklong getaway to Martha's Vineyard. The first family, along with Obama's sister Maya Soetoro-Ng and the first dog Bo, arrived on the Massachusetts island Sunday. The Obamas are staying at a secluded 28-acre private estate. The No. 1 priority on Obama's vacation agenda is "To get a little break," White House spokesman Bill Burton said Monday. "He certainly appreciates the hospitality of the folks who ...