KAPALUA, Hawaii — Jonathan Byrd carries a Bible verse in his back pocket, in his yardage book, but would he ever consider a more conspicuous display of his faith after a round, like dropping on his knees and praying a la Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow?
“I’ve actually thought about it,” Byrd said after carding a six-under-par 67 for a 54-hole total of 14 under, five strokes behind the leader, Steve Stricker, at the Tournament of Champions. “It’d be funny to do it on the green.”
So what’s stopping him? “I don’t think I want to be the first guy to do it,” he said.
Like Byrd, Ben Crane was on the Plantation Course when Tebow led the Denver Broncos to another improbable victory, this one in overtime against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in the wild-card round of the N.F.L. playoffs.
Crane, who is good friends with Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira, was vacationing last month in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with Teixeira and his family when he and Teixeira, Crane said, found a rock and each dropped to a knee and struck the pose now known as Tebowing.
“I’m a Tebow fan,” said Crane, who was tied for eighth after a third-round 68.
Another golfer, Bubba Watson, said he met Tebow last year in Tebow’s hometown of Jacksonville, Fla., and has kept in touch with him “He’s a cool dude,” said Watson, whose swing is as unorthodox as Tebow’s style of passing. “He doesn’t have the perfect throwing motion, but he gets the job done.”
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Bill Pennington writes the On Par column and stars in the related video series on nytimes.com. Pennington, who covers a number of sports in addition to golf, joined The New York Times in 1997 from the Bergen Record, where he was a sports columnist. A longtime golfer, Pennington grew up near some of New England’s historic golf courses, but hasn’t been able to get his handicap below 11. A six-time winner of the Associated Press Sports Editor’s writing award, Pennington is a graduate of Boston University. He lives with his wife, Joyce, and three children in Warwick, N.Y.
Larry Dorman, who covered golf for The New York Times from 1993 to 1997, rejoined The Times in 2007 after a decade as vice president at Callaway Golf. Dorman also worked at The Palm Beach Post, the Miami Herald, the Sun-Sentinel and National Sports Daily. He received a B.A. in journalism from Loyola University in New Orleans. He and his wife, Christine, live in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Karen Crouse has written about a number of sports, including golf, since she joined The New York Times in 2005. Crouse was raised in California by golf-mad parents who never did forgive her for choosing, despite her Fred Couples-esque swing, to become a competitive swimmer. She graduated with honors from Southern California, where she was a member of the swim team, and covered men's golf for the Daily Trojan. Much to the chagrin of her husband, Roderic Millie, Crouse has eschewed the opportunity to play Augusta National each of the five times she covered the Masters.
We’re playing golf, often wearing ridiculously bright-colored shirts. On our feet are some of the goofiest-looking shoes this side of the circus. We’re hitting a tiny ball with insanely crooked sticks. And this is the moment we choose to defend our manhood?
There are a lot of holes in one each year, as many as 150,000 in the United States. Even Richard Nixon had one. It can make those of us without an ace feel as if we are forever writing down 2s, 3s, 4s and 10s — because, well, we are.
Bethpage Black is not just a difficult golf course, because anyone can make a golf course onerous even for the best players in the world. Bethpage Black represents something more primal and grass roots.
You want work? Try making something fun out of that day, especially with a 9 a.m. tee time so that it’s too early to start drinking. That is vacation golf. See what you’re missing, Tiger?