Paul Goydos game up short in his attempt at a third career PGA tour victory…literally.

Goydos, the leader most of the final day, had a 15-foot putt to seal the deal on the 18th hole, but missed it for bogey. This was good news for Sergio Garcia, who had previously sunk a 7-foot par putt on 18 to finish at 5-under on the tournament, the same score Goydos had at the end of regulation. This meant a sudden death playoff, beginning at Sawgrass’s famed 17th hole.

Goydos already had relatively fresh, bad memories of 17, having gone in the water on the tournament’s first day. Plus there was a swirling wind. Goydos would tee off first…and find the water just short of the island green.

Goydos’s misfortune left the door open for Sergio Garcia, and Sergio charged through, two-putting the playoff hole to claim his first Players Championship, his first PGA tour victory in three years and undoubtedly the biggest title of his career thus far.

Gregarious

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Ronnie Price had kind of a wild Game 4 for the Jazz. Early in the second quarter, Price was fouled hard by the Lakers’ Ronny Turiaf, and suffered a gash over his eye that required stitches (Turiaf would be ejected from the game). Then, in the fourth quarter with the Lakers trying to mount a comeback, Price stuffed a would-be Laker break-out by blocking Luke Walton’s attempted lay-up after a home run pass by Kobe Bryant.

Utah actually led this game by 14 with a little over 4 minutes left, plus Kobe Bryant hurt his back and was basically crippled. But the Lakers managed to mount a furious rally thanks largely to Derek Fisher’s three-point shooting, and tied the game at the end of regulation. The good vibe ran out for L.A. in overtime though as Utah was able to take the win 123-115.

The series is now tied at 2-2…and who knows what kind of shape Kobe’s going to be in from here on out. A couple days ago the Lakers looked invincible, but now they look in trouble.

Gregarious

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Jevon Kearse never came close to living up to expectations as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. Of course, none of that was Jevon’s fault…according to Jevon.

“I’m still the same player,” Jevon said when discussing his dwindling sack numbers, “but that scheme up in Philly was different. All I’ve got to say is proof is in the pudding, so I can’t even talk about it. Just watch and see.”

Jevon has rejoined his original team the Tennessee Titans. The “pudding” in Tennessee may include Jevon splitting time at defensive end with Bryce Fisher.

And if Jevon doesn’t get back to something resembling the form he showed his first few seasons in the league when he terrorized quarterbacks, he will not have Jim Johnson’s scheme to blame for it this time.

Gregarious

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The giants’ off-season has been dominated by talk of the possible departure of tight end Jeremy Shockey. That talk is continuing into rookie minicamp, where coaches are now having to address the rumors.

Offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, for his part, remains uncertain as to Shockey’s future status.

“It’s so nebulous right now. I just have no idea what’s going to happen,” Gilbride said. “Right now, he’s on our team. We’re planning on him being there and he’ll be one of the guys we’ll look to feature and depend on. Hopefully, he’ll be here in good spirits and ready to do the things we know he’s capable of doing. But who knows? It’s certainly beyond my hands.”

Gilbride says he has spoken to Shockey, but won’t give away what was said. You know what Gilbride and the rest of the Giants are thinking though…please, oh please let Jeremy get traded to the Saints.

Let Drew Brees endure the headache from having the guy constantly in his ear. Let Eli Manning continue to progress instead of being dragged back down by that selfish loud-mouth.

The Giants surely know that they became a better team without Manning feeling like he had to force the ball into Shockey. And if Shockey comes back? Manning will again feel like has to force it.

It won’t matter to Shockey that Eli is now a Super Bowl quarterback…he will still want his touches, even if it isn’t best for the team. And Eli will still defer to him.

The Giants should have taken the second-rounder offered by the Saints.

Gregarious

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There’s nothing like a good 85-man scrum to break up the monotony of minicamp.

The Baltimore Ravens found this out Saturday when a pair of linemen began swinging at each other, and before you knew it, nearly every man on the roster was diving in to join the fracas.

A good healthy early-season venting of testosterone or a sign that new Ravens coach John Harbaugh has a lot to learn about properly running a practice?

Defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, who worked with Harbaugh at the University of Cincinnati, thinks the new coach has things well-in-hand.

“He’s always in control. When it’s not going his way, he’ll get it going his way,” Ryan said. “That’s part of it right now. I think there are a lot of people that are anxious and uncertain. We want it to be chaos. That’s what John’s talked about. You look at the tempo of our offense, the way we’re setting things up and the different things we’re doing under Cam [Cameron]. It’s just new. It’s more pressure on everybody.”

The fight started because running back Allen Patrick was hit too hard in the opinion of offensive tackle Oniel Cousins, who decided to express his irritation by getting in a fistfight with defensive tackle Amon Gordon. It took two minutes to separate all the players.

Defensive end Trevor Pryce thinks the minicamp “intensity” is a good sign.

“You go 5-11, guess what? You’d better be intense,” Pryce said. “It doesn’t matter who the coach is. You have to develop a sense of urgency at 5-11. You have to earn the right to have a calm and relaxing offseason, and you can’t do that at 5-11.”

And I thought the Ravens were crazy because Brian Billick drove them crazy. But no. I guess they’re just crazy.

Gregarious

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The greatest non-steroid pitcher of the last 50 years, Greg Maddux, won his 350th career game Saturday night in San Diego.

Of course, because Maddux is Maddux, he only wanted to talk about what a big win it was for his team, who had been on a five-game losing streak.

“It was kind of cool,” Maddux said. “I don’t want to make it out to be nothing, but it is May and we haven’t been playing that good, and you just really want to win for the right reason and not necessarily for the wrong reason. We need to start winning as a team and hopefully tonight is the start of things to come.”

Mr. Modesty gave up 3 hits and a run in 6 innings to the Rockies, who by the way are not exactly showing the form that got them into the World Series in 2008.

Kudos in this one to Trevor Hoffman, who nailed down the save in the 9th after blowing one of Maddux’s previous attempts at 350. Hoffman normally keeps the ball from all his saves, but this time he let Maddux have it. Maddux of course acted like he didn’t want it.

“Trev gave me the ball. That was cool,” said Maddux. “I’ll take any free ball I can get. I’ll give it to my kid. Let him go play with it somewhere.”

Sure Greg. And I suppose if you won the Nobel Peace Prize you’d be all like, “This is cool. Maybe I’ll let my kid wear the medal when he plays in the dirt.”

Am I the only one who thinks Maddux takes the whole “aw shucks” thing a little far? I mean, yeah…modesty’s great. Putting the team first is great. But Maddux, he plays it up too much in my opinion. It’s like he knows what reporters want him to say, so he says it. And then they all praise him for what a selfless guy he is.

One of these days we’re going to learn that Maddux is secretly an arrogant, self-centered monster whose sole desire is to crush the dreams of everyone around him.

Gregarious

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The Orlando Magic looked well on their way to evening up the series with Detroit at 2-2…then Detroit threw the famous switch, erased a 9-point halftime deficit by outscoring Orlando 26-15 in the third quarter and shocked the Magic 90-89 to go up 3-1.

Tayshaun Prince’s jumper with 8 seconds left sealed the win for Detroit who are now one victory away from a sixth straight appearance in the Eastern Conference finals.

“From a coaching standpoint, we’ve had three end-of-the-game possessions in this series. And we haven’t gotten a very good shot on any possession,” Magic coach stan van gundy said after Hedo Turkoglu missed a potential game-winning shot. “So you’ve got to lay that on me.”

Okay Stan, we will.

Gregarious

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The Celtics are all-too-familiar with this particular playoff pattern: win big at home, go on the road, lose big.

It continued Saturday, as Boston fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-84 in Cleveland.

Lebron James was still not exactly red-hot for the Cavs, shooting only 5-16 from the floor and scoring 21 points, but this time his running mates picked up the slack. Delonte West had 21 including 4 threes, while Wally Szczerbiak added 16 and Joe Smith put in 17 off the bench.

“On the road it’s going to take a little bit more … we’ve got to learn our lesson pretty soon,” said Paul Pierce afterward. “We took our bumps. Hopefully, the guys are mad at the way we played because I’m totally upset at the way we played, especially with a great opportunity in front of us.”

Gregarious

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Mike DAntoni likes a challenge. And a challenge he will get now that he has reportedly agreed to become the new head coach of the New York Knicks.

The job ahead of the former Phoenix Suns coach? Turn around a franchise that has become the laughing stock of the league the last few years, mostly thanks to inept president/coach Isiah Thomas.

D’Antoni leaves Phoenix after four seasons, all of which saw the team make the playoffs. Unfortunately, for all his success, D’Antoni was never able to lead the team to the ultimate prize: his Suns were eliminated in the conference finals his first two years there, got bounced in the semis his third year and this season were eliminated in the first round. Three of those four years the Suns were defeated by the Spurs.

D’Antoni leaves $8.5 million on the table by walking away from Phoenix now. Undoubtedly, New York will make it worth his while to do so.

It remains to be seen whether D’Antoni will be rewarded with wins as well as cash in New York.

Gregarious

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Former Delaware quarterback Joe Flacco is impressing his new Ravens teammates in minicamp.

“He can throw the ball,” receiver Derrick Mason said of the first-round draft pick. “The one he threw to [Mark] Clayton I think was about 50 yards down the field in the air on target. The way he commanded the huddle with the team that was in there with him, I think that speaks volumes of him.”

News-flash: Joe Flacco is pretty good in minicamp. I bet Kyle Boller was good his first minicamp too.

Gregarious

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