Author: Phil Keating

Barring an incredibly unlikely space ship rescue of stranded astronauts during Space Shuttle Endeavor’s final mission–ever–in November, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will never launch again.

At 8:48am EDT, Atlants, commanded by Ken Ham and piloted by “Tony” Antonelli, dropped from orbit safely and glided back to earth, landing at the Kennedy Space Center. There had been a chance that Atlantis would have to wait for morning showers to get out of the way, to then try landing later this morning, or Thursday, but the weather worked out and violated none of NASA’s landing constraints.

The 12 day mission accomplished quite a bit up at the International Space Station, installing a new Russian-built module and docking station, a 6-pack of batteries for power and a new antenna for the I.S.S.

A few of the astronauts even made an out-of-this world appearance on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, joking that the mission had gone very well, and that the crew had even defeated the forces of evil while 220 miles above the earth.

Atlantis will now be cleaned up and prepared for one more possible mission, as the “rescue ship” for NASA’s last Space Shuttle mission ever, in case the NASA determines that Endeavor is unsafe to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. This was Atlantis’ 32nd mission, and during it, surpassed flying 120 million miles in space.

Tar Balls have turned up on the beaches of Florida for the first time since BP’s disastrous oil spill began polluting the Gulf of Mexico nearly a month ago.

Laboratory tests are underway to determine the source of the oily, sticky gobs, ranging in size from three to 8 inches. The U.S. Coast Guard found the 20 tar balls on the sands of Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, just a mile or so from Key West’s busy cruise ship port and tourist magnet Duvall Street.

While no one can say these tar balls washed in from the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, this is THE scenario that has worried Florida, the Federal Government and the scientific community for 4 weeks now.

Based on BP’s estimates, more than 5 million gallons of oil has gushed into the Gulf so far, threatening the coastlines and already harming the economies of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. But if the oil slick meanders east and south, into the gulf’s Loop Current, the oil could be carried down Florida’s West Coast, through the Florida Keys and up the eastern seaboard.

Meanwhile, at the spill site, BP announcing today it now is successfully siphoning 2000 barrels of oil a day from the largest of the two leaks up to a ship on the surface, which is collecting the oil and burning off the natural gas. Efforts to cap the well with “drilling mud” and cement by this weekend are planned in what’s called a “top kill.” BP’s C.O.O. Doug Suttles says if that succeeds, that will be “the end of this incident.”

That only applies to the ongoing spilling of oil. The containment, collection and cleanup is estimated to still take months and years, at a cost that no one knows for sure just yet.

Five months away from professional competition, and away from the public eye (despite unwillingly being in it,) Tiger Woods returned Thursday with not a splash, but an enormous, cannonball-sized KERPLUNK.   “For him to be this sharp, is truly remarkable,” says Scott Maurer.  He follows “everything Tiger” because it’s in his business interest.  He owns Millionaire Gallery, and for the 15th Masters in a row, he, his tent and hundreds of pieces of autographed golf memorabilia sit on the busy corner of Washington Road and Berkmans, where the throngs of people lucky enough, or rich enough, to have passes into the Augusta National Golf Club walk by each morning and afternoon.  His top three sellers are Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, the only three men to wear the green jacket 4 times.  Maurer is in the daily vortex of Masters evesdropping.  And today, with Tiger having birdied hole 2 this morning, but following a bogie, back to 4 under par, Maurer says the Tiger buzz is definitely in the air, for his golf game.  “He’s the #1 player in the world.”    Woods returned to the golf spotlight Thursday at 1:42, hitting his first drive down the fairway.  For the first time in his career, he made 2 eagles in one round.  For the first time in his career, he shot under 70 on opening day at The Masters.  And for the only time in his life, he returned from perhaps the most spectacular fall from public grace for any sports figure in history with a spectacular record day personally, sitting 2 strokes behind the leader and very much in contention to pull off what almost every other golf champion said would be impossible after that long of a break from competition:  win The Masters.  And what astounded Guy Carteng, who drove in from Charleston, South Carolina to walk alongside Woods for a few holes, is how the fans overwhelmingly embraced the new, and declaredly remorseful, Woods.   Big applause.  Repeated shouts of “go Tiger!”  And an electricity of widespread disbelief of how amazingly well Woods was actually playing.  “I was shocked,” said Carteng.  “I turned to the guy next to me and asked him if he was also surprised, and he said, ‘you know,  America’s all about second chances.”   And Maurer knows that a historic weekend here in Augusta will likely mean more sales of any Woods merchandise.  “If Tiger wins this year and wins his 5th green jacket, no one will remember what he did.”  Its’ the classic American storyline:  meteoric rise to the top, incredible fall from grace and then the return to dominance, success and return to idol status.  So far, Woods has parts 1 and 2 fulfilled.

On the fringe of the pristine and exclusive Augusta National Golf Club, up at the intersection of Washington and Berkmans, the buzz and excitement builds with every one of the eventually exhausting thousands and thousands of footsteps it takes to get down the hill and through the gates.  Walking around the practice rounds of the Augusta National this year requires comfortable shoes, light clothing, a lot of sunblock and plenty of water, as the high is forecast to hit 91.  Today is Wednesday of Masters Week, a day known as “par 3 day,” because at 1pm, many of the professional pitching wedge experts will partake in a festive and loose tradition, the day before this revered tournament begins.  Unknown to everyone right now is whether the big elephant in the room of this year’s Masters, a 4 time champion named Tiger, will join in the fun.  All week long, getting detailed information about Woods’ whereabouts and practice round intentions has been challenging.  He practiced with Mark O’Meara Tuesday, who at the end of the day said Woods’ game was getting sharper as the week progressed;  not surprisingly, with the intimidation factor of his first round of golf in front of hundreds of spectators in nearly 5 months Monday, onlookers said Woods looked rusty.  Woods will tee off Thursday at 1:42 Eastern Time, grouped with 1997 US Amateur Champion Matt Kuchar and South Korean golfor Kyung-Ju Choi, who has 7 PGA wins in his bag.  The group’s tee time Friday is 10:35am Eastern, and after those first 2 rounds, the Augusta National will eliminate those who don’t make the weekend cut and assign Saturday’s tee times and groupings for when the US television audience for this Masters is projected to be record-setting for this tournament (and possibly near “Super Bowl” hights) IF, that is, IF Tiger Woods is in the hunt.  The expected spectacle of his former mistresses showing up in Augusta and regurgitating the sensational sexcapades that have dominated the tabloids and late night monologues since November have yet to arrive, but we’re told, the ladies will be here by the time the really big crowds start arriving.  Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg, who along with about 6 off-duty cops and private security agents, has been walking along with Woods’ enterage this week, finally spoke on the record about what he did or didn’t know about his most famous client’s secretive and adulterous ways on the tour.  Steinberg tells Golf.com that he was unaware of what Woods was doing, adding that he hadn’t said this in nearly 5 months because he believed it would only have perpetuated the story.  This, despite a current Vanity Fair expose, in which 4 women who claim they had intimate relations with Woods in hotel rooms and cars told their stories;  2 of them allege that when they needed help or that they feared the affair was about to be exposed, Woods passed them onto Steinberg, who, according to the women, extinguished the potential explosion of publicity.  Now that Tiger Woods has taken unrestricted questions from the press (primarily the sporting press, as neither this Fox News Correspondent nor anyone else from our “news” team earned a credential) it’s clear that Team Woods hopes the media focus will now streamline to his return to professional competition.  But a lot can happen alongside these immaculately manicured fairways over the next 4 days.  The Masters this year promises to be The Story of the year.  We just don’t yet know the full storyline.  But Mark Matherson, of Lake Wylie, North Carolina, who now has attended 43 straight Masters Tournaments, tells me he has a headline dancing in his head.  “I just hope he wins.”