Last Sunday, they saw the equivalent of a four-car pileup all by one guy. So it goes, sadly, that 17th will be remembered as the dark hole that swallowed Len Mattiace. The heartache spanned the family. The golfer's wife, Kristen, saw the first water ball. Then she heard more groans and, a short while later, asked a spectator for an update.
Fans sometimes forget that professional athletes are humans, too.
They see winners, they see losers. In Leonard, they got another pedigreed winner at the Players, whose scroll of champions has few fringe entries. In Mattiace, they got a victim who by all accounts is a wonderful person. He doesn't deserve that. Len Mattiace said he won't soon forget the snowman.