"Shackleford is tough because he runs every time."

As thrilling as the playoffs are and as frightening as Irene appears to be, my eyes will be on Shackleford's trip in Saratoga's Travers Cup (NBC 5 pm ET), one of the biggest three-year-old races outside the Triple Crown. Jerry Bossert explains that the big guy can lock up the 3-year-old division with a win and even notoriously-stingy-with-praise trainer Bob Baffert compliments Shack, reports Tim Wilkin.

Trainers who are running against Shackleford have nothing but respect. Hall of Famer Bob Baffert watched Coil chase down Shackleford in the Haskell, but he had to fight for it.

"Shackleford is tough because he runs every time," Baffert said. "Dale has done a fantastic job with him and he is tough to get by. In the Preakness, it looked like Animal Kingdom was going to run right by him, and he didn't let him by. He just said, 'No way, Jose. You aren't getting by me.' When Coil got to him (in the Haskell) it looked like he was going to run right by and win by a length and a half. Shackleford is a real good horse."

Jesus Castanon has been riding him in the mornings, which gives him an edge in the karma department.

Here's Shack's final workout and his dirty post-workout rolling around ritual.

This Is What It Looks Like When Lightning Strikes...

Thanks to reader Allen for these cell phone images of Saturday's lightning strike at Hawkshead Links in South Haven, Michigan on Saturday.  He writes: "Lighning hit in the eight fairway and blew a hole about 3 feet deep--all the way down to the irrigation line, which ruptured."

If this isn't a good enough reminder to clear the property when the horn sounds, I don't know what is. 

Idiocracy Files: Even More Reasons To Walk Instead Of Ride

Thanks to Jeff Ritter at golf.com for finding this compilation video of golf cart accidents and other assorted unsafe user error. I must say as a blogger one of the great shocks is the monthly story about a golf cart death, but after watching this I have a better idea how these things happen.

Update On No-Kids Restaurant And Driving Range

The Today Show profiled the McDain's Restaurant and Golf Center to see how operator Mike Vuick's ban on kids under six is going and found the place busy.

Janet Shamlian files the report and finds other businesses following the McDain's lead. Finally a trend-setting golf facility!

DVR Alert: First Wheelchair Golfer To Play Old Course

7 ET Tuesday on ESPN's E60. The story:

After Mike Reeder lost both legs in Vietnam, he returned to the U.S. looking for purpose and direction – and found them during a chance encounter in a golf pro shop. Years later, as a devoted golfer, he’s chasing a different dream: to be the first wheelchair golfer to play the Old Course at St. Andrew’s. E:60 follows him to Scotland.

The preview:

Golf Girls "Tribute" To Golf Boys Confirms Hellaciousness Of The Original Video?

I would like to say a tribute was inevitable, but considering how painful the "Golf Boys" video was and how it mercifully escaped our collective consciousness (not before 1.8 million views), it is with great regret that I ask you: is this tribute a spoof or an admiring tribute? Honestly, I can't tell. I must be getting old.

"I realized that I’d gone through every one of those stages, but not as a terminal patient...as a golfer."

Larry David has finally accepted that he'll never be a good golfer, or so he writes in The New Yorker. Warning, it opens with a glitch (Riviera's 175-yard 4th...where are the vaunted New Yorker fact checkers calling Larry to ask if he's really playing the forward tees?).

Think what I could’ve done with all that time. Learned French. Piano. I’d be playing Chopin now if it weren’t for golf. Playing Chopin for Julie Delpy. But instead I wasted my life on this game. It looked so easy. The ball just sits there. Any idiot could do it. But every instinct I had was wrong. You’re supposed to hit the ball down to make it go up. That’s absurd. I want to hit it up to make it go up. When I try to hit down, it’s like I’m splitting a log with an axe. All I do is chop up the course. And then there’s this one: the easier you swing, the farther the ball goes. How can that be? So you hit down to make it go up and swing easy to make it go far?