THE LATEST LINE: TIGER, LAKERS MADE FOR QUITE A SPORTS WEEK

Between Tiger Woods and the Los Angeles Lakers, it has been quite a sports week.

First, for Tiger. There's probably nothing I could say that hasn't already been said about a young man who is only 24 years old -- but already is being regarded by the experts as perhaps the best golfer ever.

I'm not a golfer -- I've only played once in my life -- and don't consider the sport to be one of my favorites, although I do enjoy following the major events.

But even if you're not a huge fan of the game, you couldn't help but appreciate -- and actually be captivated -- by the record-setting performance Woods had during the U.S. Open.

Woods turned what was supposed to be one of the most difficult courses imaginable into his own personal playpen. And he made the world's other best golfers look as if they were playing the junior circuit.

When late Sunday afternoon rolled around, Woods had decimated the field by a record 15 strokes. He had shot 12-under-par when nobody else could do better than 3-over. To separate yourself from the rest of your peers like that -- no matter what kind of competition -- is truly amazing.

And Woods is the one guy -- like only a few select athletes before him, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan perhaps -- who can get people interested in a sport when they normally would not be.

Count me in that above category. I'm definitely going to start paying a lot more attention to golf tournaments -- as long as Tiger is in the field.

Now, for the Lakers. They had to come up with a scintillating second-half performance Monday night to turn away the scrappy and highly underrated Indiana Pacers and win the NBA Championship.

Golf might not be my bag, but I truly love basketball. And that Game 6 of the NBA Finals was definitely a classic, an extremely high-level affair that featured both teams trading blows like two heavyweight fighters.

Only superb second-half play by the Lakers -- they amazingly did not have a turnover over the final two quarters -- allowed them to finally subdue the Pacers, who made it a much closer series than many people thought they would.

Just as Tiger is at the top of his sport these days, the same argument can be made for the Lakers' mammoth Shaquille O'Neal, who simply dominated the NBA Finals.

Shaq averaged 38 points and 16 rebounds against the Pacers, demonstrating once again how he has transformed himself from basically nothing but a dunker during the early part of his career into a fantastic all-around performer who can now score in a variety of ways while clearing the boards and playing terrific defense.

Now, if Shaq could just learn to shoot free throws.

* Let me put my belated two cents in on the Roy Williams situation down in Scott City.

Basically, my take is this: Williams is a heck of a nice and honorable man who did a tremendous job in his one season as the Rams' head football coach before getting an extremely raw deal.

From what I've been able to determine, removing Williams from his football coaching duties made exactly no sense at all.

* On a more pleasant Scott City note, former Ram football great Britt Mirgaux is having quite a rookie season in the Indoor Football League.

Mirgaux, also an ex-SEMO standout, is the leading rusher for the Black Hills (S.D.) Machine, with 377 yards in 11 games, and he ranks among the IFL's scoring leaders with 16 touchdowns.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian