Coffee with Crawford | A Sunday review: Resilience, reward -- and reality | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Let me tell you about my Sunday. It started with a comeback story, continued with a feel-good story, and ended with a gut punch.

First, William Mouw — a PGA Tour rookie whose year began with a viral video of him making a 13 — fired a course-record 61 to win the ISCO Championship at Hurstbourne. He laughed off the lowlights, kept grinding, and found his moment.

My favorite sports stories are the ones that are about more than sports. For me, his story was a fastball down the middle of the plate. It’s easy to shrug of the experience of hundreds of thousands of people watching a moment of failure – unless it happens to you. Mouw did that, and hasn’t looked back. We can all learn from him. It was a fun column to write.

I was feeling pretty good, then I got home and saw a text from Rick Bozich. If you wonder what Rick is doing in retirement, he’s watching every minute of Day 1 of the MLB Draft. And he told me that Louisville pitcher Patrick Forbes had just been drafted in the first round.

Another resilience story.

When he arrived at Louisville, Forbes was a Kentucky Mr. Baseball, a two-way player who could hit and pitch a little but wasn’t sure what his focus would be. He became Louisville’s ace — a College World Series star taken 29th overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He stayed when others left. Didn’t chase the highest bidder in the transfer portal. He bet on himself — and won.

(For the record: Gavin Kilen, who did leave Louisville for Tennessee, was drafted 13th overall. But he missed the Omaha experience — if that matters. I think it does.)

Two feel-good stories. Two guys who stayed the course, kept the faith, and reaped the rewards.

A good day.

And then I started to see the news out of the Kentucky Exposition Center.

The Run 4 Roses girls’ basketball tournament — one of the biggest events Louisville hosts every year — was evacuated after what appears to have been a false alarm. No threat was found. But something sparked a panic. Some people who were there on social media reported loud pops, or other loud sounds. Whatever it was, video shared from the venue shows frightened players sprinting en masse for the exits. And in a moment like that, panic is real, whether the threat is or not.

Louisville police said no gunshots were fired. No violence occurred. A few people were injured in the scramble to escape. But the tournament was halted. The venue was cleared. Basketball was called off for the day.

It resumes today — with added security.

Some teams and coaches chose to withdraw. Many stayed. But it was a sobering reminder of how close to the edge things feel right now — how quickly joy can turn to fear.

You root for events like Run 4 Roses. You root for the organizers who’ve built it into something massive, and the young athletes who arrive full of hope — hoping to be seen, to be believed in. You root for the city to shine.

But sometimes, even when the sun’s out and the games are good, the day just turns. That’s life. And this job. That was Sunday.

Quick Sips

• A winning week for Hurstbourne: What was true after two rounds remained true when the final putt dropped: One of the big winners at the ISCO Championship was Hurstbourne Country Club.

The course played 1.119 strokes over par — making it the fifth-toughest on the PGA Tour this season by scoring average. From pin placements to weather recovery, the setup earned high marks.

“I don’t know that a lot of us players were expecting quite this,” Mouw told NBC. “But Hurstbourne Country Club did such a good job maxing their course out. You’ve got to play it correctly, and double digits to win here is very, very good. They just did a great job.”

• The greatest show in Media Days begins today in Atlanta with SEC coaches and players descending on the College Football Hall of Fame to talk (and talk some more). Kentucky’s turn comes Thursday morning, when coach Mark Stoops is joined by safety Jordan Lovett, tight end Josh Kattus and linebacker Alex Afari Jr.