By RAY McNULTY, Scripps Howard News Service

A new college football season kicks off Thursday night with 19 Division I teams playing games with pretty much everyone else set for Friday and the rest of the weekend.

It will close on Friday night, Jan. 8, at Dolphin Stadium where the nation's two best teams will clash in the 2009 BCS Championship Game.

Or so we hope.

So now that the Beijing Olympics are history, the question must be asked: Did China accomplish its mission?

A few years back, when the idea of trying to return golf to the Olympics resurfaced, Tiger Woods didn't completely shoot down the idea.

But he didn't exactly embrace it, either.

As someone whose 50th birthday isn't too far off, this isn't easy for me to say -- because I'm old enough to remember 1972 and the Munich Olympics.

I'm old enough to have seen Mark Spitz swim.

It was all just an innocent mistake, just some botched reporting that resulted in the dispensing of incorrect information, not any premeditated move to circumvent the rules.

That's what the Chinese want everyone to believe.

Have you seen the video? Did you see how hard Julio Castillo threw that baseball toward the opposing team's dugout? Did you notice the menacing look on his face? The rage in his eyes? The unmistakable intent of his action?

Paul Hargarten says he and his wife, Judy, will be in Louisville in September for the 2008 Ryder Cup matches.

So will Kenny Perry.

And that's no coincidence.

The two men -- the 83-year-old retired banker from Vero Beach, Fla. and the 47-year-old PGA Tour player from Kentucky -- have authored what might be the feel-good, golf story of the summer.

Less than three weeks after his wedding to Chris Evert, Greg Norman -- at age 53, playing in a major golf championship for the first time since 2005, having failed to make the cut in the only three PGA Tour events in which he has entered this year -- found himself one stroke off the lead Friday after the first two rounds of the 137th British Open at Royal Birkdale.

A surprise?

Los Angeles' all-time greatest sports icon is also the most famous celebrity in Vero Beach, Fla.

Think about that for a moment.

Think about all the sports stars that have performed on the glittery Hollywood stage.

The tennis played by Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in Sunday's Wimbledon final was as competitive and compelling as any I've seen.

It was, by any measure, a match for the ages.

It was, many might argue, the greatest men's final ever played on the All England Club's fabled Centre Court.