Sept. 30, 2008 -- First off, if you see Johnny Westphal, tell him he owes me one. Two, actually.

This mystery man cost me a couple of hours Monday morning in the jury assembly room at the Taylor County courthouse. Nearly 200 solid citizens of the Big Country, including me, did our civic duty by answering a jury summons. Westphal's citizenship became slightly more gaseous as he disappeared into the ether, thus vaporizing my plans to finish this column by lunch.

The fun began a little after 8:30 a.m. when one of the county court judges offered amnesty to those who could make a compelling case that more pressing matters awaited them elsewhere. When I objected my candidacy on the grounds that GMT Nation was waiting for my FedEx Cup recap, the judge said, "I'll let you go if you can explain to me why they're still playing golf during football season?" I sat down.

After a short break, the roughly 125 of us who didn't have legitimate get-of-jury-duty-free cards returned to the holding room and waited for our names to be called. I dodged the first three pools. The fourth was more of a small pond. They'd need 60 of the remaining 75 of us for the fourth case, yet amazingly I wasn't one of them.

Enter the elusive Mr. Westphal. Or should I say exit. Each potential juror was to say "here" or "present" when his or her name was announced. The name "Westphal" elicited no answer when that final 60-person pool was being filled. He'd apparently skipped out during the break. After brief deliberation with an assistant, the clerk turned back to the crowd and announced one final candidate to replace the fugitive, a name that let my 14 fellow escapees wriggle off the hook and threw me in the pool.

So instead of finishing this column at Starbucks, I spent the next two hours percolating with the other potential jurors as trouble brewed between the defense and prosecution in the case we were assigned. Finally, the judge called us in to announce the indictment against the accused was being rewritten and we were all free to go. Good thing or else they might've soon been writing one for me in the case, "Boone v. Westphal."

Closing arguments on the 2008 PGA Tour season haven't yet been made; six more Fall Series events will determine the final money list. But with the conclusion of the playoffs Sunday at the Tour Championship and the presentation of the FedEx Cup to Vijay Singh, who managed to stay vertical for four rounds and receive what he'd clinched three weeks ago, we now have a preponderance of evidence to make a case for the biggest stories of 2008.

To wit:

Exhibit A -- As in Azinger, Paul. Who says Ryder Cup captains don't matter? 'Zinger concocted the perfect blend of energy (leading a Thursday night pep rally in downtown Louisville) and strategy (grouping his team of 12 according to personality into three groups of four) to deliver the U.S. its first Ryder Cup victory since 1999. He has only one important decision left as captain: will he do it again, if asked, in 2010?

Exhibit AK -- Grip It and Rip It gave way this year to Bling and Bang, a new generation of Tour players in their 20s with equal parts style and substance. Anthony Kim -- whose reputation and 400-pound, diamond-crusted "AK" belt buckle precede him -- is the front man for the Tour's band of rock stars that includes Kim's Ryder Cup teammate Hunter Mahan and Camilo Villegas, who was winless until taking the final two playoff events, including the Tour Championship Sunday. J.B. Holmes is a little bit country where those others are a little bit rock 'n' roll. But he's nonetheless a big part of an in-your-face group that suggests the Tour's future isn't entirely held together by a single ligament in Tiger Woods' knee. Speaking of which...

Tiger Woods' performance (albeit limited) in 2008 might be the story of the year. (Photo: Getty Images)

Exhibit ACL -- Tiger Woods' season began with the hook of perfection and ended with the slice of a surgeon's scalpel. Before Woods teed off in 2008, he stuck by his previous pronouncement that winning the Grand Slam was "easily within reason." He backed it up by winning his first four tournaments worldwide, two in blowouts and two with dramatic, 72nd hole birdies that had us wondering if he'd go whatever-and-0 in 2008. But instead of running the table, Woods found himself on an operating table two days after a runner-up finish at the Masters having a nasty knee cleaned up. Two months later, with no practice and -- as we later discovered -- virtually nothing holding his left leg together, Woods outdid the U.S. Open field and maybe even himself, winning his 65th career tournament and 14th major in a 91-hole thriller over Rocco Mediate. Two days later, Woods announced he would have reconstructive surgery on his ACL and would miss the rest of this season and who knows how much of the next. Perhaps most amazing of all, Woods managed in just seven tournaments to at the very least rock the vote for PGA Tour Player of the Year, which would've otherwise been a landslide victory in favor of...

Exhibit Ehh -- Padraig Harrington brought his A game to the season's last two Grand Slam events majors and his "Ehh" game to those major media rooms. Harrington's high-pitched and patented pause in post-round interviews is reflective of how carefully he manages his game on the course. Especially in the biggies. A second straight Open Championship and first PGA a month later gives Harrington three of the last six majors, each of which he's rallied to win in the final round. He'll go to the Masters next April with a chance to become just the second man ever to win three consecutive major championships (or the third, if you count Hogan in '53).

As to the question of whether or not Tiger Woods will be healthy enough to try to stop him, the jury remains -- like Johnny Westphal -- out.

Grant Boone is a husband, father, broadcaster, and journalist born in Tennessee and living in Texas. During his nearly 20 years in sports journalism, he's been heard on tape delay in pizza joints half-filled with fully-drunk beer league softball teams and around the world covering major sporting events for ESPN, Turner Sports, Golf Channel, and CBS Radio. To read past installments of Grant Me This, click here. You can contact Grant at pgagrant@hotmail.com.