When Ovechkin took batting practice last week, he jumped into the cage with all the anguished self-consciousness of a caffeinated Stuart Scott and, as cameras rolled and actual professional baseball players watched and laughed, began flailing away with his horrific two-handed forehand. Same thing with his warm-up throws; while professional baseball players sat around and snickered and said he threw like a girl, the guy just shot-putted away, hair flopping and all that. Same thing, needless to say, with his immediate and goofy embrace of English. So it's no surprise that he would bust out his peasant-chopping-wood, every-other-whiff golf swing in front of the cameras, and that his enthusiasm would be rewarded with that hole-in-one. People who embrace life like that get rewarded. People who instead sit around and worry all the time hit their tee shots into the woods and are given sports blogs.

The highlights of this video:

1) Ovie plays air guitar with his golf club before running to the green.

2) Ovie, feeling peppy: "Tiger, where you are? Tiger?"

3) Ovie, verifying his achievement: "I swear God. Whooo! I swear my mom. My home."

4) Ovie, on his preparation: "Well, I watch couple lessons. Uh, Tiger Woods, saw how he shot, I said well maybe I can do like the same shot and I shot it and pooo!"

By Dan Steinberg  |  October 3, 2006; 9:23 AM ET
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