the gallery. Tell me the stories that make me want to root for these players and let me make up my mind about golf being there or not. That did happen in the end, but there was way too much force-feeding a

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri state senator has refused to stand while her colleagues recited the Pledge of Allegiance in the state Capitol.Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, a St. Louis Democrat, says her silent protest Wednesday on the Senate floor was intended to show solidarity with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.Kaepernick has kneeled for the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial oppression. Nasheed, who is black, says she wants to call attention to those issues and isnt anti-America. Nasheeds protest was met with silence in the chamber.Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a former GOP candidate for governor who presided over the Senate Wednesday, released a statement calling Nasheeds protest an occasion for great sorrow. He said he worried about the example she is setting, particularly for our young people.Marco Reus Jersey . - Derek Wolfe says hes finally healthy after suffering a seizure in November that doctors now believe was related to the spinal cord injury he suffered in the preseason. Dzenis Burnic Jersey . On Mar. 16, coming off a "fight of the year" performance at UFC 154 the previous November, St-Pierre faced Nick Diaz at UFC 158 in what would be his eighth defence of the welterweight title. Using his superior athleticism, St-Pierre cruised to a five round, unanimous decision victory setting up a much-anticipated title defence against number one contender Johny Hendricks. http://www.footballdortmundpro.com/Kids-Mahmoud-Dahoud-Jersey/ .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Dzenis Burnic Dortmund Jersey . Patrice Bergeron and Daniel Paille scored 20 seconds apart a few minutes after Stamkos was taken off the ice on a stretcher with a broken right leg, and the Bruins beat the Lightning 3-0 on Monday afternoon. Thomas Delaney Jersey . Nathan MacKinnon, Jamie McGinn and Jan Hejda also scored for the Avalanche, who won despite being outshot 38-23. MacKinnons goal, also on the power play, came with just over a minute remaining.Ten weeks ago, I penned a piece beginning with my own Olympic dreams as a 14-year-old mesmerized by the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, just two hours from home. By the end, I had done a nearly 180-degree turn, understanding the position of golfers who have chosen not to participate in the Olympic Games.I still stand by that, as professional golfers are independent contractors. Whether players such as Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson or Adam Scott have any regrets about not competing in Rio are solely their own and no one elses business.They shouldnt have had to publicly rationalize their decisions, either. But those decisions are also in the rearview mirror.Overall, the Olympic experience was a good one for golf. Im still not sure who needed each other more, golf or the Olympics, but it was a win.Perfect? No. Needing improvement? Certainly, but still very positive.So, lets take a look at the thumbs up and thumbs down for the two weeks of Olympic golf competition.Thumbs up1. Quality of play Both Justin Rose and Inbee Park shot 16 under par in winning their gold medals. While Parks victory was a runaway, the competition for the remaining five golf medals was keen and riveting, with Lydia Ko holing a 7-footer for a silver over Shanshan Feng. Stacy Lewis also missed a putt at the final hole that could have set the stage for a three-way playoff for the bronze.2. Parity among the medal winners Six medals to six different countries. From Great Britain, Sweden and the United States on the mens side to South Korea, New Zealand and China in the womens event, golfs global appeal was only reinforced.3. Television exposure While the overall rating numbers were very good for both weeks, perhaps the biggest boom will someday be seen in China, where golf is still in its infancy.Even Chinas Feng said her thoughts were on performing for her people at home, because normally, golf is only shown on golf-specific outlets, whereas this competition was shown throughout China, reaching billions of those who had never been exposed to the game.4. Pairings observations Brazilians Adilson da Silva and Miriam Nagl both hit the opening tee shots for their respective competitions. There was also terrific balance of star pairings throughout the opening day for each competition, with nearly every group having a representative from Europe, North America and rest of the world.5. The dark horse/who-in-the-world-is-that factor Australias Marcus Fraser and Indias Aditi Ashok had everyone searching the internet to find out who they were and how they got to Rio. They each were the Eddie the Eagle of the golf competition, but even better.6. The Olympic Golf Course Purposely built for these Olympics, the course was superb. It is now open for play as the first public course in Brazil.Consideration was given for the usually windy conditions during design and construction. The surfaces (zoysia and paspalum grasses) are extremely tolerant of varying weather conditions. Players were presented with options as to how to play certain shots, and the green speeds, in the 11-foot range on the stimpmeter, allowed for creativity, aggressive play and heroics.Let this be a lesson to those setting up major championships, all the way down to your club member guest: Faster isnt always better, but thrilling golf with scoring potential is.7. New lingo Zero emphasis on a top 10. That just isnt going to get it done at the Olympics. We now have a battle for silver and a back-door bronze. Love it.Thumbs down1. Pace of play The final mens pairing played in five hours on the last day, and the women took 5 hours, 45 minutes on their first.dddddddddddd That is certainly not going to help grow the game.Officials made it clear to the women after Day 1 that the pace was unacceptable and even gave Brazilian player Victoria Lovelady a slow-play penalty in the second round.Caddies seemed overly involved and, if anything, the women should have played faster after seeing the course both in person and on television the previous week.2. Format While 72 holes of stroke play is certainly most familiar in golf, there are other formats that would be more compelling. Much was spoken of the possibility of a team or mixed-team element, even by people such as Sergio Garcia, LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan and Stacy Lewis.Heck, even Matt Kuchar thought there was a team element to the competition less than a week before he departed for the games!When golf is re-evaluated for post-2020 inclusion in the Olympics in 2017, lets hope this gets some serious traction.3. PGA Tour schedule conflicts The LPGA Tour absolutely nailed it on this one: There was no competing event, so that the sole focus could be on the Olympics. The PGA Tour should follow suit and not force players to make a choice.Camilo Villegas withdrew from the Olympics to focus on keeping his status on the PGA Tour next year by playing the John Deere Classic instead of representing his native Colombia.Justin Rose lost two Fed Ex Cup spots by winning the gold, and three Web.com Tour players -- Rodolfo Cazaubon, Cheng Tsung Pan and Seamus Power -- also lost important starts on that tour to be at the Olympics.4. PGA Tour announcements of upgrades at the Tour Championship on the eve of the Olympics It was not quite as bad as the USGA announcing its new television deal with FOX and leaving longtime partners NBC and ESPN the night before the 2013 PGA Championship, but it was still very questionable when the focus should have been on the Olympics.5. Unreasonable focus on the players who werent in Rio There was phenomenal uproar about Day, Spieth, McIlroy, Johnson and Scotts absence. But even though Olympic soccer includes U-23 teams with three older-player exceptions, where was the equivalent noise about two of that sports biggest stars -- Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi -- not being in Rio?6. Endless propagandizing The nearly 24/7 messaging of legitimizing golfs inclusion in the Olympics got to be too much. Show the viewers great shots, the players passion and the displays of nationalism in the gallery. Tell me the stories that make me want to root for these players and let me make up my mind about golf being there or not. That did happen in the end, but there was way too much force-feeding at the start.7. Those who encouraged?Inbee?Park to give up her Olympic spotIt became the ultimate take that moment. The Hall of Famer earned every bit of her place on South Koreas team, despite a chronic left thumb injury. And how did she respond? Park, admittedly playing at about 80 percent, won the womens gold medal by 5 shots over top-ranked Lydia Ko. If Park never hits another golf shot, what a way to go out.Golf in the Rio Olympics was a win -- not a perfect score but darn good, despite the pitfalls faced. It won because golfers played at their highest level and on a beautifully setup test as great as any sport in the world -- and not because of messaging or posturing of administrators, federations or governments.Golf is just cool.And as far as golf staying in the Summer Games beyond Tokyo, it indeed makes the Olympics better too. ' ' '