Tiger watching
Last week I attended 6 of the 7 days of the Bay Hill Invitational tournament in Orlando, which was a practice round, a Pro-Am and the 4 tournament days. I had a BLAST! I am also VERY thankful that with a lot of stretching and Ibuprofin my knee held up to all the walking (maybe I'm on the road to recovery). While my favorite part of watching pro golf live is still walking with players in small galleries, I must admit that by Sunday I did get a little caught up in Tiger-mania.
On Thursday I walked with Corey Pavin (2010 Ryder Cup captain) in an early group. He was getting out-driven by 20 to 50 yards on each hole but he made the cut. I saw Woody Austin put a ball in the water from 100 yards out and I saw Richard Johnson sprint off the course to the bathrooms only to return to a 100 yard pitch and hit it 80 yards fat. When Mark Calcavecchia went in the water off the tee on 6 he muttered to Marc Turnesa (also in the water) "let me hit again now while I'm hot"...
But those were the exceptions. Mostly there was a lot of amazingly good golf. I saw John Senden hit a sprinkler head and bounce over the grandstands. He took a free drop in thick rough behind the hole, then with astounding touch found a place to land the ball and let it roll down a slope from the first cut to the hole. The margin for error was almost nil - really an all-star par.
For a second year in a row I was standing in the right place at the right time and met Arnold Palmer. This year I was in the Mastercard pavilion waiting in line to hit the newest Callaway driver when we were told that Arnold would be making an appearance in 10 minutes with Jimmy Roberts doing an informal interview to promote Jimmy's new book. They did a nice 20 minute chat with a group of 50 or so and I got to hear the story of how Jason Gore went to Latrobe Country Club one day to meet Mr. Palmer and ended up deciding to become a professional golfer.
Saturday I camped out on the 6th hole, 4 groups ahead of Tiger to see him hit the big ball over water. Tim Herron was on 6 when Tiger and his gallery came by 4, the adjacent tee box. Tim's caddie looked at me and quipped "I wonder who they all came to see?". Tim had been waiting for the fairway to clear and was just ready to hit when Tiger arrived, he called over "Hey Tiger -- MY turn" and hit first. I can see why, after Tiger hits his gallery immediately begins to swarm away and makes a lot of commotion. By the time Tiger got to 6 there was a mob standing behind me. Steve Williams went to get some water and in a very nice gesture pulled an extra water out of the players cooler and gave it to a young boy who had been waiting with me at the ropes. Instead of a 335 yard bomb, Tiger hit a safe 300 yard shot away from the edge of the water. I backtracked to find the leaders playing with essentially no gallery and walked along with Sean O'Hair and Roger Maltby in relative quiet for the rest of the day.
Sunday brought rain all morning, some heavy -- so when I arrived on the course at 2:30 Tiger had not even tee'd off. With a 5 shot deficit to Sean O'Hair I expected little excitement and planned my day around seeing Tiger up close a few times and then following smaller galleries, maybe even leaving early if Sean had increased his lead -- little did I know... After watching a few of the first groups hit off 7 I walked to 3 to stake out a place behind the tee. When Tiger walked up 2 it was clear that his gallery was HUGE. The extra people meant I could no longer see #2 green from the #3 tee box - but when the roar went up I could guess a Tiger birdie had cut the lead to 4 strokes. I was able to get a great look at Tiger drawing a three wood to the center of the fairway before O'Hair put his ball off to the right. Tiger's gallery now filled the entire 400+ yards of the 3rd hole at least 10 people deep in most places. I walked across the old railway bridge from 3 to 7 tee to wait for the group there, as O'Hair/Woods went Bogey/Birdie to cut the lead to 2, but by the time I saw a scoreboard Tiger had bogeyed 4, giving O'Hair back a margin of 3 shots.
When Tiger stepped onto 7, the lead was still 3 and I watched Tiger, O'Hair and Zach Johnson all hit the green. As I walked over to the 8th fairway I heard the roar as Tiger birdied and O'Hair bogeyed - a two shot swing, and the lead is now only 1 stroke! I had picked the right place on 8 and watched Tiger's ball land a few yards away, then watched Tiger and Zach miss the green with O'Hair making a nice approach. Tiger and Sean traded pars there and I headed for the back nine to find a new place to wait.
Walking up #1 I towards the clubhouse I struck up a conversation with a few other people who were also trying to see Tiger without battling his gallery. When I asked where they were heading one kid told me he knew a perfect place to watch on 18, did I want him to show me? I skeptically asked how that could be, since I was SURE all the good places around 18 were long gone at this point. He said his name was CJ and he LIVED in the house next to the 18th green - for $10 he'd SELL me a seat in his backyard! Still suspecting a scam I said OK, lets go see. He took me out the back gate, just down the road and we jumped a fence to get into a yard - right next to the VIP stands and shotlink tower at 18 green. Sure enough he had a row of 20 seats, at this point all empty. I gave him the $10 and claimed a seat greenside, directly behind the hole and barely 20 yards away. In the next 2 hours CJ sold a few hundred more passes to his backyard (later in the day he dropped the price to $5 but I didn't mind) and he began to sell drinks too. I'm sure he cleared several thousand in cash by the time he was done - he even had one guy insisting on getting a written promise for a seat there next year.
At this point all I could do was watch the groups play up, and watch the leader board. More than a few people were in the water or in the rocks and no one made a putt. O'Hair kept a one shot lead for a while, but then the board posted them tie and 15... then Tiger AHEAD at 16. I figured I'd just missed the come-back sitting on the 18th green (but at least I had a GOOD seat). But before we saw the final group coming up 18 and before the scores from 17 were posted a lady in the, now large, crowd standing behind me said "it's TIE, it's TIE, my son just texted me that Tiger bogeyed 17!"
WOW... so it was coming down to 18 and I was in the right place! Tiger comes up hole high and left with Sean right at the pin and long - both putting for makable birdies. Sean leaves his birdie putt well short and Tiger steps up to do what seems both improbable and inevitable... he sinks the putt, pumps his fist and hugs Steve with force as he wins again. I guess HIS knee is OK now.
This faked souvenir picture is oddly pretty close to where I was actually sitting. To give a little idea, this picture ALMOST shows me in frame. To the far right you can just make out three red shirts - those are the volunteers who snuck in below the shotlink tower. I am just to their right and out of the frame here.
