This was a fun day. I found out yesterday the tee times for the guys I wanted to watch and planned on getting to the course early enough to watch. Well that didn’t happen. Sleeping in is a joy not to pass up when it can happen, and I took full advantage of that this morning. We did make out there in time to see Rickie Fowler hit his approach to number 16. We watched him play 17, 18, 1, 2 and 3 then headed back to the range area and watched John Daly hit for a bit.
Took some time off and grabbed a bite to eat at what the tournament calls “The Hill”. It’s a great area that is elevated above the green at 16, the tee box at 17 and the green at 18. It’s only a short walk the green at 9 and the tee box at 1. So there is a lot going on is a small area. After lunch we walked around for a while. I hit a 6 foot putt and won a t-shirt that was cool. Then we went of to a Toyota booth that was sponsoring a long drive contest. The long drive of the day was at 309. I knew I couldn’t hit that but wanted to give it a shot. My best was 258. Not bad, considering it was teed up about a quarter of an inch off the mat. The tee broke and they didn’t have a replacement one. What was impressive is my wife stepped up and after a few not so great swings, smashed a 200+ drive!! She was pretty happy, now I just have to get her out to the range!
So we walked with the John Daly group, it was him, Alex Prugh and Scott McCarron. Watching the PGA on TV is fun, but being right next to these guys as the hit their shots is amazing to watch. Daly absolutely crushes the ball. The sound it makes at impact in so intense you just can’t get that from the television broadcast. Seeing 350+ drives live is so cool. One of the guys walking with the group was telling me that normally hole 4 is par 5 for the local everyday players but for the PGA event they make it a par 4. He said “That’s just sick, he just hit driver, wedge on this hole. I’m not short off the tee by any means and I’m normally Driver, 5I, and he just stuck his wedge shot!” Another shot that just impressed the hell out of me was Daly’s second on 9. His was in the fairway bunker about 250 from the green and hit his shot over the green to the left and had a great lie for a nice chip and putt for birdie. That was incredible!
I’ve always liked watching Daly just because he hits the shit out of the ball, but I really started following him this year because of the “Being John Daly” show on the Golf Channel. That was a great show and I really enjoyed watching it. As we were walking with the group I saw John’s girlfriend walking also. Before John teed off on number 4 I went up and told her that I thought the show was great and really enjoyed watching it. She was really nice and thanked us for watching. Really down to earth people, she was chatting with people the entire time not being rude to anyone while still rooting John on. That was nice to see.
After Daly finished we waited to see if he would sign any autographs, but he did an interview with the Golf Channel and disappeared. No biggie. He had a great round of 66, I was happy for him. One person that did sign some autographs was Scott McCarron, and this was priceless. A guy waiting for him to finished up signing a kids hat asked him “He Scott, you been around a while, How old are you now?” and he responded with “What kind if question is that? How much do you weigh?” I cracked up, best line I heard all day! I’m now a Scott McCarron fan too!
Here's a link to the tournament at pgatour.com:
http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/r047/
Desert Pines tomorrow 9am Tee Time!!
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