If you are going to be an also ran, not in the top 64 in the world golf rankings, the Riviera Maya-Cancun area is a magnificent place to spend some time with your underachieving buddies. I’m not sure of the numbers but these nobodies playing at El Camaleon, the 14th toughest track on tour, are pretty impressive. There are at least 4-5 Major winners – Lehman, Toms, Daly, Jansen – a bunch of Ryder Cuppers, a couple of U.S. Amateur champs at least – Mayfair and Verplank – a TPC winner, Fred Funk and a Tour Championship winner or two.
Match play is a different breed, takes a special character to survive five days of head-to-head competition, just take a look at who won last year, Ian Poulter one of the game’s obtuse characters. Stroke play is a steady grind, match play is constantly ebbing never flowing and your emotions take a beating. A steady tee to green game can be destroyed by a swashbuckler who throws around as many bogeys as pars. One well placed birdie or two can win a match play event while you’re on the way to shooting 75 and your opponent is grinding out a smooth 70.
We were supposed to get started early Monday morning at the Quarry. When you only have to drive a couple hours between tournaments you don’t expect any delays or mishaps, Bob had both, a missed turn in Miami producing a 2½ hour travel nightmare then his phone was slammed in the car door when he arrived in Naples. I received partial blame for the travel mishap; usually we’re only blamed for everything that goes wrong on the course not off the course.
There was a large sun rising when I was crossing Alligator Alley early Tuesday heading for The Old Course at Broken Sound in Boca Raton. The new hip was ready, the rest of the body wasn’t quite in caddy shape yet, the Rendevous was making some strange noises but that bright sun was definitely a reflection of a new attitude and the great year on the horizon. I was definitely looking forward to the week, the year and walking courses without pain having fun again.
It’s been a long while since I was able to warm up in Florida before the season started. Luckily we escaped the Midwest before the storm of the century hit and landed in Bonita Springs Monday night. Mom and Dad put up with me for the week, the Happy Valley pool was exactly what the doctor ordered to rehab the new hip plus the relaxing week gave me time to tie up all the loose ends before heading out on tour.
My Torrey Pines picks looked pretty good going into the weekend and not bad entering the last round but Haas floundered, Tiger was beat by a high-school kid, both letting one of my second foursome picks, Bubba Watson, the other lefty, sneak in for a win. He was in my fantasy league don’t know why I didn’t carry him along here. Anyway it wasn’t a bad week for Kaddy Korner, poor Tiger has a long way to go though.
At every tour stop local charities benefit more than anyone and the players, wives, caddies and volunteers love helping out. We often don’t hear about the activities but the wives do a little more than spend their days shopping while hubby is grinding during practice days. Check out the PGA Tour Player’s Wives Association, see what they do for charitable benefits.
Let’s hope this happens to all of us!
98 and no enemies - human interest story. All golfers should live so long as to be this kind of old man!
Toward the end of the Sunday service, the Minister asked,
“How many of you have forgiven your enemies?” 80% held up their hands. The Minister then repeated his question. All responded this time,except one man, an avid golfer named Walter Barnes,who attended church only when the weather was bad,
“Mr. Barnes, it’s obviously not a good morning for golf. It’s good to see you here today.Are you not willing to forgive your enemies?”
“I don’t have any,” he replied gruffly.“Mr. Barnes, that is very unusual. How old are you?”
“Ninety-eight,” he replied.
The congregation stood up and clapped their hands.“
Oh, Mr. Barnes, would you please come down in front & tell us all how a person can live ninety-eight years & not have an enemy in the world?”
The old golfer tottered down the aisle, stopped in front of the pulpit, turned around, faced the congregation, and said simply,
Tiger’s here this week, that’s all that matters. The PGA Tour could be playing on airport runways and if the Woods guy shows up there will be a huge crowd with loads of media static. He has roamed Torrey Pines in La Jolla since childhood destroying the course and his opposition on a regular basis. I think there’s 13 trophies from Torrey resting someplace with Tiger Woods name engraved on them. Tiger remembers coming to the tournament when he was 6 or 7 and playing the course at an early age. Yes he’s my favorite and everyone else’s teeing it up in a fantasy league. The only question is how low will he go and how much will the winning margin be.
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