Third Round at Wachovia

We had a great day, but the only thing you’re allowed to take with you into the tournament, besides yourself, is a chair (provided it’s the fold-up type that fits in a bag) and an umbrella. I did find some photos online taken at holes we visited. We think that the red blur behind Tiger in the photo above taken on the 9th green may be Lago. We were seated directly behind Tiger when he lined up his putt and Lago was wearing a red pullover.

Our day started with a trip to the dentist office. One of Lago’s caps became loose the night before. The earliest they could see her was 11 a.m. While waiting at the dentist office, I scanned through a Golf Digest from March 2005. I came across an article about golf jokes and ended up reading it from start to finish. After the dentist, we picked up lunch then proceeded to the parking area located near the South Park Mall. From there, we took a shuttle bus to Quail Hollow. The shuttle buses were full-size passenger buses with comfortable seats and a video preview of the tournament. Our bus driver was a bit of a character and told jokes over the p.a. system during the ride. Strangely enough, the bus driver told one of the jokes from the magazine article I had just read:

A guy gets up at dawn on a Saturday morning and heads for the golf course as usual. But it's cold and raining, so halfway to the club, he gives up and returns home, where he takes off his clothes, climbs back into bed and snuggles up against his wife. "It's freezing out there," he says. "Yeah," his wife answers sleepily. "Can you believe my stupid husband is playing golf?"

To our good fortune, the bus driver also informed us that play had recently resumed following a two-hour rain delay. Arriving at Quail Hollow, we walked around the practice area that was probably larger than most par-3 courses. The driving range tees were just inside the gate and the first golfer I recognized was Bernhard Langer, a former Masters’ champion.

After a quick stop at the restroom, we picked up a couple large Heineken’s near the 4th tee. Ernie Els was about to tee off, so we watched him and then made our way to the practice putting green behind the 1st tee. There we saw Lago’s fav and fellow countryman, Sergio Garcia. He disappeared after a few putts and then we walked over to the 9th green, which was just to the left of the 1st tee. There we watched Zach Johnson, current Masters’ champion, make his approach shot and putt for a disappointing bogey.

Garcia’s tee time was approaching so we meandered back over to the putting green and this time saw Vijay Singh working with his caddy by hitting the same right-to-left putt a dozen or so times. Since the leaders were not going to tee off for over an hour after Garcia, we decided we would follow him for a few holes and then make our way back to the 1st tee to watch Tiger and Vijay start their rounds.

Sergio Garcia tees off on the 5th hole.

While waiting for Garcia, we saw Langer tee off followed by Jose Maria Olazabal, two-time Masters’ champion. Garcia was paired with Michael Putnam, and we followed them as they finished the 1st hole. We watched them tee off on the 2nd hole then we made a quick restroom and snack break and caught up with them on the 4th tee. We followed them up the 4th and over to the 5th. Both were finding the rough off the tee, but Garcia was hitting much better approach shots giving him chances at birdie on the long par 4s. On the 5th hole, a 570-yard par 5 dogleg left, both Garcia and Putnam tried to cut the corner with Putnam having better success landing his tee shot in the fairway. Garcia’s ball landed in the pine straw next to a tree. Garcia hit his approach to the green after removing some pine needles near the ball. His shot landed in a right green-side bunker, but as he walked up the fairway he was concerned with something on the palm of his hand. We never found out whether he had a splinter or what happened with his hand, but they allowed the golfers behind to play their approach shots while Garcia’s hand was checked out. Adam Scott, who won the 2004 Players’ Championship, and Trevor Immelman, last year’s Western Open winner, played their approaches and waited while Garcia finished play on the 5th, where he made par.

We then made our way back to the 1st tee to wait for Tiger and Vijay’s tee time. We missed Phil Mickelson’s start, but we would catch him later on the 9th.

Tiger & Viyah waiting to tee off.

A huge crowd had already started to gather around the 1st tee knowing that Tiger was coming soon. There was a noticeable difference between the crowds for other golfers compared to the crowd that followed Tiger. It was evident many people were there just to catch a glimpse of the golfer who may be the greatest to ever play the game. One fan, or should I use the full term fanatic, was decked out in orange from head to toe with black tiger stripes. The front of his shirt read, “Tiger is Great” in big block letters.

We managed to find a spot where we could see just enough through the people closer to the tee. We were able to see both Tiger and Vijay tee off and then waited as they walked past.

We also saw CBS announcer David Feherty, who was on the course following the leaders. I leaned over to Lago and said, “Hey it’s your favorite announcer.” Feherty is one of the announcers in the Tiger Woods PlayStation video game and he’s always quick with a smart aleck comment when you hit a bad shot.

Knowing that this huge crowd would be following Tiger and Vijay from hole to hole, we decided to plant ourselves on the 9th green and watch everyone play through. Lago got a spot on the left side of the green and I was off in search of a restroom and food & drink. The nearest restroom was over behind the 18th green. The grandstands and tents surrounding the 18th green made it look like a stadium. Leaving the restroom, I saw Aaron Baddeley leaving the 18th following his round.

I returned to the 9th green with food & drink. Following Garcia playing through, the people in front of us left. Lago and I moved up to the edge of the green and we had “front-row” seats.

The hole on the 9th was cut very close to the right edge of the green causing many golfers to hit into the crowd on the right. Looking back, we were fortunate to sit on the left side. The people sitting immediately behind us must not have been very familiar with the game, because they kept wondering why everyone was hitting into the crowd on the right – duh, because the hole is over there ya dopes!

One golfer, Charlie Wi, had his approach shot land beneath the chairs of an elderly couple. Tournament marshals moved the crowd away from the couple and there they sat until Wi approached and got a judge’s ruling. I don’t think the couple knew what they were getting into when they placed their chairs next to the green that day.

Rory Sabbatini hits his approach shot to the 9th green.

We watched as each subsequent pairing made their approach shots and played through the 9th hole. In addition to the aforementioned golfers, we saw Jerry Kelly, Steve Stricker, Jeff Maggert, Stephen Ames, Rory Sabbatini, Padraig Harrington, Stewart Cink and Phil Mickelson. Phil had a large contingent of supporters, but not compared to the crowd that amassed as the leaders approached.

Tiger hit an excellent second shot landing on the green about 10-15 feet to the left of the hole. Vijay landed his second in a bunker in front of the green. Tiger marked his ball then Vijay hit out of the bunker. Tiger missed his putt, but made par. Vijay missed his putt and made bogey.

It started to rain shortly before we saw Tiger and Vijay, and by this time it was around 6:30 p.m. We decided to call it a day and left happy to have seen all the great players that we came to see. We made our way back to the shuttle bus and found we had the same bus driver on the return. He told more jokes, but only repeated one – the golf joke.

We decided to treat ourselves to dinner at Morton’s and had an excellent meal there as always. Lago had the filet with crabmeat & asparagus and I had the Cajun ribeye. We shared the spinach sautéed with mushrooms and paired the meal with the 2003 Clos Du Val Cabernet Sauvignon.

We will probably go to the tournament again, but we’re thinking we’d rather go see the pro-am earlier in the week. This year’s featured Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning and Jimmie Johnson.

The weirdest thing about attending the tournament in person is that you’re out of touch with what’s going as a whole. I mean, here we were at the actual event, yet people at home in their living rooms hundreds and even thousands of miles away knew more about what was happening in the tournament than we did. Granted a good portion of this was because the 9th green did not have a leader board and we only knew how a player was doing by reading the standard board that followed each pairing from hole to hole.

We knew going in, the “best seat in the house” was at home in front of the TV, but it was great to see everyone in person and see a course that many believe to be on the scale of a major tournament.

This afternoon I’m going to watch the final round, but this time from the comfort of our own living room.