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Date: 19 Aug 2006 14:46:35
From: warren montgomery
Subject: Report from Medinah -- Friday (long)
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I'm not on the course today so it's a chance to report what I saw Friday. I
arrived about 8AM, in time to watch a few groups come through the 13th and
14th before our work shift began. The 13th was playing just as tough as I
thought it would, with most groups collecting at least one Bogie. The lone
birdie I saw there was Colin Montgomerie, who hit it close and sunk a 6
footer. Too little, too late. I think one of those experiences every
golfer should have is to get to watch John Daly or another long hiter launch
a full power driver from directly behind the tee. He's impressive on TV,
but it's nothing like watching the guy wind up and hit the ball so hard you
think the driver or ball is going to crack, then watching the ball rocket
away dead straight down the middle.
Our work shift yesterday was controlling the ropes between the clubhouse and
the players parking lot in the middle of the day. (TNT showed some footage
from this area this morning in their coverage) It was deserted when we
showed up, but we knew that it wouldn't stay that way as the afternoon
starters began to show up and the morning players headed for their cars to
leave or to pick up equipment for practice. We were supposed to close off
the public walkway for players and caddies and any palyer family groups who
looked like they may benefit from having an unobstructed path. The trick of
course was recognizing them. The caddies are easy enough when they are
carrying bags, but the only ID the players have is a gold money clip on
their belts, and some just going to their cars didn't wear them. Good thing
we recognize a lot of the tour pros. In addition to the players and caddies
though a lot of other people come through the walkway, including coaches,
equipment representatives, family members and guests, and the media, as well
as others like us working for the tournament. Most of the players came
through the walk at some point over the 4 hours we were on duty. Phil and
Tiger showed up in the parking lot, but decided to shortcut over the fence
to the putting green, maybe because there had been so much trouble
controlling the crowds in that area earlier in the week. It was nice that
we had help from a hired security guard checking credentials of people going
into the players entrance to the clubhouse. The guy said at one point that
we had it soft, since he was on duty there the whole day, but I was quick to
point out that he was being paid for it -- mostly overtime.
The players weren't suposed to be signing autographs during the tournament,
but most signed one or two in the walkway. There weren't a lot of autograph
hounds out, but some were very determined. We had someone wait for nearly
an hour for Fred couples to come out, and yes, Fred signed his flag. It
turns out that he was trying to get a flag of all the PGA winners for his
father -- he was still missing Tiger and Phil. The crowds weren't huge,
even for people like Sergio, Vijay, and Davis Love, and were mostly well
controlled.
I had a chance to see one of the sad sides of the tournament -- the cut. In
the early afternoon I started to see players looking a bit down dragging
travel bags back towards the lot and quickly figured out these are the guys
who knew they had missed the cut. It as interesting that all the ones we
saw had soft sided bags, and it was always the player, not the caddy,
pulling it. Probably the most memorable was Jesper Parnavic, looking very
disappointed and very alone.
It was interesting that a lot of these folks got outside the ropes and were
largely ignored. Nobody paid attention to Steve Williams hauling Tiger's
bag. We saw a lot of the media folks come through as well, and when we
recognized someone who might attract attention we gave them a roped walkway
go get through, but most didn't need it. At some point after an attractive
blond went into the clubhouse area someone commented that she was Tiger's
wife. I don't know for sure but she could have been. She came back out
before his tee time and disappeared into the crowd surging towards the tee.
There are two things I don't want to hear again "How do I get to the
clubhouse", and "why don't you just go in there and register". There must
have been thousands of people with "clubhouse" tickets who we had to turn
away -- players only through the entrance we had, and it wasn't obvious to
these folks where you could get in (on the other side of the building). If
they all went in there it was going to get VERY crowded. There was also a
prominent sign pointing to "contestant registration" that I was mostly
standing next to holding the ropes and about once every couple of minutes
some guy would joke at his buddies about needing to go in and register. We
had some wakward moments -- members who weren't happy about not being able
to go in there, and once I overheard someone say he was the designer of the
course as the security guard stopped him. I looked at his badge and sure
enough it was Rees Jones who had done the latest renovations. I told the
guard who he was, but he didn't have the right badge and was sent around to
the other entrance. (Of course what I should have done was ask him if he
was sure he was going to be safe in there with some of those guys who had
had fun with his new holes).
After finishing our shift, we decided to avoid the Tiger/Phil crowd (what I
called the "duel in the drizzle") and watch some of the other players having
a good day play the tough 16th and 17th. On the way over we picked up
Olazabal, about -6 on the day, get a ruling on 18 -- he had hit a drive in
the rough near a tree and gotten into a tangle of TV cables. I'm sure he
wanted to be able to drop away from the cables (and the tree), but it looked
like they just cleared the cables for him and he hit a decent punch into the
green. We saw Billy Mayfair birdie 16 on the way to a great start. He had
a modest but very enthusiastic crowd following him. One of the most
interesting groups was that of Toms, Andrade, and Beem. Andrade was tied
for the lead (-8) with Toms two behind and Beem 1 over par when they came to
16. Andrade had a birdie opportunity ( and a lot of media to watch it), but
missed, but the excitement was really Beem -- he flew the green and needed
relief from the grandstand. He wasn't the only one we saw back there, but
he was the only one who actually put the ball in the stands. It was
interesting to see how they took relief, first taking their clublength from
the stand and then discovering that they still had interference and dropping
again. After finally getting clear, he hit a nice flop and saved his par,
then nearly holed out on 17 to get a birdie and make the cut on the number.
About then the rain startred coming down hard and my feet were really too
sore from all that standing around to wait for the rest to come through the
end of the course, so we headed for the exits. I'll be back there on
Sunday, again working the middle of the day around the putting green and
clubhouse and then going out onto the course with the last groups off the
tee, and some time later I'll post another report.
--
Warren Montgomery (wamontgomery@att.net)
http://home.att.net/~wamontgomery
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Date: 19 Aug 2006 21:44:36
From: Stu D. Baker
Subject: Re: Report from Medinah -- Friday (long)
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warren montgomery wrote:
> I'm not on the course today so it's a chance to report what I saw Friday.
<snip >
> I'll be back there on
> Sunday, again working the middle of the day around the putting green and
> clubhouse and then going out onto the course with the last groups off the
> tee, and some time later I'll post another report.
>
Thanks, Warren. Nice report.
--
Ron
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Date: 19 Aug 2006 16:15:26
From:
Subject: Re: Report from Medinah -- Friday (long)
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John, John, John Daly, throw the guy a "fish".
So big John smashed it - huh?
Sorry Warren that you're such tender a foot.:--)
And thanks for the insight on what happened in your surroundings.
>mho
>v fe
>=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0"d R i V e =A0L e $ s"
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