PGA at Oak Hill

If golf is a "good walk spoiled" then how do you characterize watching golf, in person?  It's certainly not as exciting as attending a football or hockey game. And with no assigned seats (and very few seats, to boot), and no central audience stadium, you need to have a strategy.  Do you (a) choose a player or two and follow him/them hole to hole?  Or do you (b) select one location and see all of the players as they pass by?  And if the latter, where do you position yourself - near a tee?  a green? wherever there are bleachers, so your heels and knees aren't killing you after an hour of standing?

Charlie and I had "clubhouse passes" to the PGA at Oak Hill for the week, and I was happy to go a few days, and let him invite people who would really enjoy it the remainder of the time.  We headed out Monday afternoon for the first day of practice rounds, to develop our strategy for the rest of the week (the answer appeared to me to be (c) wander aimlessly...  Every hole looked the same to me, even though Charlie patiently explained the differences).

Monday's other goal was to take advantage of the shopportunity in the enormous merchandise tent.  The projected economic impact of the PGA on Rochester is $78 million, and we certainly had to do our part!  I managed to find a couple of things to buy, despite the disconcerting dressing-room mirror that made me look 5'7" and 120 pounds, but Charlie was very successful.  Plus, we bought 2 folding tripod chairs, which should come in handy!

Given that some of the players (including Tiger) had just finished the Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio, we didn't see many 'stars.'  The only recognizable golfer we saw practicing was Vijay Singh.  Interestingly, he only had one caddy with him, and was alone on the hole, whereas most of the other players were in at least twosomes, and had whole entourages.

Phil's in the white pants waiting to tee off

Thursday was the first day of tournament play, and we started out at the green on the 13th hole, where we had some nice shade to sit in, but no one really famous to watch (we did see David Hearn, who was in the lead for quite a while in the morning).  Then  I convinced Charlie to move to where we would see Tiger, so we schlepped over to the green on the 5th hole in time to see Ernie Els, David Toms, and some others (none of whom I actually recognized) before Tiger, Davis Love III, and Keegan Bradley arrived.  Tiger didn't appear happy (but does he ever?) because he hadn't done well on the 4th, and he putted poorly under our watch.  Then we had a quick bite to eat in the Clubhouse (and the use of a proper ladies room) before catching some of the afternoon rounds.  Interestingly, the 1st and 14th hole shared a tee, so while we were standing there waiting for Phil Mickelson's group to appear at #1, we got to watch some other golfers who had started on the back 9 tee off - a 2fer!  It was fun being at the 1st tee, because an official announced each golfer, where he was from, and when he last won a PGA tournament.  We recognized Miguel Angel Jimenez (we'd seen him practice on Monday and remarked on his distinctive ponytail) who teed off just after Bubba Watson and Lee Westwood departed. The crowd erupted when Rory McIlroy (2012 winner), Vijay Singh (1998 & 2004), and Martin Kaymer (2010) arrived, and they were all very gracious.  Finally, at 1:45, enormous applause heralded the entrance of Phil Mickelson, and he waved to the crowd as he crossed over us.  He hit a solid drive, and as the crowd dispersed (mostly to follow him), we made our way upstream and back to the parking lot, hot and exhausted, but happy.

Charlie will go again on Friday and Sunday with friends, and on Saturday with me, but if I didn't get to go again, I'd be satisfied that I can now successfully cross 'attend major golf tournament' off my bucket list!