|
FEATURE By Bob O'Keefe There was enough
emotional ups and downs to keep
psychologists cell phones ringing all
week. Let's start on Tuesday night with
the Toyota pairings party. A storm blew in
and what a storm it was. The storm blast
caused immeasurable destruction at
Champions Run. Golf Channel towers, with
their camera's attached, toppled under
heavy winds, tents were pelted by rain and
wind causing them, along with their
structures, to be scattered over lush
fairways. Memories of a prior tournament
quickly came to mind. The pairings party,
under the largest tent at the 19th Hole,
survived the destructive power of the
storm. Everyone was safe and no injuries
were reported. The next morning, while it
was still dark and most of Omaha was
asleep, Jamie Alt and crew began the
assessment and clean-up phase. Volunteers
with 5 gallon buckets began bailing water
out of the courses sand traps. Those
filled with more water than mere mortals
could empty called for the pumps. Everyone
wanted to make sure the pro-am scheduled
for 8:00 am would go off without a hitch.
And it did. But then on Thursday,
the emotional golf roller coaster began to
embark on local golfers and fans. Everyone
pulled for local golfers such as Chris
Weimers and Mike Schuchart to make the
cut. Scott Gutchewski had his entourage
with him, pleading for a repeat of last
year. The excitement was building and
exhilarating. The weather was perfect and
the crowds began to grow. Even though our local
pros missed the cut, crowd favorite Scott
Gutchewski was still in the hunt and
everyone was pulling for him on Saturday
and Sunday. In a dramatic final
round, Charles Warren shot a six-under-par
66 with five birdies and an eagle to win
the tournament. Warren narrowly missed a
playoff with John Elliott after Elliott
missed his three-foot attempt to save par
on the 18th. What a way to close the
tournament. Warren received the lions
share of the record $600,000 purse by
taking home a check for
$108,000. A tournament record
30,000 spectators attended Sunday's final
round. During four days of play, the
tournament saw over 68,000 come to
Champions Run to take in the
action. If you missed this
years event, make sure you don't miss next
years. Like fine wine, it just keeps
getting better. FEATURE By Troy Martin, MTT
Writer CMost people don't
believe me when I say every caddie and
most professional golfers read at least
one book a week. Granted, it's not War and
Peace. Instead, it's shorter and often
times more difficult to understand. I'm
talking about The Yardage Book. These
books show the layout of every hole,
distances to hazards and note how far
every sprinkler is to the front and center
of each green. Not to be sacrilegious, but
a yardage book is a caddie's bible while
they're on the golf course. Let me give you an idea
of how important these books are. A caddie
in Naples took a time out to relieve
himself in a portable toilet during the
final round. He was hiking up his drawers,
when the book fell out of his back pocket.
It went down the hole. Not to get too
graphic, but he left the toilet shortly
thereafter - smelling a bit rancid with
the book in his pocket. The yardage books we
use on tour contain more information than
anyone would ever need to know. Some books
include side notes with yardages described
as "J.I.C.Y.F.U." (Just In Case You #$@!
Up). We occasionally have yardages from a
portable toilet, birdhouse, a Cadillac
on-display, or even a beer tent. It would
be easier for an average golfer to figure
out the square root of Pi, than to decifer
what some of the numbers in these books
mean. That being said, my
yardage book nearly melted a few weeks ago
in St. Louis during the U.S. Senior Open.
Heat indexes were has high as 112-degrees
and the players were forced to walk 36
holes on Sunday. The caddies walked 36
holes as well, with a 40-pound leather bag
on our backs. My pro, Dave Stockton Sr.,
played great for 54 holes. We were tied
for 9th going into the final 18 holes in
the afternoon. Unfortunately, he shot 77
and fell back in the pack. Our next destination
was Salt Lake City for the Johnny Miller
Champions Challenge. Due to the delay in
St. Louis, I was going to miss my flight.
So Dave pulled some strings and got us on
a private jet with Johnny Miller and Craig
Stadler aboard a Citation X to Utah.
Miller was opinionated, honest, kind, and
a golf genius. I was incredibly grateful
he let me on-board the three hour
flight. The Champions Challenge
was a one-day exhibition consisting of 12
(mostly) father/son teams. Participants
included: The Nicklaus, Player, Stockton,
Stadler, Furyk, Duval and Irwin teams. The
winning team was made up of PGA Tour
players Mike Weir and Dean Wilson.
Prompting me to ask Weir, "Who was the
father?" After Salt Lake City we
headed to the 3M Championship at the TPC
of the Twin Cities. Dave's putter was not
cooperating all week and his scores showed
it. A disappointing week led to a decision
by Dave to take some time off, which
allowed me to play tournaments the next
four weeks and prepare myself for the PGA
Tour Qualifying Tournament (Q-School) this
fall. The first event,
sanctioned by the Midwest PGA Section, was
a one day pro-am at Salina Country Club
(Kansas). I shot 67. It appeared to be
good enough to win &endash; until former
PGA Tour player Steve Gotsche turned in
his 63! If you need me during the next
four weeks, I'll be on the driving
range. Caddie
Notes: From the "stupid rules
of golf" chapter comes a story about Jim
Colbert. On the first hole of the
tournament in Minneapolis, Jim tapped down
a ball mark with his putter and the head
fell off. Under the rules of golf, Jim was
not allowed to replace the club because it
did not break during a stroke. Had the
head fallen off while hitting a putt, he
could have replaced it right away. He was
forced to putt with his sand wedge the
entire round and shot 78. The next day,
Jim had a new putter and managed to again
shoot 78. Not sure what to take from
that. Caddies are proven to
be important &endash; aiding golfers on
the course. But this story proves how
important we are, even when we're not
present. A golfer playing at Augusta
National decided to head out for a couple
adult beverages early in the week. While
driving home he noticed a police
roadblock, checking for seatbelt use and
DUIs. He was certainly beyond the legal
limit and made a quick decision. The car
was put in park and he jumped in the back
seat. Police noticed the vehicle was not
moving, so they went to investigate. They
found the golfer in the back seat with a
blank stare. When asked what he was doing,
he said, "I was out at a bar with some
friends. When I was getting ready to
leave, a caddie from the club recognized
me and offered to drive me home. Never
seen the guy before, but I took him up on
the offer. Well, when he saw your
roadblock, he jumped out of the car and
ran. I am OBVIOUSLY too drunk to drive so
all I could do was sit here and wait for
you guys to come back and talk to
me." The police officer
believed his story and drove the golfer
home himself. Word is the Augusta Police
Department is still out looking for that
elusive caddie. Troy is also a PGA
Professional still competing on tours and
president of
Bucketboygraphics.com |
