Day 3: Gettin' Down to Business

Things are starting to get serious around the PGA; the crowds have gotten substantially bigger,

the driving ranges and putting greens are congested, the vendors and administrators are feeling the pinch of tomorrow's opening day. Everyone seems to really be working that much harder...except for me, I skipped work today. Yeah yeah yeah, I know what you're going to say, "you told these people you'd volunteer in exchange for the right to watch golf," "you only had to work 3 four-hour shifts...you couldn't hack it?" and you're right, but I had a lot of people left on my list that I wanted to see, and I'll be damned if my work as a line liaison was going to interfere.

My expressed mission for the day was to get up early and get to the course in time to catch Tiger, but I overslept so that didn't exactly happen. If you'll recall they don't allow cameras during the actual tournament (starting tomorrow), but never fear! I plan to sneak my camera in tomorrow to snap a few pics of el Tigre, Phil, D L 3, and El Nino...the last remaining pieces of my PGA puzzle.

Anyway, I was, as you might imagine, a tad disappointed at not seeing Tiger's blip pop up on the trusty myLeaderboard, but I got over it, the list of players was still quite long, and I had to dry those tears and get movin'.

It was high noon, and I had some suspicions (confirmed by myLeaderboard) that the driving range would be the place to check out first. A fresh new crop of players were banging balls and chipping, um, chips in a great big row. I first spied a couple of blokes fond of hailing to the queen: Ian Poulter (South Africa) and Luke Donald (England).

Luke (left, between the two guys in white) and Ian (in brown/gold shirt and pants) not hitting.
**Remember to click on these kind of pics for a full screen view!**

29 and 28 years old respectively, these two are fixtures on the leaderboards of tournaments around the world, having split time on both the European and PGA Tours. They were quite far away, but I imagine they were chatting about cricket, or perhaps what the hell they were doing in Oklahoma (a question I have sometimes asked myself).

They both wrapped up their hitting sessions within minutes of each other and made their way towards the ropes. I wanted to ask Ian how he got his hair to do that, but I thought that might be a little forward of me. Ian stopped and signed a bumload (see what I did there?) of autographs while Luke signed nil (again!) much to everyone's dismay.

Ian Pouter: going to Heaven.

Luke Donald: Purgatory, at best.

He must have left the kettle on. Okay even I'm getting sick of the whole English schtick. Wait! No I'm not, how silly of me. For what did I see when I turned to face the adjacent putting green but the great Scot himself! Scotland's Colin Montgomerie , all at once one of the tour's most beloved and reviled players. In the past his fiery blowups at spectators and curt dealings with the media have tarnished his image, but lately I've noticed a bigger following for the great golfer, due in large part to his inability to win on American soil...essentially we're taking pity on him. Sadly, I've no pictures of his smooth, languid swing and quirky followthru, only one of him being driven away to the clubhouse.

As I took this picture (and this is true) he was turning to thank a fan (American) who had said "Good luck this week, Monty." Told you we love him now.

Again, no pics of his swing, but just for you, I've snagged this link to a youtube clip for ya...who's lookin' out for ya? Enjoy.

Movin' on. Back along the ropes, the day's first yankee was making his way from the putting green to the driving range, taking the spots previously occupied by the brits. University of Florida man Chris DiMarco-- who is known on tour for popularizing the 'claw grip' which he had first called the 'gator grip' (he really loves UF)--signed a few autographs and largely ignored the calls from spectators encouraging him to "putt like a man for once."

Gatorboy chattin' up the locals. Yes, that is my hand on the left. I took a picture of myself taking a picture of Chris DiMarco. Impossible you say? You underestimate me.

Continuing our world tour now in South America. Getting out of a courtesy cart and sauntering over to the putting surface was the young Andres Romero, who has the dubious honor of being the answer to this trivia question: which golfer choked the hardest at the 2007 British Open? Many of you will remember the fireworks of Sergio v. Harrington that carried into a 4 hole playoff, eventually won by Harrington. Few will remember that it was the 26 year old Romero who had a 2 shot lead with only two holes to play when he inexplicably pulled driver on 17 and made double bogey. He followed that up with a bogey on 18 to miss the playoff by a single stroke. Whoops.

Como se dice 'choke' en espanol?

Back on the range side, I snapped a quick picture of Trevor Immelman (of South Africa) and Henrik Stenson (of Sweden). They were just talking, and not doing a whole lot of practicing. See for yourself. Then again maybe they don't need to practice, they are both in the top 20 of the World Golf Rankings.

Stenson on the left. Immelman on the right.

My last stop at the practice range was the chipping area, where I found local boy Hunter Mahan, who attended Oklahoma State and, therefore, has quite a following around the course. He was chipping with his coach and I snapped a few pics before heading on.

Chatting.


Chipping (also another in our series of find the ball in motion pics)

Time to bid the practicing players and get to the playing players. I walked over to the 1st fairway where I found the man with the funny swing, Jim Furyk, walking with his caddy (Tiger's Former) Fluff. You might remember fluff from Tiger's Masters win in 1997, big white mustache...no? Oh well. Couldn't get close enough to take pics of said swing, but youtube always seems to have better stuff anyway.

************** I forgot to finish this post last night, and instead had a bowl of ice cream and fell asleep, sorry.***********

After the ranges, I headed over to check out the action on the nearby teebox, #6. A downhill par 3 measuring roughly 200 yards from an elevated tee to a guarded green, it's a formidable task. Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink and John Rollins were on the tee giving it their best shot. ESPN.com seemed to think Stewart was a guy to watch this week, I didn't have time to read why they seemed to think this, but you can if you want. Cink was the guy who missed out on the 18 hole playoff when the US Open was at Southern Hills in 2001, missing an 18 inch putt on the 72nd hole to blow it.

From left to right: Glover in sweaty blue, talking with Cink, middle, and Rollins in yellow getting ready to tee off.

Glover had the best shot of the group, he stuck his tee shot to about 5 feet and made the putt.

Lucas Glover sticking it close (can you see the ball in flight?)

I made my way back to the 10th tee where I was lucky enough to catch my 3rd favorite player on Tour, after Tiger and Sergio. Anthony Kim, the rookie out of the University of Oklahoma has already earned well in excess of $1 Million on this season. He hits the ball a long way and has a great short game, but I mostly like him because he's a) young and b) very relaxed around the course.

Mr. Kim...sorry I had to use a stock photo, didn't have a face shot myself.

He, like all the players with any ties to the Sooner state, had a pretty large following. He was playing a practice round with Boo Weekley and Todd Hamilton. Boo had his young son, Parker, out on the course with him; it was take your child to work day. Following them for an hour yielded a number of entertaining moments, most of them involving Anthony encouraging Boo's kid to misbehave. "Tell your daddy, 'stop slicing the ball'" he said on one tee box.

Parker Weekley getting some mischievous instruction from Anthony Kim.

On the third whole, the Golf Channel was set up and asked Boo for an interview. Anthony pulled Parker aside and told him to go over and try and tackle his dad while he was being interviewed.

Father/son interview session.

By this time, Parker had as big a following as his golfer daddy, and took to signing a few signatures of his own.

Like father...

Like son...

I probably watched their group for a total of five holes or so. At one point they played quickly and caught up to Ian Poulter (from the ranger, earlier) , who was chipping by the green. Boo was also chipping and letting his son putt out for him, much to the delight of the growing crowd.

Ian lofting a few chips onto the green (can you find the ball in flight?)

Anthony doing a little short game practice of his own. He holed one of his chips...coulda been this one.
(can you find the ball in flight?)

I followed the group up to the next tee, the 9th, which had delivered me back near the practice range (on the high side). I stuck around to snap pictures of a few tee shots, before heading up to the upper putting surface to see who was around. Anthony's tee shot on 9, the last I saw him hit, yielded what turned out to be my favorite picture of the day (seen below).

Expand to fully appreciate the pic! Anthony teeing off. I caught it just after inpact. Note the bent shaft and the blur that is the ball rocketing off the clubface.

By now, at 4:30 pm, with sweat soaking through my under and over shirts, I knew it was time to start putting the finishing touches on day 3 at the PGA. The putting green had a few new faces, though, so I stopped and watched for a while. The low fence that surrounded the green had a small indention that I found, and standing there got me up close and personal with Camilo Villegas, a young argentinian prone to bodily contortion while reading putts on the green...

Yeah yeah, another stock photo, but I couldn't very well force him to lay on the green for me.

He was practicing putts with his caddy about six feet away from me for about fifteen minutes straight. We spent so much time together I eventually told him 'good luck,' if I hadn't, I think things might have gotten awkward. He was really nice, and spoke extremely good English, which was surprising at first, until I remembered he played college golf at the University of Florida, so I guess he had to learn eventually. I snapped quite a few picturas de Camilo, which you can see, below.

A plethora of putting pictures of the peculiar Patagonian.

Camilo was sharing the green with a couple of other big name golfers, Justin Rose, the young Enlishman, and Geoff Ogilvy, the Aussie who won the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot after Phil Mickelson laid an enormous egg and doubled the last hole of the tournament, what an idiot. I resisted the urge to try the "I've been to your homeland" line that I used on Adam Scott, and just observed him interacting with the fans.

Geoff Ogilvy schmoozing.

I did, however, talk to Justin Rose, albeit briefly, who I knew was born in South Africa and later moved to England. I fibbed and told him my parents were from South Africa, he asked where, and I paused for almost too long before saying Cape Town (phwew...). I figured I'd pressed my luck a little too far, and wished him good luck, he said thanks, and I threw in a "cheers," for good measure. That's all true by the way.

My countryman.

This year's U.S. Open winner, Angel Cabrera, was also putting at the same time. Camilo went over and chatted briefly with his elder countryman. I didn't get too close to Angel for fear of getting sucked into orbit around him (he's not thin) but did snap a picture of him from a safe distance.

Angel in orange, if you moved either of those putters holding him up, he would topple over and knock balls off their tees on the 14th tee box.

Leaving the putting surface and meandering down the paths towards the exit, I spied Tom Lehman teeing off on what I think was the 8th tee box (you have no idea, I can say he was wherever I want). Getting on in years now, Lehman is into his twilight years on Tour, but finished in the top 40 on the money list last year, so he still has plenty of game. Good or bad, he's always been a crowd favorite, and joked with the spectators before teeing off today after a man asked if he needed a playing partner (Lehman was flying solo). Lehman asked if he wanted to join up. The crowd laughed. It wasn't all that funny. Golf fans will laugh at anything, we have the sense of humor of a seven year old.

Joking with said fan.

Then teeing off.

Wait Alex, you must be thinking, what about the hottest person of the day award??? Good point, I nearly forgot. Some of you might see this as a cop-out, but the hottest person of the day was, actually, everyone at the tournament! I know, lame right? Well it's true, literally everyone, every single person on the course suffered today from the heat. The hottest day yet, guaranteed. So, here's to you, everybody, for making it through one helluva scorcher.

Some managed to stay cool, others could not.

Okay, now I was really, truly finished, unwilling to stop again on my way off the grounds. I turned in the trusty myLeaderboard and bid farewell to Southern Hills. I knew that they didn't allow cameras at all on the tournament days, so I fear these might, might, might be the last pictures you get to see of the action. Fear not, faithful reader, I will do everything within my power to keep getting you up close and personal shots of the world's best golfers, even if that means somehow sneaking in my camera. Tonight I've got to work out a scheme to make it work. I won't let you down!

Hittin' the sack nice and early, setting twelve alarms, I AM GETTING UP TOMORROW AND WILL GET PIX OF TIGER. Mark my words. It shall be done.