Byron Nelson Review
We're back!The Byron Nelson tourney was cool. We got there Wednesday morning when they were having the Pro-Am. This is where big-wig corporate execs pay to play a round with the pros. We found our fave pro, Fred Couples, and his group and followed them for a while. Jimmy got him to autograph our program for the day - that was a highlight. Then we found Vijay Singh and followed him for a few holes. I got him to sign my visor. Then we just walked around and explored for a while. We found Chris DiMarco on the practice putting green and he signed Jimmy's "PING" hat.
Thursday was Round One play of the tourney, so it was down to business for the pros. We arrived and caught up with Couples and his group on about the 5th hole and walked along with them the rest of their round. He was playing with Kenny Perry and a guy from New Zealand named Phil Tataurangi that we had never heard of. We kept calling him "Chatarunga" hahaha He was awesome and on the last 4 or 5 holes he had a birdie streak. Fred wasn't doing so well, unfortunately. :o(
Friday was Round Two of play. Again, we found Fred - this time he was playing on course #2 so it was nice to have a change of scenery. This course was all UPhill though! Man, the walking was tough. Our legs and feet were already sore from all the fast walking and jogging we'd been doing the previous days. Still -- it was nice to be outside, the weather was so pretty, we couldn't have asked for a better day. Freddie still wasn't doing too well. Chatarunga could do no wrong, though. We watched their group for a while, then headed back over to course #1 to check out a few more players. We ended up sitting at the 18th green, watching the rest of the groups come in and finish their rounds.
Saturday began Day Three. Fred did not make the cut, so he was out of the tournament. We had staked out a good watching place the day before --- we knew if we sat at the base of the press booth on the 17th green, we would be in the shade all afternoon. We got there at about 11:30am and no one was sitting there yet, so we unfolded our chairs (we brought them this time! we were tired of walking!) and set up camp. The first 2 hours were sheer HELL. The sun was beating on us relentlessly. There is not enough sunscreen on earth for that type of heat! Jimmy kept saying, "Just a little while longer and we'll be the envy of the 17th green!" And sure enough -- the sun went behind the trees a little and we were in the shade all afternoon. It was a good 10 degrees cooler then. We got to sit and watch the entire day's play from our spot.
One of the highlights from that day was a little short dude from Sweden or Finland --- his name is Richard Johnson. He looks to be maybe 5' tall and the day before we had seen him practicing and he was wearing the most outrageous colored outfit. It was like neon yellow and lime green. Anyway -- he hit his tee shot off 17 and ended up 63 feet from the hole, all the way over on the right side of the green as far as you could be! He lined up his putt, hit it smooth and the ball started to travel...... it looked good..... it got closer to the hole and a buzz went thru the crowd..... closer...... closer..... and IN IT WENT! The crowd cheered so loud!!! It was so neat to see -- Richard took off his hat and covered his face in disbelief -- then took a bow. :o)
We watched the rest of the groups come thru, then we took off for a shower, some dinner and decided to go ahead and get home. We were tired and we'd had enough sun and walking. Besides, Couples was out of the tourney and he was the main reason we went to begin with.
All in all -- I would do it again. It was great fun seeing the "stars" from TV live and in person. The people watching was good, too. And any time spent with Jimmy is a good thing in my book ;o)
posted by Tamfish @ 1:27 PM
Comments: 5
