I’ll be meeting Jack Nicklaus tomorrow, hopefully….

I’m going to be attending a two day local golf event hosted by Johnny Miller called the Champion’s Challenge. It is an event where a famous pro plays and has a partner with him. Many do their sons, but some have buddies or famous people like Bill Murray to play with.

This is a fairly casual event and they do autographs and allow pictures Monday. So hopefully I’ll be meeting the following players:

Johnny Miller, Jack Nicklaus, Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, Scott Simpson, Bill Murray, Mike Reid, Keith Clearwater, Ryan Moore, Spencer Levin, Nancy Lopez, Jason Zuback, Hale Irwin, Dave Stockton, Dave Stockton Jr., Craig Stadler, Billy Casper, Kevin Stadler, Hank Kuehne, Gary McCord, Roger Maltbie, Fuzzy Zoeller

Twas an entertaining weekend of golf on the PGA Tour. It was nice to see #1 and #2 duke it out in a shootout. We saw some 29’s, 30’s and 31’s for for 9 holes. Low shootin’ Tex.

Today Vijay came into the round with a 5 shot lead and Tiger made it interesting with an absolutely amazing back nine. After shooting 36 on the front, Tiger put together an amazing stretch of holes on the back to record a 30. That 30 included a bogey on the 18th hole after an errant drive. Speaking of drives, Tiger hit one 359 on flat ground with no wind on #16. What a hack.

The gallery on the par 3 17 went crazy when Tiger made birdie. Tiger had some fun with them, holding his hand up to his ear as if he couldn’t hear them (above picture). Maybe Tiger wasn’t having fun with the gallery at all. Perhaps he thought he heard the Celtic Woman CD playing somewhere?

Oh, and I must mention that I was thrilled to see the return of the Celtic Woman ads. I just get a kick out of these ads and wonder if there are ANY golf fans who rush to the phone to order their Celtic Woman disc.

Another great one was “50 Most Loved Hymns”… Are we hurting for decent sponsors CBS?

“I would like to tell all my dear friends in the media to kiss my ass.”

Once again Marc O’Hair has put his foot in his mouth.

Marc O’Hair (father of PGA Tour player Sean O’Hair) wrote a nice little letter to the Golf Channel trying to somehow rebut the media and public opinions about the way he raised/trained his boy. If you may recall Marc is the one who ran his son’s life like a brutal military camp and forced his then 17 year old son to sign a contract giving him a cut of all professional earnings.

Marc: A little advise for you. Keep your mouth shut and go away. And if you want to try to use the media to improve your image, you may want to start by not telling them to kiss your ass. You can never win a battle against the media.

The duel today between Tiger and Vijay was quite entertaining. Despite having one of the most amazing birdies I’ve ever seen, Tiger struggled and shot 70. Tiger dropped to 4th place and two groups and 8 shots behind VJ tomorrow.

Tiger’s amazing birdie was on 16, the par 5. He knocked his drive behind a tree in the left rough and tried to hit a huge hook around the tree to get to the green. The catch was he had to aim at the water. He almost pulled the shot off but did go in the drink. He crossed into the hazard over the green so he dropped right on the fringe. He holed a massively long putt for birdie and just started laughing.

Now why is VJ doing so well? There are two stats that jump out at you:

Greens In Regulation (GIR) 83.3%

Putts Per GIR 1.489

1.489 putts per GIR is hotter than the surface of the Sun. Hell, he even missed two short birdie putts. Had he made those putts, his PPGIR could have been so low that Gary McCord might not even be able to put it into words.

VJ has a two shot lead going into tomorrow. There is no reason not to expect him to win.

Erknee Els

Ernie Els injured his knee sailing and is going to now miss the rest of the season. Guess we have the “big 4″ again now, but this time with Retief.

Tiger is good

Oh, have I ever mentioned that Tiger is good? He had back to back eagles and dropped a 61 on the field today at the Buick Open. Ahem….uh, Tiger is good. But he’s still one back of Vijay going into round 3. Fun times, Tiger and VJ playing together tomorrow!

A day in the life of a golf addict and rock & roll drummer (today):

7:30am: alarm goes off, hit snooze button a few times
8:00am: fix some home brewed Starbucks coffee
8:20am: drop by golf course 1 to pick up new driver, paid for with tourney winnings
8:39am: somehow accidentally drop golf socks in coffee
8:40am: hang golf socks over AC vent in car to dry out while driving to course 2
8:42am: after some pondering, I drink the coffee
9:05am: arrive at golf course 2
9:12am: buy new socks
9:16am: tee off
9:25am: birdie first hole
1:55pm: finish round with a 72 (even par)
2:15pm: collect winnings from opponents
3:04pm: meet client 1 downtown
4:17pm: meet client 2 downtown
5:02pm: arrive at storage unit to pick up drum kit for gig tonight
5:03pm: call in local radio station and win tickets to a golf event next week (Jack Nicklaus, Mike Weir, David Duval, Fuzzy, Johnny Miller, The Walrus, Dave Stockton, Gary McCord all will be there)
5:20pm: check mail at PO box
5:55pm: drop by radio station to pick up tickets to golf event
6:22pm: arrive at home, eat a snack
6:40pm: leave for new house
7:01pm: check out my new house under construction, inside doors are now installed!
8:45pm: back at home, cook a frozen pizza for dinner
9:16pm: leave for gig
9:46pm: arrive at gig, setup drum kit
10:13pm: commense drum bashing
12:08am: two chicks flash their boobs at me
1:15am: first encore
1:35am: pack drum kit and take off
1:50am: pick up 3 krispy kreme donuts on the way home
2:00am: arrive home
2:05am: eat donuts, write this dumb thing
2:10am: publish this dumb thing
2:15am: go to bed

Tomorrow, I do it all again. Fortunately I don’t tee of until 1:30pm.

I told you to get over to MJ on Golf and check out his archives before it was too late.

Well….it’s too late. It’s gone.

Dan Weil at FoxSports.com has a piece about the declining participation in the sport of golf.

Nuggets I found interesting in this piece:

“The total number of golf rounds played in this country peaked in 2000, and the total number of adults playing the game was lower last year than in 2001.” I think this is due to the state of the economy in 2000 and the drop off in 2001 obviously due to 911. Tiger peaking at that time may have a little to do with it as well.

“Facilities are hostile to the newcomer, and other participants are hostile to the newcomer.” What?

“Golf loses two out of three players who pick up the sport each year.” It ain’t easy and it ain’t cheap.

“Green fees including a cart will cost a player at a public course about $100 per round.” Not in my neck of the woods. Here it is anywhere from $30-40. Resort courses are $75.

“Golf also is time consuming, with about five hours needed to complete 18 holes.” It shouldn’t, but sometimes it does.