Have any of you seen the Tour live? I've only gone a few times.
- Champions Tour (or whatever it was called then) back in 99 or 2000 at Hobbit's Glen in Columbia, MD. (Christie)
- 2005 US Open at Pinehurst (Michael Campbell, with Tiger in the hunt and Gore as the Cinderella story)
- 2011 US Open at Congressional (Rory slaughters the field for his first Major)
For the old guys what stood out was how freakishly good they were with a wedge into the green. It wasn't uncommon to see 3 balls just piled on top of each other near the flag, at least on a few of the shorter par 4s. And the FISZZZZZZZ of Jim Thorpe's low, climbing drives speeding by will never leave my head.
2005 at Pinehurst was an eye opener. First time I saw the big boys really mash it, and how they moved through the course. We followed Tiger most of the time and the crowds were a dozen deep or more so it was hard to see unless you planned ahead and staked out turf. At one point his mom was right next to me--very small lady. Funny how she moved around without people knowing who she was, elbowing through the gallery. I remember looking up every 15 min or so seeing another private plane taking off, probably for the next tourney.
2011 at Congressional was less adventurous as we just staked out a spot by 18 green and watched everyone come in, so we'd be there for Rory's ceremony, which was cool. But there was a tee box nearby we could sneak to, and that's where I saw guys like Dustin just murdering the ball unbelievable distances. I'd always been the longest guy in nearly every group I played in so I never got to see what it looked like from the outside, but this was obviously several levels above. Amazing stuff.
Going to hit the range today because work is for chumps.