PGA Tournament - Day Two

Well, I’m sitting here at home on a Sunday night watching the conclusion of the PGA Championship and writing up a post for Monday, which will be today by the time you are reading this. Let me tell you, it’s a lot more comfortable watching at home, but I do miss being there amongst all the excitement because when I cheer at home it just doesn’t seem to have the same effect.

So, Friday was another scorcher in Atlanta. At one point I told my dad that I felt like a Thanksgiving turkey baking in the sun. We left the hotel a few minutes after 9:00 and headed to the parking lot to catch the shuttle to the golf course. Once we arrived at the golf course, we picked up course radios so we could follow along with what was going on throughout the various holes on the course. After much debate and walking back and forth, my dad decided we would watch the par three, hole four and so that’s where we went.

There were grand stands on the green at hole four with a perfect view of the tee box as well. It was one of the best spots we had during the two days. When we first arrived, there was a wee bit of shade in the area and I was extremely grateful for that as I had already soaked through my clothes by the time we reached the stands. Unfortunately the shade vanished after about an hour but the viewing was still great. We brought out sunscreen with us and applied it throughout the day which worked to our benefit I believe because neither one of us got burnt. There didn’t seem to be a cloud in the sky for hours but eventually a few popped up and hid the sun from us for a few minutes on occasion – it was a welcome relief.

We watched Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods and many of the other more popular players play the hole and it was really a lot of fun. I’m a big Phil fan myself and was really thrilled to see him play. At one point I got up for a bathroom break and to get us our second waters of the day. While I was at the port-o-potty location a player and his caddy stopped by for a natural break (as they would call it in cycling). For some reason this really cracked me up because a player and his caddy are about the last people I would expect to bump into at the toilets. After this run in, I walked over to another location to get the waters which was actually beside the permanent toilets that are for player use only and while there I another player came over and asked me if those were the players’ bathrooms. I told him yes and in he went. So, apparently hanging out at the toilets around hole number four is the place to be.

Once all the leaders came through hole four, we moved on to another location – the concession stand up towards the entrance. We each had a hot dog and sat in the shade while we ate. We then decided to go to the grand stands on 17, but once we got there we realized that those stands were for “special people” – in other words people that paid more than we did to be there so we moseyed back on over to 18 to sit in the stands there. Before we sat in the sweltering sun again, I found a shady spot on an unused tee box and we sat there for a while, actually we even laid there for a while.

We eventually went over to the grand stands on 18 and sat under a misting fan. The sun was at our backs and it really was quite comfortable compared to sitting directly under the blazing sunbeams. We watched the same groups come through that we had watched at four. We were thrilled that Tiger didn’t make the cut for the rest of the weekend as neither of us are big fans of his. After Tiger’s group, however, we decided to head on back to the car and head home. We were both pretty tired and didn’t want to be too late getting back home.

We found a Panera in Dalton, Georgia and ate dinner there on the way home. It was so much better than having to eat something from McDonald’s or Wendy’s. I was in charge of finding a spot for dinner and I was really hoping for something like Panera or Jason’s Deli and thankfully I held out long enough until I found one.

We got to my parents’ house about 10:30 and I got home 20 minutes or so after that, took a shower and went straight to bed. It was a really fun two days and I’m glad I got to spend it with my dad.