The Waste Management Open
by pingforever on Feb 3, 2011 1:28 AM EST
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PrintIt's a little past midnight onThursday here in the Heartland, Thursday won't arrive in Scottsdale for another three hours. I am thankful not to be among the hundred of thousands of people without power. It was a very cold trip around the back yard with Max while he did his "bidness", as Ken Venturi used to say. Later today the fifth act of the 2011 PGA Tour road show will kick off. Like many other tournaments this one has had several names. It began as The Phoenix Open and was the second Tour event I attended. The Phoenix tournament was at The Phoenix CC. I don't enjoy crowds, so most of the day my wife and I followed Craig Stadler. There were the three of us in his gallery, me, my wife and his VERY pregnant wife Sue. She was affable and talkative but I don't remember what we talked about. Many years later I realized she was pregnant with Kevin. Phoenix CC was NOT a desert golf course. It was lush grass, wall to wall like any course in New England where I grew up. The desert North of Phoenix was just that. The Phoenix Open moved to TPC Scottsdale where it is today. It's distinguished by three things: The hate it or love it Par 3 16th "arena golf" hole. The drivable (once unique) Par 4 17th and, I almost hate to mention it, Tiger Woods' ace on 16 and his infamous 1000 lbs. loose impediment ruling. Once again the tournament will vie for a TV audience opposite the Superbowl Pre Game show and the Pre-Pre-Games shows. Fortunately, football moved indoors and into prime time. I will eat my golf bag if the broadcast this afternoon does not show lake Shore Drive in Chicago within the first 5 minutes. Oh my, it's warm and sunny in the Southwest and cold and snowy in the Midwest in February.....duh! Phil's an ASU guy so he'll have a huge partisan crowd following him. Many other pros both foreign and domestic make their home in Scottsdale and Paradise Vally. Doesn't that have a nice ring to it! There's a foursome of seniors in the field including Fred Couples and past winner Mark Calcavecchia. Jhonattan Vegas is doing the smart thing, again referring back to Venturi, he's playing while he's hot. The European Tour is in Qatar. When a "Q" isn't followed by a "U" as in La Quinta, golf should not be played there......
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Pingaling
Freddy Couples withdrew from the tournament 3 days ago sighting his usual back issues.
Regarding Lakeshore Drive in Chicago. I’ll be watching the early coverage today and I’ll for sure watch the first five minutes as I would like to see Ping (or anyone for that matter) eat his golf bag. In fact i’ll send a crew up to film it. hahaha I have a couple of jars of Beasleys," Chicago Slow Burn " BBQ sauce I’d be happy to donate for the occasion. LOL
Meanwhile I’m still loving the parity this season so far on tour. Times they are a changing and it looks to be for the better except for the weather here in Ireland. Raining a quite windy again but it has warmed up to 50 degrees at least. Hopefully I’ll be able to see part of the early coverage of the golf at O’Connell’s Pub in Galway tonight. Nicest folks on the planet in that place but they just don’t understand why I don’t drink beer or wiskey, go figga. They did manage to find and dust off a bottle of rum for me though. :o)
"pain is only weakness leaving the body" jumpn
I thought that was probably the case about Couples
I would have thought TGC would have him as a WD. I got bit when they misspelled Westwood. Oh about that golf bag thing…. It’s a figure of speech…. But I’ll take the BBQ sauce…Ever hear of Pusser’s Rum?
Two hour frost delay
It’s still below freezing in Phoenix – and there isn’t enough wind in the area to clear the frost off the greens – so they have moved tee times back 2 hours.
Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the government wants every citizen to prove that they have health insurance, but people don't have to prove they are citizens.
maybe Freddy changed his mind..
ESPN had announced it a few days ago as he was scheduled to be paired with Mickelson and Boo Weekly. Guess we will find out soon enough.
Ping, I’ve seen Pussers rum at most of the hotel bars I stay at and at most Country Clubs. I don’t touch the stuff myself as I’m not a fan of most dark rums. Mount Gay Caribbean I like once in a while though.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body" jumpn
Word from Phoenix is that he changed his mind. Not sure how that works – aside from maybe ESPN getting the story wrong…I know I know…hard to believe.
Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the government wants every citizen to prove that they have health insurance, but people don't have to prove they are citizens.
Fred....Couples not Funk
Couples is not likely to be a factor even if he does tee it up. Funk? He may make the cut.
They are up to a 3 1/2 hour delay – not going to start until 1:10pm eastern.
Wonder if Redtees took her warm coat with her. She can’t be happy with this weather.
Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the government wants every citizen to prove that they have health insurance, but people don't have to prove they are citizens.
Poor Red.......she flys down to
Phoenix and finds it’s just like Minnesota – COLD…..bummer. We had some snow this morning and more on the way this evening and night, then into tomorrow afternoon…..they never get this right, probably won’t see another flake…….:)
The Saints ARE the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS...until February 6th....get over it!....WHO DAT!......:)
Oh yes you will
Say, Did I tell you what the temp was here today? I did, well ok than….My son says it isn’t supposed to get above freezing until Monday…Meanwhile the Super Bowl festivities are in the deep freeze..He said the roads have lots of ice on them, and if it doesn’t get above freezing, that won"t melt….Meanwhile, I have it on good authority that there’s more snow going to get dumped on Pings Arse….Hope he don’t take that Pup outside, cause he’ll get lost in a snow drift…As for Charles, and points north….UPPA Yours….hahahaha….Court will be out rolling Snow Men by weeks end….Damm,,,ya gotta love it….You sure I told ya how nice it was playing golf today? STUB
STUB
On the plus side she may get to see Freddie
On the minus side, Stricker has made the cut in Doha so won’t be flying home just yet!
lol – not sure he could get home even if he missed the cut. nasty weather over here right now has a lot of airports shut down.
Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the government wants every citizen to prove that they have health insurance, but people don't have to prove they are citizens.
They are now looking for a 1:00 eastern start time in Phoenix – what a mess.
Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the government wants every citizen to prove that they have health insurance, but people don't have to prove they are citizens.
and Chiffon Margarine proved that ! :-D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrTPrp-fW8
Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the government wants every citizen to prove that they have health insurance, but people don't have to prove they are citizens.
and the weather here in Galway has cleared up
52 degrees and partly sunny earlier today.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body" jumpn
Jump...Didn't Ping say he would
eat chis golf bag if they didn’t show the parking lot on North Shore Drive?…well they didn’t…would you pass him the Katsup please…..STUB
STUB
I'm Back!!
I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to post while on the trip…I have yet to invest in a smart phone or a small enough laptop to drag around with me. It was actually nice not to have to worry about email and work for a few days!
I arrived in Phoenix on the coldest high temp in Phoenix’s HISTORY!! I drove right to the tournament from the airport only to find out the pro-am was cancelled! But the driver said maybe there would be players practicing somewhere, so I took the bus over and never saw a single player. I did get a few items from the merchandise tent, but honestly, they need to rethink their logos…I can’t imagine a lot of people really want the green & yellow WM on a $70 shirt – it looks like you are an employee!
I did go back to the tourney on Friday – got there about Noon (so many frost delays!) and stood in line to get on #16 – once I got in I just stayed…it was really fun! I had no idea there were so many things to bet on! The bummer part was that the first groups we saw were finishing their first round – once the Friday round started, the same groups came through again since they were due out first. Never got to see Phil or Tom Lehman.
Even though the sun was out I had a jacket on most of the time…I couldn’t believe how cold it was! I think we only saw 3 birdies the entire time (4+ hours).
I had to laugh…I think I was the only person there that actually followed the rules on the web site – no phone, small bag – most people had back packs and EVERYONE had their phones!! Too funny.
I would love to go back again next year!
(more about my trip later) :-)
I write about golf at www.tees2greens.com, too.
Here is my...
Arizona Adventures blog post…
I write about golf at www.tees2greens.com, too.
Great article. Glad the cold weather didn't ruin it for you. Welcome Home!
The Saints were the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS for a year...hope I don't have to wait another 44 years for #2....WHO DAT!......:)
Glad you had such a good time, red
Wished you had seen a bit more of the golf. At least you saw Lumpy even if you missed Freddie. You certainly managed to get in a lot of golf. I was mightily impressed with your scores after such a lay-off due to the cold and new courses, but I guess with your low handicap I shouldn’t have been surprised. Welcome home.
Great read, Red...
and well done with those two idiots who jumped infront of you. Fighting daylight ? Never heard that one before. Glad you showed up those two clowns !
Glad to hear you had a nice time Wendy
Did you get to see Lumpy come through ?
Maybe next year with a little planning, we can organize a waggleroom group to attend.
We could all play golf together on wednesday and head to the tournament on Thursday.
Just a thought.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body" jumpn
oops I meant red tees
Gawd I’m such a dumb ass sometimes. lol
"pain is only weakness leaving the body" jumpn
That doesn’t sound like a half bad idea. I’ll even bring some of the best deviled eggs you’ve ever tasted.
Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the government wants every citizen to prove that they have health insurance, but people don't have to prove they are citizens.
I'll bring the A-strain of the Flu.......man I'm sick.......arrrrrgh......:(
The Saints were the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS for a year...hope I don't have to wait another 44 years for #2....WHO DAT!......:)
Get Better, Em!!
I write about golf at www.tees2greens.com, too.
couldn’t be karma from not taking off the Saints Superbowl Champs line, could it ? :-D
Feel better !
Fathom the odd hypocrisy that the government wants every citizen to prove that they have health insurance, but people don't have to prove they are citizens.
I just modified it.......lol
The Saints were the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS for a year...hope I don't have to wait another 44 years for #2....WHO DAT!......:)
Your coming to easing
If I have to fly ya out here myself.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body" jumpn
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