All Quiet

One of my favorite things to do, is to attend a PGA Tournament... I absolutely love the energy of the gallery. My sweetie and I have attended the AT&T ProAm at Pebble Beach, which has now become our Valentine's Day "thing". Forget flowers, candy and diamonds (OK, scratch that last one)... bring on the golf!

Before I started playing, I would have preferred a root canal over watching golf on TV. Now that I am "in the know", I enjoy it. I love the tradition and the pomp and circumstance of it all. However, actually being in the gallery is an experience all it's own.

One of the main focuses of my trip to Hilton Head (aside from the hotel tours, of course) was the Heritage Tournament. The second day of the trip began with breakfast and a couple of hotel tours (not to mention the most hideous hangover I've had in years), and the afternoon was dedicated to the tournament. When we arrived at Harbour Town, I was soooo excited.  I love this course and have played it many times (ok on Wii Golf, but so what?). We slowly made our way to one of the two sky boxes that were hosted by our hotel hosts. As I sat in the front row of the sky box on the 17th green (sipping a beer, hoping the hair of the dog would set me right), I was in my glory. Of course I was texting my sweetie telling him to look for me on TV (and yes, bitterly missing him). In that moment, in that lovely quiet space of the green, watching golf's most amazing players hit the ball, all I could think was: "wow, my job does not suck!"

The tournament was really exciting, and I had an opportunity to see all of the players walk off the 18th green, which means one thing: Autographs!! woohoo!! I completely filled my visor with names I cannot read (I kept a list to refer to)... but one I shall not forget: Jim Furyk, aka: "winnah, winnah!"

The autograph thing is tricky at a tournament. You cannot ask for one from a player until they are done with their round (they are working, people!). However, ProAm's are a little bit different, at least for the amateurs. The AT&T at Pebble usually has a fair amount of celebrities as the amateurs. Sometimes that is really cool (last year, Justin Timberlake played!), but at least for me, that is a small part of the draw (if any). Bill Murray is a standard fixture at this tournament, and he definitely works the crowd for a laugh. Sometimes the celebrities will come up to the rope as they are walking the fairway and sign autographs. I like Bill Murray as much as anyone I suppose, and was following the group he was in (not because of him, because he was playing with Rocco Mediate whom I love, love love!). Anyway, at one point Bill came to the ropes and was giving autographs. I had my trusty white visor in hand (and my own Sharpie), and politely waited my turn. Eh ehmmm... hello? Bill? You have made eye contact with me, signed for people on either side of me, and yet, completely dissed me. Why oh why? I wondered if perhaps the Nike "swoosh" on the visor was off putting. I couldn't figure it out! There I was, minding my own business, being polite. I was annoyed but was over it, and tried again not one, but two more times. Each time he did the same thing! HMPH! Well, after filling my visor with the names of the amazing players present at Heritage, including the winnah, to Bill Murray I say: "Put that on your tee and drive it"! I will not be asking for his autograph again. Nope. Never. Carl, the greens keeper would never have such an attitude...

Have Sharpie, will travel...