It wasn’t until my hair was all soapy and wet that I realized that there was no hair dryer in the hotel room. So, my hair had to dry naturally. Not so bad for the health of my hair, but very bad for me. If it wasn’t for the fact that no one here knows me, I probably wouldn’t have left the room.
I got to the course and went to the practice range. There I noticed that the Australians lined up next to each other and Spanish speaking golfers lined up next to each other. Colin Montgomerie didn’t greet anyone as he walked across the range. I didn’t see Sergio at all today, but that doesn’t mean the day was a bust. (Yes, there is a pun in there but you have to wait for it.) I got to follow a very exciting group the first thing: Angel Cabrera, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Andres Romero. A dream for me, as you might expect. It was neat to hear them all converse in Spanish. I followed them for about three or four holes and then moved up to catch up to a plainly, but neatly, dressed Ian Poulter. He was playing by himself with just his caddie and a couple of other people along. He’s a talker and has a good sense of humor. On one hole, he missed the fairway three or four times in roughly the same spot. His response (loosely quoted): “Well, it’s fairly consistent.” Then on another hole, a larger lady wearing a tank top asked him to sign her breast. (No, it wasn’t me. I’m skinny now, sufficiently clothed and a good girl). He said “Sorry” and kept walking. And in case you didn’t catch it, that was the pun I referred to earlier. I would have followed Ian for the rest of his practice round, but had to look for a real restroom, not the port-a-potties.
I did actually eat at the course today. If you remember my diary from two years ago, I didn’t eat at all during the days I spent at the course. Today’s lunch was a turkey club wrap, priced at $7.50 and a bottle of water for a mere $3.00. I think the cashier gave me back too much money. I think she was trying to add my change back up to $10.00 but instead she gave me a $10.00 bill plus extra. Don’t worry though, I heard them say that they couldn’t give ice away to people, they had to sell it for $0.50 a cup. I’m sure they will make up any shortfalls due to cashier screw-ups.
Twice today, I put sunscreen on. Unfortunately, I think that led to a big problem. For the last two hours I was there, my eyes burned and watered constantly, just like yesterday. I was miserable and not even splashing cold water in them completely solved the problem. I ended up leaving early, which means I might have missed Sergio. But I saw him plenty two years ago. I think it was a great day just for seeing Cabrera, Jimenez and Romero.
I did walk right by Scott Strange and Brett Rumford while my eyes were giving me fits and lucky for them, I didn’t collide into them. But if they noticed the girl with the eye trouble, then they noticed me!
My eyes actually felt better in the really cold AC of the building you walk through to leave the course. So, that was a double edged sword thing. Feeling better by leaving. I got back to the hotel and walked to Walmart and bought some eye drops, eye wash, and a hair dryer.
Two local stations are calling for rainstorms Wednesday and Thursday and one is just saying Wednesday. I hope it goes around us. The tournament is quick to tell you where not to go if there’s bad weather, but they don’t tell you where you should go. I’m just going to follow everyone else or go back to the hotel. The storms are supposed to happen after 2pm so I can get a lot of practice watched by then.
Here’s a list of players I saw today (whether through healthy or watery eyes)
Anthony Kim
Peter Lonard
Colin Montgomerie
Rod Pampling
Craig Parry
Ian Poulter
Andres Romero
Justin Rose
Brett Rumford
Rory Sabbatini - no fancy belt buckle for the practice round
Vijay Singh
Brandt Snedecker
Scott Strange
David Toms
DJ Trajan
Boo Weekley
Oliver Wilson
Woody Austin
Mark Brown
Angel Cabrera
Chad Campbell
Chris Dimarco - on the 1st tee wearing a blue shirt-odd, that’s where he was and what he was wearing when I saw him two years ago.
Nick Dougherty
Niclas Fasth
Ross Fisher
Jim Furyk
Richard Green
David Howell
Miguel Angel Jimenez
Zach Johnson
Martin Kayer
Fannie
Henrik Stenson
Obligatory jerk story: While I was sitting on some bleachers unable to see through the burning and watering eyes, some 18-20 year old boys thought it was smart to start calling the white golfers “Tiger”. In my 99% white home town, if someone called one golfer by another’s name, it would merely be a comment on the skill level (in this case, gee you’re not Tiger). But up here, I would think this might take on a racial tone if some sensitive people were to overhear. So, even though I couldn’t see, I thought I’d better get up and leave before I ended up getting lumped in with these jerks just because I was in the vicinity.
I counted 80 players in the Tuesday flier they handed out. And of those, I saw 32 for sure and possibly two others: Hidemasa Hoshino and Prayad Marksaeng. I think I saw them but wasn’t completely sure of who they were until I looked at the sheet.
Hopefully I will feel a lot better tomorrow and hopefully we won’t have any weather problems. I want to see more players and I want to see more Justin Rose. And I haven’t seen Pablo Larrazabal yet. He was out on a practice round while I was blind.
Well, I’m off to take some Tylenol and put more drops in my eyes.
News from home: The Fed-Ex package came back to my house. Mom called the Fed-Ex people and had them retrieve it last week, but they delivered it to my house again. They must have a huge gas budget since they don’t seem to mind delivering packages to the wrong addresses twice.
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