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Memorial Tournament
My brother won 2 free passes to the practice rounds at the Memorial Tournament in Columbus (PGA Tournament), and he invited me up to go with him on Monday and Tuesday. Being the autograph whore that I am, I accepted his offer, and drove up to Columbus to watch some professional golfers, and maybe get some autographs in the process
We got there Monday morning about 7:20am, set up our chairs by the 18th green, and waited. Nobody else showed up for an hour. About 8:00, a camera crew started setting up on the 18th green, we weren't sure what for, but figured it was for the news or something. About 8:30, a golf cart pulls up right next to where we're sitting, and Jack Nicklaus gets off and walks to the green! Turns out, he was recording some promo spots for the tournament, since it's his tournament. So we watched him record for about 10 minutes or so, and by this time, about 10 other people had arrived. Joe and I had each bought a couple pin flags to get signed by people, so when Jack was leaving, we asked for his autograph, and he graciously obliged! That's right... we got Jack Nicklaus's autograph! We'd been there an hour, and already were satisfied with the trip. We didn't expect to even see Jack at the tournament, let alone get his autograph. A legend like that, we figured he'd stay holed up in the clubhouse or something. I'm glad we were wrong.
That was pretty much the end of the excitement for day one, we stayed until 5:30, saw 4 golfers, and got no more autographs. I stayed with Joe that night in Columbus, and we decided we could sleep in a bit the next day, since nobody was there before 8:30.
We got there about 8:15 Tuesday morning, and got our same seats, right by the 18th green. We were tired of sitting, so we walked around a bit to watch some of the golfers playing different holes. It turns out, this was much more enjoyable than sitting and waiting until the golfers reached the 18th hole. We walked around from hole to hole all day, and ended up getting autographs from 28 of the golfers there... including Ernie Els, Kenny Perry, Rocco Mediate, and many more.
We stopped walking around about 3:00, because a presentation was going on back by our seats, honoring some past golfers. So we went back to our seats and watched it. After that, Jack Nicklaus went over to the driving range to do a golf clinic. They displayed some fancy equipment, gave some tips, etc. Joe and I didn't have seats, so we tried to watch as much as we could from behind the fence that was keeping everybody out of the driving range.
As we were standing there, we started talking to one of the security people working, and he told us Tiger Woods was at the club. He pointed across the driving range, to a spot far away from anything, and said Tiger was over there. When the golf clinic ended, a cart went out to pick Tiger up, and bring him back into the clubhouse. Security cleared a path from the driving range to the clubhouse, and the golf cart didn't even slow down. Just zoomed straight out and through the crowd. Tiger didn't look around, didn't wave, didn't acknowledge that people were there... just stared straight ahead. He zoomed by so fast I couldn't even get a picture. Oh well, at least now I can say I've seen Tiger Woods =)
After that, there was a storm coming in, so we decided to call it a day and head home. I didn't know a lot of the golfers, because I rarely watch it on TV... but it was a lot of fun.