Yeah, I know there are a lot of pictures of Michelle there. Consequently, the only players that I could easily recognize without having to look at the name of their staff bag were the ones I got pictures of yesterday. Tom Kite, Michelle, Kevin Stadler, Jesper, Cink, Charles Howell III, Shigeki and Poulter.
No Vijay or Ernie but I'll probably get some pictures of them today. Unfortunately, if you're tired of pictures of Michelle, you're in for more of the same since Ernie will be playing his practice round with her.
Poulter's pants look like they're camouflage but they're actually a floral "aloha shirt" type of print. I wonder what he'll wear today?
When I saw Flesch on the range, I thought Taylor Made was trying to get him to use their driver since their were two reps standing by him while he hit balls. Flesch kept saying stuff like, "you know, I really like this driver" and the TM reps kept looking at each other in a "giddy" manner. Then he grabbed an empty Cleveland headcover from the bag and put it over the TM driver. He did also have another driver resting against his bag that I didn't see him hit but it's tough to tell what kind of driver it is when all you can see is the black head from above.
Sorry for the pictures of people's backs. I don't have my timing good on the digital camera. I took exactly 99 pictures today and have more that I didn't upload of DA Pointes, Bernard Langer, Pat Perez and Kevin Stadler. If anyone wants me to upload them, I can but they're even worse quality than the ones I actually uploaded.
They're pictures and you're not looking for any photo awards...or are you?
Let's see what you got! A "bad" picture from a PGA Tour event in Hawaii is better than the view from my "picture" window right now!
Photo awards? Not when I'm taking pictures with a pedestrian digital camera and there are others with telephoto lenses that practically reach to the subject they're trying to get a photo of.
Don't sell yourself short, victory. A "pedestrian digital camera" handled with skill and an understanding of the game can produce better pictures than the most expensive rig money can buy. You have our complete confidence.
Well, I'm kind of tired but I'll try to give a quick synopsis of today's festivities.
Ernie Els, Michelle Wie and Justin Rose played together for their practice round today. They played 9 holes on the front. Justin was hitting it real good today. Ernie and Justin seemed to outdrive Michelle by 20 or 30 yards consistently. Justin was hitting it the best out of all of them. Michelle was really on with her short game today. There was a 488 yard par 4 that played against the wind that nobody reached. She made up and down from 30 yards short.
After 9 holes, they left. It was lunchtime but I don't think Ernie ever came back to the course. It was funny seeing Justin Rose look around to give people autographs while Ernie and Michelle were hounded the whole time. Michelle has been playing pretty good but I'm beginning to think she won't make the cut. I think of all of the holes I've seen her play the past 2 days, she's been -1. Accuracy off of the tee will be the biggest factor. The bermuda rough here is pretty brutal. I'd say I was most impressed with her long irons and her short game.
Another local of Hawaii I saw was Dean Wilson. Most probably won't recognize his name but he was Annika's playing partner at the Colonial. His caddy, Mark Chun, is one of Hawaii's top amateur players and a starter for the municipal courses. He recognized me since I'm a regular at the muni's so it was nice knowing someone on the other side of the fence. I'll be cheering for Dean during the tournament.
In the afternoon, there was the Pro Junior Golf tournament. It was 6 of Hawaii's top junior golfers paired with 6 professionals. That is, if Adam Sandler counts as a pro. Michelle and Adam were paired together. The other pros were Tom Lehman, Retief Goosen, Scott Simpson, Fred Funk and Jerry Kelly. The gallery for this event was huge. There were hundreds of school children there to see Adam Sandler. He actually outdrove Fred Funk on a hole but Funk blamed it on Jerry Kelly trying to distract him. For the record, Funk's drive was in the fairway even with the distractions. I was looking forward to being there for Michelle's Friday round but I'm beginning to think the gallery may be way too big to actually see anything.
I overheard the Nickent Golf Tour rep talk about their hybrid club. It's gained good acceptance on the Nationwide Tour but they're trying to get it out on the PGA Tour. Said they were trying to make inroads with the hybrid, then expand the marketing of their other offerings.
Better and better! The photos were really terrific! While looking at them, I was almost able to feel that I was there soaking up the sunshine and star-power of the tournament.
Poor Justin Rose! Compared to Ernie and Michelle, he hardly rates a blip on the autograph hounds' radar screens. He needs to make a bit more noise with his clubs this year.
Sometimes we forget that Michelle is still very young, despite her obvious skills. Expecting her to make the cut at a PGA Tour event is really asking a lot. I suspect that your assessment of her not making the cut this week is correct, but if she plays her very best, I wouldn't be shocked to see her on the weekend, just a bit surprised. And you can put money on her gallery being huge during any round.
Thanks for the excellent reporting and super shots.
Phil, I agree with that assessment. I think I may have gotten too worked up over her missed cut by a stroke performance last year. The only reason why I say this is because I haven't seen her make many pars by hitting the green and two putting. I've seen her birdie three times, bogey twice and most of her pars were from getting up and down. To be fair, Ernie didn't seem to be doing great at all. The first hole I saw him, he would have bogeyed at best and most likely double bogeyed if he had putted out. I'll still be cheering her on to make the cut but I guess I won't be as dissappointed if she doesn't.
The tee times just came out. Michelle is the last morning tee time on Thursday which makes her tee time on Friday... the last tee time of the day. I guess they're really trying to set things up for some drama on Friday afternoon. Funny if you think about it because the climax usually comes on Sunday. Here's the link:
January 11th, 2005, 02:09 PM
j/k - reminds me of a monkey though the way he smiles.
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