A Day At Riviera C.C.
This past Friday was my favorite day of the year. I went to the Northern Trust Open (formerly the L.A. Open) with my Dad as has been our tradition since I was about five years old and my Dad's then friend Mac O'Grady won the tournament. I still remember his showing me the interlock grip, which I use to this day. As the years have gone on, many more memories have accumulated. I was always so happy just to be missing school when I was little to go to the tournament. Imagine that kind of upgrade when you're 10 years old. You go from school to PGA tournament with your Dad. That's like trading Brian Cook for Trevor Ariza times 100. And I love Ariza and couldn't stand Cook. I remember one year when the tournament got moved to Valencia so that Riviera could complete its changes to the course (all of which I like except for the alternate fairway on the 8th hole) and I was a little upset because I love Riviera. But all was made better when my favorite golfer at the time, John Daly birdied a hole and I said, "Nice bird John." He was my favorite because he gave me his ball after he birdied nine the year before. Yes, I still have the ball with the Razorback insignia on it. Anyway, back to the birdie at Valencia. Keep in mind I was about nine or ten years old. Well, Daly heard me and made his way over to me along his walk to the next hole. He approached me and asked why I wasn't in school, which of course scared the crap out of me. He was about 15 times my size. I told him that my Dad and I had the tradition of coming to the tournament every year because it was my favorite thing in the world. He smiled and wished me a good day but told me to remember that school's important and to have a good semester. Maybe not the greatest story, but it meant the world to me and I still vividly remember it to this day. Long story short, I've loved this day ever since I can remember. Being in awe as a kid has been replaced by enjoying the quality time with my Dad, our inside jokes, the pleasant break from everything else, the amazing golf witnessed in person, and the excuse to eat all of the unhealthy food, like I needed one anyway.
Before I get to my Top 10 highlights from this past Friday, if you haven't been to a PGA Tour event in person you should go. The first two things that stand out are how tall and skinny all of the players are and how much power they generate with such effortless swings. On TV it looks like Brad Faxon is about 5'7'' and hitting the ball about 250 yards with no power. Go see him in person and he's about 6'2'' and hitting it 300. Unreal. Better than that though, there's nothing like seeing Fred Couples, Ernie Els, and Steve Elkington swing the club in person. Tiger's a whole other story when he's in the field too. Ok, enough babbling, on to Friday's Top 10 as experienced by the Rudin boys.
10. No more man-boobs!
One of the most fun events of the year is seeing whether or not Phil Mickelson is Fat Phil or Skinny Phil. This year he was Skinny Phil and as you probably know, went on to win the golf tournament. If that's not an incentive to go to the gym tomorrow, I don't know what is. On a different note, I always make it a point to watch Phil tee off at least once. For some reason I always like seeing a lefty like him smoke the ball. It's even more interesting with Phil because he's a natural righty but grew up mirroring his Dad's swing along side him and thereby became Lefty. My Dad is actually the opposite. He's a lefty but used his older brother's right-handed clubs and plays righty. Interesting tidbits as always here at RW.
9. Wow, I feel tall.
There was a 17-year old Japanese entrant into the Open this year, Toshi Ishikawa. He wore teh mandatory goofy foreigner outfit, but he was actually not that shor. However, the hundreds of fans and cameramen following him sure were. It was hilarious. My Dad and I were parked at the 11th tee watching guys boom their drives up the long par-5. The crowds were light this year probably due to the lack of Tiger and the fact that nobody has money in this economy to spend on $4 waters at a golf tournament. But once this seventeen year old, 2-time Japanese Tour winner came to the tee, you'd have thought that it was Tiger and his following coming to the box, only Rick Moranis shrunk everyone and nobody spoke English. Even the Marshall got a little chuckle out of it. The kid missed the cut, but came through with a pretty good showing.
8. Anybody getting that?
J.J. Henry came up short and right with his second shot into the short par-five. Not a bad miss with the front-right pin, but the ropes were in the way. I was about two feet from the ball, in perfect position to watch the shot. Now, this is usually where the Marshall comes over and takes the ropes out then asks you to move back about ten more feet than is necessary, but this Marshall didn't move, and just kind of stared out into nowhere. By the time Henry and his caddie had made their way over, the ropes were still in the way and the player and caddie were trying to telepathically get the Marshall to take the ropes out and move the spectators back. Well, it wasn't happening and I took it upon myself to pull the stake out (which took about three tries more than I had anticipated) to a mild thank you from Henry and his caddie. Why is this my number 8? I don't know. It was funny at the time, and maybe J.J. is reading this and will send me a cut of his check. As for the Marshall, he might still be there.
7. Can you guys see?
To my new favorite golfer, Jason Bohn. He had just lagged his first putt to tap in range and came over by us to watch his playing partners finish up. Of course he stood right in front of me. I swear, my Dad and I have signs on our heads that say, "Attention players, caddies, and Marshalls, please come and stand right in front of us so that we can't see even though we had perfect views before you decided to move toward us. Thank you. We're very much obliged." So Bohn came over and blocked my view of a pretty tough pitch and run and I just kind of looked at my Dad with one of those "Wow, shocking" looks. But then, the unthinkable happened. Bohn looked right at me and said, "I'm sorry, can you guys see? Am I blocking your view? You want me to move?" I was flabbergasted. That was a first in my twenty-plus years of coming here. I was so shocked that, even though he was obstructing my view, I just responded to his kindness by saying, "no, you're fine, thanks." Thank you Jason Bohn. You now have a #1 fan.
6. Charles Barkley, you have competition.
Someone asked me who my Dad and I followed around on Friday and I thought about it and said that we didn't really follow anyone. We wanted to catch specific holes, tee shots, etc. and timed when we went there around certain guys' coming through, but we didn't follow any specific group, except one. Ryan Moore's. Who's Ryan Moore? That was my question when my Dad told me that we had to find the guy. We found him and stood directly behind him to watch his tee shot on the 2nd hole, a long par-4 and the toughest hole on the course in my opinion. Now, I believe in etiquette in golf and that is due in large part to my Dad and Grandfathers. My Dad is big on etiquette so that's why I was so shocked when he started nudging me right as Moore was taking a practice stroke, or at least what I thought was a practice stroke. You have to catch his swing to understand. The older views on Youtube don't do it justice. My Dad was risking my reacting to the nudging by moving myself and distracting a Pro just so I wouldn't miss the guy's backswing. It's tough to explain but here's how I saw it. Moore takes a couple of waggles, then, brings the club back a couple of inches and straight up to waist height. It's at this point that you think he just has a wacky pre-shot routine, only this is his ACTUAL SWING. From waist height, he takes the club back like a baseball swing and then comes through and hits the ball. You have to see it to believe it. We followed him all the way to the 7th after watching Ernie Els' group come through 2 to watch the Big Easy's swing. But we had to see Moore hit irons off the tee on par-3's and hit from the fairway, plus we wanted to see him hit a couple more drives. It was insane. He stuck it to six inches on the 6th hole with that swing. Go to the driving range and try it. I'll bet you can't make contact let alone have professional ball-striking capabilities. It would have been by far the lasting image of the day if not for number 1 on this list.
5. Excuse me Mr. Squirrel, you mind getting that for me?
Poor Ryuji Imada. In the aforementioned Ernie Els' group, Imada took a rip and blocked it way out to the right. He took two steps forward and slammed his driver into the ground. I'm sorry to say this, but I like to see the pros get angry. It makes me think that I have a chance at joining the Tour because I slam my club with the best of them. We walked up to the fairway and realized that nobody was hitting anything for a little while. Why? Because Imada's ball was lodged up in the tree. Poor guy had to walk all the way back to the tee and reload, only to hit it right next to the same tree. The lesson: Don't slam your club. The golfing gods don't like it.
4. Easy big guy.
You know how I said I love when guys get mad and do what I would have done if I had messed up the same shot? Well, I like it even more when they take it to another level and go beyond my angry reactions. I apologize, because I have no idea who this was, but someone left his par putt on the tough par-3 fourth hole about two feet short. Then he got up and pushed his bogey putt. The ball lipped out, and this pour soul got the dreaded double bogey. He seemed to take it well until he started walking up the hill to the fifth tee. He dropped the ball toward the ground and hit it in mid-air with his putter into the trees. When he finally made it up to the tee box we thought it was out of his system, but then he let out this loud, gutteral roar, which illicited the following reaction out of me, "Easy Simba." Got a few chuckles from the gallery. Thankfully Simba didn't hear me. Again, I feel bad for taking pleasure in someone else's plight, but it's nice to know that even the pros can struggle.
3. The Karl Malone of golf.
Is there anyone less likable on the PGA Tour than Rory Sabbatini? The guy bailed on Tiger's charity event after two sub-par rounds, slapping Tiger in the face and screwing over charity, and on top of that, he collected the check for the event. Even Freddy Couples spoke out against the guy. Let's just say, I like watching people like this fail. It was nice in the final round on TV when he got that fried egg lie in the bunker on 16 leading to a 3-putt double bogey to eliminate his title hopes. But it was even better watching him blow a four-footer in person. He turned Thad Motta/Tom Coughlin red then yelled at himself, "C'mon Rory!" Just classic. Gotta love karma.
2. Mom, I only had one beer.
Like I said. I love the food at the golf tournament. I'm already looking forward to next year's breakfast burrito. I had a breakfast burrito at 8 a.m., then a hot dog, chips and Coke at noon, and finally a churro at 1:30 p.m. If that churro wasn't so stale it would have been the perfect day of food. But back to the beer, my Mom was happy that I only had one, until the rest of that sentence was,"but I had the beer at 8 a.m. with the breakfast burrito, and it was a tall boy." Did I mention how much I love the golf tournament every year?
1. Whoa, wh . . . whoa . . . whooooooah
If you thought I was a jerk rooting for Rory Sabbatini to fail, let me just tell you that there is nothing better than someone falling down. Wait, yes there is. There's watching someone fall straight backward out of a little golf stool. My Dad and I were standing watching a guy line up his putt, when all of a sudden we hear that familiar sound, someone trying to get his balance but a little too late in his effort. We looked over in time to see a guy fall straight backward from his golf stool onto the nice kikuya rough at Riviera. He was not injured at all, just really embarrassed and playing it off like nothing had happened. Now, my Dad doesn't laugh often, but when he does, it's uncontrollable and he goes on for about five minutes. This was one of those moments. I usually look over at him to compose myself when I get the giggles and I needed to this time because someone was about to putt. So I looked at my Dad and he was bright red, covering his eyes, and shaking uncontrollably from the silent laughter. I had to do the same and pray that it wasn't audible and distracting. Thankfully there was only that one putt before the group was done and my Dad and I got to bust up laughing. Pure hilarity. If the guy who fell is reading this, which he's not, I would like to thank you for making our day.
Only 51 more weeks until my favorite day of the year again. I guess I'll have to settle for Champions League, March Madness, and The Masters in the next six weeks. Too bad.
Before I get to my Top 10 highlights from this past Friday, if you haven't been to a PGA Tour event in person you should go. The first two things that stand out are how tall and skinny all of the players are and how much power they generate with such effortless swings. On TV it looks like Brad Faxon is about 5'7'' and hitting the ball about 250 yards with no power. Go see him in person and he's about 6'2'' and hitting it 300. Unreal. Better than that though, there's nothing like seeing Fred Couples, Ernie Els, and Steve Elkington swing the club in person. Tiger's a whole other story when he's in the field too. Ok, enough babbling, on to Friday's Top 10 as experienced by the Rudin boys.
10. No more man-boobs!
One of the most fun events of the year is seeing whether or not Phil Mickelson is Fat Phil or Skinny Phil. This year he was Skinny Phil and as you probably know, went on to win the golf tournament. If that's not an incentive to go to the gym tomorrow, I don't know what is. On a different note, I always make it a point to watch Phil tee off at least once. For some reason I always like seeing a lefty like him smoke the ball. It's even more interesting with Phil because he's a natural righty but grew up mirroring his Dad's swing along side him and thereby became Lefty. My Dad is actually the opposite. He's a lefty but used his older brother's right-handed clubs and plays righty. Interesting tidbits as always here at RW.
9. Wow, I feel tall.
There was a 17-year old Japanese entrant into the Open this year, Toshi Ishikawa. He wore teh mandatory goofy foreigner outfit, but he was actually not that shor. However, the hundreds of fans and cameramen following him sure were. It was hilarious. My Dad and I were parked at the 11th tee watching guys boom their drives up the long par-5. The crowds were light this year probably due to the lack of Tiger and the fact that nobody has money in this economy to spend on $4 waters at a golf tournament. But once this seventeen year old, 2-time Japanese Tour winner came to the tee, you'd have thought that it was Tiger and his following coming to the box, only Rick Moranis shrunk everyone and nobody spoke English. Even the Marshall got a little chuckle out of it. The kid missed the cut, but came through with a pretty good showing.
8. Anybody getting that?
J.J. Henry came up short and right with his second shot into the short par-five. Not a bad miss with the front-right pin, but the ropes were in the way. I was about two feet from the ball, in perfect position to watch the shot. Now, this is usually where the Marshall comes over and takes the ropes out then asks you to move back about ten more feet than is necessary, but this Marshall didn't move, and just kind of stared out into nowhere. By the time Henry and his caddie had made their way over, the ropes were still in the way and the player and caddie were trying to telepathically get the Marshall to take the ropes out and move the spectators back. Well, it wasn't happening and I took it upon myself to pull the stake out (which took about three tries more than I had anticipated) to a mild thank you from Henry and his caddie. Why is this my number 8? I don't know. It was funny at the time, and maybe J.J. is reading this and will send me a cut of his check. As for the Marshall, he might still be there.
7. Can you guys see?
To my new favorite golfer, Jason Bohn. He had just lagged his first putt to tap in range and came over by us to watch his playing partners finish up. Of course he stood right in front of me. I swear, my Dad and I have signs on our heads that say, "Attention players, caddies, and Marshalls, please come and stand right in front of us so that we can't see even though we had perfect views before you decided to move toward us. Thank you. We're very much obliged." So Bohn came over and blocked my view of a pretty tough pitch and run and I just kind of looked at my Dad with one of those "Wow, shocking" looks. But then, the unthinkable happened. Bohn looked right at me and said, "I'm sorry, can you guys see? Am I blocking your view? You want me to move?" I was flabbergasted. That was a first in my twenty-plus years of coming here. I was so shocked that, even though he was obstructing my view, I just responded to his kindness by saying, "no, you're fine, thanks." Thank you Jason Bohn. You now have a #1 fan.
6. Charles Barkley, you have competition.
Someone asked me who my Dad and I followed around on Friday and I thought about it and said that we didn't really follow anyone. We wanted to catch specific holes, tee shots, etc. and timed when we went there around certain guys' coming through, but we didn't follow any specific group, except one. Ryan Moore's. Who's Ryan Moore? That was my question when my Dad told me that we had to find the guy. We found him and stood directly behind him to watch his tee shot on the 2nd hole, a long par-4 and the toughest hole on the course in my opinion. Now, I believe in etiquette in golf and that is due in large part to my Dad and Grandfathers. My Dad is big on etiquette so that's why I was so shocked when he started nudging me right as Moore was taking a practice stroke, or at least what I thought was a practice stroke. You have to catch his swing to understand. The older views on Youtube don't do it justice. My Dad was risking my reacting to the nudging by moving myself and distracting a Pro just so I wouldn't miss the guy's backswing. It's tough to explain but here's how I saw it. Moore takes a couple of waggles, then, brings the club back a couple of inches and straight up to waist height. It's at this point that you think he just has a wacky pre-shot routine, only this is his ACTUAL SWING. From waist height, he takes the club back like a baseball swing and then comes through and hits the ball. You have to see it to believe it. We followed him all the way to the 7th after watching Ernie Els' group come through 2 to watch the Big Easy's swing. But we had to see Moore hit irons off the tee on par-3's and hit from the fairway, plus we wanted to see him hit a couple more drives. It was insane. He stuck it to six inches on the 6th hole with that swing. Go to the driving range and try it. I'll bet you can't make contact let alone have professional ball-striking capabilities. It would have been by far the lasting image of the day if not for number 1 on this list.
5. Excuse me Mr. Squirrel, you mind getting that for me?
Poor Ryuji Imada. In the aforementioned Ernie Els' group, Imada took a rip and blocked it way out to the right. He took two steps forward and slammed his driver into the ground. I'm sorry to say this, but I like to see the pros get angry. It makes me think that I have a chance at joining the Tour because I slam my club with the best of them. We walked up to the fairway and realized that nobody was hitting anything for a little while. Why? Because Imada's ball was lodged up in the tree. Poor guy had to walk all the way back to the tee and reload, only to hit it right next to the same tree. The lesson: Don't slam your club. The golfing gods don't like it.
4. Easy big guy.
You know how I said I love when guys get mad and do what I would have done if I had messed up the same shot? Well, I like it even more when they take it to another level and go beyond my angry reactions. I apologize, because I have no idea who this was, but someone left his par putt on the tough par-3 fourth hole about two feet short. Then he got up and pushed his bogey putt. The ball lipped out, and this pour soul got the dreaded double bogey. He seemed to take it well until he started walking up the hill to the fifth tee. He dropped the ball toward the ground and hit it in mid-air with his putter into the trees. When he finally made it up to the tee box we thought it was out of his system, but then he let out this loud, gutteral roar, which illicited the following reaction out of me, "Easy Simba." Got a few chuckles from the gallery. Thankfully Simba didn't hear me. Again, I feel bad for taking pleasure in someone else's plight, but it's nice to know that even the pros can struggle.
3. The Karl Malone of golf.
Is there anyone less likable on the PGA Tour than Rory Sabbatini? The guy bailed on Tiger's charity event after two sub-par rounds, slapping Tiger in the face and screwing over charity, and on top of that, he collected the check for the event. Even Freddy Couples spoke out against the guy. Let's just say, I like watching people like this fail. It was nice in the final round on TV when he got that fried egg lie in the bunker on 16 leading to a 3-putt double bogey to eliminate his title hopes. But it was even better watching him blow a four-footer in person. He turned Thad Motta/Tom Coughlin red then yelled at himself, "C'mon Rory!" Just classic. Gotta love karma.
2. Mom, I only had one beer.
Like I said. I love the food at the golf tournament. I'm already looking forward to next year's breakfast burrito. I had a breakfast burrito at 8 a.m., then a hot dog, chips and Coke at noon, and finally a churro at 1:30 p.m. If that churro wasn't so stale it would have been the perfect day of food. But back to the beer, my Mom was happy that I only had one, until the rest of that sentence was,"but I had the beer at 8 a.m. with the breakfast burrito, and it was a tall boy." Did I mention how much I love the golf tournament every year?
1. Whoa, wh . . . whoa . . . whooooooah
If you thought I was a jerk rooting for Rory Sabbatini to fail, let me just tell you that there is nothing better than someone falling down. Wait, yes there is. There's watching someone fall straight backward out of a little golf stool. My Dad and I were standing watching a guy line up his putt, when all of a sudden we hear that familiar sound, someone trying to get his balance but a little too late in his effort. We looked over in time to see a guy fall straight backward from his golf stool onto the nice kikuya rough at Riviera. He was not injured at all, just really embarrassed and playing it off like nothing had happened. Now, my Dad doesn't laugh often, but when he does, it's uncontrollable and he goes on for about five minutes. This was one of those moments. I usually look over at him to compose myself when I get the giggles and I needed to this time because someone was about to putt. So I looked at my Dad and he was bright red, covering his eyes, and shaking uncontrollably from the silent laughter. I had to do the same and pray that it wasn't audible and distracting. Thankfully there was only that one putt before the group was done and my Dad and I got to bust up laughing. Pure hilarity. If the guy who fell is reading this, which he's not, I would like to thank you for making our day.
Only 51 more weeks until my favorite day of the year again. I guess I'll have to settle for Champions League, March Madness, and The Masters in the next six weeks. Too bad.
So true, so true. Was sad to miss it this year but already looking forward to next year
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