I Like to Watch Them Putt

Golf.  It's a game so deceptively simple, and so hard to play.  It's a game that has the excitement of paint drying if you watch a tournament on TV, yet in person it has an almost Zen like quality.  (I'm not the only one who has connected Zen and golf, either.) 

It's golf tournament time in Endicott, NY.  The Dicks Sporting Goods open is back in town, featuring PGA Champion senior golfers (age 50 and above).  The lineup includes four Hall of Famers:  Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite and Nick Price.  Tom Kite was a past winner of the BC Open, back when we had a "regular" PGA tournament here in the Triple Cities.

In those days, no one ever gave away free tickets to the BC Open.

Fortunately for many of us, including those unemployed in the economy of the Triple Cities, the law firm of Hinman, Howard and Katell gave away free tickets for the second round last year, and again, this year.

Last year my spouse, who was part of the "golf is like watching paint dry" crowd (although he worked as a caddy when he was a young teen) didn't go, and I went with a friend.  This year, the friend was otherwise occupied, so spouse agreed to go with me.  I kept telling him "it isn't like that at all".  I don't know if he was convinced, but sometimes spouses do things for love.

This year, armed with the basics I learned last year plus spouse's commentary on the game as a former caddy knows it, I had a really good time.  This year, I watched the golfers putt and observed the various putters they used.  I was fortunate enough to get close to holes, and close to tee-offs, and compared drivers.  I observed how one golfer's clubs were covered by hand-knit covers.  Made by a loving wife, or daughter or son?

It was cool, in the 60's.  Birds sang.  The breeze felt good on us.  The sun occasionally peeked out of the clouds. The crowds, though growing, remained hushed except for applause or gasps, as a certain shot deserved.  Birds sang some more.  Flowers bloomed.  (Augusta National this is not, but there is some nice landscaping.)  There was lots and lots of walking.  One of the holes is almost 1/3 of a mile long, and this is not a flat walk, either.  Occasionally, flowery scents reached our noses.  People murmured.  Although they weren't permitted, an occasional cell phone announced a text message.  You could almost touch the silence.  It was pleasant.  Volunteers driving golf carts on the paths politely asked people to move to the side.  Other volunteers, enforcing quiet before shots, called out for walking spectators to "stand".  The golfers were polite, although one golfer was visibly upset when he missed a putt close to the hole. 

Tom Watson and Tom Kite both ended up in sand traps.  Both very nicely got their golf balls out and back onto the green. 

No pictures, as cameras were not allowed. (although, again, I saw some people taking pictures with cell phones.)  But, I did sneak a shot last year, and here it is:

(as an aside, many people aren't aware that Dick's Sporting Goods began in Binghamton.   Of course, like so many other employers:  they left.  Except for two stores.)

We left in the early afternoon, as we had to get to a farmers market before it closed (we had asked a vendor to hold something for us, forgetting all about the tournament.)  We won't be back later, or back for the 19th hole partying.  I want that Zen feeling to remain.  Golfffffffffff..........

Tiger Woods, Alex Alexander and the BC Open - Memories

Well, this is probably where I don't gain in popularity.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the Dick's Sporting Goods tournament.  (one of the things is its somewhat unfortunate name, if you shorten the full name up a little.)  I didn't tell the entire truth in the previous post.  Fact is I had a very small (a very very very small) part in the tournament the DSGT replaced, the BC Open although it is true that I never attended the BC Open itself.  However, I had the pleasure and privilege of speaking on the phone with its founder, Alex Alexander, one of the greatest gentlemen to have graced the Triple Cities with their existence.  Mr. Alexander died earlier this year, and I was very remiss in not commenting about his death then.

 The BC Open had its moments in its almost 30 years of existence.  One of the probably most famous moment (outside this area, anyway) was the year Tiger Woods played in it.   It was 1996.  It was just about when he was thrust into the public spotlight.   Tiger tied for third.  Although the Sports Illustrated article didn't quote this, I remember very well Tiger being interviewed and letting everyone know he would never play in the BC Open again because....well, let's say he was underwhelmed by Endicott.

Well sorry we didn't lived up to your standards, Tiger.  The shame is that Endicott has gone downhill, badly downhill, in recent years.  But the Endicott of today wasn't the Endicott of 1996, before "the plume" was discovered, and before the downstate gangs discovered Endicott.  En-Joie may not have been the fanciest of golf courses but it was part of the legacy of the Johnson Family of Endicott-Johnson, and still is a gem of the Village of Endicott.  How many villages of 15,000 in this country can boast a PGA tour?  Or a decent municipal golf course, at that?  Plus, a golf course where the pros play, at "blue collar prices"?

(The BC Open was a PGA tour; it is a long and sad story how we ended up losing the Open but ended up on the Champions tour.  It even had something to do with our 2006 flood - the very last BC Open in 2006 couldn't even be played here because of all the damage.)

Finally, one more clarification regarding my enjoyment of the golf tournament yesterday: I know that golf tournaments have another element of enjoyment, the "19th hole".   I might have been a golf  newcomer but I'm not naive. But excessive drinking isn't my scene and I didn't stay long enough for the 19th hole to get going.

I know the BC Open will never return.  The Champions tour has its own strengths, and I hope to return to see it again one day.

Searching for Joey Sindelar

A friend and I went to the Dick's Sporting Goods Open in Endicott yesterday, which is part of the PGA "Champions" tour.  (I was too tired to finish this post last night.)

I've been at two practice rounds at a couple of other golf tournaments but this was my first honest to goodness actual golf tournament ever.  I am a golf vi...well, I can't say that if I am going to remain a family blog.  So instead:  I have never played regular golf.  That is because any game that involves a ball and me is a total disaster for both of us, and anyone else nearby.  Trust me on this.

Now, if all you have ever done is watched golf on TV....yes, that is as interesting as watching paint dry.  But golf in person is not like that at all.

You are out, on manicured greens with bits of lovely landscaping here and there, water fountains bubbling.  If you sit at a hole, people are talking in whispers even if the golfers haven't arrived to complete their rounds yet.  You sit and the birds sing, the winds blow.  It is peaceful.   You hear nature around you.  You walk around.  You watch the golfers study their shots.  Someone holds up signs asking for Quiet and it becomes even more still.  Then some cheers, and quiet again.  Certainly not like any other sporting event you've ever been to.  If you love peace and quiet, and I do, golf is the place to be.

Oh yes, one other thing.

You get very, very, lost.

This is where the Joey Sindelar part comes in.

But first, I am going to talk about the start of the day's play.  After my companion filled me in on the basics of golf scoring (par, eagles, birdies, bogeys, etc.) we watched Hale Irwin tee off to start the day's play.  We were just a few feet away.  His was one of the few names I had heard of.

It was not his day.  His shot hit a tree branch.  And, I think it was probably downhill for him after that, as he isn't in the running at this point.

Nevertheless, we wanted to follow him and his greatness around.  Now, when someone you want to follow plays, you wait until he hits the ball, and then follow the crowd to wherever it landed.    (If I'm not using proper terminology here, please forgive me.)  In this tournament, golfers were playing in groups of three, so all three had to hit, and then eventually they caught up with you.  You hoped.

The problem was, holes are not in order.  You don't go to hole one, then hole two, then hole three in a straight line.  Oh no, that would be too easy. 

If you look at a map of En-Joie Golf Course, where this tournament takes place, it resembles somewhat a map of the Finger Lakes.  If I remember correctly, hole 2 was followed by hole 9.  Which was followed by hole 8.  Which was followed by us getting totally lost, and losing Hale Irwin.  Instead, we followed a set of golfers including one David Frost.

What we then decided to do was try to find the winner of last year's Open, one Joey Sindelar. and follow him. However, between the maze of holes, the fact that some of the paths were roped off and the fact that some people were starting at the first hole and others at the 10th (I suppose this is normal but what do I know) this was like trying to find Dr. Livingstone in the wilds of Africa.  Okay, not quite.

We were trying to estimate where Joey Sindelar would be given that he teed off from the 10th hole, and at the time he was supposed to start.  This became quite the intellectual exercise.  After some false starts and climbing hills that seemed to be getting steeper and steeper, we decided to plop down by a hole, see who was coming along, and hope Joey would be there soon.

From the program, we saw he would be in the 4th group to come to that hole, based on who was there at the time.  So we made our stand...well, our sit, and got to see him.  And also Craig Stadler, The Walrus. Yes, he looks like one.

We did miss seeing Ben Crenshaw, who was one of the last to tee off.  By then, we were so lost we probably would have ended up in Asheville, NC if we had tried to walk any more.

So we finally left.  But since we never found the 14th hole, we missed out on some spiedies.  Oh well.

Would I go back?  Yes.  But I'd better learn more about the golfers first, and bring a good map and compass.

Finally: many thanks for the law firm of Hinman, Howard & Kattell in Binghamton for buying the gate yesterday.  All we had to pay was $5.00 for parking.  Cheap!