Friday, February 3, 2012

Waste Management Phoenix Open - Friday

The day started early with a 4:45am wake up call. I met Kevin at 6:20 to start our warm up for the 7:30 restart. It was dark and cold as we started to warm up under the lights. But as the sun began to rise, the frost started to lay. The Tour announced a 30 minute delay around 7:00 and then added another 30 minutes about 7:15. When play finally resumed at 8:30, it was a perfect morning.

Kevin completed the first round with 6 straight pars. As soon as he signed the scorecard, we went straight to the first tee to start round two. It was an average round on a course that had some difficult pins. The front nine, we bogeyed both par 3's after missing the greens but Kevin was able to make two birdies to turn at even par. On the tenth, Kevin made a nice long putt to get us under par for the day. A tee shot right into a water hazard on the par 5 13th led to a bogey but he was able to get that shot back with a nice birdie on the other par 5 (15th).

We arrived at the famous 16th one under par for the day. With a packed house, we came up short into the front bunker and we were not able to get it up and down. They all let us know that we did not have a good hole and that they all thought they could do better then us. It is an unbelievable experience. If you hit a great shot, they cheer like you are greatest of all time. Hit a poor shot, and they will yell things at you that would make their momma's be ashamed of them. Caddies are not left out. They bet on each group on which caddie will reach the green first. The two caddies that don't win will have a few choice words thrown at them. It's all a little over the top, but fun none the less.

We finished the round with two pars and shot even par (71). Our 2 under par total will be good enough to make the cut. Because of the early frost delay, play was once again suspended due to darkness. The Tour will again try for a 7:30 restart, finish round 2, make the cut and begin round 3 between 10:00am and 12:00pm teeing off both the 1st and 10th tees.

We are looking forward to the weekend and having two more memorable experiences on that 16th.

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