2012 Deutsche Bank Championship Pro-Am

As I have done for the last couple of years, I got my hands on some tickets for the Deutsche Bank Championship Pro-Am and brought my camera along for the ride. I was excited to learn Tiger Woods would be playing for the first time in a few years, though not excited enough to get up to see him tee of at 6:50 in the morning. However, knowing how slow the amateurs play I was confident he would still be on the course when I got there around 11. I hustled to 18 to catch him finishing up.

 

Turns out I could have taken my time because Woods still had a couple holes to go. The first people I saw roll through were Justin Rose and Hunter Mahan. Since Mahan is my boy I took plenty of pictures, but saw him later and got a better picture to show you that time. The next guy to play through was Watney, who impressed me by picking up his own divot.

Finally Woods came up. You can tell when it's Tiger because the crowd around the hole suddenly doubles. I can now totally understand why people say they don't mind playing with Tiger, but don't like playing in the group in front or behind him. It's a lot of moving pieces. What's nice is that Tiger helped me out by hitting it left off the tee to about 20 feet from where I was already standing. I'm proud of myself for not sprinting to his ball. Not all grown men in the area can make the same claim.

This was where I was reminded that being a professional athlete must have it's drawbacks. Every second of this guy's life is on camera. Also, people crap on athletes who won't sign their stuff, but you never hear the other side of that story. We as fans need to learn when to ask for autographs and when not to. One woman called out for one at this instance and seemed miffed Tiger didn't come running. For future reference: before and after holes, not during.





At this point I had a decision to make: stick around and wait for Jason Dufner to come up 18 or head back to the 10th tee and watch Rory McIlroy tee off. I figured two Major titles was the tie-breaker and headed to 10. Rory was apparently a little late and literally ran down the street to the tee box. Chalk that up as something you won't see every day.

Rory was playing in the Pro-Am with the President of Deutsche Bank. (I'm sure that was just a lucky draw on that guy's part.) The benefit of being tall is that I could stand behind the tee box and still see over the wall to stand behind Rory as he swung, which is the best place to watch the pros hit. Rory hit an amazing drive which went high, far and straight. Honestly, there are cannons which are jealous of this kid's accuracy.

I decided to wait around and see Matt Kuchar, who was next on the tee. While waiting for Kuch I heard a commotion going on behind me and turned around in time to catch Bubba Watson hopping into his cart. As you can tell, I didn't have time to get picky about getting a good picture.

The funny this is that while I was taking Bubba's picture, Kuchar silently arrived at the tee, which is why my camera was still so zoomed in. Never heard him coming, which leads to a new theory: Matt Kuchar is a ninja.







I decided to work my way backwards through the front 9. The first person I came across was Ian Poulter. The entire time I was taking out my camera to snap this picture, Ian was giving his pro-am partner a putting lesson. It made him seem like a really cool guy. That is going to make rooting against him with every fabric of my being a little harder during next month's Ryder Cup. Still, something tells me I'll manage.

 

I hope he doesn't take this personally, but I admit that when I first started walking passed World #2 Luke Donald I had to ask myself if I really needed to take his picture. That is why I was almost beyond him before deciding that, yeah, I can make the effort to press a button. People wonder why Luke doesn't seem to get the attention he deserves. I can't explain it, but I know I am as guilty of it as anyone.

The next person I came across was Charl Schwartzel, desperately trying not to make eye contact with the kids he was snubbing. It is kind of amazing to think this guy won the Masters and yet most of the people asking him for his autograph don't even know who he is, they just know he is famous.

On the next hole I crossed path with Rickie Fowler. I don't know if he coordinated with the "Blue Crew" volunteers on purpose, but it's nice to know he doesn't feel obligated to wear Oklahoma State Orange all the time.

At this point I ran into Justin Rose for the second time that day. The good news is that this time around I didn't need to mess around with my camera settings and could just take a picture. I'm sure before I righted that wrong he had been feeling snubbed.

This was also where I ran into Hunter Mahan for the second time that day and got a much better picture than when I saw him play 18. This meant I had gotten pictures of 3 out of 4 of the 'Golf Boys'.

As a crossed over #4 on the tee was Ernie Els, which means I had also now seen 3 of the 4 Major winners this year. (I'll let you decide which foursome is more important.) After this was taken Ernie proved his reputation as one of the nicest guys on Tour was true as he called over an older gentleman who had asked for a picture and patiently waited while his wife fumbled with their camera. Everyone says Els is one of the best and I could clearly see why.

I came out of the woods and found Lee Westwood on the tee at #4. Again, I don't want to disparage Mr. Westwood, but I did ask myself if I needed to take his picture, especially since I'm just going to be talking crap about him come the Ryder Cup. But, I figured I would be nice for now and snapped away.

I was just about done for the day, but before I left I headed up to the range, where Tiger was still practicing, but way off to the side in a place I couldn't get another good picture. Instead I took a picture of Carl Pettersson, who I'm sure gets mistaken for Tiger Woods all the time.

After checking out a range full of nearly flawless swings, I went to have my swing looked at by one of the Golf Town pros. He gave me some great tips, but the line was longer than expected so by the time that was done it was nearly 2 pm, which was when Phil Mickelson was teeing off. I figured that was worth seeing. On my way back to #1 I passed Graeme McDowell. He's shorter than expected, but don't expect me to make any leprechaun jokes.

Lastly, I arrived to watch Phil tee off. What I found amusing is that Mickelson felt the need to go up to all his pro-am partners and introduce himself by saying, "Hi, I'm Phil." Dude, I'm pretty sure they already knew that. In fact, I'm pretty sure they spent tens of thousands of dollars to play with you because they know who you are. Still, it was a nice touch.

Now you're in trouble, Tiger

Despite all the issues that Tiger Woods has gone through over the past three years (the public and simultaneous collapse of his marriage and carefully-crafted image, the constant string of injuries which have led to whispers about possible steroid use, the sudden disappearance of that famed golf game which has led to constant tinkering and switching of coaches, to his precipitous slide down the world golf rankings) I had always stayed on the side which believed Tiger Woods would eventually return to form and wind up breaking Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 Major victories. He was just too good for too long for me to believe it had all gone away. But, in watching Rory McIlroy lap the field en-route to winning his first U.S. Open title by 8 strokes and a record 16-under par, I suddenly find myself wavering in that belief.

The main reason I had held on to my faith in Tiger Woods did not come solely from the man himself, but also from the people he was being asked to contend with on his quest. None of the players who had won major titles during Tiger's three-year drought ever struck me as the kind of dynamic stars who would be able to stand up under the weight of the Tiger Woods mystique once he returned to his dominate form. Surely they were all better golfers than I could ever hope to be on my best day and each was capable of putting a magical run together for one week, but I just didn't see a single person who I though would be able to be paired with Tiger on the last day of a major, stare at him eye-to-eye and come away with a victory. They all struck me as nothing more than seat-fillers. They may get one or two, but no one person was going to stop Tiger in his long-term goal. Rory McIlroy changed that feeling.

The biggest sports discussion in golf when Tiger was laying waste in the mid-2000s was "Tiger or the field"? You always took the field, the odds said you had to, but you never felt entirely comfortable with that bet. What if Woods sank a few putts, got himself into that final pairing and suddenly hit a big shot during that first nine? Whoever was paired with him was surely going to collapse under that pressure and your money was as good as gone. But McIlroy is the first player who gives me a feeling that, if he were in that situation, he would simply look around, give Tiger a grin and say, "Hey, ain't this cool?" After playing most of his career in a world in which he could take off for months at a time, then return to find his throne comfortably waiting for him, suddenly it appears that Tiger might finally have someone vying for that crown.

Working in McIlroy's favor isn't just his age (22), but the fact that he has played the majority of his time on the PGA Tour while Tiger has been trying to work through all his post-Thanksgiving-car-crash issues. Rory has never had to play against Tiger Woods at full strength (and probably never will). As such, McIlroy simply doesn't carry the same scar tissue that the players who spent their prime years getting their collective hearts ripped out by Woods do. Talk of Woods as the ultimate closer are nothing more than words to Rory. You may as well be talking about how Arnold Palmer used to play. Youthful ignorance really is bliss.

Some might say that Rory hasn't really proven he can handle the pressure, as he shot an 80 at Augusta National last month to turn a 4-shot lead into a 10-shot loss and that this one win doesn't erase the previous failure. While that is true, in that way McIlroy's back-nine collapse at this year's Master's was a blessing in disguise. He not only appears to be no worse for wear, but it actually looks as though the experience toughened him up. Watching his round on Sunday there was no look of panic when he made a bogey and he never stopped being aggressive with his shots, as if he wasn't worried about a mistake snowballing into two or three because he knew he would be fine. It honestly appears as though he has taken his Master's disappointment and turned it into motivation to never let it happen again.

Also, the classy way Rory handled losing at Augusta has made him a media darling. Pretty much everyone was openly rooting for him to close the deal on Sunday. Even Tiger Woods, while everyone is willing to admit his greatness, has his detractors in the press. Not this kid. Rory already has a lot of Twitter followers, is well-liked by his fellow pro-golfers and shows a media-savvy that belies his age. That buys you a lot of leeway in the media tent. He can have a bad round and not worry about the 10,000 questions Tiger would get about what's wrong with his game.

Now, don't get it twisted, I'm not saying Rory McIlroy is about to go on a stretch of winning 5 or 6 majors in a row. In fact, I fully expect him to go into a mini-slump as he has to learn to deal with the sudden pressure and fame that goes along with being a Major champion at the ripe old age of 22. But, once he figures that out, watch out. I think until Tiger comes back, and then even when he does, Rory is going to be brought up as one of the favorites for every tournament he enters. It will now be "Tiger, Rory or the field"? Basically, after watching all this potential being realised, I don't think Tiger should count on being able to bank majors into his late-40s like Jack. If Tiger wants to get to the magic number of 19, he'd better get while the getting is good. For the first time ever, I'm not sure he's going be able to.