2013 Deutsche Bank Championship Pro-Am

It's that time of year again - time for me to make my annual pilgrimage to the Deutsche Bank Championship Pro-Am. Here are just some of the pictures I collected as I walked around the course.

After attending this event for a few years I finally figured out the system of when to get there, which means I showed up as Tiger Woods was coming up the 18th hole. I also know where to stand, which was why he hit it to within 10 feet of me. (I also nearly got hit by an amateur for the second straight year. Sometimes I learn quickly, other times not so much.) Again, I had enough self-respect to not go running to be closer, which is not a claim several men older than me can make. 

Next I took a right and headed up to see Adam Scott. I was really surprised at how small the gallery following the current Masters champion was. I assume it is Stevie's fault. (Again, he was the only caddie not wearing a bib.)

After that I ran into Webb Simpson, performing the second half of 

every golfer's job description - signing autographs. 

I was patiently waiting for Jason Day to look in my direction to take his picture.

He seemed to be making a concerted effort to not look at the crowd, as if he was trolling us.

That was when I remembered I didn't really care if I got a picture of Jason Day and snapped this.

After that I started backwards through the front 9, where I ran into my boy Hunter Mahan.

Because he is my favorite golfer I will refrain from commenting on the white pants.

Next came Rickie Fowler. Now, I'm all for adding a little color and flair to the golf,

but it should also match. I mean, what the hell is that golf bag? 

Hot pink doesn't go with a lot of other colors.

After those two came Bubba Watson, completing the "Golf Boys" trifecta. 

All his amateur partners were hitting hybrids or woods into the green. 

I'm pretty sure Bubba hit 8 or 9, which really doesn't seem fair.

Not surprisingly, Phil had the biggest gallery on the front 9. 

He also hit two balls out of bounds off this tee.

I guess when you win the Open you can take as many mulligans as you want.

This is Jordan Spieth (far right), playing with the Celtics' group. 

In the green is owner Steve Pagliuca and Danny Ainge is walking towards the camera. 

I'll explain why after this next picture:

Both new head coach Brad Stevens and Danny Ainge tried to kill me with their drives.

Seriously both missed me by only a few feet which, as a long-standing Paul Pierce

fan, feels strangely appropriate for this offseason. Still, I think I am happy that both

are really bad golfers because that means they aren't spending all day on the course

and this team is going to need all the help they can get this season.

By this time I made it to the first tee just in time to see Ernie Els start his round.

Again, it never fails to amuse me when these pros feel the need to introduce themselves

to their pro-am partners. They know who you are, in fact they paid thousands of dollars

to play golf with you because of it. Introductions are really not necessary.

Having come in a complete circle I wanted to head up to the range to see if any of the guys I had

missed in the morning wave were on the range. Specifically I wanted to catch US Open champ,

Justin Rose. So, imagine my surprise when he was just now coming off the 18th hole.

These pro-ams move at a glacial pace and must drive the pros insane.

Now that I had seen Rose I figured I should wait until Jason Dufner played the 18th.

Not the best picture of him, but at least it meant I had captured all four major winners.

With that mission accomplished I figured I would head up to the range to see who was still around.

The first guy I saw was Rory McIlroy, who won this event last year and whose

game finally appears to be getting back on track. 

The only person still on the range who I hadn't seen earlier in the day was Camilo Villegas, 

who was practicing his chipping alongside.... you know what, I have no idea who 

the guy in  the blue is. I never saw his name on a bag and it annoys me to no end because 

his face looked so familiar. Anyway, when I can't tell which players are it means 

I've seen everyone I came to see and I took that as my cue to head out.

Until next year...

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.

My Day At TPC Boston

On Thursday I had the chance to go to TPC Boston and check out the Championship Pro-Am. To be honest, I was probably more interested in simply seeing the course since I had never been there before. Despite temperatures in the 90s, it turned out to be a good day to go because I avoided the hurricane and got to bring a camera onto the grounds. Also, because there were no signs to tell you what the hell it means when they designate something as the "green" lot, I accidentally ended up parking amongst the volunteers for free, so I had that going for me. (Don't worry, they made their money back with $3 waters.) Below you'll see some of the pictures I took as I wandered around the place.

I got there a little later in the afternoon and wasn't sure where they were on the schedule. The first pro I stumbled upon was Anthony Kim coming off the tee at #9, which apparently is next to the surface of the sun. This is what happens when you try and take a picture looking into the sun.

After AK, I started to work my way backwards through the front nine, at which point I found Padraig Harrington playing in his pro-am with Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca (dark green shirt). Frankly, as a huge Celtics fan, I'm not sure who I was more excited to see. Pagliuca had a very nice Celtics golf bag and I was going to ask him where he got it, but then I figured if you own the team you don't have to buy anything with their logo on it. After these guys was Camilo Villegas' group, but I couldn't get a good picture. Don't blame me, the guy is tiny and quick.

Speaking of not being able to get a good picture, the next guy to come along was Rickie Fowler. Now, every time I went to snap a picture of him the amateur's caddy would step into my way. I don't think it was on purpose, but it was certainly annoying. This was the best I could do. I also successfully resisted the urge to tell him to get a haircut.

It was at this point I came across Hunter Mahan on the sixth hole. Since Mahan is my favorite golfer, I followed this group as they finished up their round, which had started on the back. Due to the good vibes I sent him during the pro-am, I take full credit for Mahan shooting -7 the next day.

Once Mahan finished up I decided to check out the front nine. This is the 200 yard marker on #10, which is just off the cart path and behind trees that hide the green. I loved this. I can only assume they put this marker here because a lot of guys had to play from this spot, proving that just because a club is expensive, it doesn't mean the guys who belong are any better at golf than the guys at the muny.

This is the shot over the 12th green looking back at the driving range.
Alright, I'll admit it's a little nicer than the range I go to.

Hey, look, it's Stuart Appleby. Or Robert Allenby. I always get those two confused. (Kidding... It's Appleby, Mr. 59.)

Here's the 16th hole, a par 3 over mostly water. I put the over/under on number of amateurs' balls in the drink at 150. Also, those structures behind the green are temporary luxury boxes. Remind me to get one when the sponsorships for my blogs start to roll in.

Here's the closing 18th and this isn't even from the tips. Remember this view when they say on TV how easy this hole is playing.

After checking out the closing holes I wanted to see the rest of the front nine that I missed. This is the view behind the second green, looking back towards the tee which is hidden behind that tree in the distance. The area in front of the green is all water. Would you like to automatically write down a 7, or do you feel like earning your 9?

I guess my only complaint about the course layout is that in a couple cases there is a lot of distance between the holes. You go from a golf course to Sherwood Forest. This is the road from #3 to #4.

Once you emerge from the forest, you find yourself on the "short" par-4 4th hole. Again, short is a relative term. Everyone goes for the green in one, and no one in the group I saw made it.

Not even Ernie Els who, everyone feels to the need to point out, is really tall for a golfer. However, in my family, he's average.

Now that I had seen the entire course I figured I would check out the driving range to see who was still practicing. Turns out Rory McIlroy was still working, which was cool.

And here are all the equipment trucks next to the range, just in case any of the pros want a new club right away. Not 40 minutes later I saw the TaylorMade truck on the side of the road with its hazard lights on. You can write your own joke for that one.

Overall it was a really fun day and nice to check out a course I had seen on TV. Also, I have a new understanding of why golfers are so aware of noise in the crowds, cause it is silent out there.