As always, Kelly is on the case.
Well it never ceases to amaze me the way a guy can come through in a golf tournament like Mr. Woods did again today. The day got started 1 hour 15 minutes later than scheduled and it finished in the dark. Because of the rain delays the greens were slower and Tiger Woods made the perfect adjustment and the other players did not. Tiger made putts on 14, 15, 16 and 18. 14 was a 13’5” putt, 15 was a 25’7” putt. He made a slick downhill 3’4” putt on 16 and then in the dark a 15’11” putt on 18. I had a good view of the 18th hole from the grand stands in the back yard of Arnold Palmer’s daughter house. Inside the house was a big screen tv so I was able to keep up with the entire golf tournament plus watch all the second shots of all the players on 18. Because of the long delays today Tiger Woods did 2 workouts. Tiger said, “Well, I had a lot of time. Plus I get up early. Nothing else to do.” He also said, “it feels great to be in contention again, to feel the heat on the back 9 and then obviously the big bonus is to win a golf tournament. It’s always nice to win a golf tournament pre-Augusta, and I was able to do that again this year.” Tiger went on to say that he does not expect to play any tournaments in Europe this year other than the British Open. So the over night leader by 5 shots was Sean O’Hair but as the night went on the shadows grew longer and the air got cooler. He made a mistake on 16 with his second shot. “I made a good swing” Sean said, “good contact right on line, and unfortunately I think it ballooned on me. The wind got me a little bit, even so, you know, my normal distance, it should have still carried.” In retrospect Sean said, “I think what happened was the sun was going down a little bit. It kind of proved to me that the ball wasn’t going quite as far. The ball had been going the normal distance all day and it was just a stock 7 iron that I hit solid and it didn’t get there.” Unfortunately his ball ended up in the water and Tiger was able to pull one stroke ahead through 16 making it his first outright lead in the tournament, again, dramatically doing it late on a Sunday. When they got to 17 Sean said it was a normal 5 iron but he took a 4-iron and then when he got to 18 he normally would have hit an 8-iron but adjusted and took 7-iron and that was the right club. So unfortunately he forgot to factor that on 16 and that cost him all the marbles. Tiger walks home with $1,080,000 for his 5 under par total while Sean O’Hair goes home with $648,000. Not factoring in the cool air was costly.
Kelly
Bay Hill Entry 2
It’s a lunch bag let down when you miss the cut however I’m trying to make the most of it and I made arrangements to play golf early with Golf Channel’s senior writer Rex Hoggard. We played at a course 40 minutes away and made it back in time for Tiger’s tee-off. Tiger’s held on to second place at this point. He needs to make a charge today I’ll be on hand to give you some insights. Yesterday was a historical day here in Florida as the space shuttle made reentry and landed safely back at Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Center. As it flew over the golf tournament air space it broke the sound barrier and 2 sonic booms were heard for miles. The funniest thing I saw was Tiger’s playing partner Vaughn Taylor had just teed off on the 8th hole and when he struck his tee shot on the par 4 and as the ball got to the apex of it’s flight the sonic boom hit and Tiger quipped with the skill of a late night comic said to Vaughn, “you really hit that one!” at which the gallery burst into laughter. Tiger had a rough finish but made 2 great savings putts for bogeys on 16 and 18 as only Tiger can do and I expect much more dramatics today and I’ll keep you posted. Currently it’s been raining off and on all morning in this drought conditioned area.
Kelly
Bay Hill Entry 1
So this is the Arnold Palmer tournament. It’s called the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. It’s held at a golf course that Arnold owns and lives at and hangs at. If you’re a true golf aficionado this is the place to play. The members play a par 72, the pros a par 70. The rough is grown to US Open specifications, the fairways are a little wider than the US Open’s or as Tiger said, “You don’t see fairways this wide in the US Open but it definitely has a US Open feel. More than anything I think we haven’t seen the greens repel like this before.” With that said, my boy Erik hit a lot of great shots but flew his shots too deep into the greens and of course they repelled over and beyond 9 times out of 10. Come back to the pro-am day with me for a minute and I will fill you in on some inside information from 21-time player Peter Jacobson. Peter said to me, “have Erik hit to the front yardages”. I told this to Erik and within a half hour of telling him he asked Peter’s old caddy Mike “Fluff” Cowen (now caddying for Jim Furyk and who used to caddy for Tiger Woods), and Fluff said, “I think the greens are receptive, you can fly it further into them”. Erik took this to heart and for 2 days bombed them deep into the greens and over causing a lot of short-sided chip shots out of a 5 inch rough. After 2 days, Erik and I are sent packing, yet unscathed. I also believe that Erik has a lot of potential and a better direction on what to work on.
My highlights as caddy this week were watching Padraig Harrington work very hard and to listen to Tiger talking about Padraig now owning a few major titles. It was also great talking to Stevie Williams, Tiger’s caddy. I found Stevie with a few spare minutes and I went up and said hello. I asked him a quick question after saying my name was Kelly on how to pronounce the name of a golf course “Paraparuma” in Wellington, New Zealand. “Is it Para Parah-mu or is it Para Para Oo Mu?” to which he answered in his New Zealand accent, “Para Para Oo Mu” and as he said that he looked me right in the eye and asked whether my last name was Murray. He said that he remembered me playing New Zealand, Australia and Asia in the 80’s and hadn’t seen me in awhile. Stevie probably doesn’t watch the Big Break. I should have mentioned that I was on Big Break VI and VII. The other highlight of the week was our practice round on Tuesday with Tim “Lumpy” Herron and Scott Verplank. It’s nice to play with the veterans and everyone knows Erik’s story.
Well Erik has some time off now that he’s missed the cut. In just a couple of weeks he’ll be at Augusta receiving the Ben Hogan Award and he’s been invited to Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. As for now he needs to work on his short game and get a little stronger. As his caddy I need to go home and see my family and consider my own playing career on the Champions Tour. After talking to Peter Jacobsen on the putting green for half an hour today, it feels like old home week a place that I played and belonged to in the old days. Peter and I were reminiscing about an exhibition we did for the juniors at the Canadian Open back in the 1980s, one where Peter would put a bucket of balls down his shirt and resemble Craig Stadler. At one point during the exhibition, Peter went and sat in the gallery and said, “I want to watch this show Kelly’s putting on!” where he sat and put his arms around 2 or 3 kids on both his right and left side and that’s the way he remembered it too and gosh it’s been 25 years or so and he still says, “hey Kelly how are ya?” He’s a great gentleman very much like Arnie Palmer who will never forget your name.
Kelly
www.kellymurraygolf.com
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