As always, Kelly is on the case.

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 http://www.kellymurraygolf.com