Day One In The Books

Thursday was an exciting day at Crooked Stick. Even though my group wasn't going until 2:10, there was no way I was going to just hang around at the hotel. I answered my emails, called the office and then got to the course around 9:45. I went to USGA hospitality to grab a bite (yes, they feed the officials well) and talked to Bob Ruby and Harry Easterly. Harry is a USGA Committee member from Massachusetts who helps out at MGA events and has worked many USGA championships, most recently at the Women's Open.

I walked out onto the golf course to watch some golf for awhile. Greg Norman who played in the morning was quickly moving up the leaderboard. The course is in great shape and the low scoring in the first round didn't surprise me. Even though the course is long, the fairways are extremely wide. The course tips out at 7,316 yards, but the USGA is not playing it nearly that long. I'm not sure of the official yardage, but it's probably in the 7,000 range. The wide fairways are firm so a good drive also gets some roll-out. The greens are fast but in watching the players putt they're not scary fast.

After grabbing a bite of lunch I decided to go to the range to watch some players warm up. Even the guys I'd never heard of swing it so well. I was sitting next to another official and we were both commenting on the swings. The key to all these great players' swings is the tempo. With them is all swing and tempo. There's no 'hit' element or speeding up once they get to the top. It's a treat to watch - now why can't I do it?

I had my pairing sheet and I was actually waiting to say hello to one particular player, Steve Haskins. I caddied for him in 3-4 Hogan Tour events in 1990. During my short two-year stint caddying on the PGA Tour, I moved over to the Hogan Tour in 1990 for a few events when I didn't have a loop on the big tour. I hooked up with Steve Haskins and we hit it off - almost won one tournament, too. He could really putt. He Monday qualified for numerous PGA Tour events, but he could never get through Q-school over the years. He had a nice career on the Hogan/Buy.Com/Nike/Nationwide Tour, winning twice. Anyway, I spotted his caddy first who came up to the range with the Nike tour bag and 'Haskins' on the back of his caddy bib. Steve finally walked up. 'Hi, Steve, my name's Joe Sprague. I caddied for you in a few events in 1990 on the Hogan Tour.' I think he was pretty surprised to hear that from some guy who just looks like another USGA official to him. We chatted for a minute. He said, 'Oh, you work for the USGA now?' I said that no, I'm just volunteering and that I actually work for the Massachusetts Golf Association. He pretended to remember me, at least, so that was nice. I think he shot a couple over in the first round.

It was getting closer to my time so I thought I'd wander to the first tee area. Jim Farrell is the first tee announcer all four days so I wanted to see him in action. I stood outside the ropes as Mike Reid's group teed off - polite applause for everyone in that group. The next threesome featured Fuzzy Zoeller. As soon as Fuzzy walked onto the tee the bleachers went wild. Everybody loves Fuzzy. The group in front of mine was next - Joe Ozaki, Ian Woosnam and Tom Watson. Ozaki and Woosnam made their way together to the tee to a smattering of applause. Less than a minute later a smiling Tom Watson strode to the tee escorted by an Indiana State Trooper. The place absolutely erupted. Everyone in the bleachers and outside the ropes gave him a standing ovation that lasted well over a minute. I have to admit I got goose bumps and I even got a little choked up. It didn't matter that he didn't pull it off at Turnberry. To everyone here it's as if he won.

Watson's group was off and running so I ducked under the ropes and met up with the referee with my group, Lew Blakey. As I mentioned in yesterday's posting, Lew is one of the top Rules minds in the game. He's taught many workshops and sat on the USGA Rules of Golf Committee. Lew has been directly involved in writing decisions that appear in the Decisions on the Rules of Golf Book. He has officiated at eight Masters, one British Open and countless US Opens. In short, he's the man. And I was going to be able to walk alongside him for about five hours.

Our players arrived on the tee - Scott Hoch, Scott Simpson and Olin Browne. Jim Farrell introduced the players to Lew and me as well as to the walking scoreres and standard bearer, a nice young kid named Kyle. All three players hit good tee shots and stuck their approaches inside 10 feet. All made easy pars and we were off. Olin shot one-under on the front with a triple bogey on the 4th hole. Most amateurs would be done after a triple, but Olin showed no anger and just kept plugging. He hit it great all day, but shot even par. Scott Hoch was five-under through 16 and at the top of the leaderboard until he made triple on the par-3 17th. He got an unlucky break after a pulled tee shot, hit his second over the green from a bad lie, hit his third off the front of the green again, chipped up and two-putted. It was really too bad to see a great round spoiled by one swing. Scott Simpson, on the other hand, avoided trouble all day, made some putts and shot a very tidy four-under round. He's on the first page of the leaderboard and I'd expect him to play well the rest of the week.

The best part of the day was walking with Lew. He put me at ease and we talked about golf, our families and, of course, the Rules of Golf. Lew is a retired college professor so he is Dr. Lew tomany people. I asked him how he got so good at the rules. He said he spent 40 minutes a day for seven years studying the rules. That blew me away. I've got a lot of work to do, I guess. Lew has his own rules website, http://www.throughthegreen.org/ . I checked it out briefly - very cool if you are a rules person.

I'm on my own for today's round (Friday). Jim Dent, Dave Eichelberger and John Ross shot 76, 75 and 74 respectively so they'll all have to play well to make the cut.