US Senior Open @ Sahalee

Yesterday was a very nice day walking with Jay Haas, Hale Irwin and Paul Trittler. I can almost guarantee that I was more nervous than the players on the 1st tee. I spoke to my walking scorer and standard bearer. Our group had two walking marshalls for crowd control because it was a notable group. We even had a forward observer, Bill Katz, a USGA Executive Committee to help out. I introduced myself and shook hands to the three players who were all very cordial. USGA staff member and New England Regional Director, Jim Farrell, announced our group and we were off. It took me a few holes to calm down before I started to feel comfortable.

Fortunately it was an uneventful day and there were no rulings, but I stayed on my toes and tried to anticipate what might happen on each shot by each player on every hole. I was a ble to watch some ver nice golf by world class players. It's tough to appreciate how difficult this course is playing unless you see it up close. It's playing very firm and fast and the hole locations are extremely challenging. A course like this will expose weaknesses in a player's game fromt he very first hole which is why you see the names you do at the top of the leader board - Langer, Cook, Watson, Couples. Look all the way down the leader board and there are very few unfamiliar names. These are mostly battle tested tour players who are incredibly good.

On Friday I walked with three unhralded players, Tom Herzman, Rod Spittle and Bob Niger. I had never heard of any of them, but Rod and Bob each made the cut which fell at +10. I had one minor ruling about determining Bob's nearest point of relief for a ball that had come to rest near a putting green. Otherwise just a nice walk in the park. The only wrench in the day for everyone was the 2 hour+ fog delay that occurred about 7:45PM, just a half hour after play had begun. It made for a long day, but fortunately everyone finished. Good thing it doesn't get dark in Seattle until 9PM.

I have a group to walk with today, Saturday. After the cut to the low-60 players and ties, players will play in groups of two today. I am with Bill Britton and Job Fielder at 8:34 local time. I don't know Jon other than I've seen his name. I know Bill is a former PGA Tour player from the early '90's. During my brief two-year stint caddying on Tour, Bill had a couple of good years winning his sole event in Florida at the 1990 Centel Classic if my memory serves me. I will mention it to him today. He won't remember, but I was paired in his group several times back in those days.

Cloudy most of the day today. The weather out here - 70's and low humidity - has been a welcome break from the weather back home. Maybe by the time the TV telecast comes on it will be sunny for the leaders.