GolfBlogger’s Pro Am Day - Update

Just a quick update ... full report later ... I played in the Crowne Plaza Invitational Pro Am yesterday with Stuart Appleby, Del Ross, IHG VP for Sales and Marketing, Ft. Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, and Wounded Warrior Robert Leonard. We teed off at 7:30 on Hole 10. It’s an absolutely amazing thing to hear the starter announce your name to the gallery, and to see your caddy standing by with your name on the back of his bib.

I managed to overcome my nervousness, and hit a good drive to the middle of the fairway. Then, it was a 9 wood to an elevated green that missed right. I pitched on over a trap, but still had a very long putt. Stuart Appleby came over and lined up my putt for me. I made a smooth stroke and downed it for a par.

I played decently well—certainly didn’t embarrass myself—but wish I could have done better. i got quick on the drives and started pushing them left. I’m sure my grip was way too tight. And since the rule was that once one team member was in at par or better, you should pick up, I picked up on several occasions. But my best guess is that if I had finished all the holes, my score for the day would have been in the mid-90s—not a bad score, I think, for an unfamiliar course.

And the course! Wonderful. The fairways and tee boxes were absolutely perfect, the greens smooth as a tabletop and the sand fluffy. No stray rocks in those traps. I was in several of them, and found them hard to escape. The Colonial’s sand doesn’t react in the same way as the heavy, rock strewn waste matter I see on my home course. No rocks to spark as wedge bottoms out.

More later. I’m off to the tournament again.

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