Like most everybody else, I have only the vaguest of notions of what Hell is like. The whole fire and brimstone thing never actually clicked with me – hey, if it’s warm it can’t be all bad. No, my vision of Hell involves mostly images of cold and dark. And reality television. I’m guessing that Keeping Up With The Kardashians is broadcast 24/7 there.

The reason I bring this up is because the end result of my recent trip to the Bob Hope Classic is a guaranteed reservation in Hades. You see, I snuck a Flip Videocam into a PGA Tour event. And used it. Here is the damning evidence…

To enjoy golf in January in the desert, you have to acquire a taste for sunshine, zero humidity and temperatures in the upper 70’s. It’s not too bad, if you like that sort of thing. As luck would have it, I do – but that was not the motivating factor in including the Classic on the “It’s Game Time Somewhere” Tour schedule. I was actually there to see a celebrity.
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This was where it all began. Well, not exactly here in San Jacinto, CA. But it did begin with this tournament. Back when it was called the Buy.com Inland Empire Classic, and it was played at Empire Lakes Golf Course in Rancho Cucamonga. And I was the Special Assistant to the Operations Director. In other words, I was a volunteer with a job description heavy on “Other Tasks As Assigned”.

Tasks like pounding hundreds of stakes into the sun-baked desert ground, and then stringing miles of yellow nylon rope along them, so as to keep the anticipated crowds from surging onto the course and interfering with play. You know how rabid those golf fans can be.

It was my very first event in my newly chosen career in the golf business, and I went at it with gusto. A week of precious little sleep and not much to eat. Days filled with long hours in the hot sun. It was heaven. The first step on my eventual path to succeed PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem – a progression so natural they wouldn’t even have to change the monogramming on the executive suite hand towels.
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The U.S. Women’s Open started play today in Oakmont. And while Brittany Lang ended up as the first round leader, it was the leader in the clubhouse for most of the day that received the most attention. And absolutely nobody knew who Kelli Shean was.

But I did.

In fact, while attending the NCAA Women’s Golf Western Regional in May, I had a nice conversation with the father of Kelli Shean’s University of Arkansas teammate, Kristin Ingram. While we were talking, Kelli walked by and said something to Mr. Ingram, using a combination of spoken words and sign language.

After she had passed I asked if she was hearing impaired, and was told that yes, she was – but that she hated that term and didn’t consider herself handicapped at all. In fact, she was a decorated junior golfer that had been recruited from her native South Africa — and had been Arkansas’ #1 player all year.

I thought that to be noteworthy and included it in my Mother’s Day post, “For The Golf Parents”. So as the golf media scrambled today to get some background on this unknown golfer, I recognized her immediately. And I was happy to see that dozens of people received their first introduction to her background information via my blog today.

Ahh, the advantages that come with always knowing that It’s Game Time Somewhere.

Show of hands – How many of you think I picked the PGA Tour to wrap up my Tour de Tours because it’s the best of the four that I covered?

OK, it’s an intelligent guess…but it’s wrong.

I came to Hartford for the final round of the Travelers Championship for much the same reason that I started my mini-journey with the Futures Tour’s City of Hammond Classic. It gave me an opportunity to go home. And while the Futures Tour represented going home professionally, the Travelers Championship involved going home personally.
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The Dick’s Sporting Goods Open, as I assume is the case with most Champions Tour events, is compact and user-friendly. Like Futures Tour events, the competition takes place over three days rather than the four day timeframe of LPGA, Nationwide and PGA Tour events. The fields are also smaller, so there is no need for a cut in order to trim the number of players down for weekend play.

Still, in order to maximize time and course usage, the 78 player field in this event was divided in half – with each pro assigned a tee time that saw them begin their round on either the 1st or 10th hole. All of this enabled the festivities to begin at an extremely civilized 9:30 AM. Consequently, despite a 90 minute drive, my friend – the noted golf savant JC – and I arrived in time to grab a cup of coffee before the first tee shot of the day was struck.
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