The Walking Scorer

I walked with Paul Goydos and Tommy Tolles today.  Paul shot a bogey-free 65 with three lip-outs and two more near misses on quite makeable putts, and is T3 behind Jeff Maggert (63) and Bernard Langer (64).  Tommy shot 69.  He was 4 under par on the front 9, with six birdies and two bogies, and one drive in the wrong fairway.  Then 2 over par on the back, with one drive in the wrong fairway, and one in the wrong rough.  That last was on the 14th hole, and his recovery shot through the trees landed on the cart path and bounced over the green.  Behind that green is someone's back yard, marked by out-of-bounds stakes and a gallery rope.  He was so close to OB that he had to move the gallery rope to play his next shot.  He got up and down for par. Paul was also 4 under on the front, and they had 10 birdies between them on those first 9 holes. Paul missed two fairways (3 and 18) by a total of about a foot, both times on the left.  On 3 the pin w...

I walked with Stan Utley in the Elevate Phoenix celebrity-Am today.  He's the pro at Greyhawk, and had two friends "caddying" for him:  a protege since high school who is now an LPGA Tour rookie (for another week or so), Sarah Schmelzel , and her father.  Stan is a world-renowned short game instructor, and midway through the round we were joined by Terry Holt, who is Bernard Langer's caddy.  He was there to get some green-reading tips from Stan.  Sarah was giving Stan some putting instruction during the round.  That has to be a good omen for Sarah's career.  She kept her card and will be playing at the Founders' Cup in March. I asked Stan if she was his caddy or his coach, and he said "She's my friend".  Talked to Dad a little, too, and he said he took her to Stan as a Junior for help with putting, and when she went to college he and Stan remained friends.  Nice people, all of them. I asked Stan about Peter Kostis and Gary McCord not be...

I walked with Tom Lehman today.  Mark Mulder was also in the group, and his wife was caddying for him.  It was her first time doing that, and she enjoyed being inside the ropes. Lehman and John Fought did the redesign of this course in 2002.  I got him to talk about the changes they made.  The plot of land is almost totally flat, varying by only 1 foot from the highest to the lowest point.  It had been irrigated by flooding, which is how they watered our lawn once a week when I lived in Phoenix in 1958.  So the greens were low, and surrounded by mounds, into which they cut the bunkers, so that the bunkers would not flood when the fairways and greens were watered.  So all the bunkers were higher than the greens.  Lehman and Fought elevated the greens, and kept some of the mounds around them, to preserve the original look, but now the bunkers are mostly lower than the greens, like a normal golf course.  That was mostly what he talked abou...

The Charles Schwab Cup Championships has three pro-ams.  Today the pros were pro athletes of any sport, including Charles Barkley, of "Haney Project" fame.  I was in the group behind Sir Charles, with Mark Mulder , who pitched for the Oakland A's and St. Louis Cardinals, led the league in wins in 2001, shutouts in 2001 and 2003, and complete games in 2003 and 2004, and was an all-star in 2003 and 2004.  He was 2nd in the Cy Young voting in 2001.  He was a good hitter, too.  In 2006 with the Cardinals he hit .280, had on-base percentage of .400 and slugging percentage of .480, with a homer, 2 doubles, 5 RBI and 5 walks in 25 at bats.  That was the year he hurt his rotator cuff and was on the DL for most of the season.  He's a 0.5 handicap, and has won the last three American Century Championships , a pro golf tournament for pros from other sports. Also in the group was Jim McMahon - no, not that Jim McMahon. They started on 18, a par 5, and made p...