The Kecks

Thanks to Bumpa Hall, I had the chance to sneak out to Hazeltine on Monday morning and watch the first practice round of the PGA Championship. After spending an extra 15 minutes on the shuttle to the course thanks to a driver that didn’t know how to get there, I was immediately surprised to see that Tiger had already teed off at 6:45AM. He’d just won the previous tournament in Ohio and probably arrived late Sunday night after a grueling ride on his own private jet so I really wasn’t even expecting him to be practicing at all on Monday. I was able to catch up with him on the 8th hole and followed him through the end of his practice round. I didn’t think it would be that amazing to see him in person, but I have to admit it was a little surreal to see him hit some shots up close and think, “Wow that’s actually Tiger Woods. Right There!” I think everyone had the same impression as the amount of people following him grew hole-by-hole until it was almost impossible to move around after the 17th hole. There weren’t a lot of other big names on the course after that so I spent some time walking the course and checking out the driving range. I was impressed by how well the whole event was set up, but the amount of people clogging up the practice areas, for the sole purpose of seeking an autograph had me ready to head out early. I decided since I still had some unused tickets I’d pick up Lauren and meet Steph back out there in the evening after things calmed down. It was pretty quiet by 5pm which was okay considering we weren’t sure how long Lauren would last and if we could keep her entertained enough to stay quiet. After grabbing a bite to eat we caught up with Padraig Harrington on the back 9 and followed him for a few holes. Having watched Tiger in the morning it was nice to see Padraig trying to make PGA Tour players look somewhat human, knocking a ball off the TV scaffolding Happy Gilmore style and then finding lake Hazeltine with his tee shot on the 16th. He must have thought he was still on the clock after Sundays collapse.  We got Lauren to say “Go Paddy” after he’d hit his shot which was pretty entertaining. Although she really started to get into it by the 16th hole and we were starting to wonder if she was now actually saying “Go Potty” so we decided it might be best to keep moving along. I had a great time taking pictures and I’m looking forward to heading back out on Thursday to see what the players can do once the pressure is on.