Just a Little White Ball...

Sorry for the lack of postings and replies to your comments. I left Wednesday night for my annual golf trip in northern Michigan with some college friends. I'm by far the worst golfer in the group, but I had a great time. We played some of the most beautiful courses in Michigan. Thursday we played 9 at A Ga Ming's Torch course on Torch Lake before rain chased us away. Torch Lake is said to be the third most beautiful lake in the world - the whole area is a great place to vacation. Friday we played Hawk's Eye twice. I had never played it before, but I think it's my third favorite course after Arcadia Bluffs and Bay Harbor. Saturday we played the Chief (keep your driver in your bag) and then back to A Ga Ming to play Sundance, which ranks near the top for me as well. We always save the best for last - Arcadia Bluffs on Sunday. It is a stunning links course on 3,100 feet of frontage on Lake Michigan (I took this picture, instead of my usual practice of poaching them off Google images). It is ranked the number one public course in Michigan and it's in the top 10 nationally. It's hard to hit your ball out of bounds (very helpful for my tee shots) but there are huge sod walled bunkers everywhere that are next to impossible to get out of and the greens are speedy and undulating. We played 99 holes of golf in 4 days, not a bad little weekend.

PGA Championship

I made the drive to Bloomfield Hills with some buddies this past weekend for the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills. Our tickets were for Saturday, but we saw very little golf, as play was suspended at around two because of rain. It was something of a blessing in disguise, because that made the tickets good for Sunday's play. This was the first time I've attended a pro tournament, you can't get much better than the final round in a major. In the morning my friend Mike and I camped out in the grandstand at number 5, a par four that was eating players up. The pros make it look so easy, but you get a much better appreciation for how good they are in person than just by watching on TV. We saw Ernie Els hit the green from a fairway bunker about 190 yards away - I'd be thrilled to hit the green from the fairway at that distance. Watching the pros' touch around the greens was the most impressive thing.

In the afternoon we found seats behind the 17th green, a par 3. The two-tiered green funneled balls hit to the middle to the wrong tier, leaving a very difficult 2 putt. Players aiming for the pin often found their ball in the bunker. We watched Pedraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, and Ben Curtis battle for the lead on the scoreboard, listening to the crowds at other holes to try to guess what had just happened. Garcia put his approach in the water on 16, a bogey that dropped him into a three way tie. Harrington and Garcia then hit two of the best three tee shots we saw that afternoon (Justin Rose almost holed his). However, Harrington hit a 10 foot, slippery down hill putt for birdie and Garcia's five foot, flat putt lipped out, opening the door for Harrington's victory after Curtis (playing in the next group) went on to bogey. What a great time!

Golf, Concerts, Little Blogging

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been busy. I went up to northern Michigan with some college buddies for our annual golf trip. 90 holes at Boyne and then my favorite course - Arcadia Bluffs. I played much better than last year, but not exactly good. I came back to a three day evaluation at the regional office. I finished just in time to see Wilco play a great show at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park. The lawn was packed, but we had some great seats in the reserved section. What a great venue!