Golf season in full bloom

Last weekend I completed an feat, however easy and unimpressive, of attending 3 PGA tournaments in 3 weeks. It began with the Bellsouth Classic where evil Phil Mickelson ran away with the tournament, yet Elliott's feeding of me and "friends" of beer made us less disgusted and more happily intoxicated leaving the tournament (that is all of us except for Todd who we had to hold back from running on the green and tackling Phil after the tournament). It was a beautiful Sunday and a fun time, but when is golf, free food and alcohol, and 75 degrees and sunny not a good time?

The second tournament was the Masters which was the following Monday, a practice round. This was my first trip to Augusta National and it was awesome to see and experience the history and tradition I had heard so much about. The course was magnificent as well the weather. Christine and I had a great time walking the course, stalking players for autographs, and taking pictures.

The last tournament was the Verizon Heritage in Hilton Head where Todd and I went to watch our favorite golfer, Ben Curtis. Again I was blessed by perfect weather and on Friday a very solid round by Ben. Todd and I however did have a huge letdown when we saw a "Boral Bricks" yacht sitting in the harbor and realized our good friend Julie did not even attempt to help us get on the yacht for pre-tournament parties. It was disheartening and Todd was extremely sad; only a ice cream cone made him feel better. But it was hot outside, so the ice cream cone melted too quickly which made Todd cry. Luckily he felt better later in the afternoon. I then accidently flirted with a girl who Ben's caddie had an interest in last year. We enjoyed a nice dinner with Ben and his wife Candace where I gave Ben the best advice I knew-- keep wearing the Atlanta Falcons shirts, when you wear the shirt of a champion you play like a champion.

Unfortunately, he did not take my advice and the next day wore a Carolina Panthers shirt and shot 6 over. Todd and I stayed a couple of hours longer and watched some golf in the IBM tent with Beth at the 17th green. It was a good spot to watch a par 3. Todd then cheated in mini-golf and beat me, and later that night we went to dinner at Bonefish (where Todd hit on the waitress) and dessert and drinks at Street Meet (where Todd hit on the waitress).

Sunday morning was early as Ben's tee time was at 8:27 AM. He was wearing the Falcons shirt again, so he hit a near flawless round of -4. During the round I got threatened by Ben's caddie Andy for flirting with "his" girl. I never thought I'd be threatened at a PGA tour event by a player's caddie, but I guess sometimes the unexpected happens. We said goodbye to Ben and Candace after the round, I kicked Andy's ass, and we headed home.

All in all a fun, historic, and relaxing few weekends.

Here is an excerpt from an article after the Heritage:


Aaron Baddeley Wins Tournament Tiger Woods Would Have Won Had He Been There
April 20, 2006

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC—Golf analyst Johnny Miller called Aaron Baddeley's first-place 15-under performance at the Verizon Heritage golf tournament a good effort, but nothing compared to what Tiger Woods would have done had he been there. "Tiger would have easily shot 21-under, maybe even 23-under because there was so little wind," Miller said to Baddeley during a post-round interview. "Aaron, Tiger would have eagled that long par five and driven the green on that par four, and he would have definitely made that putt you missed on number 12. But, I guess that's just Tiger being Tiger." Baddeley accepted defeat, saying that coming in second to Woods in a tournament in which Woods did not in fact play is no dishonor, and that he would send Woods the majority of the first-place check, minus travel and lodging expenses.

Weekend Review

Weekend Ball: Howard and Todd for Bellsouth Classic tickets (honorary mention to Jorge) and Christine for Monday Masters tickets.

Weekend Goat: Todd for PPC.

Quote of the Weekend: "Be careful the love handles bruise easily" --Jeff Hughes

THUMBS UP, THUMBS DOWN SEGMENT:

THUMBS DOWN: Atlanta traffic for making me too tired to go out on Friday night

THUMBS UP: The show Trading Spouses. It comes on at a bad time, but it is funny.

THUMBS UP: Aunt Michele for making it to Atlanta this weekend
THUMBS UP: Grandma for making through a virtual obstacle course to get to the car

THUMBS DOWN: Todd's poor billiards playing
THUMBS UP: Wendy the bartender at Five Seasons (complimentary beer deserves a thumbs up)
THUMBS UP: Michelle for being the Sergio Garcia of billiards

THUMBS DOWN: Howard for PTM
THUMBS DOWN: Jeff, for setting the world record for most U-turns in a 30 minute period
THUMBS DOWN: Jeff for falsely accusing me of poor navigation skills
THUMBS DOWN: Drama on a nice Sunday morning
THUMBS UP: High socks

THUMBS UP: Elliott (the IBM tent server at the Bellsouth Classic) for serving us endless supply of beer
THUMBS DOWN: Michelle for not shaving her legs on Sunday
THUMBS UP: Mother Nature for waiting until we were safely in the tent before it starting raining


THUMBS UP: Augusta National for selling cheap good sandwiches and keeping the grounds in beautiful shape
THUMBS UP: Christine and me for great teamwork in securing Ernie Els autograph
THUMBS UP: Christine for throwing elbows trying to get Vijay Singh's autograph (even though she didn't get it, it was a good effort)

THUMBS UP: Zach Johnson for coming within a foot of a hole in one on hole 16 at the Masters (practice round)

THUMBS UP: Howard for lending me his camera for today's golf tournament.

Two years ago

Two years ago last night I experienced a nasty knee injury. I was rounding second base heading for third in a softball game when my mind got stuck between deciding whether to slide or not to slide. This caused me to go into third base in an extremely awkard way. I saw the ball coming in from the outfield and the next thing I knew there was a sharp pain in my knee and I was lying on my back next to third base. Knowing that you can be tagged out if you round third my first reaction was to reach out my hand onto the base. I can guarantee you the last thing on the third baseman's mind at that point was tagging me out as he saw the nasty bend my knee took. I looked up and all my teammates were hovering over me. I said "The softball hit me in my knee!" To which someone replied, "No, it didn't". My next thought was simple...shit! My parents came and took me to the ER where they gave me a leg brace and sent me on my way. The next morning I went to the surgeon who prescribed an MRI.

I knew it wasn't an ACL or MCL because I couldn't bend my knee or put any weight on it. I then decided to due some intel on my own where I properly diagnosed it as a ruptured patella tendon and saw the picture below. This was going to be no arthoscopic surgery.

I was also helping coach a baseball team with my friends Howard and Aaron. Two years ago from tonight I went to the game to watch, obviously too injured to actually coach. The team won their first game of the season and all the kids signed the game ball and gave it to me. That felt really good.

I don't think you know how you are in the face of adversity until you really face it. Thankfully, up until this point, I really hadn't had to face much adversity. I was however proud of the way I handled this injury. I just told myself instead of feeling sorry for myself I was going to put in the work and get back to normal. I had to get a cable put in my leg which did a figure 8 around my kneecap and through a hole that was drilled in my tibia. This meant for 5 months I couldn't bend my knee more than 20 degrees. My leg had gotten so weak I couldn't do a straight leg lift without assistance. I had to walk straight legged for that entire time. If you've never tried it, give it a quick whirl, it is quite uncomfortable. Also, give this a try. Sit on a toilet and don't bend one of your knees at all. That can get quite interesting! My physical therapist actually told me this was the worst possible knee injury you could have and still recover from. Anyways, I went to physical therapy, and got the cable removed in September. Once it was removed the physical therapy stepped up. In total it was 8 months of sometimes real painful physical therapy.

But I made it and am still working on getting my leg back to full strength. All in and all I can't complain, my knee generally does not give me problems.

Some of my proudest moments through all this came in physical therapy where I worked hard and had a positive attitude. I had a couple of occasions where other patients told me they had been depressed and demoralized about their injuries and progress, but seeing what I had to go through and my attitude gave them the encouragement they needed to push their own tough times.