Teeing It Up At Firestone

It was interesting watching the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational today after being at Firestone Country Club yesterday for a practice round.

I hadn't gone to a PGA tour event for a few years (this was, in fact, the first time since I started blogging) so when my buddy Tony emailed me, while I was in Pittsburgh taking care of my will, I thought it would be good fun.

After the Last Road Trip I'm not inclined to pass up opportunities to spend time with a friend I haven't seen in awhile.


I'd only attended competitive rounds at previous PGA events and there are no opportunities to sit in the grandstand and smoke a joint like I did a handful of times yesterday at Firestone.

Getting away from people to fire up a number was no problem since there weren't any players with a gallery following them until Tiger Woods teed off in the mid-afternoon.


Even Phil Mickelson didn't attract a crowd, although I did see a number of people wearing pink ribbons as a sign of support for the fight his wife Amy and his mother are waging against breast cancer.

Lefty's been away from the tour for two months and I'd like to see him do well this week.


One of the things that struck me odd was that we had a chance to eat twice before we saw a player out on the course.

That, naturally, provided more opportunities both to check out Firestone Country Club and to raise my altitude.


It's humorous watching PGA Tour players in a practice round; they play just like the rest of us, playing two balls and hitting shots over.

For them, though, it's work and they also hit to more than one pin placement on the green based on what they'll face through the competitive rounds. It's helpful to know where the pins are going to be, more or less, before teeing off on Thursday.


There's no way to get around the fact that the one player who caused real excitement at Firestone Country Club was Tiger Woods.

Tiger was the first player we heard people talking about when we sat down to eat shortly after arriving. Word was that he played his practice round at 6:30.

As the day went on it wasn't unusual to hear people saying that he was going to be teeing off soon or even that he was out on the course somewhere.


The last time we heard that Tiger was going to be teeing off we were out at the sixth tee/seventh green, as far away from the clubhouse as you can get at Firestone Country Club.

When we got back to the clubhouse, though, there was no doubt that this time Tiger was indeed on his way.

I went up into the grandstand on the first tee and shot this photograph when he came out of the clubhouse to go to the practice tee...


There was clearly no way we were going to get close enough to the practice tee to see Tiger hit so we went to grab a bite to eat.

I was surprised to find that we missed seeing him tee off on the first tee, but, then, it's easy to lose track of time when you've been smoking BC Bud most of the day.


This is a big week for Tiger. He's going for win number 7 at Firestone and number 70 for his career.

At 33-years-old that would put him just three wins behind Jack Nicklaus and 12 behind Sam Snead who sits at the top of the list.


Seeing the crowd following Tiger at Firestone leaves no doubt that ratings for the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational will be up from last year. Way up.

Once Tiger got out on the course it was necessary to give some forethought to where you were going to go to get a look at the action.


Suddenly you couldn't stand anywhere you wanted outside the ropes because there were people standing around the tee, lining the fairway and circling the green.

Of course that also meant you had people stepping in front of you when you were trying to shoot. That caused me to miss one photograph and when Tiger walked by me this shot was a bit out of focus...


I don't think there's a better word than intense to describe Tiger Woods on the golf course.

Watch him in a tournament and you're not likely to see him smile until he seals the deal on Sunday when the ball drops in the cup on 18.

He was all business at Firestone, there was no doubt about that.


I smoked nearly half an ounce of BC Bud by the time we went out to watch Tiger and after five holes I was ready for something to eat other than concession stand food.

Of course I made sure to hold on to one last joint to smoke on the way back to Canton.


Tiger shot two under par today. That leaves him four strokes behind Padraig Harrington. It will be interesting to see where the two of them stand at the end of the day Sunday.