April 7, 2007
This will be the second of two installments of The Master's Diary with UTPA head men's golf coach Andrew Tredway.
Friday brought really cold weather and me wearing four layers of UTPA gear. It's kind of fun walking around Augusta National and have some people ask me what UTPA stands for. I'm pretty sure that's never been said on the grounds, but you never know.
It was about 40 degrees when Ben teed off this morning. I thought the course would be playing easier, but as the world found out, it was becoming more difficult.
You kind of have to throw out every idea you have about this golf tournament (at least in my lifetime) and what you expect players to shoot on it because it's just not the same. Par is good, birdies are rare. I can think of very few courses (Hazeltine in the NCAA's, Pebble Beach in the US AMATEUR) where birdies are so rare, but Augusta makes those courses look like Los Lagos with no wind. I'll tell you it appears to be the ultimate mental and physical examination.
Yesterday I said that the cut would probably be around five- or six-over. Wrong! EIGHT over! There were some fantastic players shooting 85, and there are only four players under par and a guy named Tiger lurking five shots back. We should all have a pretty good idea about how this is going to play out.
Ben played about the same today. He's just really rusty, and I applaud him for showing up at The Master's without really picking up a club in over a month and playing in the biggest tournament in the world. A lot of guys wouldn't have the guts to do that. People who don't play golf at a high level have a hard time understanding how demanding this game is on your body, and when you are injured, it's nearly impossible.
In other sports, the game moves so fast that your attention is diverted elsewhere, but in golf five-hour rounds are common, and it's hard to focus on anything BUT your injury. Those of you who have bad backs know what I'm talking about, but imagine swinging a club at 122 MPH when you can't get out of bed. He's planning on playing next week in Hilton Head so hopefully he's on the road to recovery.
Everyone that watched the coverage undoubtedly saw Ben get in the water on #12 today. His tee shot plugged in the bank inside the hazard. He said Rae's Creek is really slippery so he went in with his golf shoes on. I've never heard a crowd groan when they saw him get into the water.
I'm standing with his family and everyone is sort of going "is this really happening right now?" He ended up hitting a great shot, but actually had to pour the water out of his shoe when he walked to the next tee. He took a huge chunk out of the bank on maybe the most famous hole in golf, and it was interesting to see a maintenance crew working on it not more than 30 seconds after they cleared the green.
Watching Ben is a whole lot different than the Tiger Circus. It's up and down each fairway and 10 people deep. Since Ben missed the cut, he's not playing the weekend. I had the choice to stay in Augusta and watch Saturday and Sunday, but honestly I'd rather be at home watching it in HD. Sure it's great being here, but the magical part is seeing this awesome place and watching one of my best friends play in the biggest tournament of his life.
Golf is such a hard spectator sport because you'll hear a roar from four holes over, and you won't find out what happened until you watch it at home. People may think I'm crazy for leaving, but without Ben playing on the weekend my interest in fighting the crowds isn't very high.
So I'm headed back to McAllen to watch The Master's and prepare my team to defend our title in the National Minority Championship next month. It's not everyday that we get to play on national TV on the golf channel so we're going to make the most out of this opportunity.
I'm excited about it and am looking forward to the hard work we have ahead of us. Hope you all enjoyed my Master's diary!
