I had tickets for Friday, along with my mom and dad. It was the first time I’ve been to a professional golf tournament, let alone a major. The first thing that struck me was the shore line views of Lake Michigan. I knew what the course looked like from TV but being there made it feel more real and more beautiful. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures once on the course so I don’t have a lot to show of it.
We spent the morning on the front 9 and watched McIlroy and Spieth on the first few holes. We arrived around 9:30 just when Spieth holed his bunker shot on 18. We were by the 9th green and heard the roar from it so we decided to follow them as they made the turn to number 1 (they started on 10). After the first few holes I jumped over to hole 7 and got to see Stricker tee off. My Dad wanted to see Phil Mickelson so we went to the 4th and 5th holes from there to watch him. Phil hit his second shot on hole 4 right, near the rope line, so my dad got to get pretty close to him there.
We had to make way on the front 9 a few times for the medical cart to reach people who twisted their ankles on the mounds. I didn’t find it too bad for walking but if you aren’t in reasonable shape you would definitely have trouble getting around off the main path. There are a lot of bunkers outside the ropes that you can walk though too, some of them the ropes even cut through the middle of so you have a bunker half raked and half trampled depending on what side of the ropes you are on. So the fact the players end up in these places doesn’t surprise me at all and I’m sure this came up before Dustin Johnson’s famous penalty for grounding his club in a bunker on the last hole when it was played there in 2010. One thing about it, yeah it's tough if you get off the fairway but it's usually not unplayable so you get to see them pull off some amazing shots which makes for a great course for both fans and players I think.
It was a really hot and humid day and after about two and a half hours I started to get a headache from the heat so I knew I was going to have to take it easy for the rest of the day. We went back down behind the clubhouse where they had concession stands and waited in line about 35 minutes for food and drink. A few people fainted in line from the heat while we were there but they seemed to be OK after getting water. After eating we went to the merchandise tent because it was air conditioned and bought a couple of flags and a ball.
We headed out to the 17th hole in the afternoon because I figured this would be a good spot to just sit and watch. We sat in front of the grandstand right of the green but besides blocking the sun the grandstand blocked the wind so this wasn’t ideal either but it had a nice view and is a pretty interesting hole so we stayed there for a while. We saw a few players go down the left side into no man’s land by Lake Michigan there which is entertaining for us (but not for them
). After about an hour it started clouding up which provided some much needed relief and we ventured out onto the back 9. We just happened to hit it perfect when Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler where teeing off on 11. We followed them up 11 and 12. After they teed off on 13 we saw some lightning so we decided to start heading back. In retrospect it may have been better to keep following them because at the north end of the course near the 13th green there was an exit pretty close to where we were parked. Instead we came back and saw Bubba Watson hit his tee shot on 17 just before the horn sounded. I wish I could have seen more of his shots.
As we all headed out I took some pictures near the main exit. We just started to feel some drops of rain when I took them.
Some people headed for the merchandise tent but we decided to try to make it to the shuttle buses to take us back to the parking. We really didn’t know how bad the storm was going to be. We didn’t make it in time and got blasted by rain and sand in 50-60 mph winds near the entrance before we got to the buses. At one point a guy’s glasses flew off and landed in front of me so I picked them up for him. A guy also tripped over a downed flag pole near the buses. Although it was bad I think it would have been scarier to be in the tent during that. The only thing I really worried about was being out in the open with lightning. Although there wasn’t a lot of it, all it takes is one strike. I always wondered how they cleared so many people out quickly when a storm comes and now I know, not real well.
Once we got back to the hotel we turned on the TV and found out that the scoreboard I took a picture of was destroyed by the wind, probably no more than 10 minutes after I took the picture. Here is what it looked like after the storm:
http://www.sbnation.com/golf/2015/8/14/ ... ng-straits
Unfortunately I didn't record the broadcast so I didn't get to see if I was in any camera shots but if you saw somebody in a purple hat on TV it was probably me ( UW-Stevens Point colors not Vikings colors
! ) I didn't wear the hat as much in the afternoon when the sun went under though. If anyone knows where I can download the Friday broadcast let me know because I'd be curious to see if we can see ourselves at all.
Overall it was pretty fun experience despite the heat and the storm. I think I would have known better what to do if I was there another day. My only regret is I wasn’t on the other side of the ropes. There’s something about going to a golf course and not playing that doesn’t feel right.
I will probably try to get tickets for the US Open when it is at Erin Hills in 2017. With the US Open being in June hopefully it won’t be as hot then as well. Who knows if my game keeps improving like it has been maybe I’ll even try to qualify for the US Open then. My handicap is at 4.6 now and the maximum handicap to enter the US Open qualifying is 1.4 so it’s not that unrealistic to try to get to that by 2017.
