Reehoorn: U.S. Open Blog, Day 2
June 12, 2007
Jon Reehoorn, assistant coach for the Husky men's golf team, is caddying for Alex Prugh at the 2007 U.S. Open at the Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. Reehoorn will be writing daily reports and providing photos from the experience back east, exclusively for GoHuskies.com. Here is Reehoorn's second entry from Tuesday.
U.S. Open Blog - Day 2
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This morning Alex and I headed to the course at 6:00 A.M. to allow a few minutes for breakfast and a quick warm-up prior to our 7:30 tee time off the 10th tee. Tomorrow our practice round begins at 12:30 off #1. We scheduled the tee times to match our starting times for Thursday and Friday to get a good feel for how the course plays at the different time of day. The course played pretty similar to yesterday, but the wind was definitely stronger and Alex thought that the greens were even faster today. If the weather stays in the 90's like it was today, by the time Sunday comes we might need to keep Alex's putter cover on while he putts just to hit them soft enough.
While heading to the course this morning I found myself wondering if I was going to get enough good material to put in today's blog. Within less than 5 seconds of arriving at Oakmont I had my answer.
Just as we parked our car, a red Buick Enclave parked right beside ours. I thought it was unusual that a Buick was parking in the players area because all of the players are given a Lexus courtesy car. As I got out of the car I saw Steve Williams sitting in the passenger seat and then Tiger Woods. As Tiger made a direct line for the range, Steve (Tiger's caddie) got Tiger's clubs out of the back of his car and followed him to the range.
After our round this morning a reporter from the Tacoma News Tribune asked Alex if there was anything that really had caught his attention or made him realize just how big of a deal it is to be here at the U.S. Open. He didn't talk about the course, or the spectators, instead he mentioned seeing Tiger Woods sitting in the car next to him.
After we both ate breakfast, Alex in the players' only area with a nice selection of food and myself in the caddy shack with a few bagels, fruit, and juice, we met each other at the range. After a few quick shots we headed to the 10th tee where we found ourselves playing with Charles Howell III. Our group was filled out with two other amateurs (Jeff Golden & Chris Condello). It was very interesting to see how Charles worked. His swing coach walked every hole with him and watched him very closely on every swing. It was as if they were working on something in his swing after every shot.
On the 14th hole, our fifth of the day, NBC's Johnny Miller, came up to the green as he was taking notes for this week's television coverage. He began to talk with both Alex and Charles about the speed of the greens and just how much slope there is in every one of the greens. You will never be able to tell how much slope there is on the greens on television, but if you can find a flat spot on one of these greens, please let me know!
To give you a better idea, when Johnny Miller was taking notes about the greens he said, "There is so much going on in all of these greens that you need to have your doctorate in green reading!"
Later in the day, Charles Howell III, Augusta, Ga. native, told Alex, "These greens are faster than the greens at Augusta this year." The Masters which is held at Augusta National Golf Club is known for having very fast greens.
What I am about to write next I can't actually believe I am going to do. As a young kid who collected baseball cards and loved to get autographs at every sporting event I attended, I always vowed to myself that if I ever made it professionally in a sport that I would sign every autograph. I would stand there for hours, I didn't understand how they could say no to a young kid. But as we were making our way around the course today, I realized that signing every autograph is just not possible, and for a golfer it might be harder than any other sport.
As you make your way through the walkways on each hole, past the clubhouse, and to the driving range, fans are right there asking for your autograph every second of the day. If you wanted you could sign autographs for five hours and play a five hour practice round. It would make for a very long day. Alex probably signed 100 to 200 autographs today but he had to say no to so many more. I now understand why professional athletes have to say no. Because if they never did say no, they could never focus on their job at hand.
Alex seems very focued on the job at hand, nothing seems to phase him. Even if it means hitting balls on the range between Masters Champions Jose Maria Olazabal and Zach Johnson. He is doing a great job of "acting like he has been here before."
Hope you enjoy the pictures. If you notice in the final picture of the ones posted for day one, you will see a John Deere tractor with three large rollers behind it. Not only are they rolling the greens, but the fairways as well!!
Tomorrow is our final practice round and then it begins. We are having a great time!
