Saturday, June 7, 2008

Hey, What's up Phil?

Today, my caddie Tony and I arrived in San Diego. We were met at baggage claim by two representatives from the USGA, Mike and Tony, who got us to our courtesy car a brand new Lexus (tough life right?). What a great job Mike and Tony have, drive brand new cars, and greet people who are about the experience the best week of their lives (at least the qualifiers anyway, this is no big deal to most tour players). So our GPS, already programed, directed us to our hotel, where we checked in and then headed to Torrey Pines.

We were waved past the security gate, the pass is attached to the car, and found our way into the players parking lot, where I randomly (wink), picked a parking spot next to a black Ford SUV, with three people mingling behind it, one wearing a green Callaway shirt, a very tall and lanky gentleman, and an older very intelligent looking man. (Those who are golf fanatics will know who I am talking about already). It was in fact Phil Mickelson, his caddie "Bones" (Jim McKay), and Dave Pelz. Tony's reaction, "oh, (bleep)" (its a PG blog). When we got out of the car Phil actually acknowledged our presence "Hey, guys what's going on". Which confirmed a few story's I have heard of him being a nice guy. Quite a start to the Open. We headed to the practice area and hit some putts, and then about 50 balls until it was time to introduce myself to US Open rough. Well here's an understatement, it is long, but you could get the club through it, and I am interested in seeing what it is like on the course, I anticipate worse.

Tomorrow, we are planning to get out to the course early, play our first full round, register, then spend the rest of the day practicing.

Before I go, I do have a little tease from something that Tony and I did on Friday. We filmed a story about our trip to the open, and more importantly about Tony's recovery from a car accident 11 years ago that almost took his life, and tragically did take the life of James Culligan. The story will air on NBC 11 in the San Francisco Bay Area, on Wednesday, June 11.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

yay garrett!! good luck!

Unknown said...

Congratulations Garrett on this HUGE Accomplishment! Seth and I are cheering for you in Chicago. Good Luck!!

ebow4man said...

Way to go Garrett. We are all so excited for you. We will be rooting you on and checking for updates regularly.
'RELAX AND HIT EM STRAIGHT'
LOVE,
Eric, Janet, Darren, Brian and Jill

Anne said...

GARRETT!! We are SO excited for you. We will be thinking of you nonstop and can't wait to hear all about this amazing experience.

Unknown said...

Garrett. I saw your chip birdie in on ESPN live when I got home from work last night! It's very exciting to watch and I have been bragging at work about my Serra golf teammate playing in the Open. Have a great round today and have fun!

little italia said...

Hey Beaver,

Job well done. If you would have gone to the waffle house in Torrence you might have made the cut. Hope June and Ward survived and you all had a great time. Here's to you thanks for putting a face on a tournament that's out of most people's reach. Go get them next year Eddie
PS The putting greens all your anytime