PGA Championship Tulsa

 

Golf for Non Golfers

This week has been busy with house repairs and painting. Usually I do some writing during the week and not much else. Summer is just about here though and that means mowing and taking care of the yard. I’ve talked about how much I enjoy yardwork, housework not so much. But my smoke room needed to smell less smoky. All those years of cigar smoke and neglect created a small headache for me. No problem, I’d do it again. But cleanup means Kilz paint and a lot of scrubbing. That’s been my week.

I had a reprieve Saturday in the form of golf. No I don’t play. But the PGA Championship was in town and Michael (left in the picture) scored some club tickets. Apparently this is the 5^th time Tulsa has hosted this event. I didn’t live here the last time (2007) but others who did told me it was quite a spectacle. I’d never been to any professional golf tournament and I’d never seen the grounds of Southern Hill Country Club. I’ve played a few public courses in my life but nothing on the scale of a championship course.

They prepare for these events years in advance. Tulsa just hosted a Senior PGA event last year so they were more prepared than most to turn around suddenly and host another one. The “suddenly” was the January 6^th event at the White House where agent provocateurs stormed Congress and blamed Trump for it. Trump was toxic after that and the PGA decided to pull out of his course in New Jersey and look elsewhere. They found Tulsa. Good for us, victory for the hometown. This event is expected to bring in somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 million dollars. So yeah, this was a huge win.

The city set up shuttle areas and rented 50 busses or so to ferry people from two separate lots. We showed up at 9:30 and took a short ride to the course. The first thing that surprised me was how quiet such a large group of people could be. We walked up to the 9^th hole and watched a duo (can’t remember who) finish their puts. Thousands of spectators in jackets looked on silently and clapped when the ball rolled into the cup.  Jackets, because the temperature never got above 57 all day; the day before a steamy 90. With an occasional breeze it was cold at times, unseasonably so for Oklahoma in May.

Our tickets entitled us to eat and drink for free. Businesses can pay for makeshift suites set up at strategic areas of the course. I image these only go up during big events. Our deck faced the 16^th hole. If we wanted we could’ve sat there all day and watched from the windows as the players hit their second shot. But the real action is right up along the green. That’s where a lot of spectators set up shop early in the day. It became difficult to get near the any of the green after noon. Too many people had set up their chairs. It was clear they weren’t moving.

There seems to be 3 different ways people watch the event. The first way is what I already described. Pick a hole, bring a camp chair and stay put. You can see every grouping come by and save your legs from what is a grueling walk from hole to hole. That’s actually the second way to watch. Find a golfer you like, or one who’s in the lead, and follow them around the course. This is tough. You won’t get a great look at them because of the alternate routes that exist for each hole. You need to avoid dead ends and blockages. It’s impossible to stand near the greens in the afternoon because of the camp chairs parked around the edges. Some fans prefer it because they can watch their favorite golfer. That brings up the third option, a mixture of both. We parked near hole 4 for a bit, then trapesed over to 2 and 3. We walked a lot but not as much as someone following a player.

We followed Tiger early in the day. He teed off early but still managed a huge crowd. He sunk a nice 30 foot put on 15. The crowd erupted. I like that about golf, no booing and very little heckling. There is the obligatory overserved fan shouting the golfer's first name hoping they look over. "Rory! Rory!" they never look. Other sports have good guys and bad, home teams and away. We boo the refs when they make calls against our guys. Not golf. Fans root for the ball to go in the hole. That’s basically it. Golfers are so lucky.

The grandstands were set up in front of the clubhouse. It’s an ideal place to watch because you can see 3 different holes from that point, 18, 9 and 5. Neither of us wanted to sit for hours at a time so we mixed it up. I enjoyed the whole experience. Tulsa was ready to go too. It was highly organized and professional.

Our next big event is 2029. I believe it’s the US Open. Here’s to hoping we can get the same club tickets again.