The Players Championship traditionally falls on Mother’s Day. It’s also tradition that we spend the day at my brother-in-law’s (BL’s) lake house where we enjoy the lake life–the kids are swimming, the teenagers are wrecking the jet skis, the adults are tooling the mom’s around on the pontoon boat enjoying the lake and dreaming of having a lake house of our own one day. Also tradition is that we watch the end of the Players Championship while the moms rest. Like many years in a row as the evening is winding down I have said, “Can’t wait to see what’s going on in PLAYERS.“ I heard my BL utter these words, “Can’t watch it here.” WHAT!!! My BL informs me since his neighbor sold their house they have no cable–WHAT! That’s right, my BL with his 4,000 square foot lake house and his 7,500 square foot house in Watkinsville with every toy you could imagine just couldn’t find it in the budget to order cable. CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! Sorry, there is just no other way to put it. I could just see my father–in–law who passed not so long ago and loved golf almost as much as he love his wife (not even close but you get the picture).  He’s just shaking his head with a smile on his face watching from above with the best view of all.

The Players Championship is a theater. Pete Dye designed the course in 1980 explicitly to challenge, intimidate, and occasionally infuriate golf’s greatest during THE PLAYERS. What makes it so spellbinding is an arrangement of holes, each a distinct arena that demand a complete range of disciplines from power, as at the beastly par-4, 14th and 18th holes to precision (see the slippery 384-yard fourth) and from the strategic (each par-5, but particularly the alternate route 11th and the swing-hole 16th) to the penal (the all-or-nothing island green 17th—enough said).

Congrats to Ricky Fowler after watching HIGHLIGHTS. It truly was a spectacular theater.

This reminds me of another spectacular accomplishment. The Cannup spring golf outing was held at Brasstown Valley, North Carolina this year. The most unlikely player in the field took First Place. That’s right, my buddie from Oklahoma “Tuna”. I included a picture of him after the Board of Directors presented him what they thought would be in his best interest to wear throughout the weekend (based on last years issues he had.) Only proof as my dad would have said, ”That’s why they play the game.” Congrats Tuna!

Don’t worry Tuna, Ricky Fowler wears funny hats too.

Till Next Tee Time!