Wednesday Practice Round

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday was a lot of fun for me – I played with Jeff Sluman and Jay Haas. Both are GREAT guys to play with – very funny and very competitive at the same time. No wonder both are among the best-liked players on tour. Jeff and I first really got to know each other when we played together in Asia in 1982. He was in my wedding, and we travelled together on the PGA Tour most weeks for 4 or 5 years. An interesting story – we both came over to Spain for the European PGA Tour Qualifying School in 1984 because the US Qualifying School was about 3 weeks later that year. I won the Q-School and Jeff finished 3rd – but neither of us ever came over to play a single event that next year. We had both gone on to make the PGA Tour a few weeks later and, obviously, decided our future was in America. The European Tour was not happy with our decision and, subsequent to that, the Q-Schools were held simultaneously to force a player to make a commitment to one tour or the other prior to playing.
Jeff is amazing – only about 5’7” and 150 pounds, he is quite long, especially over here where a driving sort of tee shot can run a lot. He has a very simple swing (I have always had swing-envy of Slu’s swing!) and rarely mis-hits a shot. His only Achilles Heel is his putting, and that has gotten somewhat better with a modified claw grip.

Jay’s swing is a bit more unconventional (takes the club back a little outside and has very little shoulder turn) but hits the ball equally solid – not quite to Jeff’s level, but very few players are. Jay has always had a great short game, and his years on the Champions Tour have not seen that diminish at all. Jay and I share that we both played our college golf at Wake Forest, and Jay’s brother, Jerry, is currently the golf coach at Wake. Son Bill (who one at the Hope in Palm Springs this year) is also a former Deacon player and is making his mark on the PGA Tour now.

Both Jay and Jeff were gracious to hang out at the end of the round for a minute to meet the Wrenn boys and the Hourigan boys – and it was a thrill for the boys to meet them! While it was great fun to spend a few hours with them again, it gave me the stark realization that I am now a guest in their world. They will go on doing this week after week, year after year, and I will go back to Richmond having had a great one-time experience back into a world that I knew very well at one time. Parts of that I envy – being able to play golf every week and travel the world and (certainly at their level!) make a terrific living at it. Of course, the parts that people don’t see are when you are struggling with your game, bags get lost during travel, away from home weeks at a time, etc. It makes me really appreciate my life at home, my job in the investment world and the opportunity to play golf without the pressures of needing to play great golf.