The Boeing Championship

What a tournament!

If anybody had any doubts about Sandestin Raven hosting the Boeing Championship, they were layed to rest in spades this past weekend!

You couldn't get a better finish to the tournament than Bobby Wadkins, who hadn't won since 2001, hitting what he called, "…the best shot of my life" into the 18th green just 8 feet below the hole to preserve his one-shot win.

 And Wadkins 10-under score hit Jerry Pate's prediction (and I must add, mine!) that with any wind, that score would hold up.

There were a lot of naysayers to that when Wadkins opened with a course-record 9-under 62. But he even realized and said, "With a good score on Friday, you just have to hang around."

That's just what he did, carding even par on Saturday and riding his birdie on the 17th hole Sunday to a one-shot win over amazing Raymond Floyd.

Floyd almost struck the ultimate blow for the older crowd, matching his age for the first time on Sunday with a phenomenal 63.

Avowing that it was the first time in a long time that he got "into the zone," Floyd said he didn't feel it early on, but around the turn he suddenly was "in the moment."

I guess! Five straight birdies before he three-putted the par-3 16th from about 45 feet, an approach putt he said he just misread to leave 10 feet short. And then misread that one too for the three-putt to drop into a tie with Wadkins, playing a couple holes behind.

Floyd wasn't really looking forward to a playoff, noting he had needed two treatments a day for his hip problem – that forced him to WD at Birmingham. He was doing stretching exercises between shots on the course Sunday.

Crowds exceeded expectations. The 16,000 on Friday, the 20,000 on Saturday and the 23,000 on Sunday surpassed the largest total in previous editions of the tournament at The Moors by almost 20,000!

Patrons spent more money at concessions on Friday than in an entire weekend at the previous venue. As tournament Executive Director Phil Garcia noted, "That's (revenues) are going to quadruple or quintuple the previous best."

    I found the solution to the traffic gridlock.

    Instead of heading home right away, I drove down the street to Buster's Bar & Grill, had a dozen steamed oysters and a draft Bass ale.

    Waited until 7 pm and then motored on home in just 30 minutes! Unlike Friday when I was stuck in gridlock for 2 1/2 hours!

    Buster's was a popular spot Saturday. Not only ran into Jeff Cummings, Don Reese and Schuyler Woods – but watched Gary Player, dapper as usual, stroll in there for dinner.

    Of course, they still had one westbound lane closed on Okaloosa Island – all the way from the Coast Guard station well past the old officer's beach club driveway!

    It seemed like they softened up the Raven course for Saturday play. At least the tee placements were more generously forward. That resulted in an increase of 19 more rounds of par or better.

    Friday's stroke average was 72.5 with 20 rounds below par, but on Saturday it was 71.6 with 33 rounds below par.

    One thing stayed the same. The par-4 18th played toughest on the course. On Friday it played to a 4.56 average and on Saturday to a 4.55 average.

    The statistics don't tell the whole tale, however. The par-5 17th claimed some pretty prominent victims. Curtis Strange hit two balls in the water and ended up with a triple-bogey 8. Craig Stadler, 8-under on the day to there, blocked his tee shot in the water and took a double-bogey.

    So did Mike McCullough, at that point leading the Georgia-Pacific Grand Champions event by two shots over Bruce Summerhays.

    Mike's double-bogey there dropped him into a tie and had the Champions Tour staff scrambling to set up a possible playoff at the 18th following the final regular group of the day. The error at 17 ended his streak of 34 consecutive holes without a bogey in the event – the only player in the field bogey-free up to that point.
    But McCullough regrouped, hitting the fairway at 18, nailing his 163-yard 6-iron to just inside 5 feet and rolling the putt in for birdie to beat out Summerhays by a shot.

    McCullough picked up a fast $30,000 for his 36-hole 138 while Summerhays earned $23,000 for his 139.

    On Friday, Bobby Wadkins said it was good to score well on Friday so he could hang around near the lead. He hung around with an even-par 71 and held on to the lead as those threatening couldn't get nearer than 3 shots back.

    Stadler (71-65) and John Harris (70-66) are closest to Wadkins, paired with him Sunday. Loren Roberts (69-68) and Strange (66-71) are four shots back, with McCullough still in contention at 139.

    If Strange would get it going and win Sunday, he'd break a victory drought of 16 years, 10 months and 26 days. His last win was the 1989 U.S. Open.

    Harris is seeking his first win in his combined 106 PGA Tour and Champions Tour starts.

    Hubert Green demonstrated his short-game wizardry in carding his lowest round of 2006, a three-under 68. Hubie had it all the way to six-under before his diabetes got him a little woozy and he suffered three bogeys down the stretch. But he got up-and-down from the left bunker to within 3 feet on the par-3 6th and hit a sensational bunker shot from the right bunker on the 17th to 2 feet to save pars. 

    Tee times Sunday start at 8 am with the leaders slated off at 12:45 pm. 

    Bobby Wadkins four-shot lead over the field is the biggest since Tom Purtzer fired an opening 60 in the 2004 Toshiba Classic.

    Mark Lye made a misstep at his hotel Friday morning and badly sprained his right foot. His WD got Howard Twitty into the field. I was happy for Howard, as he was just edged out by Mitch Adcock in Monday qualifying.

    Speaking of Mitch, playing early before the afternoon wind came up, he whipped around the course in 67 and is in a third-place tie going into Saturday's second round.

     Also bailing out was John Mahaffey, who, after going two over on the first two holes complaining of lower back pain. However, in late afternoon he could be found prowling the course as a roving reporter for the Golf Channel!

    Both Wadkins and Raymond Floyd made it around using only 23 putts. Raymond was at four-under until he picked the wrong line off the tee at the 18th, putting his drive in the right rough – bogey time.

    But Floyd was hot early in the round. After chipping in at the par-5 third, he did it again at the par-4 fifth from the rough back of the green after hitting his approach long. When he did that to go two-under on the day, Jerry Pate, playing in the group with Raymond, did a three-dip salaam in tribute to Floyd's prowess. Floyd responded to that homage by sinking a birdie putt on the next hole!

    Wadkins' round was nothing short of phenomenal. Nobody had any inkling prior to the start of the tourney that anybody could go that low on Raven.

    In fact, there are more than a few players who said they'd take that nine-under score for the 54-hole route and let the rest of the field shoot at it!

    The only bogey-free rounds on the day were those posted by Wadkins and Mike McCullough (67).

    Wadkins, Curtis Strange (66), Don Pooley (66) and Adcock all said the scores were out there today – IF you hit the fairways and dodged the afternoon wind.

    Pooley had win on his last six or seven holes and said that made things a bit more difficult. He added a comment regarding scoring: "The course played soft today after the rains the past couple days. You could hit to spots on the fairways and greens. But when the course dries out and firms up – and the wind blows – it's going to get more difficult!"

    The leaders will get to play most of their round in the wind on Saturday while those who posted higher scores today will get the morning chance to play catch-up.

    Another factor that could change things is course setup on Saturday and Sunday. As Curtis said, "They had the tee up on nine – and it was still a difficult hole. And they had the tee up on (par-3 island green hole) 6."

    If the Tour staff stretches the course out Saturday and Sunday – and sets some sporty pins – getting around in one or two under could become the target for the Champions Tour pros.

    McCullough opened up a one-shot lead over Floyd in the Georgia-Pacific Grand Champions event, played over the first 36 holes of the tournament. There's a $30,000 first prize at stake for the over-60 crowd in that event, with a total of $175,000 in the prize purse.

    Brad Bryant brought a quick halt to his skein of 56 consecutive holes without a bogey. He bogeyed the par-4 first hole Friday! And Tom Watson saw his string of nine consecutive sub-par rounds end when he finished at one-over 72 Friday.

    With the par-3 16th hole set up at 238 yards to the hole, there were only two birdies posted there, by Scott Masingill and Vicente Fernandez. And there were just three birdies at the par-4 18th, those posted by David Eger, Lonnie Nielsen and Bob Gilder.

    Putting his ball in the rough could have well cost Curtis Strange three strokes on final holes. Blocking his tee shot way right at the short par-4 15th – all the way to the 14th hole cart path – he got a drop. But with a path through the trees, he hit his approach over the green into the back rough. He made a great up-and-down save, but that was a likely birdie hole. Then he hit his rescue club in the rough past the right fringe on the long par-3 16th – and chunked his chip from a very tangled lie to bogey there. He probably lost another shot at the par-5 17th when he hit his layup shot too far right into another tough lie in the rough. With the pin down front, his ball waffled from the rough and rolled all the way to the back of the green. He made a great two-putt there to save par.

    The worst of the day had to be Bruce Fleisher's finish. Coming into the final hole he was two-under on the day. But he hit his drive in the water right, re-teed and hit his third shot into the left bunker with a tough lie there. Then he hit his fourth shot short, hit his fifth into the greenside bunker, got on the green in six and two-putted for a quadruple bogey to finish two-over on the day!

    Everything went well at the Boeing Championship. Heck, Bobby Wadkins even set a new competitive course record of nine-under-par 62 on the Raven course.

    But what a #@%&* mess trying to get home!!!

    It took me 2 hours and 20 minutes to motor from the main exit at Sandestin to Fort Walton Beach!! And that was after cutting to Destin's back roads at Walmartto the Destin Bridge with nothing moving ahead on 98 !

    That is inexcusable! And the fault of the Okaloosa County  and Walton County Commissions, the Florida DOT, the Destin City Council, every single one of our elected state officials – and those developers who built, built, built without any regard for the need for infrastructure!!!!

    Oh, yeah…and whoever is in charge of the construction on Okaloosa Island! With traffic inching (actually, mostly stopped and idling) all the way from Seascape on Hwy 98 westward, that idiot went ahead and closed one westbound lane on the island!!!!

    They all oughta be lined up, flogged and put in the stocks for a couple of days right in the Hwy 98 median!!!! 

    When you get crap like that happening – a 20 mile traffic jam – it's time for the respective sheriff departments to get off their butts and try and unjam the traffic!!

    You can bet your butt that tomorrow, it'll be up over the Mid-Bay Bridge for me to go "homeward bound!!!" Even doing that, it'll take me at least 30 to 40 minutes just to get to the bridge access road!

     The tournament move to Sandestin Raven was a great one for the golf. And okay IF you live at Sandestin. For those of us who have to travel back and forth from FWB every day, it's that #@&%$ mess!!!

The best pro-am score posted was Ben Crenshaw's 63 on Wednesday. But don't expect to see that duplicated ANY day on the weekend.

Many of the tees were up for the pro-ams and the pins weren't in the more difficult positions that are expected on the weekend.

I haven't heard any one of the Champions Tour pros dare to come up with a specific number. But most admit that if they can end up at 10-under for the route on Sunday they have a good chance to be the champ.

Of course weather conditions will be a big factor. It looks like the rains have come and gone – hopefully gone for the weekend. But they softened up the fairways, making the course play long. Sun and some hearty winds could dry things out, shortening the course again…but the winds could also offset that benefit.

Brad Bryant, winner last week in Birmingham gets credit for the best quote thus far. When asked if he feels his hot play there will continue this week, his response was sort of Yogi Berra-ish:

"I won't know until tomorrow (Friday). Right now I'm confused at the moment. I got here, and so far I don't know where I'm at. Whoever designed the street signs and things here, they need to just shoot him and start over. I'm pretty good with directions. I tried to find a party last night, and they said, 'Go to the bridge, it's on your right.' I went to the bridge and there's water. They didn't bother to tell me that there were five bridges or something. Around here, what you guys need to do, everything needs to start from the Bass Pro Shops and work its way out. Because that's where we're going today."

It'll be interesting to see if anybody can top that this weekend!

The rain finally left a little after 9:00 am…but not before it delayed the start of the Georgia-Pacific Pro-Am. And made driving Baytowne's 9th hole to media parking a bit of a soggy chore!

But over at the Burnt Pine practice range earlier, thanks to the delayed (30 minutes) start of the pro-am, the "elder statesmen" of the Champions Tour were having some fun.

Hitting both Bob Murphy's driver and one of Gary Player's big sticks, Mike Hill was nailing dead-straight tee shots with air time creditable for long-driving champs all the way to the back of the range.

That got the comment from Gary, "If he could putt, you'd never have heard of anybody else." At which point Dale Douglass chimed in, "He always could hit his driver better than his putter."

Murphy added, "He hasn't missed a fairway in years." But Gary got the last word in on that subject. Said he, "Mike hasn't missed a fairway since the Pope was an altar boy!"

Hill and Player were also discussing the relative merits of raising cows and horses. Saying, "I'm a farmer," Hill invited the others to visit his farm and golf course in Michigan and help feed his herd. Whereupon, Murphy got his topping line in, noting, "If you wait for me to show up, you're gonna have real skinny cows!"

Hank Johnson School of Golf teacher (and radio host and all-around bon vivant) Tony Rugerio was a last-minute replacement for Champions Tour player Vicente Fernandez, who injured his wrist in Wednesday's pro-am.

Tony said, "I'm making my first senior professional start at the age of 35. How about that!"

Speaking of replacements, a reminder not to miss your assigned tee time came for Mike Sullivan, who was DQ'ed for missing his Wednesday pro-am tee time. He was replaced in the Boeing Championship by James Mason.

 And another out was the WD of R.W. Eaks, who's having trouble with his back – which he hurt a couple of weeks ago just bending over to tie his shoe! In for him is Jim Albus.

    Twenty minutes or so is all you need with Hale Irwin to determine that HE still has plenty of determination.

    He may be 60 now, but the "youngsters" on the Champions Tour better keep an eye on him this weekend.

    It's been a "poor" year so far by his standards. No wins…but still five top-10s out of 10 starts…and he's fifth on the money list with over $500,000 so far.

    But he says, "The only part of my game that hasn't jelled yet is my putting."

    Then he talks about subtle changes in posture that could have affected his stroke and how he's working on that. He says, "My stroke feels okay, but the putts haven't been dropping that I think I should make."

    Then, after talking about small changes he's working on that could yield big results, he adds with a wry grin, "On the other hand, maybe I'm just putting lousy."

     For the first time, he's going to skip the Ford Senior Players Championship in July to go to the British Isles for three weeks. He'll play the Scottish Open (the week before the British Open – with a STRONG field) and then play the British Senior Open the week following the British Open.

    As for teeing it up against PGA Tour and European PGA Tour stalwarts in Scotland, he says, "Age isn't the determinate factor. Of course those kids can play. But they may find out that so can I!"

    Hale's wife, Sally, sat in at the interview room. On the way out, I asked her how she liked Sandestin. That got a big smile and the response, "I like it!"

    Hale had an even bigger smile when asked how he likes the Raven course. "I like it a lot! It sets up good for my eye. A lot of confining shots."

    He thinks tee settings rather than pin placements will be bigger factors in determining scoring this weekend. "If I can shoot, say, four-under each day, I'd feel real good about it."

    He's due for a win. And Raven, with tough rough the wind up, is the kind of course that suits his game.

The Georgia-Pacific Pro-Am, originally scheduled at Burnt Pine for a 1:00 pm shotgun start has been reslated to a starting time of 9:00 am.

That may well be the best place and time to watch some action prior to the start of the Boeing at Sandestin Championship proper at Raven. And the reason why is the field of 12 Champions Tour pros who'll be teeing it up at Burnt Pine.

How about for starters, HALE IRWIN, the winningest Champions Tour pro of them all! Then stir in all-time, Hall of Fame stars GARY PLAYER and LEE TREVINO. And BOB CHARLES,the best portsider in the history of golf. Add JIM COLBERT, MIKE HILL, VICENTE FERNANDEZ, DALE DOUGLASS, DAVE EICHELBERGER, DAVE STOCKTON, JIM DENT, BOB MURPHY and TOM WARGO.

That's plenty of reason to make your Thursday morning visit to the Boeing at Sandestin Championship a trip to Burnt Pine. They'll be teeing off in a 9:00 am shotgun start.

You can bet I'll be there! After all, some of them are ALMOST as old as I am!

  They've got us media and caddies parking on Baytowne's par-5 ninth hole, just short of the pond in front of the green.   That's okay…unless we get more rain…just had a little bit before today.

  BUT – if we get the T-storms that are predicted for later today, tonight and tomorrow, they'll need barges or a tracked retriever vehicle to get us to the parking space and back out again!!  

  That means that our heartfelt slogan is, "HOORAY FOR THE CRESTVIEW LINE!" Dodge Destin and head north at Mary Esther!  

  The only problem I had on my first trip out here Tuesday was finding the media bathroom! Wandered around for a while before finding out that we have a "honey wagon" just like the ones the pros have. In fact, on Monday, when a few media folks strayed into the pro honey wagon, the media room was alerted to the fact that the pros didn't want us contaminating their crapper!  

  Out here now waiting to interview Hale Irwin after he finishes his pro-am round – and a phone conference with New York writers. Guess they've heard that this is hurricane country and are afraid to venture south of the Mason-Dixon line??   Will update here later today on Hale's views on Sandestin Raven – and tournament amenties.

    A great bunch of Champions Tour pros turned out to salute our area military personnel by participating in the Military Appreciation Pro-Am at Kelly Plantation.

    And not only did the forebidding weather dodge Kelly Plantation (likely headed north on the "Crestview line") but this writer got to tee it up as a last-minute fill-in!

    As Champions Tour pro Doug Johnson wrote on the group pic of our team it was a "Great Day."

    Doug, acknowledged by his fellow pros as "king of the two-spotters," was REALLY great company. Now living in Ocala, the Wisconsin native was truly enjoying an unusual Monday off.

    "I really have to thank Boeing for giving me Monday off with the special exemption into the (Boeing Championship at Sandestin) tournament," he said. "Since I missed making the field last week (Regions Charity Classic) in qualifying at Limestone Springs, I got four days of practice on Raven."

    Having made the starting field three times in six Monday tries so far this year, Doug has earned just over $20,400, standing 92nd on the money list.
    "I've had my chances (in his six years playing the Champions Tour) but haven't broken through like I know I can," he admits.

    A "fairways and greens" type of player, I like his chances for a creditable performance at the Raven this weekend. He can keep it in play and, with some success on the greens, should cash a good check at Sandestin.

    He sure is great company to play with. And we had one helluva team with "bombers" Vic Makela and Tom Robbins – a 4 and 2 handicap respectively – and very strong 12-handicapper Brian Belke. – all of them from Hurlburt Field's AFSOC headquarters.
    If I wasn't so miserable with a putter in my hands, we would have challenged pro Larry Zeigler's crew, comprised of Pensacola NAS shipmates, as I nailed at least four approach shots in easy birdie range – for anybody but me – and failed to cash them in.

    As it was, we did end up in fifth place at 62 behind the Zeigler squad's 59, garnering a dozen Pro V balls apiece!

    As usual, Steve Wright and his staff did yet another outstanding job hosting the event.

    Special kudos go to Champions Tour pro Andy Bean, who was instrumental in helping round up the group of 14 pros who participated at Kelly Plantation.

    "Hey, it's us who should be thanking them (military personnel)," Bean said when I told him he was due some thanks for his efforts.

    Several of the pros on hand had already played 18 holes in the morning, scouting out Sandestin Raven, and then hustled over to Kelly Plantation to tee it up in the Military Appreciation Pro-Am. Those I know who were doing "double duty" were Scott Simpson and Mike Sullivan.

    The group of pros also included Mark "Beer Man" Johnson, Dave Eichelberger, Frank Shikle, Ed Dougherty, John Harris, Ron Streck, Scott Masengill, Dave Stockton (who'd been out fishing in the morning and had to meet up with his clubs at Kelly Plantation!) and Howard Twitty, who returned to Kelly Plantation after missing gaining a starting berth in the Boeing Championship at Sandestin in a playoff Monday.

    Boeing also really deserves a heap of appreciation for sponsoring the event!