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.
