(Editor's Note: Russ Holden is a PGA Professional and the caddie for World Golf Hall of Fame member and 2004 European Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer. He also is CEO of the charitable organization, Caddy For a Cure. Holden's tour diary appears regularly on About.com Golf.)
Greetings after a long week of little golf at The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. It took Bernhard Langer four days to complete 36 holes of golf.
For those of you who read that and are thinking of jokes about Bernhard's deliberate play ... no, that had nothing to do with it. It rained, and rained, and rained. It was truly miserable at the golf course. Even more difficult was the waiting - and then the inevitable "be in position at 7:15 a.m." notice.
That's the most difficult thing for me, when such an early start is required. If you play it backwards, we generally take an hour to loosen up with putting, chipping, and then going through the entire bag of clubs, hitting shots with each. That puts us at 6:15 a.m. on the range.
You have to eat enough to get you through the day, which takes 15 minutes. The people at TPC at Sawgrass put out a really nice spread for us, which makes it easier. I was staying about 15 miles away from the course, and it took almost 30 minutes to get there. So now we're back to 5:30 a.m. Leave time for a shower, a shave, and a few snoozes, and we are setting the ol' alarm clock for 4:45 a.m.
For Bernhard, figure in another 30 minutes since he needs to stretch in the fitness van before he plays. He also does the same after he plays.
So the glamour of the PGA Tour that you see on TV takes a lot of prep time and is a tremendous amount of work to achieve.
We had a great group to play with at The Players Championship in Jay Williamson and Neal Lancaster. Both are really cool guys and a lot of fun to be with. Jay played really well for the first two rounds and made the cut.
We bogeyed our 35th hole with a 3-putt that really stung, and we missed the cut by one.
In some news of my own, I am working on a major project called Caddy For a Cure. This program offers golf fans the opportunity of a lifetime - you can be a caddie for a day for a PGA Tour player. We got a real shot in the arm when Fred Funk won The Players Championship, because Funk is one of the first four tour players who will have a lucky fan on his bag during a practice round at the MCI Heritage. The first four spots as "caddie for a day" are on the auction block right now. Go to www.caddyforacure.com for more info about this project.
Bernhard and I are home this week in Florida. Next week is my favorite event of the year - the Masters. See you on Magnolia Lane!
