2 Lessons I Learned from Attending the Travelers Championship

~I went to the Traveler's Championship (aka the golf tourney in Hartford that no foreigners play in) on Saturday and while I learned a few things I have one important piece of wisdom to share. If you attend a golf tournament in the near future I have a singular suggestion for you (other than wear sun screen) and that is find the draft beer tent. I walked around the course for multiple hours and everywhere they had typical food and beverage stands and each one was selling either Bud or Bud Light Aluminum 16 ounce bottles or Heineiken or Amstel Light 12 ounce cans for 5.75. I figured that was the typical price so I ponied up the money and had one with lunch.

Than after lunch we went strolling around the lake which holes 15, 16, & 17 are built around and I saw people drinking draft beer. So I followed the trail and saw the tent in the distance with about 12 different kegs lined up. So I figured I'd see how much they were, figuring about 8 bucks, and when I get their with a confused look I read "Craft Beers 20 Ounces 5.75". Now I don't know why they used Craft rather than draft, but when I was sipping down my 20 ounces of Newcastle for the same price as a 16 ounce bud light I knew that I hit the jack pot.

~The single largest thing I took away about golf from the event is that being a caddie sucks. First of all seemingly every golfer on the tour must use the largest bags on the planet. Basically each bag looks big enough to pack an entire 5 day vacations worth of items. And each bag for that reason looks like it at minimum weighs 100 lbs. So while the golfer casually walks around the course (I did much more walking on Saturday than any of the golfers) and swings a club every once in awhile the caddy has to walk the same distance just with a tremendous amount of weight on their shoulder. Than they have to do tedious tasks, like rake out the bunkers. I watched a player pummel a shot out of the fairway bunker, after he hit the shot he made some stupid trail with his club which he walked on. The caddie then got the rake got in the bunker and slowly and precisely raked away for what seemed like 5 minutes. Each stroke was as if he was trying to create a work of art. Shit like that would piss me the hell off.

And then I saw something complelety ridiculous. For some ungodly reason Sharon Funk, wife of Fred Funk, decided that she would caddy for him this weekend. The bag she had to lug around all 4 days easily looked heavier than her. Why in the world if your her would you want to deal with that all day? No f'n way. The PGATour.com has a video interview with her about her caddying.

~The amount of silence required at a golf tournament is pretty ridiculous. Each hole employs countless amounts of volunteers whose sole purpose is to raise their hands when a golfer is about to hit to signal to the crowd to be silent.

~On that note, when I got in, a player (I forgot whom) was teeing off and a kid made a single noise and so he stepped off the ball and directed a comment to the kid instructing him that he couldn't do that (Had to be embarrassing to the father). Then he stepped up to the ball again, got distracted by a fly swung his club at the fly, and stepped off the ball again. Then he proceeded to knock his Par 3 tee shot 5 feet from the cup. Asshole.

~Vijay Singh is ridiculously dark. I mean ridiculously dark.

~Vaughn Taylor popped his collar the entire round, which makes me question his sexuality.

~It must have been plaid shorts day at the course for spectators.

~Apparently you're not allowed to bring in your Blackberry or Cell Phone into the course. So I simply lied and said I didn't have it. It was on silent anyway so F off.

~Oh and they hit the ball ridiculously far and straight. Top notch insight there.