So, there was a NGA Hooters Tour tournament here at Scotch Hall Preserve Golf Course last week. Before you write that off because of the name of the sponsor you should know- if you don't already- that it's a pretty fierce field of players. It is the 3rd largest professional tour in the United States. On the average course they are able to play, about -20 wins the event. I bet no one is scoffing at Hooters now. I bet your eyes bulged instead. The Hooters have low cut lines.
I'm sorry, that last line requires me to take pause and give applause to the craftiness I just heard in my head. Very nice.
This course was a little bit different for the participants. It is a difficult one. It is beautiful, very hard, and very windy. For instance, on the 3rd day when one player walked off the green and noted to Nick that the wind had changed direction (making the course much easier), he said "This is probably more like normal!" Had it not been competition and completely out of place I would have piped up and inserted a "No, not really." ...that I've never been out there when the wind was so calm. Granted, I don't go out every day, but I sometimes have to lunge and exert serious energy to open and close my car door. Never am I able to carry on in a phone conversation with Nick if he's out on the course. I can't hear him through the static the wind makes. But, that's the charm of the course. Golfers like the challenge. That's redundant. People don't play golf unless they want a never-ending challenge... so golfer kind-of means 'one who torments the self with perpetual challenge and most likely defeat.' The course reminds me of the European Tour events I was able to watch Nick play. They have weather that whips. That's why they do so well when they come to the States. Especially if it's stormy. They are used to it, it seems.
-12 won the 4 day competition. The cut was 6 over. That is NOT normal. That was with typical Scotch Hall Preserve wind.
Now, my sweet and talented Nicholas had one victory and one defeat. His intention was to get the tournament to come to Scotch Hall Preserve, do the work required with rounding up sponsorships and all of that logistical planning, help set up the event to make sure nothing was over-looked, and then play in the tournament too. Sounds brilliant.
... if your Ironman.
I came home from the writer's meetings and subsequent traffic debacle feeling puny and tired. Then, I saw my hubbo. He was about 20 pounds lighter than when I left him and looked ragged. He wasn't sleeping because he kept thinking about what he needed to do from all sorts of different angles for the event and for the other aspects of his job. On Wednesday, I went to the Pro-Am dinner hosted at the course under a tent and realized he was hauling around water coolers with ice and crates of water... different tasks requiring manual labor that he is, of course, up for doing, but when I saw it I also saw disaster ahead. It was like rounding a slight curve on I-85 to see that all the lanes are stopped and DETOUR- ROAD CLOSED is flashing on the electronic billboard. (I'm referencing my Carzy situation.) And like that, I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I asked to help. I assisted and drove trash to the big dumpsters at the back of the property... but that's the extent of what I was able to do to make it better. I imagine it's like mommies feel with their children. They are constantly confronted with the fact that they can do nothing to "make it go away" for the ones they love. That is what golf reminds me of at times. Because, if I were him I would have declined to play. But, he tried to anyway because he said he would. I have never, ever seen him play like he did. I hope he doesn't feel like I'm throwing him under the bus here... but it was bad. Really, really bad. Everyone knew. Nick was out of commission. It was just hard to watch. He even had the red-eye I talk about when he's passing out from fatigue as he walked the course.
From Wednesday to today I have gone out to to see if there is anything I can do to help. I will probably continue to do so until I see him with energy. But, it isn't just him I'm itching to help. It's his entire staff. They are all hard workers and such positive people. The tournament was a success because of all that effort and sweat and smiles. When I asked Nick if he was disappointed, he replied that he was, but that it was his job to make sure everything was in place. That this is how these guys (players) make a living. And if something went wrong because of him, that it would have been the failure on his part, not that he couldn't even resemble the way he normally played. And THAT my friends is the man I am proud of and respect. He hits life's fairway every single time.
I do want him home though, just for a day or two, to stick in a dark cave of a room and close the door, only opening it to give him chamomile tea or pasta. I want him to be dreamy for a good long while.
More on the actual course- It is phenomenal! It is gorgeous and everyone who plays it raves about it- including professional golfers. The guys who maintain the course should walk with their chests bowed out because it is something to boast about. Our friend Brent, who did well and was in the lead group on Sunday, said it best. "This is a hell of a course, man! I'm mentally tired at the end of the day from thinking about the wind and my shots. It's great... Yeh, it's a hard course." Nick replied, "I knew you'd like it." Which he explained why as being- because it's more like a Tour course... meaning PGA Tour, because Brent played out on the PGA Tour.
... and I'm done on the tournament talk. I'm done dee. I shanked it from the tee, I'm in the hazard... my tournament talk is lost.
To talk about a subject that doesn't surround moi, because I know you are sick of hearing it, I will bring up the movie I last saw. No, I won't. Because I last saw Solitary Man. I like the lead-in song by Johnny Cash and I like the lead man, Michael Douglas, but I don't like the thought of writing about that movie. At least right now, anyway. The one before that was Knight and Day. I liked it. Did you like it? 'Cuz I did.
It was over-the-top like Salt, but I liked Salt too. A movie doesn't have to be realistic for me to enjoy unless it is stressing realism throughout the movie. And this most certainly didn't give any pretense that it was completely realistic. I am surprised that I only now watched it. I heard about it when the script was still called Wichita from this friend that shoots on location during filming. He didn't say much except that it was going to be great. And I agree. You know, Tom Cruise may have jumped on Oprah's sofa, but he's great to watch on-screen. I don't care what people say about him, I like watching his films. I think it is amusing when people scoff and say he sucks, can't act, yada, yada. I think that's amusing because he's an icon in the film industry and in between Top Gun and Oprah's sofa people thought he was spectacular across the board. I think when speaking of him in professional terms he's solid, hard to dispute it. He has a distinct style. He is entertaining. He is believable. That goes a long way in acting, no? (insert chuckle here)
Cameron Diaz, well, everyone knows she has chops. No need to discuss. ... And legs. She definitely has legs now doesn't she...
I wish I had more for you, but that's it. It was writers to golfers and now I'm back. Waiting for my husband to join me, but I AM BACK.
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