Congratulations to Lee Westwood, the 2010 St. Jude Classic champion! Lee won on the fourth playoff hole, defeating both Robert Garrigus and Robert Karlsson. While I was cheering for Westwood all week (I didn’t pick him, because I wasn’t sure about his lack of course knowledge and how he might be affected by the hot and humid conditions, but was still cheering for him to win), my heart went out to Garrigus to some extent. On the 72nd hole of a tournament that would likely be his first win, holding a three-shot lead, he went into total “train-wreck” mode, resulting in a triple-bogey; when his drive on the first playoff hole landed under a tree, his tournament was over. Hopefully, he’ll have more chances to win, and soon!
I knew the weather would be as bad today as it had been yesterday (and, in fact, it was worse), so I decided to get to the course relatively early and follow whichever group was on the first tee when I arrived. That group was Rich Barcelo and Charles Warren, neither of whom I’d ever seen play before (and I’d never even heard of Barcelo). Following a mix-up at the ropes on the sixth tee, I stayed back and followed the next group, Dean Wilson and Jonathan Byrd, through the remainder of the front nine. After that, the heat and humidity got to be a bit more than I liked, so I sat in a shady spot near the 10th tee and watched most of the rest of the groups come through. Some observations from the day:
* Most of the players were very polite and went out of their way to tell the volunteers how much they appreciated them today. That’s something I see at a lot of events, but it never fails to impress me.
* There were some horrendous scores out there today (81's from Maggert and Wittenberg, 82 from Chad Campbell). Southwind isn’t an easy course, but I didn’t see any reason why there were quite a few big numbers out there.
* How hot was it? On the 6th tee, Jonathan Byrd already had a wet towel over his head. This was probably around 9:30 a.m.
* Speaking of wet towels, if there had been a few wet-towel concession stands, I would have been broke long before finishing 9 holes!
* Boo Weekley had the biggest gallery that I saw (I missed John Daly’s gallery, which apparently is always the largest here); Rory McIlroy’s was a close second. Rory’s fans got to “awww...” as he kissed his girlfriend at the 10th tee.
* The crowds seemed to be down this year from last year. I think the weather had a lot to do with it; it was hot last year, but it was 7-8 degrees hotter each day this year.
All in all, a weekend well-spent. The next “live report” will come in two months, from the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio.
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