Minute by minute

Internet access, sweet Internet access!! Back at the hotel now and actually feel plugged in for the first time all day. A "thank you" to Jonesy for keeping everyone visiting the blog apprised of my situation. Wish I had been able to keep you updated on the comings and going at Sawgrass today, including a record 46 balls (so far) into the drink at 17, but we don't always get what we want.

As I've said several times, I spent a couple of hours shadowing Fred Klauk Wednesday afternoon as his maintenance team took to the course for their last serious go-around prior to the first round. Early in the week, the hit-and-miss nature of practice rounds kept maintenance workers dancing in and out of play. But on Wednesday, they close the first tee promptly at 3 p.m. and assault each hole, No. 1 through No. 18, as play clears on those holes. Here's what I saw ...

2:30 p.m. -- Klauk settles into a chair at the front of the interview room in the media center to listen in on PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem's meeting with the media. Finchem recognizes Klauk early in his comments. His anonymity is blown.

3:01 p.m. -- As soon as Finchem's news conference ends, Klauk is surrounded by reporters who want to know how the course is handling the rain that has intermittantly fallen throughout the day. He assures the horde that greens are still standing firm, that the Sub-Air system installed during the renovation has not been employed and that Subtropical Storm Andrea will not have a huge impact on course conditions over the next few days. The impromptu session lasts about 10 minutes before the reporters gradually disperse.

3:11 p.m. -- A PGA Tour Productions employee stops Klauk as he leaves the media center and asks if he has a few minutes for an interview. Klauk graciously agrees and spends the next five minutes with the film crew.

3:16 p.m. -- Klauk finally breaks free, hops in his golf car and steers it to the first hole. Taking shortcuts learned over his 22 years at Sawgrass, he is soon rolling down the middle of the first fairway. Notable in their absence is anyone from the maintenance staff. He's pulls out his radio to call assistant superintendent Jim Abate to check on the whereabouts of his workers. "I assume you're headed this way?" Klauk asks. Confident that the procession is doing just that, Klauk heads to the weather trailer to check on the forecast for the first round.

3:30 p.m. -- "Talk to me, Stew," Klauk says as he shakes hands with Stewart Williams of DTN Meteorlogix. It appears the biggest issue on Thursday will be winds that will be a steady 10-20 mph with gusts as high as 35 or 40. The main rainmaker related to Andrea will be on the east side of the storm, so the only rain forecast for the course will be off-and-on showers.

3:35 p.m. -- Klauk's cell phone rings. It's David Pillsbury, the president of golf course properties for the PGA Tour. He's looking for some reassurance that an outdoor presentation planned for 4:30 at the clubhouse will stay dry. Klauk tells him what he knows, but that apparently doesn't satisfy Pillsbury, so Klauk hands the phone to Williams. "Here. You talk to him," laughs Klauk.

3:42 p.m. -- PGA Tour rules officials gradually begin to fill the area outside of Williams' office. Some quiz Williams about the forecast (the forecasted high winds causes them to ponder easier hole locations on some of the holes, including a front left spot on No. 17), others ask Klauk about conditions. One, Slugger White, winks when ribbing Klauk about an imaginary "big ol' puddle" on the seventh fairway. Klauk smiles and says, "Oh, you mean the one that runs all the way along the side of the hole?" obviously referring to the lake along the left side of that hole. "We'll get that filled in for you," he says as he heads out to check on progress.

3:47 p.m. -- Klauk rolls up to No. 1 and sees that work is well underway. He speaks with assistant superintendent Darcy Billetbeaux, who is accompanied on his afternoon rounds by his wife, Stacy, and their 15-month-old son, Javen.

3:49 p.m. -- Klauk's radio buzzes. A player has jumped just ahead of maintenance and began a practice round on No. 3. Klauk takes off in that direction to head him off at the pass.

3:51 p.m. -- Klauk finds the player, Jonathan Byrd, on the the fourth tee. He climbs under the ropes, and as he approaches the player and his caddie, Byrd breaks into a smile and calls, "Mr. Klauk! Great to see you!" Klauk tells him that the tees have been closed, and asks if he might be willing to skip ahead to No. 5 so the maintenance work won't distrub his practice round. He readily agrees, so Klauk gives Byrd and his caddie a lift to No. 5.

3:56 p.m. -- Klauk is rolling back down the front nine to meet up with his workers. Byrd, it seems, is friends with Klauk's son Jeff, a Nationwide Tour player, and has stayed with the Klauk family on several occasions. "That makes it a lot easier to get them to skip ahead," Klauk says. He tries to call Abate on the radio to have him place "Tee Closed" signs on both 1 and 3, but the radio traffic is heavy and he can't reach him. So he dials him up on his cell phone to communicate the message.

4:04 p.m. -- Klauk drives behind the newly expanded practice range, bumping into equipment manager Mark Sanford along the way. After chatting briefly, he continues on, only to be intercepted by an equipment rep from Cobra, who tells him he has a 3-wood he needs him to deliver to his son, Jeff. So with the equipment rep now in tow, Klauk reverses direction and drives to the area where the equipment companies have set up shop.

4:10 p.m. -- While waiting for the rep to deliver the club, Klauk receives a call from Abate, who was stopped by Paul Azinger as he came off the range. Azinger apparently suggested to Abate that several shrubs be removed overnight to create a walkway to the clubhouse that would keep the players away from autograph seekers that line the already established path. Klauk doesn't know what to say. "Can you believe that?" he asks.

4:13 p.m. -- With 3-wood finally in hand, Klauk rolls back to the first hole to check out the work that has already been completed. Generally, everything checks out, but he doesn't like what he sees along the edge of the fairway bunkers. When edging the bunkers with leaf ranks, workers have pulled the sand toward the edge of the bunker. Damp from the earlier showers, clumps of sand have flipped up to the edge of the bunkers, so he walks along the edge, sweeping those clumps back into the bunker with his foot. This problem will become a recurring theme throughout the afternoon; he radios his assistants to instruct the bunker crews to edge with their rakes at a 45-degree angle with the teeth of the rake facing skyward.

4:17 p.m. -- Circling the landing area on No. 1, Klauk point out the newly filled divots. "Look at that," he says excitedly. "Look where they all are now. Before the changes (about 30 yards were added to No. 1) the divots were all up there," he says while pointing to an area about 50 yards forward of his current position and on the right side of the fairway. "With the changes and playing into that wind (which gusted to 20 mph into the face of the players on No. 1), everything is way back here. Just a huge difference."

4:22 p.m. -- Rolling to catch up with maintenance, Klauk is asked how preparations for the 2007 Players differed from previous years, what with the course renovation, change of dates, etc. "It's been much more intense. The expectations have been much higher," he says. "With the new date and all the changes, I think everyone's level of expectations has been greater. But everything has gone really well. The expectations were higher, but so was everyone's intensity level. I've been very pleased."

4:27 p.m. -- After stopping at the tee on No. 3 to reposition the "Tee Closed" signs that had been placed out earlier, he chats with rules officials White and John Munch who are marking hole locations for the first round. They discuss the changes to the third hole that were made during the renovation -- "Everybody thinks we raised this green, but we didn't. The approaches were just lowered," Klauk says -- and the hole location for the first round -- front left, just over the bunker.

4:34 p.m. -- At the green on No. 3, he talks to a few crew members and repeats the bunker-raking mantra for the afternoon -- teeth up, 45 degree angle.

4:36 p.m. -- Rain begins falling ... again. Klauk is clearly exasperated. "The last week of March (the former date of the Players) was warm and dry with no wind. Now we're getting a tropical storm. We're getting March weather in May." He shakes his head and drives on.

4:38 p.m. -- As he pulls onto the fourth fairway, a crew of younger maintenance workers are tackling a fairway bunker, and Klauk sees his chance for a teaching moment. He hops out of his golf car, pulls the crew together and spends a few minutes extolling the virtues of "teeth up, 45 degrees." The crew members give it a try, Klauk gives them a thumbs up and then continues on down the fourth fairway.

4:43 p.m. -- Klauk meets up with Abate at the middle of the fourth fairway. They trade war stories about the problems with their radios -- they solve the problem of the heavy traffic by settling on a new channel or, failing that, using the PGA Tour-provided radios -- and once again go over the bunker-raking philosophy of teeth up, 45-degree angle.

4:46 p.m. -- Klauk skips through the fifth fairway, checking out work as he goes. He follows closely behind a pair of fairway units and satisfied with the work they are doing, spins away and drives up the sixth hole.

4:48 p.m. -- As Klauk wheels his cart toward the green at No. 6, fairway mowers, utility vehicles and riding bunker units are parked quietly behind the green. When he asks why, he's told that the last player -- Jonathan Bryd -- is still on the seventh hole. "You guys get moving the moment he's gone, understood?" he says as he drives past. When Klauk reaches the seventh tee, he sees Byrd walking off the green up ahead. He spins and waves frantically at the crew behind him. The equipment quickly fires to life and moves onto No. 7.

4:52 p.m. -- Klauk parks his golf car in a clearing just off the ninth fairway, with the fifth hole visible behind him. He listens to radio traffic in an attempt to monitor what his teams are doing on the course. One call asks about a second pedestrian walkway that has appeared at No. 16 and whether anyone knew about it. Without answering on the radio, Klauk shakes his had. The conversation continues -- early in the week, pedestrians were using the paved path in front of 16 tee to cross the hole. Apparently, a second one has popped up about 50 yards in front of the previous one, painted into the grass. "Maybe Fred knew about it," someone asks. Klauk finally chimes in on the radio. "No, Fred did not know about that," he says as he begins to drive that way.

4:55 p.m. -- Cruising atop a mound running along the left side of the 16th fairway, Klauk sees his new walkway. "Well, I'll be," he says. The new path, which is nothing more than a pair of white lines painted almost parallel to the permanent path, is exactly where advertised. When asked who would be responsible for adding a new pedestrian walkway midstream, he says matter-of-factly, "Rules officials." At least they're not joking about puddles in the seventh fairway.

5:04 p.m. -- Klauk pulls up in front of the media center to drop off his passenger. By now, the rain that had fallen earlier had moved away and been replaced by sunshine, at least temporarily. By the end of his evening, around 8, several more bands of showers will swing through the area, spinning off Andrea. It won't total more than 3/10th of an inch when all is said and done. "If you don't like the weather in Florida, wait a few minutes. It'll change," Klauk says and he shakes hands with his passenger before rolling away, heading back to the golf course.

Comments

[Kyle]

who'd want azingers autograph anyways?