Friday afternoon musings

Editor's note: Although my name appears below this post, please note it was actually written by Seth Jones. Our pals at TypePad have made a few changes to the template we use to post on the blog, and to put it kindly, the changes are not good. Like "New Coke" not good. Like "Microsoft Vista" not good. Through no fault of his own, the formatting for Seth's original post was a train wreck, so messed up that I had to simply start new and repost. So read on knowing that Seth, not Scott, wrote the following.

The December issue is almost done ... it didn't go down without a fight though, people, let me tell you.

• The inaugural Lorena Ochoa Invitational is going on right now at the Guadalajara CC in Jalisco, Mexico. Long-time blog readers will remember that I made a trip down to the course back inLorena 017 December of 2007. It's hard to believe that the tournament is already here. Lorena's got some work to do on her home course, last I saw she was five strokes off (+1) the lead. Annika Sorenstam was tied with seven others at -4 after the first day. You can catch the tournament this weekend live on The Golf Channel. Anyway, it sounds like the players are THRILLED with the conditions they're seeing at the Guad'. I know last December, there was a lot of anxiety about the tournament... this would be GCC's first LPGA event, and they really wanted to impress. Well, check out this quote from opening round co-leader Nicole Castrale:  "The greens are in great shape and a lot of the pins are in tough locations. The greens have a lot of subtle breaks, so you can hit it to six feet, but you have to be cautious of making sure you don't have another 4 footer coming back. But overall, the golf course is in great shape, and hats off to the superintendent. He's done a great job and it's just really one of the top five golf courses we play all year on Tour. It's a great course." Wow! Some kind words! Congrats to GCSAA international member Fernando Varela and all his staff for a job well done. That's a truly beautiful golf course they have there.

• Got two phone calls from old GCSAA friends today. Conrad Broussard, CGCS out at St. James Plantation, checked in. We got to talk some Big 12 football. Conrad is living large because he's a Texas Tech grad. They MURDERED my Jayhawks a few weeks ago. Possible national champs? Hey, they've got a tough remaining schedule, but after seeing them in person, I wouldn't doubt them. I know, laugh now, but crazier things have happened... I think. A couple hours later I heard from Steve Sarro, superintendent at Vail Golf Club. They've been getting steady snow for the past two weeks, but no serious accumulations yet. Steve told me he's going to have to miss the GIS this year, unfortunately, because his wife is expecting around that time. I'm sorry to hear that he'll miss it, the last time I hung out with Steve was in March of 2006 in New Orleans. Totally understand his reasoning though. We then had to talk college basketball, of course. Steve is a UMass grad and the last time we spoke, he asked me if he should take Kansas to win the national championship. My advice? Don't. Sorry, Steve!
• I saw Darcy posted about the coffee makers. I'm not thrilled about the extra coffee makers around the office. I don't drink coffee, and I really don't enjoy the smell of coffee either. So when GCM managing editor Bunny Smith started brewing a pot next door to me, I about got knocked out of my chair. But the good news is she showed honest sympathy for her odorous assault on her friendly neighbor, and I think from now on her renegade coffee will be brewed down near Hollister's office, so Ed Hiscock can be assaulted (he's a fellow coffee-hater).
• Man, my iPod is just in the zone today. You know how you can put it on shuffle sometimes and it just seems to know your mood? You know? OK, maybe it's just me.

OK, I'm out of here. Have a great weekend, everyone. May your college football team get a win, unless they are the University of Texas Longhorns.

Comments

[Thomas Lervik Jr.]

Nice to know you stay in touch with Conrad, tell that guy hello next time you talk to him!

[Julie]

i too feel the same joy from my ipod some days.