That's Jeff Bollig in the massive media room here at Medinah. When I took this photo, JB says, "This will look so fake."
Yeah, it looks totally fake. I photo-shopped that media center into the background. We all want photos of us in a media center.
Next trick, I'm going to post a photo of a guy on a plane, with snakes all over him. More camera trickery!!
This is myLEADERBOARD. For $15, you can rent this thing, and it will tell you where everyone is in the course. Or where the nearest bathroom is. Or where Chad Campbell played college golf.
It's a very cool idea. It would help me a ton in my job. As a fan, I can see the worthiness of it.
I think there are some bugs they were trying to workl out on it, but potentially a great tool.
One more thing -- there's a tab on the myLEADERBOARD PDA that says "course information." All the info is the fact sheet from GCSAA.org. GCSAA is credited with the material.
Not bad, bot bad...
A gallery watches golfer hit on the range Tuesday.
Tuesday was "kids get in free day." Lot of kids, a lot of parents. Great promotional idea.
These are our TORO SUPERINTENDENT TRAINING PROGRAM winners. Left to right, Brad Charma, Port Washington, N.Y., Bryce Koch, Naples, Fla., and Jon Cancel, Fallbrook, Ca.
It was 5 a.m. but I got them to muster a slight smile.
All three were pretty amped about the experience.
Inside the tent, the guys watch a little Golf Channel to start the day. A few hours later, they'd BE ON the Golf Channel...
Lively and Bisbee, Course 3 superintendent, talk about maintenance issue on the practic green before sunrise. Behind them in the shadows is Medinah's country club.
The guys are on the No. 1 green here looking for a tiny blue dot (smaller than a dime) that denotes the location of the pin placement today.
A flash light is used to help light the green. There's very little sunlight at this point, so we need all the help we can get.
My claim to fame today is that I was the one that discovered the tiny blue dot after putting the camera down for a minute. I might not be able to play this game, but I can spot tiny dots in the dark.
A turf intern from the University of Tennessee takes a roll at the cup on No. 13. The greens were rolling at a stimp speed of around 12.2, 12.3 today. This green had to be mowed twice and then rolled to get it going the right pace. The first stimp readings had it rolling in the mid-11s.
By Sunday, the greens will be more like 13.
The annual rough close-up. That's a $20 bill pushed to the dirt in the rough. A mere five feet forward is the green on No. 2.
Hit it here and you're going to lose more than a $20 bill.
You can't see it here, but there's a dog riding in the boat. This is the bomb squad, searching the area with two dogs, making sure nothing gets planted on the course over night. These guys were local, but I understand that the Department of Homeland Security is here as well.
The first golfer of the day -- Thomas Bjorn! It was about 6:45 a.m. Tiger was driven to No. 10 and dropped off. Here, No. 10 is the furthest hole from the clubhouse.
The call came in -- there were sticks that needed to be pulled out of the water in front of No. 17 green.
Tom Lively, CGCS, talks with Adam Barr of the Golf Channel about a segment Barr wants to do on the roughs and bunkers at Medinah.
Lively stands with his VIPs -- superitnendents Tony Bisbee, Kris Kvelland, Dave Kloss and the two Erics.
A stack of GCMs sits proudly in a bin inside the media center. The guy I'm sitting right behind just grabbed a copy!
No. 17 at Medinah. This is the hole that has really seen a lot of rennovations over the years. The green has moved back and then forward, bunkering has changed... but it's pretty any way you look at it...
I climbed up in one of the camera towers to snap these shots. CBS doesn't mind, they were still sleeping the good sleep when I was taking these shots...
One more, just for fun.
The guys told me that this is a hard green to put a pin on. There are virtually no flat spaces. You think you're on a flat area, then you get below the hole, and see it running one way or another.
A very important hole.
