And I already get the sense that it will be hard for me to start calling this tour the "Web.com Tour."
It all started when I arrived at the golf course, or should I say, in the golf course area. At Crestview, the drive from the street to my parking spot took under 30 seconds - and I could easily see the parking lot from the street.
Here, it took me a good five minutes to make it from the road to the clubhouse - a long, winding drive that took me past a few gated-community type areas. There was also a police officer guarding the course entrance, who was nice enough to let me through despite my lack of credentials at this point.
When I arrived in the parking lot, I saw two more police cars parked. Once I arrived in the media center (very accessible, on the side of the clubhouse and less than a minute walk from where I parked), I found a lot of activity going on - with TV news reporters discussing potential story ideas, and a print reporter on the phone with his editor discussing Casey Wittenberg and Lee Janzen.
It's hard to pinpoint the exact differences, but this is already a different vibe from last week. Maybe it's the nature of the media center - which has room for about 10 people, compared to a capacity of about 40 in Wichita - or maybe it's just the unfamiliarity of not really knowing anyone yet.
My HTML coding can't even be accepted in this media room, I just found out. Good thing I just figured out how to format my posts without using HTML, or I could have been in for a stressful week.
While writing, the tournament's media relations director - Pam - was nice enough to come and introduce herself to me. She told me where to find water and soda, and gave me a brief 'lay of the land' in the media center. Still have to wait for Joe - the Tour's media guy this week - to figure things out with my credentials.
The pro-am is just finishing up now, and I saw that Alex Aragon's team shot a 23-under 49. How the heck do you shoot that score, even in a setup where true pars can earn birdies or eagles, based on handicap? Don't want to sound suspicious, but maybe some of these guys should think about adjusting their handicaps. That, or they all had the rounds of their lives.
But it's not as if low pro-am scores are anything new. Maybe it's the whole handicap scoring system that needs to be rethought. Then again, at least it's a pro-am where scores are low, and not the regular tournament. If players were shooting 49s during the tournament proper, Phil Stambaugh would have some explaining to do.
In Wichita, Phil expressed a belief that Victoria National is a demanding course - and that the players' unfamiliarity with the course would show. Phil predicted that the winning score would be somewhere in the single digits under par - not double digits, which is the norm out here.
But from an early glance at a few holes, it looks like Phil's prediction could be a good one. The fairways look narrower than at Crestview, and the rough looks thicker as well. But since I'm still waiting for credentials, I haven't explored the course yet, so I need to wait to provide any substantial commentary.
In the meantime here, Joe came back and I got all set with credentials. Out to the course, I go.
The pro-am is just finishing up now, and I saw that Alex Aragon's team shot a 23-under 49. How the heck do you shoot that score, even in a setup where true pars can earn birdies or eagles, based on handicap? Don't want to sound suspicious, but maybe some of these guys should think about adjusting their handicaps. That, or they all had the rounds of their lives.
But it's not as if low pro-am scores are anything new. Maybe it's the whole handicap scoring system that needs to be rethought. Then again, at least it's a pro-am where scores are low, and not the regular tournament. If players were shooting 49s during the tournament proper, Phil Stambaugh would have some explaining to do.
In Wichita, Phil expressed a belief that Victoria National is a demanding course - and that the players' unfamiliarity with the course would show. Phil predicted that the winning score would be somewhere in the single digits under par - not double digits, which is the norm out here.
But from an early glance at a few holes, it looks like Phil's prediction could be a good one. The fairways look narrower than at Crestview, and the rough looks thicker as well. But since I'm still waiting for credentials, I haven't explored the course yet, so I need to wait to provide any substantial commentary.
In the meantime here, Joe came back and I got all set with credentials. Out to the course, I go.
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