Then I looked to my left, and there was Schopp. Two booths down from the statscenter, Schopp is doing his show live from the ballpark. Who would have thought? Although I interned for WGR last summer, I worked on the morning show, so I never met Schopp. Maybe I'll go introduce myself when he takes a break.
Interned at Schopp's place of employment last summer, now interning at the place where he's working tonight. Good stuff.
More notes from the last few days of travel...
-I ultimately decided to sacrifice the final round of the Web.com Tour's United Leasing Championship, in favor of seeing if Fred Funk could make a Sunday move at the Senior Players. A Saturday 64 had put Funk in the mix, three back, and the win would give him a spot in the 'real' Players next May.
Funk played well on the front nine, pulling within a shot after a birdie on 9. But it was not meant to be. The 56-year old proceeded to bogey 4 of his first 5 holes on the back nine, immediately falling out of contention. No return to the Players for Fred, unfortunately. Didn't get to talk to him after, but maybe the pressure of returning to his hometown event (where he won in 2005) was just too much to handle.
-But if Fred couldn't win, at least an even better story transpired. Lifetime journeyman grinder Joe Daley made one clutch par putt after another down the final stretch, fending off more-known names such as Mark Calcavecchia and Fred Couples. Coming into the tournament with little status on the Champions Tour, Daley now gets to test his mettle on Tour for the next year and a half. Good for Joe.
-At Victoria National, it was good to see Richard Scott do well on Sunday. After talking to him Saturday, I took a liking to the energetic young Canadian, playing his first full Web.com season after years of toiling on the mini-tours. Scott birdied the 18th to finish solo third place, just one shot back of a playoff between David Lingmerth and eventual winner Peter Tomasulo. Good to see Scott keep his composure down the stretch. We could see big things from him in the future.
-Also at Victoria National, Omar Uresti completed a whirlwind week with a 67, following rounds of 65-75-77. Talk about an interesting week - starting and finishing strong, with a meltdown in the middle. Uresti finished T26, and has a long way to go if he wants to finish in the top 25 and regain full PGA Tour status.
-After driving 9 hours through the night, from the Web.com event in southwest Indiana to the Senior Players in Pittsburgh, I was exhausted (needless to say). I somehow made the drive straight through without sleep - but couldn't say the same for the drive home from Pittsburgh to Buffalo. On the normally 4-hour drive, I needed to make three separate stops, where I pulled to the side of the road and slept - for about 45 minutes each time. Consequently, the drive took more than 6 hours.
Guess I wanted to stretch out my near two-week trip for as long as possible.
-Played in my dad's company golf tournament on Saturday, which takes the format of a four-man scramble. My team played awful on the front nine, shooting 6-over 42 to fall into dead last place, by four strokes. We did well to rebound on the back nine, shooting a bogey-free 2-under 34. As a bonus, we managed to elude last place, and finished tied for second-last. Gutsy.
-Worked a shift at Bob-o-Link on Saturday, the local par-three course - with lights. Talked to a man and his son, who told me they were visiting Buffalo for a family reunion - all the way from Atlanta. They just seemed so excited to return to Bob-o-Link to play some night golf under the lights. When I remarked about the rarity of playing golf at night, the man replied, "Heck, you're not going to get this ANYWHERE," with the last word being said enthusiastically. Good to talk to people who love Bob-o-Link, especially with business being down in recent years.
Although I did have to deny them a special request. They mentioned a possible Atlanta discount, which I had to deny - considering I'm a Mets fan.
But I told them to be grateful I didn't give them the Washington rates. Since the Nationals are leading the division, I would have had to charge them double.
-Back to covering baseball now (there's a nice segway), working the Triple-A Home Run Derby and All-Star Game this week. The Derby is tonight, and the game is Wednesday.
A celebrity derby will also take place tonight - featuring Buffalo-area luminaries such as Lindy Ruff, Bill Polian, Jim Kelly, and Fred Jackson. I'll be writing a postgame recap for the team website, so I'll get to interview all these notables after they duel it out. Looking forward to it.
-I know baseball has nothing to do with golf, but at least it's still Triple-A.
We're all about staying with the same themes here.
No comments:
Post a Comment