Walking In Wuhan

It's been a few weeks, but a few quick hit items from the President's Cup at Harding Park in early October.

• I've seen pro golfers up close before -- Mickelson when he was at ASU and again at the AT&T and pretty much carried on conversations with guys at the Cox Classic in Omaha during the round. Pro golfers are the closest thing to average guys that exist in pro sports. But Tiger Woods walking three feet from you is something totally different. He's got aura. We were on the ropes as he walked towards the practice green, and the guy was dialed in. He had that same look on his face on the range as when he hit a 2-iron to 10 feet to win a match later in the day. There's just this sense around him that he could bring life to its knees anytime he wanted.
  
• Probably the coolest part of the two days we were there was watching each player come through the driving range before their round. More or less, the top 24 players in the world were there, warming up, goofing around and getting ready for a round. One of the more overlooked stats on tour is shot dispersion, which is basically a measurement of how close a player comes to hitting their intended target, we watched Justin Leonard hit about 10 shots with his three iron, and they could have all been covered with a hand towel. Unbelievable.
  
• Watching an event like the President's Cup isn't the best for following golfers. At one point there were more than 30,000 spectators on the course and only five groups playing. The good thing was they had mini-TVs that you could rent for $5 per day that allowed you to pick a spot on the course and wait for the groups to pass through without missing any of the action. Not sure if that's a regular thing at most PGA events -- but it should be.
  

A scan of this ticket is the closest thing I have to an image from the weekend. Unless you went on a practice round day, they had a cell phone and camera check on the way into the gate. Nothing got in.