Sunday--91st PGA Championship

We had a good flight and arrived at noon. We were at the golf course by 3:00 PM and got our credentials. They didn't have my ID as having access to the family/players dining room, so now I have 2 ID's. The golf course looks like it will be very scenic. There are a lot of trees. The rough is cut to 4" with the first cut at 1.25 inches and the fairways at .40 and the greens cut to .09. Ryan spent some time on the putting green and liked the way the ball rolled and the speed of the greens. He is using a different putter than at the PGA National. It is same design only black with a straight shaft going into the club head. The clubhouse is very nice but needs updating--two weeks after the tournament it is to be torn down and a new one built. The locker room is older with metal lockers, but all the amenities are there for the players.

Ryan has a Mecedes Benz SUV to drive. Lots of gadgets--NICE!!

The practice rounds are going to be exciting. Tomorrow he plays with Mike Small, who is the golf coach at Illinois, and won the PGA National and Steve Stricker who is an alum of Illinois and played with Small. When we were at the course today, Ryan ran into Rich Beem, who won this event here in 2002, so we will be playing with him on Tuesday morning. Beem likes to play early, so it is a 7:00 AM start, which means a 4:30 wake up call. Beem has been getting lots of press since he is the defending Champion at this course. The first two days Beem is playing with Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington. On Wednesday Ryan will play with Fred Couples again, which will be around 9:00 AM.

When we were at the course, the humidity was definitely there. They had 6 inches of rain a few days ago, so everything is wet. It will be interesting to see how the course plays with the wetter conditions.

There is a teenage player from Japan that has been invited to play the Championship. His name is Ryo Isikawa. He evidently played a practice round today and was being interviewed by a group of Japanese reporters just on the other side of the window while we were eating a late lunch. He was in BRIGHT pink pants with a pink and white golf bag. They came into the players dining area to eat, and he had eight people in his entourage. A PGA official came over and was talking to one of them about the fact that they weren't all going to be able to eat in the player's dining area after today. It will definitely be interesting to see what impact they will have on Ryan's group during the tournament. I'm sure there will be many from the Japenese press following him.

It is a real pleasure to have Brad Rickel, his college coach, back with us. We are both excited to get a look at the golf course. He is writing a blog on the Gonzaga University Athletics web site about this week, so if you want to compare our thoughts and get his perspective you can go to the GU website.

I am having a hard time describing how this is for the third year. Both Brad and I think that Ryan could have a good tournament. We will know more after seeing the course tomorrow, but the deer in the headlight feeling is gone. I really have a positive feeling the way Ryan has been playing. It is more "normal" even though there is all the hype. It was really good to go to the course today, spend some time and get a feeling of the layout without thousands of people.

I have to add that the VIP of the whole week will be three month old Carsen, Ryan and Stacy's baby boy. He was a real trooper today. You can expect to see some pictures of him posted on this site. Grandma is in seventh heaven!!!

We are staying at an Embasy Suites which has an atrium with a nice breakfast. It is a great place to stay for the tournament.