Before I go further, I must say that I had several folks working to make this thing come to pass, both playing the round and making sure that I was able to watch the weekend action from a sponsor’s suite perched just off the 17th green.  I should give a huge shout-out to my good buddy and another fellow Golfestian, Bob Potts (better known to us as Pottsie), who was instrumental in getting me in touch with a member of Valhalla so I could play.  He then used his influence to be sure I received a couple of tickets to the sponsor’s area on Saturday, when the American team was surging into a comfortable lead against the Euros.  I'm not exactly sure what I will owe to Pottsie the next time we cross paths, but you can bet that he won’t buy himself a single drink at Golfest 2009 if I’m anywhere in the vicinity.  Thanks again, Pottsie, you’re the greatest!!

     OK ..., back to the action.  As I mentioned, the course closed about three weeks prior to the tournament, although I think they could have played the Ryder Cup on the day I was there because it was in immaculate condition.  We played from the men’s tees, which are very challenging, but when you look back at the championship tees where Phil and Sergio and company would be playing from, you get a whole new respect for how good those guys really are.  I can’t say that I played particularly well, but I did keep it respectable, given the difficulty of the course.  I recorded a front nine score of 55 (that’s right, “double nickels” as they used to say), and I deserved every stroke after landing in seven straight bunkers on the first seven holes.  The sand was the consistency of powdered sugar, and when I watched the pros hit out of those things, well, once again, a whole new respect was developed. 

     I guess I should pull out my excuse card and go on the record and say I wasn’t playing that bad, but I was playing only my second round with a new set of irons -- Callaway X-18’s.  While I love the clubs, I was still scoping in the distance and getting accustomed to the better direction from the perimeter weighted design.  Great clubs, but Valhalla is not the kind of venue to get comfortable with a new set.  I made the turn, feeling a huge three-digit number was in my future, but actually stayed away from the sand on the back nice, and managed to shoot a 45.  This included finishing with consecutive pars on 17 and 18.  I had to hit a 4-hybrid from the rough onto the green on 17 (a long par 4), and I missed an eight foot putt for birdie on the par-5 18th.  I could brag a little here and say that I was putting for eagle from about six feet on the par 4 13th hole, having put my tee shot six feet from the hole, but I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that the green was closed that day for repair.  This removed the postage stamp landing area over a creek, and put the pin on a temporary green in the fairway, about 240 yards from the tee box.  Okay, so it doesn’t sound nearly as impressive once I explain, right?

     Now, back to that birdie putt I missed on 18, and before you ask ..., yes ..., it was a legitimate hole with no temporary green.  I hit a drive of about 250 down the fairway fading away from the water on the right; hit a five wood over the water to the right fairway (a lake splits the fairway so you have a choice of which to go for on your second shot), and I chipped within eight feet for the birdie putt.  Had I made that birdie putt, I would have done exactly what Tiger and Jack Nicklaus had done in Jack’s last competitive round in a major.  That would be the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla.  It was obvious from his score that Jack would miss the cut, and since he had announced that he was playing in his last major, everyone knew that number 18 would be the last.  He was in the same group as Tiger, and the photo of the plaque that now sits at the number 18 tee box says it all.  It’s a great piece of golf history for a relatively young course, and I had to hold up play for a couple of minutes to go back to the championship tee box and get a photograph.  There’s nothing worse than some guy playing tourist geek when you are at a prestigious course like Valhalla.  The things I do for you guys…

     As far as the Ryder Cup goes, the experience was even richer with some first hand experience of the course.  The normal polite “golf course applause” was replaced with loud, raucous, fist pumping, U-S-A chanting wildness.  I had only heard that type of enthusiasm one other time on a golf course, and that is at the famed 16th hole at the TPC in Scottsdale during the Phoenix Open.  But every hole at Valhalla was crazy, and when the Americans began to pull away into the lead, the noise was almost deafening.  It didn’t matter which hole you were on, there was guaranteed excitement waiting for you. 

     As I’m sure many of you watched on TV, the last day was a blast.  What a stroke of genius by Paul Azinger to send Anthony Kim out first on Sunday.  His job was to get the crowd going, which he did on every hole, and to dispatch Sergio, which he also did, rather handily.  And then to send Boo Weekly out early in the day to get the fans further amped up was another stroke of genius.  The crowd turned the chant U-S-A into Boo-S-A, and he loved every minute of it.  The tournament made you proud to be an American, and god knows we need a little more of that in these rough times.  It’ll be interesting to see how things go two years from now when the Ryder Cup is next played in Scotland.  But for now, the Americans can savor a hard fought victory that every one of the 12 team members helped to create.