WENDY'S CHAMPIONSHIP 

TARTAN FIELDS GOLF CLUB

DUBLIN, OH

My player this week is Il Mi Chung

Finally resolved my website problem but lost all my online files. Will be heading to Panera Bread when we finish tomorrow to use their high speed wireless.

Monday: Arrived at the course around 10:00 and didn't take long to find work. Heard Il Mi Chung was looking for a caddy and after a short conversation with Young, her manager, I was in for the week. Il Mi isn't very fluent in English but nothing I haven't dealt with before. Just stick with the basics, avoid the small talk and focus on the player. Piece of cake.

Il Mi and Young did have a difficult time deciding when to play today though. We went from 1:30 off the 10th tee (opposite the qualifiers) to 2:30 to 4:00 behind the qualifiers and back to the original 1:30. But once we got going, all was well.

This is in the best shape I've seen Tartan Fields since we started playing here and a few changes were added to adjust it's playability. The 12th hole was shortened by 40 yards but over 20 added to the 13th and 18th.

Michelle Wie and Paula Creamer were both invited to play and wisely decided to hire tour caddies. Michelle has Greg Johnston, Julie Inkster's looper and Paula went with  Colin Cann, Se Ri's regular. Greg worked for Michelle last year in Portland and finished well. I'm sure their looking for a repeat performance.

Tuesday: Played at 7:30 and had the course to ourselves. There were 2 off-site pro-ams  scheduled and it was deserted. With all the extra time I thought it would take forever to get around but Il Mi didn't practice just for the sake of practicing. The four  rounds she played here last week might have had something to do with it.

Wednesday: Easy day with just some range work and short game practice. Found out I need to line her up on putts 15 feet and in. No problemo.

Early time tomorrow so we might beat the rain. My only other duty is to bring 2 bananas each day. Already taken care of.

Thursday: A disappointing 5 over was not what I was expecting. butchered the par 5's with a total of 1 over. Should have been 2 or 3 under. It's exasperating watching this kind of golf when you know they can play much better.

A thunder storm rolled through this afternoon and the last group still had nine to play. There will surely be a delay with the times tomorrow.

Friday: Our 1:49 tee time turned into 3:24 due to yesterday's rain shortened round. Two holes after we started our day was done. A steady rain made the course unplayable but we didn't get the final word that we could pack it in till 5:30. A good decision to pull us off but a poor one making us wait so long since, according to the local radar, there wasn't a break in the weather.

Here's one you don't see very often. Apparently they ran out of pin sheets on the tenth tee this afternoon and hastily made a few extra copies. Unfortunately, they were from one of the rounds from last year's tournament! Past info is archived in the field staff's laptop and must have been accessed in error. Could have been a long day for those groups if play hadn't been suspended.

Scraper, Tonya Gill's looper, went for quite a tumble today. While holding an umbrella in one hand and the golf bag in the other he was being shuttled to the first tee. The mode of transport was a golf cart with a rear facing end seat and Scraper was firmly implanted until the driver slowed then suddenly accelerated. Well, those rear facing seats have a small footrest and Scraper's ample frame and bag went sliding off!  The result was quite a bump on the head, a broken watch and a pair of trousers in need of some major laundering.  While still planning to work the West coast events he believes, unless convinced otherwise, this is a sign that home is where he should be and will be heading for Portland at week's end.

Saturday: We were to resume play at 7:30 but the need to pump out the bunkers put us back till a little past eight. Il Mi played better posting 1 over for the day but that 5 over yesterday did us in. The course had plenty of casual water and played much longer but when you have "ball in hand" the scores go down. We followed too many birds with bogies which were mostly caused by an erratic putter. 

Scraper wasn't the only one to take a much needed respite from the tour. My roommate Boston Ralph left for Vegas on Wednesday after being axed by Kristi Albers in Toledo. He'll rejoin us for Portland and Sacramento. Hope his string of bad luck doesn't follow him to "sin city".

I'll be in the parking lot again next week unless Annika gives me a call!