Monday: The forecast of nasty weather arrived with a vengeance early this morning which had me driving through quite a light show on the way to the airport but it was on no avail. Lightning fried the Delta computers and their radios and also delayed fueling of our transport for fear of a catastrophe. We were almost three hours late taking off but they managed to find seats for us all on the connection out of Atlanta and we made it, albeit a bit late.

The two legs of my trip were unremarkable except having to sit next to the engine on the MD88 to Norfolk and gasping for breath from the guy next to me cuttin' the "Lebanese Limburger ". I was hoping to launch a salvo of my own but was out of ammunition.

My plan was to play in the caddie par three contest but missed out by about a half an hour. No matter, the beer was cold and the food satisfying. No one came close to collecting the ten grand in the hole-in-one contest.

Clewsie's first beer ever as marked by Brittany. Right!

The winners. Donna, Robyn and Kajsa shot five under.

Tuesday: Kim's plans were to play nine holes in the afternoon so I had the morning off to work for Dina in the qualifier. We slugged it out through a dreary, wet and windy eighteen holes and managed to capture one of the two spots available with a three under par round.

I was saved from going the scheduled nine more with Kim due to a her late arrival last night and feeling a bit under the weather. Still had to walk the tournament course and got in the rules meeting covering the provisional ball rule before heading to the Laundromat.

• Corrections: It was not Jeff King that was on Shawn O'Hair's bag as earlier reported and the Lu family did not forget their passports while heading to Morelia. Just some immigration form of incidental importance. 

• Yuck! One of our perks for the week are food vouchers for lunch but when redeeming the complimentary coupon at The 19th Hole, I didn't expect the literal "personal touch" I received when it came to service. After ordering a cheese burger, the young lady assembled it with gloveless hands by fingering a slice of cheese onto the bun then topped it with a char-broiled patty. At least she used tongs for the beef.

Wednesday: Played the back as our E-9 this morning, which may be a harbinger for tomorrows weather, as it was wet once again due to a lingering layer of fog. A stretch on the range and putting green had us finished by eleven.

• This one is may fault: Every now and then I receive an email requesting advice on how to get on tour as a LPGA caddie (the glamorous living that it is) but don't recommend it due to the uncertainty of getting a job (more openings on the Nationwide Tour) and the drain on one's finances as a result. But after spending over twenty years in the golf business and reading Life on Tour, the lifestyle seemed appealing to one guy and he made the leap. Ashley Hoagland's looper, Jerry, is on the job this week. 

• 7 come 11: Along with passes to Busch Gardens, all players and caddies received 7-Eleven gift cards worth anywhere from $5 to $500. Kim hit for a hundred but I only cashed for ten.

• You can have it: Didn't wish to try my luck with '"cheese girl" again so I ceded my lunch voucher to "super fan" Dave Hamada. This is his sixth event out of nine so far and may be heading for a record year. Bon appétit, Dave.

• Remembering the fallen: Most of us will be donning black-ribbon pins embellished with the Virginia Tech logo. Ping has also supplied their players with ball caps with the V-Tech logo.

• You lose! I quizzed our threesome this morning on the provisional ball rule and they all failed on two critical points. They didn't know that once you proceed forward in an attempt to find your ball, you cannot then decide to hit a provisional even if you're only a few yards past the tee markers. Also, a statement such as "I think that one may be OB. Why don't you hit a provisional." or something similar, is a no-no. You have just given advice to your competitor and subject to a two stroke penalty. Thing is, we hear that all the time.

• Good guess? Worked on "M-Cycle" Jim's ancient laptop last night and may have fixed a quite perplexing problem by accident. While surfing the Net, he would get a message that there was insufficient disk space but when he ran Disk Cleanup his Temporary Internet Files folder was already empty. What folder was it using we imagined? So I expanded the folder size in the tools section of IE and voila, it all went back to normal. Hey Hugh, (our scorer on Sunday in Tulsa and a computer science teacher) does this make any sense?

• If I don't get back to you: It may be because your email was sent to the great "bit bucket" in cyberspace. Due to the proliferation of SPAM, I only download the headers of emails and if I do not recognize the sender or the subject line isn't relative to my site, it's adios. Sorry if I quashed any queries, compliments or criticism.

Thursday: Couldn't play any easier but we were shut out in the birdie department and wound up two over.

• It was just a matter of time: The maintenance crew had scalped the green fringes which are now almost indiscernible from the putting surface on many holes. I noticed this on our fourth hole, the 13th, and figured it would catch someone unwittingly marking the ball where they shouldn't. Well, it happened in our group and I was the one having to call the penalty on her. On the second hole (our 11th) Yu Ping was on the fringe and Kim on the front of the green. I was asked to determine who was away but when I looked towards "The Pinger's" direction, all I saw was a coin placed where the ball should be. I asked if she was on the fringe or green and after close scrutiny, she didn't know, but I did. We called for a ruling and she was given a one stoke penalty for lifting the ball. In an effort to aide us in determining the boundary of the green, a light green dot of paint has been placed every ten feet but is easy to overlook.

• Reality check: Heard that Natalie Gulbis was quite upset with her 7:15 tee time and thought it was made in error. She even called an official to air her objection but no mistake had been made as she is now 40th on the money list and slipped into "B" times this week. Her caddie had a very terse but simple solution, "Play better". Maybe all she needed was a little motivation, shot four under today.

• That's more like it: We were first out of the hopper on the back side and turned in a mere two hours and five minutes but caught the last group to tee it up on the front and waited the rest of the day.

• Who dat? Think this guy was a little nervous? Our announcer had Kim as "Tempe Saiki", mispronounced Teresa and Yu Ping is now Yo Ping!

Friday: Just getting over a respiratory ailment, a swollen right ankle due to an insect bite, draining sinuses from allergies that just kicked in and nausea while warming up pretty much set the tone for Kim's day. Since golf is a delicate balance of physical and mental attributes, this amalgamation of maladies forebode dreadful consequences and the result told the story. A six over round had us planning for next week way too early.

• Not so open spaces: Clarissa Childs looked for an out of the way patch of ground to practice on Friday and found it on the adjacent Plantation Course which is next to The River Course. There was one problem though, the boundaries between courses aren't defined so it's considered continuous. Since you cannot practice on the tournament course, she was disqualified.

• Schizophrenic possibilities: Blue Cow (touted as the original relaxation drink) was available in the coolers this week and was quite a contrast to another offering, Pit Bull Energy Bars. Loaded with caffeine, guarana, ginseng and taurine, it promises "an energy burst in every bite" and had me wondering. If you gobbled up a Pit Bull then washed it down with a Blue Cow, what sort of animalistic characteristics would you exhibit?

I tried a Blue Cow before teeing off yesterday and don't know if it was the product or just the idea of drinking a so-called "relaxation drink" but felt I consumed a helping of "lethargy in a bottle".

• Bane or benefit: As we all know, a women's age is a touchy subject but how about if someone guesses too young? Apparently, this has plagued Meredith Duncan for most of her 27 years and it happened again this week. While playing tourist with her mom, they found themselves on a bus with some youngsters accompanied by their parents and part of the conversation went something like this. "When you grow up, I hope you make your mom very proud" and twice was asked what grade she was in.

• Now, this would be over the top: More than one player has a "thirst" for taking home a few extra bottles of water each day which made me question if anyone took advantage of the free UPS service offered on Friday. I could think of a few that would send a case or two home if they thought of it.

• Rookie requirement: Sarah Lyn Sargent  put in a few of her compulsory rookie hours this morning helping to set tomorrow's pin positions. She basically watched how it's done but did give the OK on one problematic placement.

• One of the best of the year: The annual player/caddie/guest gala was held at Busch Gardens last night with food, drink, rides and games on the agenda. It's a great time and no one leaves disappointed.

Double chocolate cake and beer, all your basic food groups. Lets not forget the cherry.

Cathy Johnston-Forbes with her new friend. Looks like a groper to me.