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AT&T
National
Hosted By Tiger
Woods
By Bob Enzel
It’s too late for this year, but this
is what you missed…
 The
organizers of the “at&t National”
hosted by Tiger Woods put on a magnificent
event at Congressional Country Club in
a shade less than four months. Phenomenal!
Besides all the logistics, invitations
were extended to (at least) 120 pros that
showed up to play. Missing were such names
as, Els; Harrington; Garcia and Goosen—yet
they were hardly missed. Of the Top 10
golfers in the world, six showed up for
work.
On practice day I went with my golfing
chum Joe to scope out the course and have
an upfront look at pros like Bubba Watson,
John Daly and Phil Mickelson. Good thing
too, because they didn’t make the cut.
Well! You know who won, but here are a
couple of things you didn’t know:
Uninspired or sloppy golfing attire: Too
many names to list. Tiger Woods always
dresses well, but in my humble opinion
he was not the best dressed. That distinction
went to Peter Lonard from Australia. I
don’t know where Lonard buys his clothes
and golf shoes, but I wish I did. If he
could only play as well as he dressed…
My thought for the friendliest pro goes
to…well, actually, there are a couple
of names I’d like to toss out. Hometown
favorite Fred Funk was a crowd pleaser.
At #10 longtime favorite Billy Mayfair
almost hit a spectator with his 218 yard
drive over the green. When he retrieved
his ball he stood there and joked with
the crowd for a moment before completing
the hole. Then he returned to the crowd
and gave the ball to the person he almost
hit…a nice gesture. Maybe honorable mention
(again my opinion) should go to Notah
Begay III. Despite the pressure on Hole
#1 for every pro he graciously acknowledged
the crowd before his drive. Others could
care less, or so it seemed.
My original favorite to win the tournament
was Vijay Singh. But on practice day when
he was signing autographs for the kids,
I wished him luck as he passed next to
me; his dour expression and non-response
shifted my allegiance to Jim Furyk. I
don’t know if K. J. Choi had the largest
driver head, but I’ll venture to say no
one had one bigger…and it obviously worked.
On the last day of play I was there with
my brother-in-law, a non-golfer; non-know-anything-about-golf
type person. He was amazed that so many
people liked golf well enough to stand
out in the sun in upper ninety degree
weather. But he did enjoy himself and
besides Tiger Woods he now knows the names
of a couple of other golfers. I decided
with someone who doesn’t know the game
it was best to stay in one place. So we
perched ourselves at Hole #10 for convenience
while I acclimated him to what was going
on. We then marched around a bit before
I decided it was best to situate ourselves
in one place and that place was the #4
hole. In this way we could watch the last
twenty leaders do their stuff…or not do
it as in the case of Woods and Mahan who
missed easy putts and Furyk and Appleby
who both landed in the same sand trap.
On the other hand, Stricker birdied the
hole and tied Choi for first with a minus
7 just about the time that Appleby double-bogied
Hole #2 for a three-way tie.
We all agreed that the bus drivers were
pleasant even though they went back and
forth umpteen times a day and that the
transportation service was excellent;
that the volunteers did a commendable
job; the event went off superbly and the
price for an all event Gallery ticket
was a steal at ninety bucks.
Bottom line. Mickelson didn’t make the
cut; Woods lost; Choi won. End of story.
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