Good morning to all from the Sky Harbor Airport here in Phoenix, with plenty of time to reflect before catching the 7:45am to San Diego for this week's Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines.

A good start to the season ended yesterday, with a T25 at the FBR Open for Jonathan. We played yesterday's final round with Jonathan Byrd and Gary Woodland. So far through one event, JByrd get's the the ESPY for Least Desired Playing Partner and most Miserable, while Gary was great with such youthful exhuberance exihibited on every rocket-launched tee shot. Byrd almost appeared upset to be playing on Sunday, and was really independent from the start, avoiding any conversation from both JKaye and Gary. Evidently, he is not normally like this, but none the less, said rookie caddie can only call it like he see's it, and he get's the ESPY. Hell, for all I know, his hobbies include scoring baseball games from home among other mundane tasks!

If you attend a PGA Tour event this year and Gary Woodland is in the field, find him. He absolutly hits the golf ball for miles, but also can "map" it, meaning it doesn't always end up where he is looking. He was the victim of rulings needed on holes 2, 10, 11, and 13, not to mention he rinsed two balls at 15. Our group was on the clock by the 4th tee, and if you can imagine JKaye's need for speed, he was not a happy camper, and said caddie looked like Hussain Bolt with a 35 pound bag over his level shoulders! The PGA Tour officials are like carnivours when a group gets out of position, and they could give two pieces of monkey crap why you are out of position. They know a time sheet and a stopwatch, and that might be it. Now I've seen Bill Dickens and Pittsy "remind" folks they are out of position in Iowa Golf Association events, and those two would be deemed "sent from the heaven's" compared to the PGA Officials, and when you have a player like Woodland who can hit it ANYWHERE, literally, you are going to have issues.

We received a bad time on hole 13 waiting to play our second shot to the par 5, due in large part to Gary being in the right desert and not knowing who was away. Then official Brad Fabel drives up to JKaye and informs him he had a bad time and one more would result in a penalty shot. Jonathan went mute, but I could sense the mountain rumbling! Here we are, in the fairway with 218 front, knock it on to twelve feet, then have an official drive up with the business. Doesn't seem right, but hey, it is what it is one might say tongue in cheek.

I knew at that point to stay sharp and get him realigned on what we had in front of us, and that was a tasty 12 footer for the big bird. We narrowly missed, but the birdie had us into red numbers for the day and -6 total. I knew with the par 5 15th playing downwind, we had another good chance to keep momentum on our side, and we did just that follwing a missle tee shot leaving only a six iron to the smokestack. An up-and-down birdie moved us up to T19 at -7 for the week going into the Coliseum, otherwise known as the largest gathering of under-knowledged golf fans at #16.

I've been on both sides now at 16, and I must say, the golf knowledge shown is zero. Only the truest of professionals can not respond to some of the chit chat that occurs on that hole, and most of it get's a bit personal. I have never understood how you can attack someone personally when you don't know them, but if it's your cup of tea, just go to the 16th at Scottsdale and you'll fit right in. "Instant Idiot-Just add Alcohol" was one shirt I read that said a mouthful for sure. It's a good hole to hit, finish, and get the hell out of before you do/say something that lights their fires, and if you do that, those fans never forget.

Speaking of finishing, JKaye went to tap in his 2 1/2 footer after a nice lag and hit the left edge and spun out, resulting in bogey and a heck of a response from the gallery. The cat-calls were up the limit and I know he was more embarrassed than anything, and not twenty seconds later, Gary Woodland did the exact same thing! Yikes!! When it was all said and done, that stroke cost him just under $20k, and said caddie a thousand crackerjacks.

But hey, you live with it and continue to play, and my job was to get him refocused at the drivable 17th where we could get the shot back in a hurry. Our tee shot nearly rinsed, but stayed alive, leaving a tough chip across the green to the toughest flag placement of the week. It was on a shelf that had nothing but purple grass, crusty, and non-receptive to even the best of shots. The putt Charley Hoffman missed in regulation at 17 did not surprise me a bit, because we had gone through there an hour earlier and it was not an easy area to make a 1 footer let alone a three footer with the tournament on the line.

Anyway, a par-par finish gave us rounds of 68-71-69-70 to start the season. For the week, Jonathan finished T5 in greens in regulation, further stating how well he struck the ball, but 65th in putting, showing we just didn't make enough of the putts. It was the three penalty shots that unraveled us (two of the shots came on reachable par 5's, both times making 6's when if we avoid the trouble, we could "fart" it on in two and at least make birdie realistically, thus 4 shots lost) and the three 3-putts for the week, from very, very managable distances inside of 20 feet. That is 7 shots, and they all count no matter if it's Thursday or the 71st hole. I thought with that reflection, we were in this event closer to the front than we appeared.

He likes both Torrey Pines and the Pebble Beach courses, so I'm excited if we can get some work in on the putting greens early today and find a repeatable stroke and maintain it. His ball-striking is top 10 on tour, and I've always said it. Not many can drip talent like he can, and when you hit so many greens and don't make putts, you tend to get down and be labeled a bad putter.

Fact of the matter is, those who putt average and finish in the top ten in greens in regulation make a pretty good living, so if we can just be average putting, the sky is the limit. I'm proud of him for hanging in there after the mess with the pace of play issue, where before, the focus would have been lost.

After the round, we visited about the travel for today and formed a plan. We are staying this week in Del Mar right on the beach at a home which is owned by a friend of his family. It is maybe a short lob wedge from the Pacific, and has all the bells and whistles. Frederik Jacobson's caddie, "Bambi" Levin is also staying with us, as he is a fellow CU Buff along with Jonathan. The golf course is maybe 10 minutes from the house. It should be fun, and I'll try and include some photos later in the week of the sights and sounds of Torrey Pines and Del Mar. It might be one of my favorite areas on earth, having stayed here in October when at the Taylor Made Kingdom in Carlsbad.

Til then, keep an eye on the leaderboard, and my best to each of you, Travis