Week Off!

I enjoyed a couple of days relaxing in Lakeland and eventually got around to buying a US mobile or should I say cell phone, more so that people can call me over here rather than me making calls. I monitored my position on the reserves list for Bay Hill and was 10th over the weekend, 7th on Monday and 6th by the end of Tuesday. So I thought my chances of playing were none existent. At 10am on Wednesday I had a phone call from the PGA Tour to tell me that I was 3rd reserve, so I made my way to Orlando. By the time I had got to the course I was 1st reserve as the two people in front of me were in different parts of the country and didn't want to fly at short notice. The reason for my rapid charge up the list was because three players had been disqualified for not being ready to play in the Pro-Am, one of the rules on this tour is that if you are chosen to play in the pro-am you must play unless you have a medical ailment that needs treatment that day or you will be disqualified and not allowed to play in the main event. This stops lame excuses and stops sponsors from being unhappy. As it turns out John Daly missed his tee time and the next two people on the reserve list weren't at the course to play so they were also disqualified. Anyway, on my way back to Lakeland I received a phone call to say I was in the tournament as Aaron Oberholser had withdrawn half way through the pro-am as he was injured and couldn't continue.

I was pleased I had walked the course on Wednesday afternoon as I was unable to play as the Pro-Am was in progress, the houses around the course are fantastic. I came across Jerry Kelly and his team, which included Yogi Berra, who is a former major league baseball player and manager who played mostly for the New York Yankees. He is famous for his way with words that are known as Yogiisms, for example "I never said half the things I really said" he had the crowd running along to get a photo of him.

I had a great draw, Charley Hoffman and Jim Furyk and good times, we were the group behind Tiger. It was amazing to watch the crowds, there were a couple of thousand watching Tiger and only a handful walking with our group and Jim is the number eight player in the world. I got off to a good start, starting on the 10th hole but had a disaster on my 8th and 9th holes, I was pleased with my 1 under par back nine but I had done a lot of damage on those two holes.

Friday morning I collected my new shirts from the embroiderer, a couple of weeks ago I had put my shirts in for dry cleaning and they came back shrunk and skin tight, so I had to get new ones and get them embroidered with my sponsors logos. I played very well and knew I had to shoot four under to get to play the weekend. I had my round at three under a couple of times but as I was pushing for another birdie a couple of bogeys crept in at the end of my round. It was disappointing to have missed the cut as I had 10 birides in two rounds but also had a collection of large numbers, the last four holes I was 13 over par! I watched the golf on Saturday and it seemed it wasn't just me who struggled with these holes.

I have been quite happy weather wise, the Florida heat never did arrive, it was cool and windy at Honda, very cold and wet at Pods and cloudy with rain at Bay Hill. I'm still not complaining as I was still in short sleeved shirt every day.

I will fly to Puerto Rico today as I am playing in a Pro-Am on Monday. Hopefully it will be a nice week, everyone, players and caddies are planning to stay onsite.

I have had a number of problems with the enquiries emails so from now on the new email address is enquirieskennethferrie@yahoo.com If I have not replied to any of your recent enquiries it may be that I didn't receive them so please resend them and I will reply.