Will I, won't I?

After arriving into San Diego on Monday, I played the waiting game to see whether I would get a chance to play in the Buick Championship. I played a practice round on the South course first thing on Tuesday morning and after some lunch I played five holes on the North course. The views are spectacular and the courses are nice, you can see that they have been working hard on the South course to prepare for this year's US Open. As I finished playing a clown was entertaining a group of kids with trick shots, I liked his extra long driver with giraffe headcover!

On Wednesday I went to the course mid morning, I couldn't play the courses, as there were Pro-Am's on both all day, so I hit some balls and practiced my putting. I had heard rumours of different players being sick and some with injuries but everyone had registered when I left the course so I thought my chances of getting to play were slim to none. I was instructed to be at the course and ready on the putting green for the first tee time, usually this would mean a long day waiting between the first times around 7am until the last time around 2.30pm. Fortunately this week the tee times were only between 8.30am and 10.30am because the tournament is on two courses with a two-tee start. So at least I wouldn't have to sit around for too long.

I woke up on Thursday morning and my phone rang just after I got out of the shower, I was in! Brett Quigley had withdrawn and I had a 9.10am tee time on the 10th tee of the South course with Mark Hensby and Alex Cjeka. This gave me the opportunity to prepare properly rather than improvise my preparation. As it turned out two more guys withdrew so I would have gotten in comfortably! After I finished playing I took my hire car back and collected the keys of a brand new Buick Enclave 4x4. Nearly every week on the PGA tour you are given your own car to drive for the week, but only if you get in the tournament, reserves don't count!

Friday I played the North course, seen as the easier of the two courses, I hovered around the cut line for most of the day scrambling a few times from bunkers until I made four birdies in the last five holes to finish the day at four under par. The turning point might have been the arrival of some English supporters, a nice couple from Tunbridge Wells.

I really enjoyed the weekend, it is a different feeling to be playing with players of the calibre of Freddie Couples and Phil Mickelson and I do believe that my game can only benefit from playing with these guys week in week out. Freddie is the perfect gentleman and was good company on the golf course. We all hear about his bad back but after a couple of holes for him to warm up he was knocking his drives a good thirty yards past me. San Diego is Phil's home town so there were a lot of people out to see him play, I'm not sure if it was because the weather was forecast to be so bad, but I think the crowd had been even bigger on Saturday for Freddie, he still is a household favourite. It was the first time I had been paired with Phil since the last round of the US Open at Winged Foot back in 2006, I was more comfortable this time around and the outside distractions were easier to deal with. I finished the week in tied 13th place which considering I nearly didn't get the opportunity to play I am happy.

As I write this I am waiting to board a flight to Phoenix in Arizona to Monday qualify for next weeks FBR tournament, my ranking isn't high enough to even be a reserve as the field is only 132 players compared to this week of 156. Sadly my flight is delayed as the storm that was supposed to hit us on the golf course has caused some problems with the flights so I am hoping that the delay won't be too long as I am teeing off at 9am tomorrow