Since the late ’70s, I have enjoyed spending a couple of days each year wandering around the Doral resort when the PGA Tour came to town. Sometimes it was a day spent with my mom, Norma, who referred to it as a day in the park.
In the ’80s, I brought my daughters to “the park,” and while they didn’t (and still don’t) understand my love affair with the sport, they enjoyed walking the grounds and getting close to the golfers. Sometimes it was too close, because one year – they all fade into one unfortunately – my daughter Allison (or was it Mindy?) was jingling coins in her pocket while Bernhard Langer was trying to extract a shot from behind some palm trees adjacent to the 18th fairway. We were so close that Langer stepped away from his shot and asked politely if the little girl would please stop making that noise.
Toward the turn of the century and into the 2000s, I volunteered to be the water boy, and that was kind of cool as I had my own cart, my own route and was able to race around the course doing my own thing, which included making sure volunteers had enough to drink and make sure the professionals’ tee box coolers were full.
Don’t think for one minute I didn’t know where the superstars were on my shift, because if I timed it correctly I could be inside the ropes next to the cooler (or sitting on it) when Tiger or Ernie or Phil stepped forward. Maybe it was a reflection I saw, but one year, I thought I saw sparks fly when Tiger hit his drive on the 12th hole and I was a couple of feet away.
The last time I volunteered, I gave a day pass to my friend Cesar Roblejo to come out on the final day and ride around with me on a day in the park. Cesar didn’t know the first thing about golf, except he knew of Tiger Woods. He met me at the 11th green and fell in love with the sport right then and there. He purchased his first set of clubs from a pawn shop in Perrine three days later and has worn out the Briar Bay executive course in South Dade every weekend since.
When I wasn’t working the tournament as a member of the media or as a volunteer, I found the best place to watch the tournament was to sit in the now nonexistent bleachers behind the fourth green because you had unblocked sight lines to half of the third hole and the fifth green some 400 yards away (I always brought binoculars).
It was there I came the closest to witnessing my first hole-in-one when the threesome of Wayne Levi, Jack Nicklaus and Ray Floyd came to the tee.
Floyd hit first and his ball landed on the front of the green and ran uphill. As it tracked toward the hole, the fans in the packed grandstand started to yell because it was right on line. Alas, it was a Florida State shot – wide right by inches.
Levi was next and hit just an awful shot, finishing some 30 feet away on the right side of the green. Nicklaus, however, brought the excitement back as his ball hit on the front of the green, ran uphill and right over the left edge before stopping a foot or so above the hole.
Sadly, those bleachers behind the fourth green are no longer constructed for the CA Championship, which is too bad because it is one of the few places on the course you can see more than one hole at a sitting.
Most of my golfing buddies would rather walk the course and follow an individual. For years, they would join the throng with the leaders – be it Nicklaus or Norman or Woods. From my vantage point on the fourth green, that appeared to be the most popular way to view the tournament because often times, the crowd with those players would line an entire hole.
If you were well-connected, an invitation to a corporate sky box was happily the best way to watch. What’s not to like when you have unlimited food, all the booze, er, beverage you can drink and multiple televisions broadcasting the event?
This year, thanks to the South Florida Golf Foundation, you can purchase a membership in the Storm Club which, stealing from a credit card advertisement, has its privileges. For a couple of thousand dollars, you’ll have access to some exclusive areas for the tournament. Better yet, if you are a serious golfer, the Storm Club provides eight rounds at the resort (excluding the Blue) as well as invitations to a couple of Storm Club tournaments. List price on the golf alone is north of the price of the Club.
Some guests during tournament week like to sit on the hill behind and to the left of the 18th and take in the view – the different nations’ flags whipping in the wind, the fountain in the lake beside the leaderboard, the kids waiting for autographs and, overhead, the huge commercial airlines heading to Miami International. It is quite a sight to watch a 747 approach – the plane is so big and it is so close, you feel that you can read the nametag on the pilot’s uniform.
Others don’t make it outside the resort lobby, instead sitting there watching people. “There’s Roger Maltbie of NBC.” “Isn’t that the actor from CSI: Miami?” “Ernie Els just walked through to get in his car.”
This year, I am making plans to get a better view of the tournament now that my favorite seat is no longer available behind No. 4. It, too, is unobstructed and from this vantage point you will be able to follow every player on the entire golf course at the same time. You’ll also be able to see that 747 land at the airport and provide a traffic report to the local stations.
You see, I want to befriend Snoopy – you know, Charlie Brown’s dog in Peanuts. Except this Snoopy is Snoopy 1 (or 2) and he is 45 feet tall and stuck to the side of the MetLife airship. The blimp.
Now that’s far from the maddening crowd.

Marty Perlmutter is president of LTS LeaderBoard of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and lives in Miami. Send e-mail to LH@teetimesnews.com or call (954) 607-6325 to comment on this article.

Author: By Marty Perlmutter

Received: 2010-03-05 [y/m/d]

Item #739


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