The Nationwide: The BMW

Honestly, this is the tournament on the Nationwide that has the vibe of the Bob Hope or the Bing Crosby ((and, yes, I just dated myself by using those terms)) if it was crammed into a subdivision space.

You wanna talk lucky to get a parking space...
The HQ was lucky to get the last one in the lot, and we're not complaining...

It's where you can see Puddy ((actor Patrick Warburton)) slice a ball into the woods without having to paint his chest, and where you can see Kurt Russell actually birdie a hole- for real- not with the handicap stuff...

The host course is Thornblade in the north Greenville suburbs ((pictured, thanks to me)). There are two other courses involved: The Carolina Country Club in Spartanburg and Bright's Creek just north of the Carolina border. But Thornblade is a course carved in amongst a boatload of trees and homes to match. If you screw up, there is very little room for error.

Example: The 18th is a par-4 with the standard amount of hospitality suites surrounding the green. Home town golfer Kyle Thompson hit a shot left of the green with his standard, bright yellow golf ball. It proceeded to carom off the guardrail of the suites and work itself to 15-feet left of the hole.

Par... the easy way...

And instead of the normal quiet signs, because of the sponsor, it's "Ruhe! Bitte!"

Which reminds the HQ of this particular thought...
((HT: Warner Brothers Pictures))


Best cabaret singer ever...

The weekend was another chance for Jerry Rice to add to his desires to work onto the Nationwide Tour. The next sentence has a big "but" attached...

After a first-round 92, a second round 82, and a caddie using a range finder instead of a yardage book, Rice was DQ'ed from the weekend- and he promptly retired from the under-50 set of golf... for now...

Our friends at WSPA-TV caught up with Star 80 before the week started...


Another celeb, "Army Wives" Catherine Bell, came out and played the first three rounds- six months pregnant. Since most golfers are creatures of habit, they may look at Bell's approach and take off from there...

She played shots barefoot... if a guy does it- the approach might be what was referred to as a "sartorial faux pas." When Bell does it, it's Catherine Bell.

The HQ asked when that idea started...

"Actually, a few days ago," she admitted. "My feet started hurting while I was playing. I'm pregnant, so I just went barefoot. Turns out, I play better golf without shoes..."

She signed every autograph request and stayed for every picture...
Class act...

TOUR UPDATE: Geoff Sisk is grinding right now...

He was five-under heading into the last nine on Saturday trying to make the cut. He shot two-over and missed out again... the HQ jinx is still in tact...

"I just have to stick to it," he said after the round. "Maybe I have to stick to it a little more often. I hit it solid out there, but there are times when I hit it 'too solid' and hit it too much. It's only four tournaments. It's not a whole season. I still feel I can play out here. I just don't have an answer right now."

Sisk thinks the solution is just to "keep plugging" as he says... and the Game 7 loss of his Bruins didn't sit well, either...

Tommy Gainey was having a good weekend in front of the home folks... and there was some serious detente going on with the crowd. He actually gave a soda to a Clemson fan. For a South Carolina guy to do that is huge...

He was paired with George Rogers... yes, that George Rogers...

"My game ain't worth nothin'," Rogers said. "But it's okay when your pro is playing good."

"'1980 Heisman Winner' says enough for me," Gainey admitted. "He did a lot of good for USC, and I'm a big fan of the university. It's a daydream playing with a legend like him."

Gainey shot a three-under 68 to be in a street-fight for 7th. His putter let him down on the last five or six holes, including a short birdie putt on 18, and that needs to wake up for a higher place.

Big mover on the day was Fabian Gomez with another 64- this time at Bright's Creek... Bigger mover on the day was Tommy Biershenk- a 10-under 62 in Spartanburg- good enough from 88th at the beginning of the day to 17th...

And did the HQ mention there were a lot of German SUV's in the parking lot this weekend...???

Winners tomorrow...

The Nationwide: Athens- Two Gloves and One Jinx

The HQ will admit first and foremost that some of us have played this particular track and chewed it up rather nicely for media daze...

But the course at the University of Georgia is one that combines having to play it straight because of the trees and a bit of a links-style as evidenced by the finishing greens at 9 and 18 ((pictured, thanks to me)).

As you see, if a shot goes wayward more than you're used to, you're playing from the other surface and creating some interesting shot choices to save par.

9-to-18: Get your parachute out...
18-to-9: Make sure you know where you're hitting the ball... the green has more slopes than normal...

There are false fronts, mounds, and very little room to work with if you're not paying attention... on both sides... and there are even people who use those earpiece-wireless-based cellphones while golfers are trying to get their work done.

The HQ would love to see real estate agents trying to close contracts in their offices while foursomes play through... that would be awesome...

For your Geoff Sisk Update: The HQ is now, officially, listed as a jinx.

Showing up just in time for a bunker shot and a par-saving putt on Sisk's 18th hole of the day ((the 9th)), Geoff is in another logjam at three-over par 74.

"The greens have improved a lot since Monday," Sisk admitted. "It's another great layout, another great track. There are subtle, little changes out here from years past. It's gotta be great for the Georgia golfers to learn from out here."

Sisk says the par-threes are either long and demanding or, well, short and demanding. In that Round One 75, he thought that he made some incorrect decisions on the course. He knows the joint can "be had"- as he says...

He had to save bogeys twice on the course... not something you want to do.

"I just lost it on the back," he said.

Geoff is paired with Josh Graham this year. Graham carried Troy Merritt's bag last season, and it's tough to get a player-caddie relationship down when you're in a first season together.

"You kinda have to go by feel instead of hard data," Sisk says. "In the end, I'm the ultimate decision-maker, and it's up to me not to make any mistakes out here. But things got so bad for me in the practice round, that I was just like 'Gimme a club.'"

And out here, in some situations, you just have to listen to the guy and the yardages he gives you. The shots you hit may be a little uncomfortable and stuff you're not used to doing on the course, but in the end everything works itself out... or, at least, you hope so...

For the record, though, Geoff thinks his Patriots getting Aaron Hernandez from Florida in the later rounds was a steal and he's looking forward to the Bruins-Flyers playoff series...

Old school hockey...

"I Knew I've Seen This Guy Before, Too..."

That's where "Two Gloves" Tommy Gainey fits in...

Gainey has played the PGA, the Nationwide, the Hooters, the Teardrop, the Grey Goose Gateway, the Tarheel, and the US Pro Golf Tours. The HQ knows him from the last one from exotic locales like: Anderson, South Carolina, Tampa, Florida, and Fredericksburg, Virginia...

And since Gainey is from Bishopville, South Carolina, he had both family and family-to-be following him around the course to the tune of a gallery of nine. Gainey has been on Big Break and won- that's probably the place most of you remember him from, and he's looking to take that Big Break and make his own out on tour.

He's getting married in December after both Gamecocks football season and the golf season- he knows what he's doing. His fiancee, Erin, was part of the group. She had finished her day at work, raced over the state line, changed into her flip-flops, borrowed some of Tommy's SPF70 and was good to go- except for all the walking up and down the hills at UGA.

She and her Uncle Brian ((pictured artistically sporting "2Gloves" gear by the way, thanks again to me)) told me how Tommy and Erin met. Tommy's friend David Robinson ((another golfer- the pride of Sandersville, Georgia)) married Erin's sister, and the two clicked from there.

Off the tee, Tommy was crushing it all day- going as far as 360-yards out of the box, but the approaches were short and to the front of the green pretty consistently.

Tommy worked his way around the UGA course to the tune of three-over 74 and a tie for 97th in the field of 156.

Erin gets to see Tommy, on average, once a month. But she also tries to make her way out to events when she can.

"It's fun to go," she admits. "On the good days, it's great. On bad days, I'm still trying to figure it out sometimes. But everyone out here on tour is great."

From the HQ's experience, it's a tough balance. You try to say the right things, and the person you're talking to understands that you mean well with what you're trying to say to comfort them on rough days- like Gainey's round one.

"It's the best job in the world," Tommy says, "if you're good enough. There is no better job. But you have to work hard and you have to work hard at it. It's the best job out here."

And you can see as Gainey tells you what's running through his mind, that he is more than willing to pay the price to improve his 30th-place standing on the money list every chance he can.

"On the Nationwide Tour," he continues, "you can make, what...? 90-to-112,000 dollars a year. On the PGA Tour, it's a million or so. That's where you play for a million dollars a week.

"But you're the man out here. You've got to be the one that does it so you can make it..."

All that fire from the guy who has worn two gloves since he took up golf at the age of 9 or 10. His father started him on baseball, and the idea just transferred over.

Here's a "2 Gloves" PGA Flashback from the 2008 Children's Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World. Gainey finished second there...
((HT: PGATour/Golf Channel))


Oh, the gear Uncle Brian was wearing...
Go here...twogloves.com
Part of the proceeds go to the Hootie and the Blowfish Foundation- helping educational programs in South Carolina.
The HQ is partial to the camo representation ourselves...

The Nationwide: Kinderlou Forest

If you’ve ever been in a situation where you know you’re good, but having to do beyond your best every week may not even be good enough- welcome to the Nationwide Tour. And while the title sponsor may be on your side, you’re on your own out here.

The Valdosta tour stop is the seventh in the 28-stop schedule, and this is the longest course on tour. Kinderlou Forest (( the 18th fairway is pictured, thanks to me)) is just shy of 8,000 yards long.

Think about it.

If 1,700-something yards is a mile, we’re looking at just under five miles of walking every day to shoot as low as you possibly can- and you still may not make the cut.

156 guys are trying to end up here for the weekend. There are a few names that your golfnik may know of: Remember Tag Ridings, Tommy “Two Glove” Gainey, Casey Wittenberg, Len Mattiace ((yes, the guy who almost won the tournament in Augusta, but lost to Mike Weir and cried in his post-game presser)), Marco Dawson, Dicky Pride, Bob May ((yes, the HQ reminds you it’s that Bob May- the guy who went toe-to-toe with some other golfer with the last name of “Woods” in some major)), Jason Gore, and Bubba Dickerson…???

Yep, they’re here…

And you’ve really got to aim at every flag you see, no matter what the hole is…

When the Top 25 get their tour cards for the next level after surviving an entire season of flooring it, you hope you can rest- even if it’s a little bit… and you can tell which golfers are the ones that you have to gun for every time out. Their caddies wear bibs with numbers ranging from “1” to “25” on their backs. It’s almost like being in some kind of extended spring training. The guys who are making the PGA roster have numbers. Everyone else is trying to keep from wearing a high number.

There are guys out here who are absolute bombers. One in particular, Brice Garnett was taking out his playing partners by thirty yards easily on the par-4's and par 5's. The 18th hole is a 484-yard par four ((and a half)) that Garnett cut into a 330/150 drive and approach.

Something is definitely wrong there... but one of his playing partners is known by the HQ- and not many others outside of New England. Geoffrey Sisk, or "Geoff" as the HQ knew him on the US Pro and New England tours, is still going at it at the age of 45. He made 16 cuts last year on the tour and cleared almost $94,000. But that was only good enough for 66th- or 41 spots south of the PGA Tour.

He had a good front side on Thursday- birdieing the 17th ((his 8th)). The 17 green ((pictured, thanks to me)), literally, has three separate looks to it. Round One's pin was front left. If you overshot, you were on the back terrace and would have to putt downhill to save par. If you were short-right, you had to go over a swale to get to the short-left third- and hope you could get it close.

Geoff was the only one to get it close to go four-under on his front. He gave some back on the last nine he played... actually, he gave them all back... finishing with an even par-72. He's now in a log jam at 53rd...

"I've committed to a swing change," he admitted after the round. "At 45, I'm still flexible, but it's a lot more difficult to do this now. I have been pleasantly surprised." He drove the ball well, but a few shots went wrong. Sisk won't make any excuses, though.

"I love this course," he said, "even if it doesn't suit my game. But there isn't a shot out here that can't prepare you for the PGA Tour. You have to work the ball from right to left. You have to work the ball left to right. It's a great tournament."

But he did go into some detail about what life is like out here. He's got two daughters and a family back home in Massachusetts. He's only on a conditional status these days. As of this round of golf, he doesn't even know if he'll be in the next tourney in Athens.

"It does get lonely sometimes out here," Sisk said. "You're calling home every night seeing how your family is. There is some camaraderie out here with the guys. You try to eat healthy, but after a round ends at... what time is it now, 7:30...? You just want to go back to the hotel."

He does see flashes of brilliances in his game with this new experiment of a shoulder turn with a tighter coil, and that's what he's building on...

Sisk is also a wine guy... I asked him what kind of a wine the Nationwide would be.

"Either a Maiden or an Alta Gracia," he says. "Those are really great wines that are in their second bottling. They're the second growths from their vineyards. They're not as big or bold, but they're just as good."

Not that he doesn't want to eat Prime Rib on the PGA Tour, though.

Galleries are, really, few and far between. The largest gallery ((moving)) was in the neighborhood of sixteen for Valdosta State grad Brent Witcher. He went off in the last group of the day and had plenty of Blazer support with him.

But his day fell apart on the front nine ((his back nine))... four straight bogeys had his finish at a one-over 73.

"It seems to be a continuing number for me," he admitted. "It's not a good number at all, but I felt I played better than that."

Having all the Valdosta State support made him more comfortable playing the course, but like everyone else, you like coming back to a course where you made some noise in college...