PGA Tour: Jarrod Lyle Aces 16 In Phoenix

((HT: PGATour))

FOSG "Two Gloves" Tommy Gainey is near the top of the leaderboard after two rounds of the PGA event in Phoenix.

You know...

The one with the amphitheatre green at 16...

Arizona State alum Billy Mayfair sported a Pat Tillman jersey for his birdie-ing of the hole- we're efforting... it was a nice touch...

Jarrod Lyle did Mayfair one better...


Has it really been 14 years since the Tiger hole-in-one out there...???

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...