vaburbia

The wife may be pleased to know that I’ll probably be watching less golf during the remainder of this year. It was just announced that Tiger Woods is having reconstructive knee surgery on his ACL which will end his season for 2008. This also means professional golfers around the PGA are rejoicing! Rocco Mediate is probably cursing, “why didn’t he just quit after the Masters?!?!” Actually, Rocco has earned a lot of respect from golf fans including myself. He gave Tiger a hell of a fight the last two rounds. It was also discovered that Tiger also played with a double stress fracture in his left tibia.

The PGA organization is probably freaking out a little because Tiger draws such crowds and ratings. He will not be able to defend the FedEx Cup title, but I doubt he really cares about that anyway. NBC reports that ratings go up 50% when Tiger is in the field and even higher when he is in contention. I probably won’t even go to Tiger’s event at the AT&T National here in DC next month. Hopefully, he will not miss any of 2009.

Tiger Woods now leads the FedExCup race. He was fortunate because he wasn’t making birdies on the last few holes while Aaron Baddeley and Steve Stricker were hot on his trail. Woods ended up at 22 under, two ahead of the runner up Badds and 4 ahead of third place Stricker. The final event of the FedExCup Playoffs, the Tour Championship, will crown the first FedExCup champion who will also receive $10M.

While Tiger was hoisting his trophy, Roger Federer was looking to be in a little trouble in the first two sets. He wasn’t playing like the Roger I’ve come to know. Novak Djokovic had chances to win the first and second sets but failed to do so. He had beaten Federer about a month ago, so it’s not like he couldn’t do it. Federer has won three of the year’s four grand slams.

Two of todays best athletes won yesterday. Do you ever get sick of seeing either of these gods win? I certainly don’t but I’m sure some people feel like other athletes deserve to win and have their chance to shine. The BMW Championship was exciting because a few people challenged Tiger. Same goes with the US Open. Djokovic is really good and it’s only a matter of time before he grabs a grand slam. Leading up to the Tour Championship, all we’ll hear about is Tiger vs Phil. Steve Stricker, KJ Choi, and Rory Sabbatini have a chance to win but we won’t hear as much about them. The golf world is pining over a true Tiger/Phil rivalry and a battle this weekend would be exciting to watch. I’ll be rooting for Stricker, and KJ if Tiger can’t win.

Yesterday, Tiger Woods won by an eight shot margin. What was great was when Rory Sabbatini was heckled:

Sabbatini took five to reach the green and made double bogey, and as he walked toward the 10th tee, a spectator said: “Hey, Rory, still think Tiger is beatable?”

Sabbatini turned and glared. He barked at a police officer and demanded — with an obscenity thrown in — that the fan be taken “out of here.”

Earlier this year, Rory was quoted as saying that Tiger is “as beatable as ever.” Don’t talk smack to the number one player in the world. Just read what has happened in the past in that article.

I almost could’ve touched some of the PGA pros in attendance at the AT&T National on Sunday. Not that I would’ve. How creepy would that be? We were really fortunate because not only did we get free tickets, we got to park at a house next to Congressional. It’s nice to have connections, or at least know people that do. We were literally a pitching wedge from the course. What was crazy was the numerous number of homeowners who were using their lawns as parking lots. They were charging people $20-40 to park in their yard. There must’ve been 40 cars in some of the yards. Is that really enough? I’m sure you’d have to have some work done on the lawn afterwards. What do I know though? I’ve never parked on my grass before.

We were able to see first hand, the “Tiger affect.” Most likely, the majority of people in attendance were there to see the number one player in the world. The size of the gallery that followed him was pretty crazy. You would see a huge crowd around the tee box when he teed off. Not even before his partner would take a swing, two thirds of them would be running to get a spot for the next Tiger viewing. It must be pretty distracting for his playing partners. We never really watched him play every shot on one hole. We would watch him tee off on one hole, second on another, and putt on another.

Unfortunately, Tiger didn’t win but it was great to finally see him in person. I managed to see everyone I wanted to see: Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Geoff Ogilvy, Anthony Kim, and a few others. It was pretty amazing to see the professionals I admire on TV that close. Next year I will try and make it out to the practice rounds to snap some photos. I failed to remember cameras and even cell phones were not allowed during play.

I don’t know how the players do it. People were talking and doing whatever they were doing to make noise all over the course. The walls of spectators block views of the fairways and greens so people don’t necessarily know the players are about to hit or putt. And here I get distracted when one playing partner makes the slightest rustling. I suppose that’s why they’re pros.

On a side note, the wifey noted that Charley Hoffman resembled Chris Griffin from Family Guy.

I woke up and decided that I wanted to go to the AT&T National golf tournament today. The tournament is being hosted by the #1 ranked player in the world, Tiger Woods. If you live in the Potomac area, you’re fully aware of this. As I neared Congressional, I began seeing an abundance of blue signs that had AT&T and a little golfer on it everywhere. It was about 10:30am and I discovered that the nearest lots were full. There was a sign saying “Take 270N to exit 11,” for more parking. If you know the area, that is like a half hour away from Congressional. As I started to head there, I thought about how horrid traffic would be getting back to Virginia. That scared me enough that I turned back and went to the office instead. Besides, Tiger only had about 5 holes left. I might brave it on Sunday but I will have to go wicked early. It’d be nice to see Tiger at his own inaugural event.

If you haven’t already seen, pictures were released of Tiger and his daughter, Sam Alexis. I’m wondering why it’s not Samantha, just Sam. I hope she doesn’t turn out to be a spoiled brat. She’ll probably turn out fine, considering he’ll try to be like his father. On a side note, Tiger needs a new haircut.

I don’t know how people can go to Las Vegas often. That city definitely takes it’s toll on you. The first thing I wanted to do when I got back is take a shower. I felt like I needed to physically and mentally cleanse.

I took it easy on Thursday night because a few of us had a 9:00am tee time. Plus the round was $125 so I was not about to play all messed up. Regularly, the greens fees were like $159 but I found this website, VIPGolfServices, that offers discounted rates. On the 15th hole, Huan spotted an old guy skinny dipping in his backyard. We all had that “car wreck” curiosity but I fought the urge to gander. It’s like, “There’s not really an old naked guy over there is there?” I closed out the round with 3 pars and ended up shooting a 98. I consider that pretty good since it was my first time playing there.

I didn’t eat until after the round since I don’t like to play full. A few of us decided to make a run to In-N-Out for lunch. If you’ve had it before you know how good it is but the regular burger isn’t that big. That’s basically all I had to eat Friday. That proved to be a big mistake since I “celebrated” heavily that night. Not to mention we polished off a bottle of Macallan 12 year scotch I brought, after golf. That night we went to Pure which is in Caesars Palace. Pure is fun but be prepared to bring a lot of dough, especially if you’re going with a group of guys. The easiest way in that case is to get table service. The requirement for most places is a bottle for every 3 people. You do get treated very well if you do get a table.

Saturday night Tuan arranged for us to go to Aquaknox at the Venetian. Everything we had was pretty good. I’m pretty sure every restaurant in Vegas is good since all the executive chefs are very distinguished. After dinner we went to Tao also in the Venetian. It was pretty interesting as there were women sitting in tubs adorned in nothing but flower petals at the front hallway. Apparently, there’s a lounge area and a club area. You have to pay to get into the club area. If you’re ready to party, I wouldn’t suggest the lounge. But like every Vegas club, be ready to wait in line or get table service.

I may have excluded some(or a lot) of the details since you know, everything stays in Vegas.

Saturday morning I woke up and my throat bothered me a little. I believed it to be from smoking Friday night while out at Local 16 for happy hour. I had met up with Arvi and friends there to have a drink and hear about their adventure in New Orleans. They went for Arvi’s big 3-0. I tried to go but airfare killed my chances of going with my minuscule wallet and the pittance that occupies it.

Sunday morning made me sweat a little. My soreness in my throat had reached another level. I was a bit distraught. “This can’t be! I can’t be sick now, not this week!” I took everything that in my house that might help, Vitamin B12, C, and a multivitamin that probably covered those anyway. I even bought Airborne on a recommendation.

Monday was the same.

Tuesday morning I woke up and raised my fists in the air as if I had just won a marathon. I’m not on an antibiotic and still taking everything as a precaution. Why was this illness so alarming?

Tomorrow I will embark on the last big party of my “single” life. Several buddies and I will be making our way out to Las Vegas for my bachelor party. It has approached must faster than I expected. It used to be the midpoint between my wedding a few weeks ago and that freaked me out a little. Now that means the wedding is only a month away! I’m going to block that out of my mind this weekend. My goal is not to loose a lot of money and not to get alcohol poisoning. I think that’s a realistic goal. We will be staying at the HOTEL at Mandalay Bay. I’m quite excited to say the least. Friday morning 4 of us are playing golf at Las Vegas National. I’m looking forward to some West Coast golf again. I will definitely report back about the trip, but I’m not sure how much I can reveal.