For the first time in my life today I went to a golf tournament (wait, that's not technically true - some number of years ago (I'm not sure exactly, but probably around 10) I went to a tournament in Westchester (which I believe was then called the Buick Classic) with my dad, but the rain came down just about as soon as we got there, and we didn't see any real golf). Through my brother, I lucked into some free tickets for the US Open at Bethpage Black for the remainder of the fourth round on Monday.

Now, I don't know all that much about golf - just as much as one gains by being a relatively big sports fan - I follow the four majors pretty closely, read about random tournaments sometimes, and can name, I don't know, 20 golfers or so who are currently competing on the regular or tour. I have no idea what clubs people should be using, or how good a shot is (I read somewhere - a few golf writers bashing NYers for not being all that knowledgeable - maybe bashing is a bit harsh but basically said " I wasn't impressed with the golf knowledge of the New York fans. I think if you ask the players they would tell you the same. I heard lots of cheers over shots that were mediocre by even weekend golf standards." - I'm sorry we were cheering shots that weren't good enough to warrent cheers and that that's what you get for deigning to have a tournament with all the rabble on a public course and people who don't necessarily play golf themselves - I'm sure I'm sometimes snooty towards stupid baseball fans, but even I don't think I've accused them of cheering too much). Anyway, I had paid particular attention to this US Open in a little bit of hometown pride, and also because the egalitarian in me likes that it's on a public course.

To be honest I wasn't sure what approach one takes when watching a tournament - it's not like most other sports where you just have a seat and all the action takes place in one place. The leaders were on 8 when we got to the course, having picked up from where they ended up on Sunday, and we started by taking in the action from 17, which was a par 3, so you were able to see both the tee off (albeit from afar, where we were) and the green from one place. The only problem here was that it's hard to see a whole lot - due to the cloud cover, we could see the ball leaving the golfers' clubs off the tee, and see the ball land, but not all too much in between. That said, we saw the putting, which lots of golfers seemed to have trouble with, and we hung out there until Tiger (and his partner Micheal Sim) came by. We then walked over to the 16th, and then to the 15th, where we stayed as the last three groups came through, featuring most of the players that had a chance at that point - Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Ross Fisher, David Duval, Ricky Barnes and eventual winner Lucas Glover. We were able to see mostly the fairway so we got a decent look at the second shots of a lot of the players on the par 4 15th and 16th.

As much fun as actually watching the players hit, though, was attempting to follow the action elsehwere as it was going on, both through the roars of the crowd that would accompany a birdie or par, in different volumes, and through the radio and mini-television that one of the other members of my party had. After each shot, or sound I needed to know - what happened to Glover and Barnes on 14? What did Fisher shoot? Did Phil make his tough par putt? I never imagined I could be captivated by a golf tournament. Tiger had a chance for a while, but missed several makeable birdie putts and was pretty much done after the 16th. After Phil Mickelson eagled at 13, the excitement really heated up - ultimately becoming a bit anti-climactic after the outcome was all but decided by the final hole, but it was exciting for a pretty good while - in a way, like watching the early rounds of a NCAA tournament - while you're watching one thing, just as eager to figure out what's going on elsewhere.

Anyway, basically, I write this as much as anything else to give a little bit of an apology to golf. I've bashed you many times in the past, and I probably will again in the future. Golf isn't my favorite sport by any means and I haven't quite reach the point at which I'm interested in attempting playing (I don't have any clubs, and I'm worried that the frustration would drive me nuts). That said, I enjoyed you in person for one day very much, and kudos for that.