Great Day at Aronimink!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day Friday at Aronimink County Club for the second
round of AT&T National. For a field without Tiger Woods, the crowd was good
and enthusiastic. With great weather and good fan support, it's a bit of a
mystery why the PGA Tour was absent from the area for most of 2 decades.

I thought I'd share some tips with the readers about how best to enjoy the
tournament. Close observers of the tournament may have noticed that no
walk-ups were permitted to enter. Only those who arrived on shuttle busses
or taxis or limos were allowed to come in.

It turned out that this was a good idea, as the entrance road was rather
narrow, and could not safely accommodate passing shuttle busses plus
pedestrians. I doubt if the police would actually try to enforce this rule,
but not too many people tried to challenge it.

Aronimink is one of the many older courses in the region whose designers
probably did not give one single thought to how spectators or golf carts
would fit on the course. Donald Ross just concentrated on designing a great
test of golf, and he produced a great work of art here.

There are a lot of spots out there where it is very difficult to get a good
view of the players as they hit a shot and to follow the ball until it
stops.

We did find a great spot behind the 5th green, where you could see the
players hot off that hole's tee, watch them chip and putt, and see the tee
shots on the 6th hole. As a bonus, you easily turn to your left and see
players hit their approach shots into the 12th green.

Another great spot was behind the 3rd green, where you could watch the
approach shots, and then walk over to the 4th tee to watch players hit their
drives.

No matter where you went on the course today, you got to see great players,
a beautiful course, and tough shots.

Pro Golf is in town!

The PGA Tour is back in the Philadelphia area this week at Aronimink. For the second and final year, the AT&T, is being played here because the usual course, Congressional Country Club near Washington, D.C., was preparing for and hosting the U.S. Open.

As many golf fans know, the Philly area went without PGA Tour golf for decades. Remember the old IVB Golf Classic at Whitemarsh? They stopped playing that event because the 1981 Open was held at Merion, and they didn’t think it was a good idea to have 2 events in the same region in the same year. We lost our spot on the schedule, and didn’t get it back.

There was a brief return near the beginning of the century, but the tournament , the Pennsylvania Classic, rotated between eastern and western PA.

Last year, our region proudly and successfully supported this tournament, and I hope we do it again. It would be great to give Tour officials plenty of reason to schedule a more permanent event here.

I checked pgatour.com for a listing of the field. There are a lot of great players here this week. There are some big names missing of course, but there is still a field crammed with wonderful players. Just to name a few who will be here: Jim Furyk, former U.S. Open winner and area native, former British Open winner Justin Leonard, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, former Masters champ Mike Weir, and former No. 1 in the world Vijay Singh.

Check the tournament web site for more information:

http://web.tigerwoodsfoundation.org/events/attNational/index

I hope to see you at Aronimink.