My Golf Week in Houston, Texas.

Post date: 13-Jun-2013 09:01:36

The Insperity Championship...

By Harry Farquhar...

It all started on the Tuesday night when we attended the draw party, in the Woodlands Marriott Hotel, We had a buffet supper and cocktails with the complements of Fuzzy Zeller and entertainment by the Doobie brothers. At the draw we were drawn with a Texan Pro called Bart Bryant who has just joined the Champions Tour, he has an older brother Brad who has been on the tour for nine years.

Wednesday my daughter had put my name down for walking scorer and I was drawn to score for Dan Forsman, this I found really interesting as you walked inside the ropes and managed to talk with Dan and his caddie Gregg almost all the way round about Scotland, Majors, Colin Montgomery and Jack Nicolas five pound notes, I was going to offer one of mine to Dan until his caddie whispered he already had five. Also managed to have talk with Sandy Lyle and get his caddie to take a couple of photos.

Thursday was our day to play in the Pro-am, at the Woodlands Country Club, there are three courses The Player, The Palmer and the Tournament Players Course (TPC), we were playing the TPC. We arrived at 7 am for breakfast with the players and collect our free gifts. Bit of a disappointment, although we were presented with some designer clothes , crocodile skin belt, a print of Palmer, Player and Nicolas, an Insperity money clip and a dozen Pro-v 1’s as the day before everyone had been fitted for a Cobra driver.

Teed off at 8.50 on the back nine and got a big cheer for holing out of a very deep bunker at the first hole, if they only knew I had been out of bounds and was not counting. Very windy day and even with our team of four and the Pro we were finding it hard going. The highlight of the first nine was managing two net birdies at 17 & 18 both over water which helped us to be out 5 under par. Our second nine I managed 1 birdie again over water but a bit more pressure as everyone else was out of the hole i.e. all in the water. We finished 10 under par and thankfully everyone managed to contribute to our round. Still a fantastic experience and a bit nerve racking knowing you are being filmed and shown on the big screens around the course.

Thursday evening we were invited to an Evening with the King back at the Marriott Hotel, the King being Arnold Palmer and quests. After a few drinks we took our seats for dinner to find we had Craig Stadler and Roger Chapman and their wives at our table.

After dinner Jim Nantz head of sport at CBS was compere for the evening and first item was presenting the Dave Marr award to Bryan Naugle the Executive Director of the Insperity Championship, Bryan had started working under Marr many years ago.

The main event was a panel of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller and Ray Floyd who kept everyone amused with some great stories and some controversial ideas about the future of golf. Unfortunately my daughter went to arrange transport home when I got the chance to be with Arnold Palmer camera in hand and no one to take the photo but did manage photos with Lee Trevino and Craig Stadler.

Friday was first day of the Champions Tour event and we spent time watching some golf and enjoying plenty food and drink, as Gail and her husband Derek were sponsors we had access to all areas of the clubhouse and had lunch with the players.

Saturday was much the same but no access to clubhouse as after all the main event players had teed off there was a Legends Texas Scramble with four teams of three taking part. Team 1 Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicolas and Gary Player

Team 2 Lee Trevino, Ray Floyd and David Graham

Team 3 Gene Littler, Don January and Charles Coody

Team 4 Tony Jacklin, Johnny Miller and Dave Stockton

Team 4 won on the day with a score of 11 under par.

Sunday could not go to see golf as we were leaving for the airport mid-afternoon so spent the morning on the golf range at the Player course with one of my grandsons hitting some balls and reflecting how hard it would be to ever better this golf week.