I was lucky enough to score tickets to the last round of the 2009 PGA Championship last weekend at Hazeltine. I met some friends behind the 3rd green at about 11am and we sat there for 3+ hours until all the groups had played the hole. Watching 20-some groups play into that long par-5 was quite an eye-opener in that none of the players went for it in two shots and all but a handful had very makeable putts for birdie because of it. Tiger Woods was close enough that I could see him breathe and I must admit he was quite a vision on the golf course. His torso seemed shorter then it does on tv (maybe he had his pants hiked up pretty high?) and his skin looked smooth as a baby's butt. After his group finished, we hustled over to the 14th and stood behind the green for an hour or so, watching players go for that "short" par-4 off the tee. We just missed Yang's chip-in for birdie as we had just moved on to the 15th fairway to watch the big boys bomb it on that extra-long par-5. What a sight! After Woods and Yang played to the green, we hustled over to seventeen but were too late to really be able to see anything. We finished the day watching the final group play eighteen from well down the fairway. If you think Yang's second shot looked hard on tv, you should have seen what it looked like from down the hill behind him. I was amazed when the crowd roared up by the green--it was a shot I couldn't have hit once with an entire bucket of balls at my side. Indeed, these guys are good.
