The Senior Players Championship at Baltimore Country Club was a visually pleasing tournament. I was on hand at Five Farms following Maryland's own Fred Funk and Jay Haas. There are a couple of observations I'd like to make:
1. BCC is one of the real hidden gems on the East Coast. Typically, when outsiders think about top courses in the Maryland area, Congressional CC and Caves Valley come to mind, yet BCC ranks just as high, if not higher in my book. Typically, television doesn't do justice to the true beauty of a course. Even though it was only two hours worth of coverage, NBC did a nice job with their visual presentation.
2. There were very few spectators at the tournament. Much of this had to do with the Ravens game against the Colts. After all, Charm City is first and foremost a football town. But what needs to be addressed is the scheduling of the event, mainly, it being held several weeks after the PGA Tour's Tour Championship. When the US Senior Open was held at Caves Valley in July, 2002, the crowds were huge, so timing plays a huge part.
D.A. Weibring ended up ousting Funk by a stroke, winning his first Champions Tour major. You can read the Baltimore Sun story here.
As for the PGA Tour, Zach Johnson proved that he could win outside of Georgia, capturing the Texas Open. Read the recap here.
