PGATour.com has introduced a new feature that I hope will become a regular item after tournaments. The online network offered a live video feed of Geoff Ogilvy's post-round press conference in its entirety.
Rather than sifting through the post-round transcripts, watching the live feed was a bonus.
29-year-old D.J. Gregory has been to all 44 PGA Tour events this year and has walked 72 holes each week. What makes this that much more impressive is that Gregory suffers from cerebral palsy.
Steve Elling of CBSSports.com files this report about how the idea blossomed:
Gregory is a hopeless golf addict to the point that despite his malady, he plays the game one-handed. Before he hatched the plan, he was attending a half-dozen events per year as a paying customer. Last year, tour standout Aaron Baddeley agreed to let Gregory shadow him for the week at nearby Bay Hill, and Gregory, who has a degree in sports management, took copious notes about his experiences.
A few weeks later, he was introduced to CBS Sports broadcaster Jim Nantz, who read Gregory's writings and discussed whether it would work over the arc of an entire season. Nantz was so impressed by what he saw, he suggested Gregory discuss the idea with commissioner Tim Finchem.
Yeah, right, Gregory said. Then Nantz offered to hand-deliver a proposal in which Gregory would cover every inch of terrain for an entire year. The tour, after a trial run last year, agreed to make it happen. The tour and a handful of key sponsors including Southwest Airlines and Accusplit pedometers have helped him defray travel expenses.
I ran into Gregory at the second round of the AT&T National as he was following the same group I was--Stuart Appleby, Brandt Snedeker and Arron Oberholser. Despite some steep hills, Gregory kept up with the group. Gregory's perseverance and love for the game of golf is truly inspiring.
Whenever I speak with friends about the most exciting holes in golf, the par-3 16th at the TPC Scottsdale comes first to mind. Although there are several other holes on the PGA Tour where fans are known to get rowdy (17th at Warwick Hills for example), the 16th at the FBR Open is one of the greatest spectacles in all of golf. After all, how many other holes on the PGA Tour have 20,000 fans screaming at the top of their lungs before and after every shot? Where else do fans boo a player off the tee box if he decides not to be aggressive and hit it toward the middle of the green? Dave Vest of The Arizona Republic writes,
The event's signature hole, No. 16, has been modified to accommodate the record crowds that are expected what with Super Bowl XLII being staged concurrently across the Valley in Glendale. Thirty additional sky boxes have been added to the notorious par-3 hole.
'I don't think it's a stretch to say there will be 20,000 people on that hole,' FBR Open chairman Tim Louis predicted. 'It will be a wild scene.'
PGATour.com will have extensive coverage of the 16th hole with their popular Live @ feature from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. ET on Thursday/Friday, and 12:30-5 p.m. on Saturday/Sunday.
Below is a caption from the article, "Been there, done that; Goosen ready to do it again," on PGATour.com. Note the misspelling of Canada's hometown favorite Mike Weir.
