I have several.
The first was the 1982 PGA at Southern Hills. As a young 10 year old who was golf crazy it was my first professional event ever. I was in heaven. My father was fortunate enough to have some clubhouse passes each day so I was able to quickly fill up a couple of visors full of autographs--it was a far different environment than today obviously. But the highlight was following up Jack Nicklaus the final round as he toiled in the middle of the pack. I think I was able to see every shot of his as I lugged my fathers binoculars around. Anyway, we were in the clubhouse later in the day and my dad and I walk over so I can get Jack's autograph. As nice as he can be, he says "Thanks for following me around out there today, it was nice to you have out there", and then chit chats with us. I'll never forget it, and who knows if he was just blowing smoke, but even my father attests that he was incredibly cordial and nice that day.
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Second is the 2009 Open Championship in Turnberry. I'm fortunate to have a great friend who is involved televised golf (don't blame him for the commercials this weekend!--he's a producer. At any rate, a few of us went over to golf and take in the tourney. Friday evening we're having dinner and drinks at the Treehouse in Ayr and lo and behold Stewart Cink sits down next to us with his wife and trainer. We try to buy him a drink but he was fighting a pretty bad cold--obviously so we realized as we chatted for a bit and amazing he held it together. Well, we were all UGA Bulldawgs and he's a Tech guy but we still had a good time. Fast forward to Sunday morning, and before we head down we stop in the betting shop to make some bets. We decide to load up on Stewie (12-1), and Watson (5-1). We were the only ones following Cink on the back nine (inside the ropes for about half of it), cheering him on! (he actually remembered us at the Grand Slam in Bermuda which was hysterical). Well, both of us would have freely given up our action on Cink (especially since we were guaranteed at that point) to watch Watson win but it was not to be. During the playoff coming down 18 we're cheering like mad for Cink and some old guy grabs us and says "it's not very sporting of you to be rooting for him right now". Oh well.
Lastly was the 2010 PGA. I was fortunate to spend Sunday afternoon in WS clubhouse (thanks to same friend)—just a fantastic day. Got to meet and spend some time talking with Pete Dye and later Herb Kohler (have some great pics if I could figure out how to post them). Then Matt Kuchar finished up and was friends with a guy in our group so he hung out. The visible excitement he had of making the Ryder Cup team that day was awesome. And then the DJ craziness….well, for better or worse I found myself stuck in the entrance vestibule of the clubhouse as he came out of the scorers room….and he headed right to the entrance looking for his girlfriend. It was easily one of the most uncomfortable 90 seconds of my life but he had this absolutely crazy look in his eyes….this was before he went to change and he seemed to be almost hyperventilating. Just unreal.
These are the highlights for sure. Sunday at the 1996 Masters was pretty nuts as well. BUt that said, my topper is the 1999 Ryder Cup but until I can post pics I wont tell that story. It's not believable without pics!