CA Course Reporters: Saturday morning entries

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Editor's note: Courtney Burris, Johnie Freatman and Owais Durrani will be blogging this week at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship. The three are part of the CA Course Reporters program. Check back each day to see what they have to say.

Archive: Wednesday's entries | Thursday morning | Thursday afternoon | Friday morning | Friday afternoon

More of a look from the inside
By Owais Durrani

Today was one of those relaxing mornings where you just get to appreciate a few things. Starting out with meeting Eddie Carbone, the tournament director, to meeting with Chris Reimer of PGA TOUR's Public Relation, and watching golf all brought much appreciation for this wonderful trip.

We met up with Mr. Carbone at a Patriots Hospitality area where the men and women in uniform serving our great country were appreciated. Mr. Carbone and General Carson explained to us the great deal of partnership that went into setting up this aspect of the tournament. Complimentary admission to military families, a hospitality area, and providing awards were only a few of the tokens of appreciation given to the military members. To me this means very much. These members dedicate their lives to providing help to the world and protecting us from harm -- no amount of appreciation toward them is sufficient. General Carson further explained how they give assistance to the tournament with providing a fighter jet flyover and members to sing the National Anthem. After truly appreciating the service of military members, Mr. Carbone explained his role as tournament director. He serves to promote the tournament and has many people who handle each aspect of the tournament, such as security. Mr. Carbone educated us about there being two main parts of managing the tournament -- the inside the ropes part that was under Slugger White and his crew and the outside the ropes part managed by the tournament director and the team under his charge. When asked when the preparation for next year's tournament would begin, the answer was astounding -- the day after the final round of this year's! No wonder these tournaments go by so smoothly. Finally Mr. Carbone explained to us that since this was a World Golf Championships event, many organizations contributed to putting this tournament on -- major golf tours around the world, Southern Command Military post, City of Doral, PGA TOUR and a few other smaller organizations. Because of the key word, partnership, this tournament can come to life and at the same time help out the community.

After meeting with Mr. Carbone we met with one of the top PGA TOUR public relations officials, Chris Reimer. Chris provided us with much insight into the world of PR and how he got there. Chris was a college football player in Arizona and decided to major in sports journalism. After working with newspapers and the Internet, Mr. Reimer came to PGA TOUR's website and eventually came to the PGA TOUR's PR department. Chris explained to us that his main job was to keep the media and the players happy. Connecting players to the media in a proper way is one of the most important things that Chris does. When asked if Mr. Reimer had a chance to hang out with any players, he answered that he hung out with guys like Bubba Watson and Sergio Garcia -- definitely cool people to be around. Finally I asked Chris what he disliked about the industry -- he said that the media usually focused on negative stories instead of looking at things from a positive point of view was what he disliked most. What really touched me was that he said our generation could be the one to change that -- that just really motivated me. We have way too many things in this world that are negative to search for even more negative things. Chris was really a nice and educated person to be around.

Finally we headed out to the courses to see some action. Deciding to follow Sergio and Boo Weekly was definitely a good choice. On one side was the slow-playing, classy, disciplined Sergio, on the other side the tobacco-chewing, lazy, casual Boo. You couldn't have put more opposite personalities in a pairing. What really amazed me was their ability to get up and down from almost anywhere and their superior putting. Well gotta go now -- will be watching some more golf action later, till then take care.

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The differences between Sergio and Boo
By Courtney Burris

It is extremely difficult to catch the wind and not much easier to track down Eddie Carbone, the Executive Director for this event. The reason being, Mr. Carbone is everywhere! Not in the weird 1984 Big Brother kind of way, but nonetheless, Mr. Carbone sure does have a lot on his plate. He graciously spent a few minutes of his time with us this morning in the Patriot Outpost. While Mr. Carbone is essentially responsible for almost all aspects of the tournament, one of the projects he is most proud of is Birdies for the Brave. The foundation designed to honor the men and women of the United States military was originally set up by TOUR player Phil Mickelson and his wife Amy in 2005. This is the first year, however, for the World Golf Championships-CA Championship to have a special ceremony and lounge area for all of the members or past members of the armed forces to enjoy while at the tournament. General Carson of the South Command, located here in Miami was truly thankful for all that Mr. Carbone and the PGA TOUR in general had done to put on this event. He said that it was a great way for the brave men and women of our country to come together and enjoy the great golf and camaraderie. I know that the show isn't nearly over for Mr. Carbone. He still has lots of work to do this week and he will be back at the office on Monday, when Eddie and his team begin planning for the 2010 CA Championship. This is just another example of how much effort is really put into making these wonderful TOUR events that all can enjoy.

Chris Reimer was another member of the PGA TOUR team that I had the pleasure of meeting this morning. He works for the TOUR in the Public Relations department and was willing to share the details of his job. After playing college football at Arizona he began his journalism career. Loving all sports, he enjoyed sports writing the most. However, since 2003 Chris has held a very vital position for the players and the media. Chris travels about eight or nine weeks out of the year to different PGA TOUR events and acts as the liaison between the media and the players. Don't you think this would be a pretty sweet job? In my opinion, most definitely! Chris' advice to us on getting into the business is to just be experienced with as much as possible. Mr. Reimer said the more skills that you posses, the more marketable that you will be. Makes sense to me!

After meeting those two pieces of the PGA TOUR puzzle, we had to determine which group we wanted to follow. I would be perfectly content with following Adam Scott's group all day, but after a quick consensus we decided that we would all enjoy following Sergio Garcia and Boo Weekley. Those two are just night and day. The differences were comical to watch! I have had the pleasure of watching the two play in the same group before and I can't say much has changed. Sergio still has a temper; Boo is still super chilled out. Sergio plays slower and Boo is always on the fast track. Something tells me that they would not have too much in common outside of the fairway either. Maybe I am mistaken, but I can't quite picture Sergio in camouflage. Either way they are both phenomenal golfers and I hope to see them both finish well this week.

This is the longest blog ever! Hopefully you are all still awake. Keep watching for an update on my afternoon!

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What lies ahead for Sergio?
By John Freatman, Jr.

Ever since his epic duel with Tiger Woods at the 1999 PGA Championship, Sergio Garcia has been the topic of intense anticipation and, at times, scrutiny regarding his eventual major breakthrough. Here we are, 10 years later, and he is still without a major to his name. After all the disappointments, one question remains: When will Sergio overcome his putting woes and attain all the expectations that have been heaped upon him?

For Sergio, the problem used to be a seeming inability to get comfortable over the ball. Who can forget the times when he would be standing over the ball and choosing to swing at a seemingly arbitrary moment after a series of his infamous "waggles?" At Sergio's first time in serious contention at a major following '99, the New York fans at the 02' U.S. Open became especially chagrined. They began audibly counting Sergio's waggles and after a particularly bad shot, a fan could be heard saying, "All that for this?"

Although Sergio is by no means a fast player now, he has developed a consistent pre-shot routine. His downfall has been an inconsistent putter that has gotten especially balky on the back nine on Sunday of major championships. Carrying a three-shot lead into the final round of the 2007 British Open, it seemed as if the demons had finally been exorcised. However, he began missing putts on the back nine and lipped out a putt on No. 18 that would have won the tournament that he eventually lost in a playoff to Padraig Harrington. Sergio became snake-bitten by Harrington again in last year's PGA Championship, hitting his approach into the water at the 16th hole and missing a makeable putt at No. 17 while Harrington exuded the calm of a two-time major champion and converted the clutch putts he needed to win.

Seven months after his latest heartbreaking defeat, Sergio has undoubtedly been chomping at the bit for the Masters, which is under a month away. In watching his front nine today, I couldn't help but think that some major will come along where the putts just start falling. Undoubtedly frustrated by his lackluster position after two rounds, Sergio nonetheless shot 33 on the front, making a few long putts in the process.

The bottom line is that Sergio's talent is undeniable. Coming into the week, a scenario existed where if Sergio won and Tiger finished 27th or worse, Sergio would ascend to the No. 1 ranking in the world. Despite his steady rise among golf's elite, Sergio has said that he would much rather win a major than attain the No. 1 ranking. Doing this would remove the sizable monkey from his back that was created largely due to his precocious talent and the golf world's sizable expectations.