From the Course Blog

April 28, 2006 By Joe Wojciechowski PGA TOUR staff

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Crash Davis (or Tin Cup, if you prefer) is here. So is The Great One and Mrs. Great One. Cheech, J. Peterman, John Elway and Catherine Bell are here too. It's the BMW Charity Pro-Am at The Cliffs and it's a star-studded event on the Nationwide Tour.

With Kevin Costner, Wayne Gretzky, Cheech Marin, John O'Hurley, Dhani Jones and an assorted cast of stars and athletes, this celeb field is one of the best on any tour. For the next few days, we'll follow some of the stars around as they brave the elements and The Cliffs.

Check back for regular updates, as we'll try to catch up with John O'Hurley, John Elway and Catherine Bell during the second round at The Cliffs at Walnut Grove.

4:27 p.m. ET -- So what did we learn following John O'Hurley, Catherine Bell and John Elway around?

• We learned John O'Hurley is a pro's pro. The guy even carried his own sharpie around so when people asked for autographs, he could use the best and longest lasting pen for their convenience.

• We learned Catherine Bell is the proverbial girl next door.

• We learned John Elway must get sick of signing footballs and pictures of himself. Autograph hounds are relentless. Even with two guards blocking for him, these guys still managed to sneak through and ask Elway for his autograph.

• We learned John O'Hurley is way too nice. If my wife was playing in the group in front of me, I'd hit up on her at least once. Twice if she was mean to me that morning. O'Hurley didn't even think about it.

• We learned when it's not 50 degrees with wind gusts of 20 miles per hour that force us to buy ugly sweaters from the discount tent to stay warm (like on Thursday), The Cliffs is drop dead gorgeous.

• We learned Catherine Bell has a tattoo on her ankle.

• We learned John Elway -- if he wanted to -- is good enough to play on the Champions Tour one day.

• We learned Nationwide Tour events are spectator friendly. Really, the crowds are small enough that you can see anything and everything. Nationwide Tour Golf -- It's Fan-Tastic. (Surely the NBA won't mind if we borrow that for awhile).

3:59 p.m. ET -- The Elway walk is unmistakable. The pigeon toed walk is a trademark, kind of like Michael Jordan's jump man.

As he strolls from shot to shot, its obvious Elway's got game. The swing is smooth and pure, although he doesn't have the classic follow through of, say, Ernie Els it gets the job done as evidenced by his 2 handicap

It should hardly be surprising. After all, this is one of our generation’s greatest athletes. His competitive nature has never been questioned and his work ethic unrivaled even in golf

There's a story that after the Broncos won the Super Bowl, Pat Bowlen (the owner), Elway and a few others went to play Augusta National. Without practice -- remember the NFL season just ended -- Elway shot a 74. He practiced after the round and then went out and shot in the 60s the next day.

3:37 p.m. ET -- It’s strange being John Elway. While waiting to tee off on the 15th, the Golf Channel snagged him for an interview. In this probing interview we learned ....

Elway has no idea who Denver will take in the draft.

That he thought Brett Favre knew he wasn't ready to retire months ago. "You know when it's time to walk away. It doesn't take four months to decide"

That playing golf in Colorado, where you can hit it farther, "makes you feel strong."

3:23 p.m. ET -- It wasn't hard to tell John Elway was making his way to the 14th tee ... The slew of autograph hounds carrying footballs, mini helmets, pictures, programs, Coors Light cans and everything short of an actual Bronco to stick in Elway's face.

The way some guys drooled over Catherine Bell was the way these autograph hounds looked at Elway.

Wonder if Elway knows the martial arts or knows his way around the shooting range just in case things get out of hand.

3:10 p.m. ET -- As she taps in for a birdie to push her team to 8 under, we'll say goodbye to Bell and wait now for John Elway, who is in the group behind.

3 p.m. ET -- She's not going to set any records for clubhead speed, but Bell isn't half bad. She has a slow methodical swing and simply let's the club do the work. Ken Duke's caddy is in her ear the whole time, lining her up, giving her pointers and just guiding her through the shots. She's inconsistent but after hitting a bad shot or two, she'll make a pretty little swing and hit a textbook perfect shot that will get the crowd roaring.

Bell must be doing something right as she and Duke are 7 under (Duke is 4 under for the tournament).

2:45 p.m. ET -- We know this much -- security is tight here. Carrying her three-year-old daughter Gemma to the 12th tee, Bell was stopped. After being convinced Bell was indeed a player, she and Gemma went to the tee and Bell smacked her best drive of the day.

"You're my good luck charm," Bell told Gemma, who just smiled.

By the way, Bell's mother-in-law gave us this tidbit of information -- Gemma means "precious jewel" in Italian. Of course, neither Bell nor her husband are Italian, but it's still a cool name.

2:15 p.m. ET -- There are a couple of women here with "JAGathon" T-shirts on, carrying books about the show for Bell to autograph.

And just to get it out of the way, yes, she is great looking but she looks like she could be your neighbor instead of being a star. Bell's hair is pulled in a ponytail, she's wearing some multi-colored striped shorts that can make you dizzy if you stare too long and a red polo with the sleeves pulled up.

That said, the crowd is still tripping over itself. A group of 40-something men are acting like high school boys over who will be first to ask for her autograph.

And when she flubbed a shot from the fairway, one guy said to his pals, "That was a great looking 30-yard shot."

1:50 p.m. ET -- So here's what we know about Catherine Bell -- she was, as she claims on her website, thinking about pre-medicine at UCLA before giving modeling a shot. It worked. After that, came acting highlighted by her starring role in JAG and co-starring in films like Bruce Almighty. She has two greyhounds, is trained in the martial arts and, again, according to her website, "knows her way around the shooting range."

She's also got the gallery wrapped aroiund her little finger. They root for her like they've known her all their lives. They roar for good shots and try to talk the bad ones into good ones.

They either love her or fear the fact she knows her way around the shooting range.

1:21 p.m. ET -- Found her. Of course, instead of looking at the leaderboard, reading the sun to gauge the time and using advanced math to figure out just where Catherine Bell would be on the course, I could have looked for the pack of guys. I found them -- and consequently her -- on the eighth green. It took all of two seconds before some dude stopped to have a picture with her.

12:20 p.m. ET -- A very uneventful 14th hole and the fact the par-3 15th is backed up with two groups -- which did allow Mr. and Mrs. O'Hurley time for a quick hug hello -- means it's time to leave King Neptune/Peterman/Mr. "Dancing with the Stars" John O'Hurley and try to fnd Catherine Bell.

11:55 a.m. ET -- It was only a matter of time before we got a Peterman-esque tale about O'Hurley -- on the 13th hole came The Penguin Story. It seems O'Hurley was doing a commercial in which penguins were the co-stars. Well, apparently one of the penguins had an attitude and bit O'Hurley, which has -- as his caddy put it -- put O'Hurley's game "on tilt ever since."

But in true Peterman fashion, O'Hurley is moving on. He smoked his drive and then hit a pure fairway wood. A chip and two putts later and it's a net birdie making his team 9 under.

11:35 a.m. ET -- Thing is, O'Hurley has a pretty good swing. Its a heck of a lot prettier than his amateur partner, Jon McClure. McClure has one thing on O'Hurley though -- McClure won this event last year.

But O'Hurley is showing signs of life. He's still pulling the ball off the tee, but he nailed an iron out of the roiugh from 200 yards and then two-putted for par. Here's guessing that's more his normal playing style than picking up the ball. After all, there's a reason there's a red 8 next to his name on the sign. (And just for comparison's sake, McClure is 2 under).

11:15 a.m. ET -- Well, No. 11 didn't go much better. Is it bad when, after pulling his tee shot on the par 3, O'Hurley asks, "who did I almost kill?" and two people raise their hands?

He then sent a line drive across the green and into the pond. Two holes, two pick ups.

11:06 a.m. ET -- O'Hurley speaks. Someone said he did a great job on Dancing with the Stars and O'Hurley said "Thank you."

A couple of quick notes on Mr. O'Hurley ... He does come off a little larger-than-life Peterman-esque. He's tall, has perfect posture, the booming voice and is in good shape. He's no Dhani Jones in the wardrobe department -- khakis and a white shirt, white shoes -- but conservatively stylish.

His wife Lisa is in the group in front of him. While she was very sweet this morning, smiling and saying goodbye, you have to wonder if he's tempted to hit ahead to his wife's group just to be funny.

11 a.m. ET -- So John O'Hurley steps to the 10th tee and I really have no idea what to expect. Do you get the man who's been in five soap operas and Dancing with the Stars? (Which hurts him, as anyone who stars in shows my mom watches religiously makes me a little nervous). Or do you get the genius that was O'Hurley as J. Peterman in Seinfeld or as King Neptune in SpongeBob SquarePants?

So far, he's looking like someone auditioning for the Marcel Marceau lead as he hasn't said a word yet. Maybe it was the drive he hooked or the second shot he hit out of bounds that has him stunned silent.

10:50 a.m. ET -- With John O'Hurley, Catherine Bell and John Elway -- the three marquee names here at The Cliffs Valley Course today -- all going off within 10 minutes of each other, we're going to have to get creative.

So, the plan is six holes with each (pretty clever, huh?), starting with O'Hurley.