Thursday, February 3, 2000 - Spyglass Hill
I was at Spyglass Hill golf course early on Thursday morning. I was standing watching the players on the practice putting green near the 10th tee, where DJE would begin the tournament. I kept my eyes open, and sure enough, about an hour before his tee time he came walking up the hill. As he walked by I said, to myself, "Hello!" He walked past, talked to one of the officials, and then he was off back down the hill again, not looking extremely happy, but I did not know what might be the problem. He didn't come back until it was really close to his tee time, and I was starting to get worried, as I had not seen his caddie yet, and I was having thoughts that he would have to pull out for some unknown reason.
Finally they were both there, and they teed off at their 9:50 a.m. tee time. DJE is an amateur with a 13 handicap, which means on 13 of the 18 holes he plays on every course he will be given a stroke. He was paired with a professional golfer who was playing in his first ever PGA Tournament, Paul Parlane, from New Zealand. Also with DJE and Paul in their foursome were Harry Crosby (an amateur with a 3 handicap) and his pro partner, Jerry Smith, playing in his 4th PGA Tour event.
As DJE was standing around waiting for the pros to tee off first, a cute little boy asked for his autograph. Then, seeing other people getting their pictures taken with DJE, he walked up to an older lady and said, "Would you take a picture of us?" She of course, said, "Sure, but this is not an instant camera. I will have to mail the picture to you." So after he got the picture taken he went up to the woman and wrote down his address - nothing more. She gently told him that she needed his name!
DJE hit off the tee and it was a decent shot, and then comically wiped his brow, indicating that he was really glad he had not muffed his shot on the first tee of play. As they headed off down the fairway, I noticed a couple of other women in the gallery. As the day wore on, I engaged in conversation with two of them. The wife of Jerry Smith, Jennifer, was very friendly, as was Paul Parlane's fiancée, Susan. Jennifer and Susan were great.
The foursome had only completed three holes, and they were in the 14th fairway preparing to hit their second shots when the heavens unloaded and we were all drenched within seconds. It had been raining lightly earlier, but this was a downpour, and an air horn sounded and play was stopped.
All the players were hurried to shelter, and all of us in the gallery hung around hoping for a break in the weather. It began to look like it would never stop raining, and we were getting ready to walk back when DJE came out of the holding area to get something to eat at the snack bar. Of course, all the people behind the counter recognized him and started asking him questions, and people were taking pictures, so I took a few pictures, too, and the last one I took he had just stuffed something in his mouth. He looked me straight in the eye and said, "You got me while I was eating!" I just laughed, and he did too, giving me a look like "you better not publish that". A few minutes later he and his caddie boarded a bus and were driven back to the Spyglass Hill Golf Club. Later in the day the officials called off the golf for the day and planned to resume the next day with a shotgun start at 10:00 a.m.