A few thoughts from my visit to Interlachen today:

• The parking at Southdale went smoothly, although it was much more crowded than the practice rounds.
• Crowds on the grounds were large, but there were lots of open areas to sit and watch just about everyone.
• The gallery following the Sorenstam/Creamer/Pettersen group was the largest I saw, but I still had plenty of opportunity to get close.
• Ran into my grounds crew friend Otto for the third day in a row. He has now logged 160 hours of work in the past two weeks. He said they will likely re-sod all of the trampled down areas after the tournament instead of re-seeding.
• Also ran into two former local newspaper golf writers: Gregg Wong (Pioneer Press) and Jon Roe (Star Tribune). The Minnesota golf scene sorely misses the work of these two.
• Gregg said that during the practice rounds, players were hitting tee balls from the 18th tee onto the 10th fairway, then pitching over the hospitality tents to the green. The USGA decided to move up the tees today so that the trees on the side would eliminate that little shortcut. Expect the tee to remain forward all weekend, with lots of eagle putts.
• Seventeen-year-old high school junior Courtney Ellenbogen caused some excitement on the par four seventeenth hole by placing her tee sheet into the oven of the soft pretzel cart near the main entrance. A rules official gave her a drop next to the stand, where she was able to successfully advance the ball back into the fairway.

Very enjoyable time today – get out and enjoy this historic event if you can.