As one of only three cities to get the double bill of Pearl Jam and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, we thought we were getting a great deal with two concerts for the price of one. We’ve seen Pearl Jam a number of times, but this was our first time seeing Petty. The Tuesday evening show was the second in a two-night stand and the newspaper reviews of the Monday concert were positive, so we had high hopes. Unfortunately, we left feeling a little cheated.
Today’s round started at 7:30am on the 18-hole course at Theodore Wirth Park outside of Minneapolis. The first four greens were horrible and should not have been open for play. The rest of the greens were better, but all played very slow. A storm front moved through when we were on the sixth hole, so we waited until it passed over. The back nine did not drain well, though, so it was a soggy round.
We really had a great time on the trip last week. Special thanks to Jim Reinhart, USGA Vice President, who donated the tickets to the Tapemark that I won in last year’s 1-in-5 raffle. Thanks to another nice USGA official named Jeff, we got to meet Jim on Friday (and again on Saturday) and he was very gracious.
The day before I left town for the Open, my wife and I saw Bruce Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. His new CD doesn’t hold a candle to the live show, which was truly amazing. The 16 member band had an energy level I haven’t seen since Lyle Lovett’s Large Band was in town. The brass section was a special standout–more bands could use a good brass section, methinks.
They played most of the songs from the new album during the 2 1/2-hour show (which started an hour late with no explanation), but for some reason they skipped Froggie Went A-Courtin’ and Shenandoah. There was an incredible version of When the Saints Go Marching In, though, and four re-works of previous Springsteen songs. The reviews in the local papers were both very positive and it was a show I would see again in a heartbeat…DK
Highlight of the trip so far–standing directly behind Peter Hedblom (Sweden) on the third tee when he aced the 243-yard hole with a 3-iron. We thought we’d be on TV, but all of the replays we’ve seen online so far just show the picture from the camera that was next to us. Today is the final round and then we head home…DK
Michael Bartosh, noted Macintosh author and consultant, died in a tragic accident last week in Tokyo. He was 28 and is survived by his wife Amber. Macworld Conference and Expo is establishing a scholarship in his name. Details are still being worked out, but you can sign up here to be notified when more information is available.
I only knew Michael online through mailing lists and email, but he was a true expert who was willing to share his knowledge to help others. His home was in Colorado and we had talked a few times about trying to get together to ski at Copper Mountain, where he had a season pass. Through his consulting and training contracts, he got to travel the world and it was also fun watching his iChat status in my buddy list to see where he was now. My thoughts go out to his family and friends in their time of mourning…DK
Today was the last day of practice rounds at Winged Foot and the last day you could bring cameras though the gates. Since this was the only practice round I could attend, I made the most of my new lens:
The first round starts tomorrow and we are going to try taking the train instead of driving (which took 2 hours to go about 35 miles). More updates tomorrow…DK
OK, no sound, just sights. We left the Twin Cities early Monday morning and stopped in Madison for lunch (see Gritty story). The drive through Chicago unfortunately coincided with rush hour and took almost two hours. We made a pit stop in South Bend to visit the Notre Dame bookstore and had dinner at the Great Wall. Final stop that day was Toledo, Ohio, home to a nice Holiday Inn Express and my new favorite restaurant name–Frickers. We left Toledo this morning at 8am and made it to Milford, Connecticut at about 6:30pm. Practice round tomorrow; photos at eleven…DK
Stopped in Madison on the way to New York for the Open. One of my favorite places to eat in Madison while in school was Marsh Shapiro’s Nitty Gritty on the corner of Frances and Johnson. They used to have an item on the menu I loved–a chicken strip sandwich with fries and the secret “Gritty Sauce.” Last time we visited, it wasn’t on the menu and the server couldn’t quite figure out how to bring me a bun to put the chicken strips on. Didn’t have that problem this time and it was wonderful…DK
Hooked up live in the tent at the 35th Annual Tapemark Charity Pro-Am. We’ll be here the next three days and we’d love to have visitors. Directions are available on the tournament site linked above. The pro field is strong this year and there should be a lot of exciting golf to watch. This is one of the best opportunities all year to see high-quality pro golf for free, so stop by if you can. If not, check out some of the new features we added to the tournament web site:
I also added a new golfer location feature that will give you an estimated location for a player (listed on the player profile page). The rain is holding off and there haven’t been any major bugs or issues so far, knock on wood…DK
This morning was the 2006 Heart of the City Half Marathon in Burnsville, Minnesota. Benefitting the Tender Hearts Foundation, the race is an out-and-back course that runs along the Minnesota River. I’ve run all three years this event has been held and unfortunately the weather has not been kind lately. Last year it rained and this year was really hot. I ran a good pace for the first nine miles, but started to feel dizzy and decided to walk most of the remaining distance to finish in 2:35.
On Friday, I joined a great foursome at Southview Country Club in West St. Paul, Minnesota. The 35th Annual Tapemark Charity Pro-Am will be held there next weekend and I will be volunteering and maintaining the tournament web site Friday though Sunday. The course was in beautiful shape and hopefully the good weather we’ve been having will hold up for the tournament.
The green complex at the par 5 fourth hole was changed during the offseason, with several bunkers rebuilt and some changes made to the putting surface. I played OK to start, with the best drive I’ve ever had on one and a birdie on two. I drove the ball well on most holes and just need to work on my iron play from the fairway. I’m playing telephone tag this week to get some lessons lined up (maybe as a Father’s Day present?). I ended up with a 92 from the white tees and my handicap is now trending to 17–almost four strokes higher than my all-time low. Those lessons can’t come fast enough…DK
After dropping off an eMac for repair, I paid a visit to the First Tech showroom in Minneapolis to take a test drive of the new MacBook laptops. The black model is visually very striking and in my opinion, much better looking than the white version (which looks just like the old iBook casing). I spent most of my time on the black demo unit, which had the stock 512MB of RAM and the 2.0GHz dual core Intel processor.