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.

A few other things:

• Spoke to Tom Lehman briefly during the practice round and thanked him for doing the video for the 35th anniversary of the Tapemark Charity Pro-Am. He asked how the tournament went and asked who won. After telling him Tentis beat Berry, he commented “Ah, good to see the big dogs battling it out.”
• Also asked Tim Herron if Gerald was there this week (Gerald McCullagh, his instructor, who currently teaches out of the University of Minnesota practice facility) and he said “No.”
• Lumpy was sometimes friendly and sometimes not. Mostly not as the weekend went on, but his 63rd place finish (last of those that made the cut and good for $15,836) explained a lot.
• Can’t decide which method I like best to spectate at a golf tournament: follow one group around or stay in one spot and watch all the groups. With multiple days, there was ample time to try both.
• I’m not a big Lefty fan, but the person I really felt bad for was Monty.

We left Sunday before the final group teed off so that we could get a jump on traffic and the trip back, but we listened to the drama on the radio (and saw the final round later on TV). Sunday was by far the hottest and most uncomfortable day, so I didn’t feel too bad about leaving early aand getting into an air conditioned car. We spent that morning following Lumpy to the 10th tee, then stayed there in the shade until Ernie Els’ group went through (he’s my current swing hero).

The hotel we stayed at in Milford, CT was fine, but it was just too far away. Traffic on I-95 always seemed horrible and the train system was OK, but it was expensive and complicated (no signs at the stations or on the trains, no clocks and difficult to tell which train was which). It was $18 roundtrip from Milford to Mamaroneck, but not all trains stopped at both stations, so you’d have to get off and wait again at an intermediate station.

Milford did have a number of good restaurants and a beautiful downtown seaside harbor area that we discovered on the second day. I had decent fish and chips at the Southport Brewing Company and the chicken wings at Archie Moore’s claimed to be the best in Connecticut. They were really good, once you covered them in sauce.

We drove through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and most of Ohio before stopping to rest on Monday night. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin followed the next day and we made it back to St. Paul before 5pm on Tuesday evening. The Mini did great and had better gas mileage than the ski trip earlier this year (around 32mpg). I’m done with driving trips for a bit, though…DK