3M Championship Day Three - July 12, 2009

I had planned to get to the course about noon or so as I had for the previous day. That way, I could watch a few of the last groups tee off, as I had done for the second round. The only problem was the tee times were moved up about an hour, so everyone was well on their way by about 12:30.

I didn’t realize this until I read the newspaper that morning. Oh well. Instead of camping out at the first tee, I watched a few groups play through the ninth green. It was another beautiful day for golf, and this time the winds weren’t as strong, which probably helped the birdies come alive.

The pin on nine was located on the far end of the green, behind the water. I saw a couple of good approach shots that landed within a good striking distance of the hole. Of course, there were a few players who played it safe in order to get to the green; not that I blame them.

Since I had a lot of good material for my story already written, including the quotes from Hollis Cavner’s interview the day before, most of the afternoon was pretty low-key on my end. I spent some quality time with my laptop in the media tent, while paying some attention to the Twins game on TV as they pounded the White Sox with 13 runs.

I went out to the final green a couple of times before the end, where the last few groups of leaders would be finishing up. It was a close race and there had been leaderboard shifts all day long. But with a sensational eagle chip-in on 18, Bernhard Langer snagged the victory by a stroke (finishing at 16 under) over Andy Bean.

I didn’t quite see the shot in its entirety, (I’m short and there were a lot of people down there for the end of the tourney) but I did see it go in the cup. That was the most energized I’d heard the crowd all weekend.

Langer has been quite the winner on this year’s tour, (the win marked his fourth this season) and I also found it interesting that Arnold Palmer’s team was victorious in the Greats of Golf Challenge. Chi Chi Rodriguez had been on the winning team each year previous. And even more coincidental was the fact the Langer and Palmer were the two featured faces on the front of the brochures listing the tee times.

I took part in some of the media interviews both off the green and inside the media tent, even though I wasn’t doing the recap-type story. The whole reporting experience was good practice for me.

Before I left for the day I also introduced myself to another notable sports columnist for the Strib – Jim Souhan. He was a very nice guy, and I was glad to meet him, being a big admirer of his work and all.

At the end of the weekend, I felt that I had worked hard and got another valuable experience under my belt in the journalism category. Even though it was sort of a spur-of-the-moment thing, I was very glad I had the opportunity to go out to the tournament again.

I just hope that next year I’ll be in a position to attend again – as a member of the media.