Tiger Woods himself couldn’t have picked a better day for the kickoff of his tournament, the AT&T National Golf tournament at Congressional Country Club. The weather was just warm enough, the humidity low for a July morning, and the turnout was fantastic! I’ve been to quite a few Pro-Am days at Professional Golf events, and I had to agree with Tournament Director Greg McLaughlin, who was impressed with the size of the crowd – despite the absence of the world’s number one golfer. (BTW, Fred Couples is one heck of a golfer, and a heck of a guy to boot. He agreed at a late hour to step in and perform some of Tiger’s duties, and he couldn’t have been more genial or better suited for the job.)

The highlight of the morning, as expected, was the delivery of the balls for the ceremonial first shot. Balls were first hit weeks ago at five different military installations around the world, gathered and delivered to the first tee box by the 101st Airborne’s Screaming Eagles parachute team. It was a heck of a sight, although a little late in coming. We tried to time the liftoff of the choppers and the mile-high jump so that the jumpers would hit the ground just as the selected golfers – Couples and two kids with parents currently serving – walked into place. In the words of the immortal Maxwell Smart, “we missed it by THAT much!” Let me tell you, five minutes feels like five hours when you have to tap-dance and make things up in front of a couple thousand strangers who want to see/hear anything but YOU!

The Screaming Eagles may have been a little late, but they were a definite hit. Watching them hit the exact spots on the fairway and in the tee box from a mile away was phenomenal, and convinced me of one thing - you will NEVER hear about me jumping out of a perfectly fine aircraft of any kind at ANY time!

One pleasant surprise I want you to know about is our own little American Idol. Anna Nicholson of Bowie High School blew us all away with her rendition of the national anthem, singing it along with the Air Force’s Ceremonial Brass Quintet. Just before she took the mic I asked her how she had gotten so lucky. It turns out that the Tiger Woods Foundation folks had gotten wind of a kid from the area who blew out a performance at a University of Maryland basketball game (against Duke). They tracked Anna down via the Internet when they learned that someone had posted her performance on YouTube!

Finally, I am not the kind of guy to disparage anyone’s game; I know how bad my swing is, and I would hate to have someone criticize or have a laugh while watching me play. With that being said, the one image I can’t get out of my head is that of a certain national media figure with the perfect practice swing (three of them!), the minute-long setup, and the shot that traveled 300 feet straight up in the air – but only 10 yards down the fairway! I know his pain – it once happened to me in front of a tournament crowd.

That is a story you won’t be reading about here any time soon….