Sunday, Sep. 14, 2008

On the bag at the Northwest Open

By Eric Degerman, sportstricities.com

On Monday, I'll be working for free starting at 8:03 a.m. And it promises to be a blast.

I've volunteered my abilities this week at Meadow Springs Country Club as an amateur caddie in the Northwest Open. I'll be "looping" for a high school buddy, a-Spencer Klapp, Tualatin, Ore.

We graduated from Spokane's Lewis & Clark in 1980. Spencer, nicknamed "Dr. K" in grade school, played varsity basketball, not golf. In fact, he didn't pick up the game until after, and his swing is akin to that of a self-taught player, a bit reminiscent of Jim Furyk.

However, golf is not about style. It's about the number, and Spencer thinks his way around the golf course very well. The fact that he might have been the most intelligent guy and biggest crack-up in our class at LC is a combination that plays well on the golf course.

Based on a bit of recent history, Spencer might struggle the first day and rebound strongly the second day. For example, at the 2008 Rosauer's Open in Spokane, he went 79-69 at Indian Canyon. His problem was with the putter, not the driver, and you could probably chalk up much of that to what's happening this week. No practice round. In fact, Spencer has never seen Meadow Springs, so he'll be leaning on me rather heavily.

That said, I'm likely to feel more pressure than Spencer, who works tournaments around his family and work schedule for Cadence Design Systems.

"At the Rosauer's, my patience was tested to the limit," he said. "I never get mad though, curse, throw clubs, etc... I have the occasional older Tom Watson/Sergio Garcia spells on the greens where the hole shrinks. There are a lot of people in the world (99.99999%) worse off than us shooting 79 at the Canyon, so it would be kind of silly to be mad. It's just fun to compete and get the juices flowing. The 69 did make the drive home a whole lot better."

That attitude explains his rather remarkable lack of nervousness. He seems to merely enjoy playing the game. And he mixes in lot of levity and tongue-in-cheek talk.

"It's kind of fun to experience the feeling that most mortals must have on tour every week (except Tiger) of trying to make the cut, get a check, etc.," Spencer wrote. "Even Vijay last week said he was relieved to have the last two playoff events be "no cut" so he didn't have to worry about that. We'll have all day to work, shower, and feast on Italian food and Leonetti after posting a score. Let's try to be leaders in the clubhouse after Monday a.m. round, then see if someone has a "career" round and beats us. So far in about 15-20 pro events, someone has careered me and won every time. :)"

Our playing partners for the first two rounds are professionals Tom Mueller from Lake Oswego, Ore., and George Mack Jr., of Black Butte Ranch in Sisters, Ore. Mueller played at Central Washington University. Mack grew up in Portland, played on the Nike Tour and won the 2001 Oregon PGA.

We'll see if we can "beat the pros" Monday and Tuesday. If we make the cut, we'll get to play Wednesday, too.