Travelers Championship

I love getting free tickets to events.

I love telling people that I get free tickets to events even more. It makes me sound much more important than what I really am.

As part of my sports marketing class I got a free ticket to one full day of the PGA Travelers Championship Tournament.

I am not a huge golfer. My parents don't golf. I'm not a huge fan of golf either. I'll watch Tiger Woods. He's my favorite. I love mini golf the best because I love drilling the clown in its mouth.

I've played maybe 9 holes all together in my life of real golf. Of course all of those holes were played in New Hampshire. I remember on one of the first holes that I played on I hit 3 golf balls into a swamp. I couldn't find them so I took another tee shot. This one looked fantastic. I was so proud of myself. It was headed to the green.

It kept going and going and going...and it went over the green, bounced in the street and into the tennis courts....needless to say I just dropped the ball at that hole.

I had an amazing tee shot on one other hole. I decided that what the I'd try and drive the ball over the trees rather than go around them. I almost never hit the ball straight by the way. I have a huge slice in my shot. Amazingly it went over the trees and got to the green. I also took lessons once in golf.

It's a sport I'll probably play a little bit of when I get older, but it's kind of lame for me at the moment. Too much finding of the ball in weird places for me. It's also kind of slow. Knowing myself I'd probably hit the ball and after my follow through I'd go run/sprint/jog after the ball. I'd also get a lot of stares from people.

Which also reminds me, I'm not a member of a country club. My grandpa is, but he doesn't golf. The first time I remember trying to eat at a country club restaurant was not a good experience. We had just gotten off a plane and were starving. We didn't have our collared shirts on. It sort of bothered me that you had to dress up to eat there, but I wasn't too mad because it's their place and their rules. What did bother me were the looks from the people at the club at my family. It looked like they were looking down on us and I will never forget feeling like that.

Consequently for me, (with my history with the sport of golf) a golf tournament has not been a prized sporting event to me.

I had been to a Rodeo, Nascar Race, IRL Race, Tractor Pull and outrigger canoe race (from a distance on the beach) all before a golf tournament.

I had low expectations coming into the Travelers Championship, but I wanted to experience a golf tournament and Greg Mihailides encouraged me to go.

Once again Greg M has proved himself to be an absolute genius.

I went to the Celebrity Pro-Am tournament because I figured that it would be the coolest event for me to see all week. It wouldn't be jammed pack like it would be for the actual professional tournament. I'd also possibly see people that I had heard of play...(Luke Wilson, Sandy Koufax, Roger Staubach, Chris Dailey, Randy Edsall, Chris Berman, Doug Flutie, Joe Pesci, Ray Allen to name a few)

My first impression of the golf tournament will surprise you. It reminded me almost exactly of the NASCAR race I had been too. The parking at Travelers was just like the parking at Pocono Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway...a big grass field. The venue also had a lot of tents up...like a NASCAR race...with all of the places to buy gear and souvenirs. It looked like sponsors of golf equipment brought moving stores...like race teams do.

The parking lot was full of cars that were mostly from Connecticut. I'd say 90% were from CT. There were also a lot of local sponsors. I took the time to read through the entire list...and it took some time to look through it. I'm sure the sponsors appreciated that...there were just so many that I can't possibly remember who they were.

Everyone there was really friendly and helpful. I was sort of confused when I got in, but I went to the first hole number sign that I could see and started watching. The one pro golfer that I had heard of and wanted to see was Vijah Singh. To my surprise he was at that first hole that I saw being played. I was so happy. The pro I came to see, I actually found.

Vijah Singh looked like an athlete. He was huge. Much bigger than I thought. He could have played football or basketball with his body. He was easily over 6 feet tall. So often when I think of golf I think of an old nonathletic businessman playing. (no offense) Vijay Singh broke that stereotype. He was by far the best in his group...which isn't surprising when you play with Joe Billy Bob from Travelers.

Singh was fun to watch so I followed him around to 3 holes...and got soaked in rain in the process. I learned some golf etiquette at these first 3 holes. For example, you stop moving when the players are about to hit. You also have to stay completely quiet. (I'm sorry, but it really was tempting, so tempting just to yell in the middle of it...{I'm well behaved, never ever got a detention and was never grounded} but it was just so tempting because it was too quiet.

I also got to see that some people follow around their favorite golfer around the course. Others stay at the same hole. Greg M told me about that and he was right, as usual.

I decided that I'd stop following Vijay around and that I'd start looking for celebrities and people with personalities...who would talk and be a little less serious.

I went to the first tee randomly. I got really excited because I saw Chris Berman going through the clubhouse and getting ready to play. Then I saw Steven Slade (The UConn photographer) so I knew that someone important was about to play.


The first group was Chris Berman, Dwight Evans and Doug Flutie. I think Flutie hit it off of a tree. Evans had a great shot. Berman hit a ground ball. Yes a ground ball...and he had a good enough personality to go to the crowd "BACK, BACK, BACK, GONE." Berman was much taller than I thought he'd be.

The next celebrity group I saw was Luke Wilson and Chris Dailey's group. Luke Wilson had a great tee shot. His second shot...well not so much...let's just say he was in the crowd. Chris Dailey was pretty good. I heard her say that she was so nervous to start and that she was afraid that she would swing and miss. I thought she played the first hole pretty well.

I stayed at the next hole once I heard who was playing next. It was Joe Pesci, Roger Staubach and Jennifer Rizzotti. Easily the best pairing for me. I love the movie Goodfellas. Pesci had a big role in that movie... The Cowboys are my favorite NFL team...Staubach is a Pro football hall of famer and two time super bowl winning QB from the Cowboys. He also won the Heisman Trophy and Super Bowl MVP. He is one of 4 football players ever to have done that. I also love the UConn Women's Basketball team. Rizzotti was on the undefeated 1995 team and was named National Player of the year in 1996. She currently coaches at Hartford and has done a tremendous job.

Staubach was pretty good but he joked that he had trouble getting up hills now. Rizzotti was solid too.

As the holes went on I saw that Roger Staubach was signing autographs and was being really nice. I actually had a pen on me and decided that I'd try to get his autograph. He is Roger Staubach...too bad that doesn't mean much to most people my age, as he was an amazing player...in the 1970's. I missed the first two opportunities but he kept signing and when he had to go hit he promised to sign again. He genuinely seemed to be enjoying himself. He joked with the fans. He talked about the Cowboys, he even threw a pass to a fan at the event. He through a perfect spiral. Not that many people can say they caught a pass from Roger Staubach, but some guy off the streets can say he did. Roger Staubach was awesome. The tournament is lucky he came. He single handily made the experience of the tournament great.

Here are some highlights of his...and the hall of fame article on him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNJvW8w5JSU

http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=201

I finally was able to get his autograph after tons of waiting. He happily signed and I told him "You know Roger, this makes up for all of the psychological abuse that I take as a Cowboys fan here (in Connecticut)..which made him and the rest of the group laugh. He said that this was going to be a good year for My Dallas Cowboys. I hope so...and he did say that the new stadium is tremendous.

I also went over and got Jennifer Rizzotti's autograph. She had fewer requests than Roger and was more than happy to sign. I think I shocked her when I told her "This past year (referring to the 2009 women's team...I was also wearing a Nike UConn hat...) was the highlight of my college career." It was, and I mean that. I wanted to see UConn win a National Championship in something as a student at the school. It meant even more to me that it was a team that went undefeated and was one of the big 3 teams at a University. (basketball teams and football)

The reason I think it might have shocked her, is because I highly doubt many guys in 1995 went up to her when they won and said that the women's basketball team winning the national championship was a highlight of going to college. It speaks to just how much the women's basketball program and game itself has grown throughout the years. Rizzotti should take some pride in knowing that she helped lay the foundation for this success of this 2009 UConn team.

Joe Pesci also mingled with the fans a little bit. He was hard to recognize because he was wearing a hat and had a beard. He was also much, much shorter than I thought he was.

One thing I realized is just how important and hard it is to choose the celebrities that come and play at events like these. Tournaments have to choose wisely. They need to get celebrities that will draw crowds but they also have to be careful not to choose celebrities that will draw crowds and then disappoint them with their arrogance and poor attitudes. I never knew just how close the players get to the fans. Fans can hear and almost touch the golfers. As an organizer you must select your celebrities wisely. They got it perfectly with Roger Staubach., Had that been someone else, who wasn't fan friendly, I could have left the tournament unhappy.

All in all the Travelers Championship Celebrity Pro-Am golf tournament was a great experience. I couldn't believe how many volunteers there were either. It was a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend checking it out. The golf course was beautiful too and I realize that I wouldn't mind going back to see a few hours of golf by some professionals and great personalities.

The tournament definitely exceeded my expectations.

To re-iterate...Roger Staubach was truly a great guy.