During the Northern Trust Open Pro-Am at Riviera Country Club, Windy City Critic was able to caddy with the eventual event winner Bill Haas. Yet the PGA competition wasn’t the only highlight of the week.
Rich Hyland was asked by Northern Trust to participate in the exclusive event, he then asked Windy City Critic to carry his bag. How could I turn it down? A free trip to Cali to rub elbows with the upper class for just carrying a bag, I’m in.
The experience started off with a practice round at Malibu Country Club with Hyland, WCC, Rich Eidson and Mark Hyland. Rich and Rich played well, Hyland lost $300 on the last hole after many rollovers. Mark and WCC weren’t betting and it was a good thing because they were spraying the ball all over the course.
Despite the poor play, former Cub Derrek Lee and ESPN’s Roger Cossack were in the two groups playing behind us. We did get to speak with them due to slow play as a result of many groups of women on the course, just kidding.
For our evening entertainment, we attended a Northern Trust event where Freddie Couples and Hunter Mahan spoke. It was interesting, but they talked about Tiger Woods way too much.
After the discussion with Couples and Mahan, the pairings for the Pro-Am were announced. We were paired with Haas, the man who hit an $11 million shot out of the water at the Tour Championship last year.
The next morning we left at 6:00 AM for our 7:40 tee time. We had a quick breakfast and headed to the tee. While waiting for our time, we just watched the PGA stars. It was amazing to walk in places that even the media couldn’t go.
The time had come to tee off for the best ball match, which takes the best score of the foursome on each hole. The group paired with us consisted of Giancarlo Turano of Turano Bread, Jim Bridgeman of Northern Trust and Haas. The amateurs just tried to hit it past the ladies tees and avoid embarrassment. They all hit it past although they weren’t all straight.
After the first hole jitters the group relaxed. The foursome had good chemistry probably because the three amateurs are Chicagoans. Another commonality, Haas had a family member on his bag, Jay Haas. Bill’s older brother has recently started caddying for him and wants to play against his sibling someday.
As for a caddie, I wasn’t too good. My golfer wouldn’t listen, I would say “you should lay up” and he would respond with “gimme the 3 wood.” I couldn’t even hold my laughter when my golfer had two 3-shot bunker outs.
At the turn the group was 7 under in the hunt for the win, but the mood became a bit more serious. The new mood hurt the foursome, through 16 holes they were two behind the leader and only 8 under . The last two holes they turned it up with two birdies, Hyland accounting for the final one. Despite the closing push, the group finished second with a respectable 61.
The day was capped off with a private Tony Bennett concert where I sat next to former Charlotte Bobcats owner and BET owner Bob Johnson. I said nothing to him due to my offensive and rarely thought-out responses.
On Sunday, Haas beat Phil Mickelson in a playoff with a 45-foot putt worth $1.1 million.