Sony Open

My first tournament of the year was the Sony Open in Hawaii. I arrived in Honolulu after a 10-hour flight from Atlanta and got settled in my room in Waikiki. Beth joined me later in the week.
The view from my room at the end of Waikiki beach.
I walked downstairs to enjoy the sunset at the beach.
The next morning, it was time for work. The sun rises over the course at Waialae at the early groups head out.
After the first round, I met up with our friends Lisa and Brooke who work for Maui Jim Sunglasses. We had dinner with Brooke's parents and Sam Greenwood who was working the tournament for Getty.The girls ordered "Sliders" (Mini cheeseburgers) and apparently they were pretty good.
Friday brought high winds and rain. The job is great, but days like this are a challenge.
Rich Lerner of the Golf Channel does a live spot in a squall outside the clubhouse.
Boo Weekley tries to find some shelter behind his umbrella.
Saturday brought back the sun and a great round from local favorite Tadd Fujikawa. Tadd is 18 years old and still in high school. He shot a 8-under 62 to tie the course record. He had a large gallery and seemed to really enjoy the spotlight.I also took advantage of my new iphone and took a few shots. I used the app "Camera Bag" to do some funky conversions.On Sunday, Tadd and the rest of the field faded and former Masters champion Zach Johnson took the Sony Open title.

"Best Of"

This year pgatour.com asked me, Stan and Caryn for our 10-best photos from the year for a feature over the holidays. We had to pick the shots, then write a short narrative about each photo. You can see all of the photos and text HERE

Christmas in Orlando

Christmas is all about the kids, right? We trekked down to Orlando to spend the holiday with the Wiltse's.

Luke is a fast-moving target!

I finally corral him!Luke turns the table on me!Chloe bonds with "Aunt Beth".Christmas eve is all about "some assembly required"!Chloe gets right into the "opening presents" part!Dad is great!Before we left, we got an encore of Halloween. It's just too cute!

Christmas card 2008

Shelby poses once again for our Christmas card.

Jim & Brooke come to visit.

Jim and Brooke drove up from Daytona for the Jaguars/Colts game.

First stop... Bud Zone!Jim's a big Dolphins fan, but he had to represent the home team!

We scalped four tix from a player's family member. Pretty decent view!Football and my wife... two great things that go great together!

We took a ride to the beach the next morning and took some fun photos.

Beth had to work, so I posed solo.

Palm Springs

Beth and I traveled to Palm Springs for Q-School finals over Thanksgiving weekend.

It was her first trip to the desert and I thought she would enjoy the stark landscape.

We stayed at the LaQuinta Resort which is a great historic getaway where many Hollywood stars would come to unwind and escape L.A.

Our "casita"

We took a day trip to Joshua Tree park to do some hiking and rock climbing.We ran into Beth's absolute FAVORITE critter. He was sitting in the road entering the park.

The rocks have a sandpaper-like texture which makes scrambling up a breeze.

I finally caught up to her!

The next adventure was a trip up the Palm Springs Tramway.
It's a 2.5 mile ride up the mountain from the desert floor.

It was chilly and there was a good bit of snow up top.

Looking down on Palm Springs.

Beth enjoys the view.

A taste of winter.

On our last day, we went horseback riding in the desert. A nice contrast to the snowy mountain!

Our guide brings out the transportation.

He led us on a great 2-hour ride.

It ain't a Harley, but it'll get you from here to there!

Nationwide Tour Championship in Dallas

The Nationwide Tour Championship was in McKinney, TX just north of Dallas. I had to travel on my birthday, but fortunately got to hook up with my buddy Chris Burks who took me out for an evening of music and fun. We had a nice dinner and went to a club he's played a few times to check out some local cover/tribute bands.

Then the work began. I helped Stan cover the weekend at the course and coordinate the big closing ceremony where the top-25 players receive their PGA TOUR card for 2009.

The 25 TOUR cards wait on the first tee as incentive.
Matt Bettencourt wins the tournament
The top-25 finishers pose with their PGA TOUR membership cards.On Saturday the tournament had the local band "Blue Condition" perform on the clubhouse deck. They were really good and the light got really nice toward sunset.
I had some fun with "detail shots".Last light.