Players Golf Championship, TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra, Florida - Practice- Day 2

Wednesday March 13th, 2019
We set out early, well early for us, to go to the second practice day at the Players Golf Championship.  We decided to try and see the holes we had missed yesterday.

There was a lot more traffic today, and we had to wait longer to get into the car park.  The transportation to take us from the car, once we were parked, into the course was there instantly again though.

We knew our way around a bit better today and started by going through a different area to get toward hole 14 of the back 9.

We found the 14th tee and watched some players tee off before following them down the fairway.

14 Fairway

As we walked, I ran over to the 11th green that we were passing and took this shot.

11 green

Next stop was the 12th green, where we sat on our stools for a short while.

12 Green

There were information boards around the course.

We caught this little fella sunbathing.

Walking to the 13th tee

13 tee

There were some pretty flower beds between  the 13th & the 11th tee.

11 tee

Next was the 10th green

10 green

Looking up the fairway toward the 10th tee.

Stewart Cink was waiting to tee off at the 10th.

We were close to the military tent, where we decided to stop and get lunch again.  I had the same as yesterday, this time with some cheesecake and Bryan had Firehouse sub.  W grabbed a couple of bottles of water as well.  This is a really great option for the military and we really appreciated it and let them know that.  Can't beat free food, especially good free food!!!!  I forgot to mention but yesterday we both got appreciation pins as well.  There are many other food options available to buy and some of them smelt pretty good but we resisted the temptation.

After a much needed rest and some food, we continued on.

We saw Ricky Fowler in the practice area.

                                                                  

Next stop was the #1 tee.  I wanted to see it, just to say I had.  There were only a few people there and we watched one group tee off.  

1 tee

We were about to carry on when I looked at the board and it said Ian Pouter was next on Tee#1.  Wowee!!!, what were the chances of that.  There had been no sign or mention of him, and suddenly we were in the right place at the right time.  We waited and a player arrived to tee off.  We both looked very closely at him but it definitely wasn't Ian Pouter.  Hmmmm, wonder what happened there.  There were some officials there and so, once again I plucked up courage to ask them if Ian Pouter would be teeing off.  They seemed a bit confused, but I pointed out that he was showing on the board.  They asked someone else and then one of them suddenly remembered, he had tee'd off a couple of groups before and should be coming up to the second green at any time.  I thanked them immensely.  I'm sure they thought I was a crazy English woman.  Heck, they're right.  I am a crazy Brit!!!

We walked over to the 2nd green and Bryan spotted Poulter, he had just finished putting on that hole. We walked toward the third tee but it became obvious he wasn't going in that direction as he walked right past it.  Boy, can he walk fast!!!!!  We were practically running to keep sight of him.  Eventually his caddy left his golf clubs and bag on the practice grounds and went off in one direction, while Ian went off in the other.  Hmmmmm, what to do.  Well, someone had to come back for his clubs, so we sat and waited, at a distance I might add.

After what seemed like an eternity - there he is.  This lady dropped him off near to where his clubs were still sitting.  Bryan had left me sitting nearby, with all our stuff, while he went to the bathroom, so I couldn't move.  The cart in the picture is like the ones we have been given rides on here from the car park to the course. 

He went over to his clubs sitting in the practice area, and he had a new club that he had obviously gone to get.  I read later that he wasn't happy with his putter, and had to do something to it to make it better.  "Regrip" maybe????

Definitely, looking at his club.

Then, he decided he was leaving.  There was still no sign of Bryan, so I watched Poulter until he disappeared in the distance.  Drat, that was probably my only chance of speaking to him and I couldn't get near to him. I thought that maybe he would continue on with his practice round, and I was sitting by the hole that he was due to play, but realistically too much time had passed that he had probably lost his place.  I was extremely disappointed as I had been looking forward to following him around the course to see how he was playing.  Bryan returned and I explained what happened.  We waited for a while, but there was no sign of him arriving at the hole.  

We decided to carry on and walked through the practice area.  Suddenly, Bryan spotted Poulter in one of the practice areas.  He was chipping balls.  I couldn't believe it.  We watched him for a short while.

We were about to leave when it looked as though he was finishing.  We waited and as he was leaving Bryan called him over and asked for his autograph.  He obliged, although he obviously wasn't in a good mood.  I told him that my mum had been a great fan of his and that she supported Arsenal as well, but he really wasn't listening.  I was a little upset, but realized that he had a lot on his mind and so I was just grateful that he even gave us an autograph.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to Bryan for calling out to him.  Neither of us are really very pushy and normally miss out on things, rather than speak up, but he knew how much it meant to me and I'm so thankful.

I made a collage with the picture above, mum looking over him, his autograph and my ticket, as it really was just for her.  Love you Mum. xx

We were at the back of the course, so we decided to start heading back to the entrance.  We wanted to walk by Hole 9 but took a wrong turn and found ourselves by hole 16.

We turned around and started walking toward hole 9, but first we had to pass hole 18.  This is the 18th fairway looking back toward the tee.

18th Fairway

18th Tee

Eventually we got back to the 9th hole.

We were walking by the green and noticed it was quite crowded.  We looked and noticed that Tiger Woods was due to be playing this hole after the group that was on it. Hmmm, that explains the crowd.     Now neither of us was really interested in seeing Tiger Woods, he is not one of our favorites.  In fact, we don't really like him BUT how can you not stop and see him when he is about to be in front of you, and it wouldn't hurt us to have a rest.

 I spotted some space on the far side of the green, so we walked around there and set up our stools.  We were back from the rope with some other people. One of the stewards came and told us we should move down to the rope so we had a good front row view, because people would come and go in front of us and block our view.  So, we all moved and got front row seats.  We had just moved and got settled when a golf ball whizzed past and landed in the crowd to our left.  We couldn't see a player but eventually a lone player appeared.  He was playing the hole before Tigers group.

Here he comes.

He does have a lovely smile.  He seemed quite relaxed, and had 3 other players with him practicing.  It is interesting watching them play ball after ball, from different positions so they can tell how the course is playing.
On the actual tournament days, the holes are positioned in different places on the greens each day.  This means that each day is a different play. There were markers placed on each green, during the practice days, to show the different places the holes would be.  I didn't realize that happened.

So, that was that.  We were ready to go home.  We noticed there was a cart stop, where we could get a ride back to another cart to take us back to where we were parked. We decided to wait for it, and save our legs as it was quite a long walk.  It arrived and we got on and had a leisurely ride back to the entrance where we swapped carts and got a ride back to our car.

We missed getting pictures of holes 5,6,7,8 & 15.  We did see 7 & 8 as we entered the course & walked past 5 yesterday, but didn't get any pictures.  So, I guess the only ones we really missed were 6 & 15, not bad!!!

It had been another long day, with lots of walking but we thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was amazing to us that the cost to us was just the price of our gas for the car to get us there.
We decided that we would love to do it again next year. We will see.