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11. On 11, Harry sprints ahead into the fairway. Just before he leaves he tells us, "I'm going to give you guys hand signals because you won't be able to see where your ball lands." A safe sign from Harry means your ball is in good shape. An incomplete pass sign means you're in trouble.
After my drive I get the safe sign. Then I turn to Tardio and hand sign that I'm DTFI. Tardio is not DTFI on this hole. In fact, he not only double bunkers his shots along the fairway, he pulls off the incredible triple bunker. It's starting to spit rain a bit and I can hear him cursing at himself from a distance of 100 yards.
Meanwhile I hit my second shot and Harry gives me another fist bump. The wind is ridiculous by now. Swirling so hard on the fairway that it's actually a little hard to walk straight into it. Harry and I push our way up to where Tardio is standing, staring down at his third ball to land in the sand. The ball is wedged up against the lip of the bunker and is almost impossible to play.
"Harry," Tardio says, "this ball is f'ed."
Harry looks at the ball then over at me and then back down at the ball. "Yep," he says, "I'm your caddy and that ball's f'ed."
We lose it. Our caddy has brought down the golfing house. Eventually we reach the green. I squat down and read the green and prepare to putt. Harry stops me. "You're aiming the wrong direction," he says.
He squats down beside me and shows a subtle break that I claim I can see even though I can't really see it. "Oh, yeah," I say. I manage a 6. Tardio takes a 9. Ouch. 12. My shot of the day comes on the par-4 12th. After a decent drive I'm facing an uphill lie on a hillside that I can't see over and the green is down below. (This is the picture from the first day's column where it looks like Harry and I are in deep consultation on the proper decision to make.)
Instead of being a pansy I decide to take a run at the green. I strike the ball and as soon as it takes off I can tell it's going to be good. I sprint up over the hill in time to see my second shot come within 10 feet of the hole. I yelp in glee. Then I miss the birdie putt. But I tap in for par. This is my second par. I'm walking on Sawgrass air.
13. My glee is extremely short-lived. On the par-3 13th, Harry sprints down the fairway to a point where he can tell us whether or not our shots are in good shape. From the tee-box we can't see the ground around the pin. I tee off first and the result is not good. At all. There's water to our left and my shot goes about 40 yards and dunks into the water. Everyone else gets the safe sign from Harry after their shots.
When we get closer to him, Tardio says, "How come you didn't give the incomplete sign after Clay's shot?"
"That shot wasn't worth a sign," Harry says. Eventually I manage a 6.
14. At the 14th tee box we catch up with a group of rich guys from New York who are smoking cigars and waving us through. I say they're rich because while we tee off they offer Harry $500 to jump into the water. Also, they're so drunk they can barely stand. I'm all for drinking, but not on a superb golf course (exception: at a charity scramble, get wasted). There's also a hot cart girl providing the New Yorkers with more beer as we prepare to tee off.
Since they're waving us through we all have to tee off in front of a crowd. This is the great golfing test; can you hit a decent shot when someone is being courteous enough to let you pass? All I ever want to do is make sure the ball's in the air and goes a long way. I don't even care about whether the ball goes straight. We all hit great opening shots. Once we're back in the cart Tardio turns to me. "I think the cart girl liked me," he says.
On the green I barely miss a par putt and settle for bogey. A sub-100 round is still possible.
15. On my second shot at the par-4 15th, I land in a pond. Tardio has equally bad luck. On his second shot Harry tells him to aim for the trees to the left of the green because the wind will push his ball down just beside the pin. Tardio does as he's instructed. And hits a great approach directly into the trees. The ball ricochets off the trunk of a tree and is nowhere close to the green. Harry watches the result and then says, "Hmmm, I've never seen that happen before."
I take a 6 and Tardio is still fuming when we get back into the cart. "I trust Harry so much that when he told me to hit a ball into the trees I did it without even thinking. Never again. Never."
16. On the par-5 16th, you get your first glimpse of the famous island green on 17. The right side of the fairway is the water that surrounds the island. I manage to string together a series of decent shots to eventually find myself with a par putt. Which I miss badly. I settle for a decent comeback bogey.
Meanwhile, Tardio is DTFI once again. He birdies the hole and comes back to the golf cart full of vim and vigor. "What if Harry said, 'Man, I really like Clay's Power Chambers.'"
17. And then the island came. We all pause for Harry to take individual pictures of us beside the sign for the famous island green. The green seems so tantalizingly close, just hovering out there at a little over 120 yards. "Back right Sunday pin placement," Harry says as if we needed any more trepidation.
The wind is swirling at least 20 mph and the rain is spitting down on us. It's like the Deadliest Catch TPC. Much discussion about the proper club to use ensues. I settle on a 7-iron. Tardio has honors after his birdie. He strikes the ball and it climbs high and true into the air and then comes to rest on the green, just 5 feet from the hole. For good measure, Tardio yells, "Get in the hole."
Later, in the TPC clubhouse, Tardio will stand in front of the list of players who have gotten holes in one at 17 and say, "My name was almost here."
