Greetings from New Orleans and the Zurich Classic.

Last week, some of you may have seen my scores (81-78) at the Verizon Heritage and wondered what happened. Here's the story behind the scenes: with the way the priority system works on the PGA Tour, my "category" is at the low end of the totem pole. All that really means is that I have to wait and see if I can get in to a certain number of tournaments.

Last week, I was not planning on playing because I was the 14th alternate on Monday morning. Usually, between 4 and 8 guys withdraw per week. So I wasn't planning on playing. Wednesday morning - while I was in Arizona - I received a call saying that I had moved all the way up to the third alternate. I started scrambling to get my stuff together, caught a flight from 3:30 p.m. flight from Phoenix to Atlanta. Then I had to connect in Atlanta to get to Savannah, GA. From Savannah, I would then drive Hilton Head, South Carolina, home of the tournament.

I was supposed to arrive at 1130 p.m. on Wednesday. Instead, I got into Savannah at about 12:30 a.m. As it turned out, the rental car company I had my reservation with in Savannah closed at midnight. After about 20-30 minutes I figured "I've got to get there" and I jumped in a cab (Hilton Head is about an hour north of Savannah).


As the cab driver starts putting my stuff in the trunk, I noticed that there was another person - an older woman - already in the cab. I didn't have much of a choice at this moment, so I jumped in the cab. Only then did I find out that we had to drop off this woman at her house...which was thirty minutes SOUTH of Savannah.

After dropping off my fellow passenger, I then settled in for what was now my (lengthy) drive to Hilton Head. 1 1/2 hours and $75 later I got to my hotel room in Hilton Head. After finally checking into my room at 3 a.m., I set my wake up call for 5 am…I arrived at the golf course at 6:30 a.m. and started waiting to see if I was going to play. Once I got to the course, I found out that I had moved all the way up to 1st aleternate. It's really weird feeling showing up at a golf course not knowing if you are even in the tournament or not, because you're trying to get warmed up and focused, but you aren't even sure if you're going to play.

At 8:30 a.m. the cross-country trip was worth every second, because I found out that Justin Rose had withdrawn from the tournament and I would be filling his place…I hadn't seen an inch of the course, so I decided to go and walk the golf course and actually see it. I took my yardage book, with me, walked a bit of the course, came back, had some lunch and was off on the first tee around 12:30.

As for a caddy, I just found a guy who was hanging around there looking for a bag and used him. It was pretty funny, because I felt like a zombie out there. After the round, I was completely wiped out. Since I was working on about two hours worth of sleep, I got back to the hotel, ordered room service, and fell asleep before the food even showed up at my door.

Even though I didn't play very well and miss the cut I take this as a great learning experience because I was able to see the course for next year's event. Also, just the opportunity to get two more rounds in me in PGA Tour conditions always helps. It was unfortunate that it took so long to get there, but had I not made that trip I would have been sitting at home kicking myself.

Now I'm in New Orleans, getting ready for the Zurich Classic…It's nice to get back to a normal week of preparation. My wife and I have been taking in the sights and sounds of New Orleans. I met (New York Giants quarterback) Eli Manning last night, and Peyton and Archie Manning were with him at a Hootie and the Blowfish concert. They were playing for charity, and for the opportunity to help rebuild New Orleans…It's been a great week so far, and we look forward to sharing our experiences next week!