Wow, it’s been a while since I have found the time and a subject worth writing about. First of all, Happy New Year everyone! I know that we are almost half a month into the new year, but oh well, better late than never right?

So for the last I don’t know how many years the PGA Tour has made an annual stop on O’ahu in the form of the Sony Open in Hawaii (formerly known as the United Airlines Hawaiian Open and before that just the Hawaiian Open). It’s kind of neat to see the golfers that you see on TV up close and in person. I actually used to volunteer as a standard bearer (which is super cool since you actually get to go inside the ropes) and that is why I have a collection of autographed golf balls (including one from the number one player on the planet Vijay Singh). It is really amazing when you think about the little sub-cultures that exist in this world. Last year I got a glimpse into two more of them (scuba divers and motorcycle riders). The golf sub-culture is one that has its own language (for example: inside the ropes, up and down, etc.), its own heroes and its own holy cities (although the chances of me playing Pebble Beach, Augusta National or Pine Valley are about as good as me winning a lottery).

Today I took another little step deeper into the sub-culture that is tournament golf. If you ever watch a telecast of a PGA Tour event you’ll notice that there are many bleachers set up around the golf course. The ones on the 18th green are normally the largest and most boisterous (usually because that’s where the round ends). Now within those bleachers there are two distinct sections. There are the bleachers that are open to the general public and there are the bleachers that are not.

Here’s what happens. Certain corporations spend thousands of dollars to sponsor a skybox so that they can entertain and invite the important people and impress them. I was lucky enough to be one of those important people. I had a pass to the AIG skybox (which apparently was co-sponsored by First Hawaiian Bank, I even got to sit right next to Walter Dods). When I got in there I saw rows of chairs overlooking the 18th green and tables and two TVs (one showing the NFL playoffs and the other the telecast of the Sony Open). There was also tons of free food. It was great. There was sushi platters, musubi platters (katsu, spam and chicken), noodles, baked brie, fried chicken, yakitori chicken, short ribs, sandwiches, chips, soup and desserts. There was also an open bar with all the drinks you could drink. But the most impressive part of the skybox was the little freezer in the corner that was stocked with Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches and Haagen Daz ice cream bars. I couln’t resist the temptation so I was forced to eat a Coffee/Almond Crunch bar, a Vanilla/Almond bar and a Raspberry Sorbet/Yogurt bar. Definitely one of the highlights of my day.

Of course there was also a tournament going on so we had to go and watch the fun too. Saturday is traditionally known as “moving day” since it’s when a lot of players move up or down the leaderboard. Vijay Singh moved up and Justin Rose moved down. We actually spent most of our day following the lead pairing Shigeki Maruyama and Justin Rose (well most of the back nine anyway) and also the Lehman/Sluman pairing and the Azinger/Quigley pairing. It’s always amazing how good these guys really are. It seems that they can save par from anywhere.

Now I’m home and tired and ready for bed. It’s a good thing that there is absolutely nothing going on tonight so that I can go over my budget and get to bed early. Well, with that I’m off to bed.