Natalie and I attended the 2nd round of the BMW Asian Open today. It is held at a Tomson Golf Villa's near our home. In fact, Tom and I looked at a house there. The weather today was perfect so we packed a picnic lunch and headed out around 9:30 am. I had printed some instructions to the course in Chinese and gave them to our driver, Zhang Biao, and he nodded, which I assumed meant he knew where we wanted to go! I had no tickets as they were supposed to be at some "Will Call" booth, so I left it all to Zhang Biao to figure out how to get us in. He did! Once we got to the gate, we had to 
have a 3 minute conversation with the guard who eventually pointed us through. Then Zhang Biao dropped us at a bus. The bus took us to the main entrance. Once in the line labeled "No tickets", I figured we were safe. Sometimes when you choose to do an event like this, knowing that you don't speak the language nor how the process might work, you have to be prepared for delays or changes. No such case today, everything was good. Once in, Natalie and I found the group with John Daly in it and followed them around until Natalie's legs couldn't keep up and my back couldn't carry her anymore! She did manage to snap a photo of John's bag, he had funny headcovers on his drivers. There were about 20 people following this group, which was one of the bigger ones that I saw. I think there 
were quite a few Japanese folks there today. And actually quite a few Americans. We sat down at the 6th hole (John had started on the back nine) and ate a snack. Pretty soon, Daly and his group came up to the 6th hole green. Unfortunately John did not play well today, though he played better than yesterday. Today he shot a 76. Yesterday, a 79. The combined 155 has him at around 146 with about half the players having finished. Probably not good enough to play to tomorrow. He was not too happy the one chance we had to say hi, but I joined several other Americans yelling "good job John". He was actually pretty gracious as soon as he walked out of the scorers tent. He seemed to be a pretty nice guy. We also got to see Ernie Els (man, is he tall!) record a commercial for what sounded a UK station. I am sure all the golf fans reading this will be disappointed to know that I really didn't get to see many great shots as it was hard to keep up with Natalie in tow. The last experience Natalie and I had going to a golf Tournament was the 2005 Senior Open. I think that Tomson is nice course, but not quite as green or lush as the NCR Country Club. But for any of you thinking about coming over and golfing, there are quite a few courses within an hour or two of Shanghai.
have a 3 minute conversation with the guard who eventually pointed us through. Then Zhang Biao dropped us at a bus. The bus took us to the main entrance. Once in the line labeled "No tickets", I figured we were safe. Sometimes when you choose to do an event like this, knowing that you don't speak the language nor how the process might work, you have to be prepared for delays or changes. No such case today, everything was good. Once in, Natalie and I found the group with John Daly in it and followed them around until Natalie's legs couldn't keep up and my back couldn't carry her anymore! She did manage to snap a photo of John's bag, he had funny headcovers on his drivers. There were about 20 people following this group, which was one of the bigger ones that I saw. I think there 
were quite a few Japanese folks there today. And actually quite a few Americans. We sat down at the 6th hole (John had started on the back nine) and ate a snack. Pretty soon, Daly and his group came up to the 6th hole green. Unfortunately John did not play well today, though he played better than yesterday. Today he shot a 76. Yesterday, a 79. The combined 155 has him at around 146 with about half the players having finished. Probably not good enough to play to tomorrow. He was not too happy the one chance we had to say hi, but I joined several other Americans yelling "good job John". He was actually pretty gracious as soon as he walked out of the scorers tent. He seemed to be a pretty nice guy. We also got to see Ernie Els (man, is he tall!) record a commercial for what sounded a UK station. I am sure all the golf fans reading this will be disappointed to know that I really didn't get to see many great shots as it was hard to keep up with Natalie in tow. The last experience Natalie and I had going to a golf Tournament was the 2005 Senior Open. I think that Tomson is nice course, but not quite as green or lush as the NCR Country Club. But for any of you thinking about coming over and golfing, there are quite a few courses within an hour or two of Shanghai. 
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