SNOQUALMIE – Give a big golf clap, please, to one Billy Sullivan, 11, who doesn’t care a whit that he’s never heard of anyone playing in the Boeing Greater Seattle Classic.
No idea who Jim Thorpe is. No clue who Tom Kite is. Same with Gary Player and Craig Stadler.
Yet, you wouldn’t know it from the Alfred E. Newman grin on his freckled face and the dozens of golfers’ signatures on his white Oakland A’s baseball cap.
“This is so cool,” he gushed.
Sullivan is a veteran autograph seeker. He has them from all Mariners, all Sonics and most of the Seahawks. He and his father, Jim, of Seattle, recently returned from a sojourn to the Seahawks training camp in Cheney to nail as many rookies and other newcomers to the team as they could.
“He’s gotten everyone else,” Jim Sullivan said.
But this was different. Sure, Billy can’t tell J.C. Snead from J.C. Penney, but he knows excellence when he sees it. On Saturday at sparkling Snoqualmie Ridge, he gawked, mouth agape, at long drives. He wondered aloud if he could drive a cart. But mostly, he stared at the golfers. Hey, athletes are athletes.
“These guys might be really, really old, but they can still play good,” he said. “They’re better than mostly everybody. It’s just cool watching them.”
That was the feeling from most of the gallery during Saturday’s second round. Few cared that some of the biggest names in the Champions Tour such as Tom Watson and Greg Norman chose to skip the tournament. Big deal. There was more than enough great golf to show the hackers how the game is played.
After all, this is big-time. And the 23-handicappers were completely taken with every moment. Some even were moved to scream “in the hole” on select drives.
“You can’t help but pick up something from these guys,” said Ed Sorenson, a self-described Sunday hacker from Pasco. “Even on the practice green, you can see what they do and you get a great look at them.”
Looking out on the practice green Sorenson was watching Hajime Meshiai, who attracted quite the following shortly before he began his round by sinking putt after putt, a cigarette dangling out of his mouth.
Fans scratched their heads at drives by former Major League pitcher Rick Rhoden, who consistently punched it straight and long, despite a follow-through that looked as though he was hitting a baseball or killing a mosquito.
“I’m just gonna toss my clubs in the dumpster,” said Seattle’s Greg Blake, who estimates his handicap at 10. “If he can get away with that mess, I’m gonna quit paying for lessons, too.”
The throng, estimated at 20,000, saved their wildest applause (as wild as a golf crowd can get) for the familiar names, such as Player, Stadler, Gil Morgan, Ben Crenshaw and Hale Irwin. Peter Jacobsen, a Pacific Northwest native who entered the second round a stroke off the pace, was an obvious fan favorite because he has the most fun of anyone on the tour. Even while playing his round, Jacobsen appeased several aggressive autograph seekers.
Jacobsen was introduced as hailing from Bonita Springs, Fla., which he quickly amended, to the delight of the crowd.
“Actually, I’m from Portland, Ore.,” he said. “But I’m playing in Florida in October, so let’s keep it there until then.”
Of course, the best moments came on the course, none better turned in by Don Pooley, who climbed into championship contention with a course record 64.
Less appealing was the almost constant hawking by sponsors, who thought little of giving away free PGA caps, potato chips and mobile phones.
“No, no and no, thank you,” said spectator Glenda Rigg, asked if she wanted to carry around some free booty.
But really, this wasn’t a day for the figurative triple bogey. Under sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s in the foothills of the Cascades, what could possibly be wrong?
“I think I’d like to start playing golf,” Billy Sullivan said.
Give him 10 years before he autographs his first baseball cap.
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