I was out at Whispering Pines today. Here's some notes and observations:
1) Outstanding weather and outstanding golf course. I hope I get a chance to play it one day. Decent crowd supporting the Ags, but not great considering the proximity.
2) A couple interesting notes about Bronson. I was talking to a few of his teammates today and they said in the qualifier leading up to the tournament, he was +8 with 6 holes to go in his first round. Birdied in to shoot 74. Then birdied his first four holes of the second round. Total of 10 birdies in a row. Unreal.
His swing still looks tour-level good (as in mechanics, tempo, etc.), but he was spraying the ball today. He doubled 2, tripled 5 after taking an unplayable, and pretty much played from the trees the whole day. Had some nice saves and grinded it out for a while, but looked exhausted after his tee shot on 15 went in the water. Kind of threw in the towel after that. One lesson he still needs to learn is that character is defined by how you react when things don't go your way. Drives don't always split the fairway and 8-footers don't always go in. But like Tiger says, you should finish every round knowing you gave every shot your all. I think the game just comes too easy for him sometimes.
3) I follewed Gates for a few holes and man, he was hot out of the gate. 4 under through 5. I though he was in for a special round. Then on six, he hit his drive way left into the trees, punched out into a hazard, from which he was able to advance the ball about 20 yards. But even with all that, he was laying 3 from about 40 yards out and still had a decent opportunity to make bogey (par 4) and keep his momentum going. But he his shot barely made it on the putting surface (pin was in the way back) and three putted. To his credit, he grinded it out from there.
4) All I have to say about Andrea is wow.
If any of y'all have the opportunity to get out there tomorrow, you should definitely do it.