Ray Sizer's blog
Jarrod nearly won me a playstation!!
Last night Jarrod had to go to an official function at the other Hilton
Hotel in town for all the new USPGA tour rookies. Jarrod decided to take Sally as his guest.
There was a cocktail party then an official dinner. I
offered to take Sally in his place but he declined my offer. What a waste of free cocktails, neither of them drink.
While there Sally was asked if she was Jarrods girlfriend. While Sally-Anne (now she is famous) was flattered, Jarrod was horrified at the waiters comments. On hearing this Leighton suggested that the waiter was blind.
Left at the hotel at a loose end was just John, Leighton and myself. We
decided to go out on the town. Their idea was slightly different from mine.
We ended up at the Outback Steakhouse. Wow this was going to be fun. My idea was to go on a pub crawl and check out the 341 bars in central Honolulu and try to find Paris who apparently has just been charged with drink driving in on the mainland. What an excuse to get away and come here and tuck me in. I wouldn't tell a soul where she was, except for the 33279 people reading this blog (* audited hit figures by Bud Weiser's uncle originally from Mexico, Mr Corona).
It was just amazing being in an Australian restaurant overseas. The front of the menu said "No rules, just right-Cheers menu. The inside had items such as Kookaburra wings (know as buffalo chicken here in the States), Aussie Cheese fries, Cairns' calamari, Walkabout soup, drover's platter, Rockhamton rib eye, Botany Bay catches, Toowoomba pasta and Jackeroo chops.
On the drinks menu there were eight Aussie wines. I decided to ask my old friend Bud Weiser to join us at the table still hoping to meet his friend Jack Daniels later in the evening. Bud and I had a little talk before
heading out to dinner and he wasn't going to wake me up to early in the morning.
For dinner I decided to have the Sweet Chook O' Mine. Not as good as last nights burger but at least the beer was better.
At dinner we talked about how well Jarrod had been set up by his managers even before he has hit a ball on tour. The potential is endless.
Jarrod is expecting new clothing tomorrow from his sponsor Grand Slam. I am hoping they will stuff up the order and send large instead of extra large. What a shame that would be. It's not as if they will fit John or Leighton.
I also ask Leighton if we would go and ask wether Jarrod could try out a
couple new Scotty Cameron putters (the putter that Jarrod uses). All the companies had all their wares displayed in the hope of picking up a new pro.
Jarrod didn't even need to touch it. They would be safely stowed in my
luggage for the return trip. I told Leighton if Scotty wasn't interested any brand would do. At the least I could trade them in for food.
On the way back from dinner I bought a pair of genuine original Hawaiian thongs (made in China) and a Hawaiian shirt and a couple of items from the clearout bin. I put them on to show the boys and they suggested that I should go to the beach and get friendly with Jarrods new fan club from yesterday gay beach. I was offended as my shorts clearly covered my bum cheeks unlike the ones one the beach that had their shorts so tight they were nearly coming out their mouths.
I went to get some chips from the shop down the road and again nearly got cleaned up by someone driving on the wrong side of the road. I thought about ringing the Governor of Hawaii and asking if he could get all the drivers to move to the other side of the road for the duration of our stay. That would make it much safer for us.
A little later my good friend Bud Weiser introduced me to the much younger cousin of Jack Daniels, Early Times. Jack had a more expensive date and was unable to meet us. He expressed interest in meeting me later in the week.
After a long discussion it was decided between Bud and Early that they would not hit me around the head and give me a headache. They suggested that I should meet their long lost cousin mineral springs before going to bed. I took this under advisement and declined to visit the other 340 bars I had not been to yet.
I awoke a little later than normal. Bud and Early had lied to me and I was
not impressed. I may have to decline there offer of meeting up again
tonight.
After a long refreshing shower we headed to the Pearl Country where Jarrod was playing in a satellite pro am. There were two of these today. One at the tournament course and one at Pearl. All the pros that did not get an invite to the main event were invited to this one. Jarrod actually gets paid a considerable amount just for playing.
The course was in an amazing spot. From the club house and many parts of the course you looked across Pearl Harbour and could see the Arizona memorial.
It is hard to believe you are actually there. The bombing of Pearl Harbour was on the 7th of December 1941, I share the same date but not year as my birthday.
It seemed quite ironic that most of the amateurs playing today were Japanese including Jarrods four partners. There names were Sekiya Asano, Masaru Motomatsu, Yoshiaki Yamada and Masao Motoyama. I managed to work out through their broken English that they worked for Fuji TV.
When I asked how much they had payed to play today they said a lot of money. It would have had to have been between $1000-$5000 per head.
They played an ambrose event where everyone hits off the tee and then pick the best shot and do the same until the ball is in the hole. Around the course the amateurs were given golf bags, golf shoes, hats, laptop cases, socks and jackets.
All of it had the official Sony Open logo. I tried to suck up to some of the people handing out the gear but there was no way they
were going to give me anything.
The big bonus of that day was that there was free food around the course for the players prepared by some a Hawaii's best chefs. There was no way known that anybody was going to tell me I couldn't have some. I wont need to eat for a week.
On the way round there were several skill tests chipping and putting. I gave most of them a crack for the fun of it. I was in need of hitting a golf ball after watching over the last few days. One of the skills was putting a golf ball with a putter that the end of was a metal ball the same size as the white one.
None of the nine pros that had been trough were able to get the
ball in the hole on the first go. I stepped up and hit the ball in the hole
first time to the cheers of the watching crowd. In the crowd was a stunning girl who came up and talked to me after I holed the putt. I think she was more impressed with the size of my equipment (lens!!!!) than my golfing skills.
Her name was Christine (see pic of her in Gallery pics) and she was helping the Sony staff out for the day. We talked for a while while waiting on the tee. She is Hawaiian with Japanese heritage going back four generations. All the Japanese golfers tried to talk to her but she does not speak a word of Japanese. She was stunning- I thought about asking her to have a drink with us after the game and show her my equipment up close but I'm a one girl man and I have a stunning girlfriend back home who I love very much.
On a serious not there are some stunning looking people in this part of the world. The mixture of races is amazing. I will need to look into why there is so much Japanese heritage. It has me intrigued. I know they were involved in the bombing but I thought that would make it hard for them to live here.
I have been to told most of the major corporations in Hawaii are Japanese owned.
After the game there was a meal for all the golfers and their caddies.
Jarrod had four caddies. The meal was seafood smorgasbord and there was plenty of it. Not eating much seafood I went for the noodles and beef. The beef was so rare it jumped off my plate and raced down the first fairway over the freeway and straight into Pearl Harbour. I think it was the equivalent of beef sushi. The bread rolls were beautiful.
At dinner my good friend Bud Weiser turned up. I had thought about telling him to go home but he promised to introduce me to Early Times much older and refined Cousin Chivas Regal. Chivas was very warm and needed some ice poured over him. Ah its a tough job but someone has to do it.
To conclude the evening all the players were invited to play the Japanese equivalent of paper, scissors, stone in which Jarrod finished third just missing out on a new playstation3. They gave away around $10000 in prizes. All from Sony.
After dinner we caught a Taxis back to the hotel. Little did we know that our driver was a keen golf historian. Originally from Malaysia he knew all the names both new and old. The biggest surprise was when he started singing New York New York and another song when we were 2 KM from the hotel.
He was amazing (listen to him in the audio section). We had to have a picture with him. Jarrod gave him a 10 dollar tip (the fare was paid for by Sony).
He is a very smart driver. He probably knows when he can make some extra cash. He would make more out of tips than his wage.
Back at the hotel had a talk to Jarrod about how he feels going into
tomorrow. He is obviously nervous but very positive and will be relieved
when he gets a good drive off the first tee. No matter how he plays he will go out there and have some fun and learn from the experience. Making the cut will be an amazing bonus.
Tomorrow will be a great day.
Go mate, knock em dead. We are all very proud of you.
Gotta to go to bed now. Paris is apparently in town and will be here soon to turn my bed down. I have heard that Paris knows my new friend Christine and they have talked about the large equipment I carry around. But if she wants to have a look I will tell her that it been safely put away for the night.
Aloha
Ray
|
Blog entries
|
