Since we totally missed the best shot of the tournament the previous day, we were out the door and on the road early, committed to staying until the end. The girls even made some colorful signs to flash towards our faves; "We love you, Adam" and "Go Tigers!". Who knew the media frenzy we'd cause.
The 2nd green was deserted when we arrived. We parked ourselves right at the ropes where the players have to walk by. We watched the top half of the pack shoot for the pin and with each passing group the crowd around us grew. Since we were sitting on the ground with the green in front of us, claustrophobia wasn't a problem, but, man, people were packed behind us like sardines. When Jonathan Byrd came through, we flashed the "Go, Tigers!" I wondered, after the fact, if folks got the connection or if they thought we were cheering for a non-present Woods.
By the time Adam's group arrived, we couldn't have moved unless we followed the players inside the ropes. The girls were itching to hold up the 'Adam' sign, but Larry made them wait until all three players had hit their shots into the green. Each one of us girls, sitting next to each other, held a sign with a word. We sat perfectly still and waited until we were noticed. And, boy, were we noticed. The media swarmed us, cameras were clicking, videos were rolling and the announcers stood off to the side relaying it all to whomever was listening on the other end. Granted, most of the media was Asian, and we will never know exactly who saw us. But we ended up on one of ESPN's affiliate stations, AND Adam got a big kick out of it. This happened to be the day after his caddie, Steve Williams, was under fire for making off-color comments about Tiger. He even managed a chuckle.
We moved quickly to the 16th green and stayed there until the final groups came through. Things didn't go so well for Adam and he was basically out of contention, but we cheered anyways. Martin Kaymer caught fire on the back nine and overtook third round leader Frederik Jacobsen.
When it looked like more rain was coming and the temperature dropped, we said good-bye to SheShan. The past three years at the tournament have provided some wonderful memories and chances are we won't get to mingle with players like we did there at any US tournaments. But, who knows...stranger things have happened.
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