Sheesh, if we could only get this much exposure for regular season PGA Tour events -- or even some majors (remember not being able to watch Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson play together on Thursday morning at this year's PGA Championship because TV coverage hadn't started yet?) -- we'd be all set.
The Grand Slam tournament officials also really want us, the media, to cover the event. Not that I'm ever against a trip to beautiful Poipu Bay in Kauai, but a four-man Silly Season event that takes place during the two days preceding Thanksgiving is a tough sell, to say the least. That hasn't stopped the PR folks from lavishing golf reporters with (sort of) interesting items from the tournament in advance. So far, I've received a box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts (you know, 'cause the event is in Hawaii; can't say I wouldn't have preferred a pineapple, though), a large poster featuring this year's competitors (actually, Tiger is shown twice, but, what the heck, he's Tiger, so why not?) and a hologram of the four players (think those old "Sportflics" baseball cards, replete with fist-pump action).
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Golf Editor, ESPN.comABOUT THIS BLOG
Michael Collins has been writing for ESPN.com since yesterday. He started out as a stand up comedian and fell into PGA Tour golf and caddying completely by accident in 1998.
He started looping for fun in 1999 but by 2003 had decided to make it a full time gig. He won the Nationwide Tour Championship with Chris Couch in 2003 and was on the bag for Kevin Streelman when they captured the inaugural Kodak Challenge in 2009.
Michael has never won an award for his writing, probably because he failed high school English and still types with his index fingers. But he's smart, funny, and most importantly knows the game/players/caddies and what they go through on a week-to-week basis and brings a caddie perspective that's different than anything you've ever seen when it comes to golf coverage.
Farrell Evans grew up in Forsyth, Ga., 60 miles south of Atlanta, where he learned the game at the Forsyth Golf Club, an 18-hole public course. After high school, he played on the golf team at Florida A&M University and interned with the PGA Tour at the TPC at Sawgrass.
Before joining ESPN.com in August 2011, he was a golf writer for nine years at Sports Illustrated. He currently lives in Harlem and can be contacted at evans.espn@gmail.com.
Bob Harig is a golf writer for ESPN.com and has been covering the game for more than 20 years, first at the St. Petersburg Times and for the last four years at ESPN.com. He began contributing to ESPN.com in 1997.
Harig is a native of Barrington, Ill., where he got his first exposure to golf as a caddie at Inverness Golf Club, where he earned an Evans Scholarship to attend Indiana University. He graduated with degrees in journalism and history.
Harig lives in Florida and can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com
Kevin Maguire is the senior golf editor for ESPN.com and covered his first PGA Tour event in 1994 while at American University in Washington, D.C. He played collegiately for the Eagles and graduated with a degree in print journalism.
Maguire grew up in the Philadelphia, Pa. area and now resides outside of Hartford, Conn. He has been with ESPN since February, 2007 and can be reached at Kevin.Maguire@espn.com.
Justin Ray is a senior researcher with ESPN Stats and Information. He has contributed to ESPN's golf coverage since joining the network out of college in 2008. He is based in Austin, Texas with the new Longhorn Network.
He can be contacted at Justin.Ray@espn.com.