This afternoon I watched the leaders on the driving range. How a player warms up is rarely an indication of what he might do on the golf course. Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Jim Furyk and Ernie Els all looked comfortable in their pre-round preparations. There was Nicolas Colsaerts, a young, long-hitting Belgian. His drives soar like John Daly's did in his prime and, like that two-time major champion, Colsaerts is a cigarette smoker.
Furyk was very casual, acting like a man who has been here before. Westwood wore a look of concentration. Els appeared like he always does; lumbering along with a hint of a grimace. The South African is paired with Blake Adams, a hunting and fishing guy from Georgia. Watch out for him.
Westwood will play with Fredrik Jacobson, a 37-year-old Swede, who has an odd looking but effective golf swing. Think of Arnold Palmer with a rock star belt and tight pants.
It's an odd bunch of superstars, past major champions and journeymen on the leaderboard. It will be an exciting afternoon.
Farrell Evans covers golf for ESPN and can be contacted at evans.espn@gmail.com.
Farrell Evans
Golf- Senior golf writer for ESPN.com
- Wrote for Sports Illustrated/Golf Magazine for 9 years
- Played college golf at Florida A&M
ABOUT 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.
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