Heaven on Earth

For those of you having withdrawal symptoms because my post hasn't gone up today -- I feel your pain but now the wait is over.



I spent the day at the PGA Championship golf tournament being held this week at the Medinah Country Club. (Upper left photo). It's the last of the four golf major tournaments and since the British Open and Masters will never be held around Chicago it was worth taking off work and delaying my daily blog post to go see the best golfers on earth. (Sergio Garcia at right).

From 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. I was cut off from the real world. Unplugged from The Matrix. No cells phones or radios allowed in during the Wednesday practice round. (I did smuggle in my Nokia and a friend's Motoroal RAZR so so much for security). I wasn't able to check email or watch cable. The weather was perfect and world-class golfers were everywhere, (Davis Love III left) including a wife or two. (Rory Sabatini's wife below right). But no news. It was like being on Fantasy Island. I knew a major golf tournament was special and the weather was perfect but I think what made the day even more blissful was that the fetid buzz of news in the background was gone. Blocked out by the walls protecting the golf course. It was like heaven on Earth. Blue skies, low humidity, comfortable temperatures, superstar and obscure golfers alike practicing for a Superbowl-like golf tournament and no Fox News. No internet reminding me that the world is sour and violent and depressing. No Ann Coulter calling Bill Clinton a "latent homosexual." Just peace and quiet and golf played at the highest level ever achieved.

After a day at the PGA Championship I found out that I can be uncranky for more than a few nanoseconds. I found out that the next closest major to Chicago is in 2008 - the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills near Detriot - and that tickets don't go on sale until August 2007. I also found out that some sick dude got arrested in Thailand for the rape/murder of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. Crap. The real world's tide of monsters is hard to fully hold at bay. In the word's of Marlin, Nemo's dad, "Good feelings gone."