Double P :: The Official Blog

I'm writing this blog from the plane flying from JAX to DFW, sitting next to PP.

As many of you know, I usually spend Monday through Wednesday on the road with PP and my other boy Todd Fischer.

This past week, being such a big tournament - I stayed out for the entire week... and what a great week it was. My sister Josie was on a six week vacation and has never seen PP play on American soil, though she did catch his first British Open last year. Having her in the mix the past few days made the whole PLAYERS Championship experience that much better.

TAIII and Fish always team up during the Tuesday practice round against PP and who ever the fourth may be. This time it happened to be some guy from Fiji by the name of Singh. Armour and Fish were undefeated this year until Vijay and PP teamed up. In the end, it was quite mess as Captain Fiji and The Kid are a pretty solid tandem. I'd take them against anyone.

Fish has the ability to hit a shank on call and throughout the year we've had some fun with that. People watching practice rounds are shocked that a Tour player could actually hit such a bad shot. Being there was a solid gallery out there on Wednesday, we decided to have some fun with it on the 17th hole.

The practice round started with PP, Fish, TAIII and Billy Andrade - who was only going to play nine. Jason Gore joined us on the tenth and brought out told old clubs -- props, if you will -- for the historic 17th tee.

The first order of business was the caddy shot. On Wednesday at the PLAYERS Championship, the caddies all get to hit one shot off the 17th. It's their one and only swing of the day - in front of a couple thousand people and after carrying the bag for sixteen holes, no less. Closest to the pin gets a pool of money donated by the players.

PP's caddy Michael Hartford - a fine player in his own right - stood up there and did our squad proud, nailing a nine iron right into the heart of the green about 12 feet from the cup. The eventual winner left is about six feet away.

After the Great H's stellar shot, it was on to the Tour players. PP, TAIII and JG all hit it on the green. Up next, the Fish man. I stepped in to give him some last minute 'advice' and using one of Gore's 'prop' clubs, proceeded to shank it into the water. The crowd was a little shocked, but we all kept a straight face. I went up to him with more 'advice' and he hit an even worse shank 45 degrees right. He played up the anger and threw his club directly into the lake. By this time the crowed was shocked. JG pulled the other 'prop' club out and told Fish to give it a go with that one.

After purposely hitting his third straight shank into the water, he snapped the club over his knee. It was hilarious. PP was barreled over on the floor wheezing and at that moment, the crowd finally got the joke. Fish took out one of his own clubs and proceeded to knock it on the green, birdie the hole and the crowd responded with a loud ovation. It was priceless...

Tune in tomorrow for Part II of Coach Michael Owen's PLAYER Championship blog entry....