This Sunday at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial began like many in the past for my buddies and I. We headed to the 13th hole to enjoy the Caddie Races and ease our way into the final day of the tournament. We arrived around 11 a.m. and easily found a shaded spot next to the drop zone reserved for errant drives that ended up in the water that guards this famous Par 3.
The first handful of offerings of the annual Colonial derby, in which fans wager on which caddie they think will reach the green first were, in a word, "lame." Was it too early on a Sunday morning to have a little fun? Perhaps it had something to do with the players coming through being out of contention and not being in a playful mood? Or maybe a little of both?
When the Vijay Singh-David Mathis pairing arrived around 1:20 p.m., the alcohol-infused crowd was primed and ready and the caddies delivered the day's first full-on race. Chris Stroud's caddie really got the crowd ramped up as he dropped the bag and took off on a dead sprint to zoom past Ken Duke's caddie, who had a head start but still had the bag on his shoulder.
The scene continued to get better as the day wore on and big names such as John Daly, Jim Furyk and Sergio Garcia made their way through the Party Hole. I would like to give a special shout-out to the gorgeous young brunette in the royal blue dress who had every guy's attention as she walked through the crowd at No. 13 and behind the tee box toward the 12th hole.
We had a great view from high above the green on the Range Resources Sky Suite rooftop deck when Rickie Fowler, clad in his traditional Sunday orange, brought his massive gallery to the party at 13. Fowler's tee shot landed a precious few feet from the pin and drew the largest cheers of the afternoon when he tapped in for his birdie. The event's marquee attraction would go on to finish in a tie for fifth at -5.
In addition to seeing my tweets with the #CPIAC on the 13th hole's scoreboard, we noticed the excitement brewing with the leaders Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson going back and forth atop the leaderboard. The duel came to a halt when Dufner --the winner of last week's Byron Nelson in Las Colinas -- triple bogeyed the 15th hole and fell off the pace. Johnson, the 2010 Colonial champion, made things interesting on the final hole as he was assessed a two-stroke penalty for violating 20-7 of the Rules of Golf (he forget to replace his ball to the same spot on the green after moving it so Dufner could putt). Fortunately for Johnson, he had a three-stroke cushion and would win his second Colonial title in three years.
Another great PGA TOUR week in Fort Worth is in the books. For more Colonial coverage, visit here.
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