Brennans Caddy Report-Bob Hope Chrysler Classic

One of the things that people have been asking about are equipment changes.  Mike did very little tinkering with his equipment over the off season but has made a few changes.  He is still using the same set of irons that he finished with last year.  They are a custom iron, a lot like the TaylorMade RAC TPS (3-PW), with a slight variation in the offset.  The sand wedges are the same, Vokey 54 and 59 degree wedges.  All the irons have true temper shafts that are basically s300's.  Mike's driver is a TaylorMade R7 with a UST pro-force prototype shaft that he used in the last few events of 2005.  The three wood is an R7 as well with an aldila shaft, and the 5 wood is a 19 degree loft also with an aldila shaft.  Putter is a Monza Corza that is 34 inches long. 

There hasn't been a lot of new equipment out this year, but with the PGA Merchandise show coming up in a few weeks I am sure we will see some new stuff soon.  Most equipment manufacturers bring their new products out for the annual show in Florida, so that it can be seen by club pros around the country. 

This week we are in Palm Desert, California for the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.  The event is very unique on the PGA TOUR in that we play 4 different courses through five rounds, beginning Wednesday.  There is also a celebrity field in this event, where PGA TOUR players are paired up with 3 celebrities.  This year, Mike plays with Alice Cooper, Justin Timberlake and Darius Rucker at the Bermuda Dunes Country Club on Wednesday.  On Thursday we play La Quinta CC with Roger Clemens, Mike Eruzione and Matthew McConughey.  Friday at the PGA West course Mike plays with Samuel L Jackson, Anthony Anderson, and his good friend George Lopez.  Saturday, at the Classic Club Course, celebrities David Rosow, Henry Homes and Rush Limbaugh will play with Mike. 

It makes for a long but enjoyable week when playing with amateurs everyday.  The exciting thing for the event this year is the addition of the new Classic Club to the rotation.  It is replacing Indian Wells Country club which happened to be one of the easiest courses on tour, so the change will make the event more exciting for everyone.  The Classic Course is a Arnold Palmer design that has water on 14 of the 18 holes, but only comes into play on 9 of the holes.  It is not like the other courses we play in the desert as it is much longer and has two par 5s that are not going to be reachable for a lot of the field.  Most of the par 5s in the event are long par 4s for the tour players and are one of the reasons that the winning score is 30 under sometimes!

Along with all the water the holes are protected on the other side of the fairway by large traps.  I think you will see lots of guys playing away from the water and hitting into the fairway bunkers this week.  With this event starting on Wednesday, it doesn't give the guys a lot of time to play or see all the courses so most guys wont have played the Classic Club in its entirety.  This will lead to a lot of conservative play the first few rounds.  Look for some better scores on Sunday when everyone has seen the course once and realizes the best way to play each hole.

The other three courses are very familiar to the field:  PGA West, La Quinta CC, and Bermuda Dunes.  Bermuda Dunes is by far the easiest course and one that is not very long.  It has a lot of birdie holes and if a PGA Tour player gets hot they can shoot an 8 or 9 under par. The other two courses are challenging but are very scorable with the good conditions we usually get here in desert.  The weather is one reason that the scores are always so low here, the wind is usually down and the temperature is always great.

Overall I really enjoy coming to the desert.  I spent three winters out here during my Canadian Tour days and still have a lot of friends that come out to support us.  The weather is always great and the event can be really exciting especially when Mike plays well.  Mike also really enjoys the format of the event and playing with the celebrities.  It would be nice to get things rolling here this week and get the year off to a great start. 

Thanks for reading,

Brennan Little

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