When I picked up my first golf club at the age of 14 and took a few swings, I immediately knew this game was going to be a part of the rest of my life. My friend, Mike, introduced me to the sport in which we would go down the block to a local park and practice, practice, practice. His favorite golfer back then (1970’s) was Jack Nicklaus and I was a fan of Tom Weiskopf (later I followed Dr. Gil Morgan).

 

Before Sunday, I had never seen a full round of professional golf played live with many of my heroes from 30-40 years ago and thanks to my editor and our publisher, I received two VIP tickets to the 3M Championship in Blaine.

 

I knew right away who I was going to ask to come with me. My brother David — an eight-handicap golfer himself and also a big fan of today’s and yesterday’s golf personalities.

 

The 3M Championship is a professional golf tournament on the professional Champions Tour, played annually at the TPC Twin Cities in Blaine. Well-known golfers from all over the world attend the tournament, though this year’s class was less-than-stellar as the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and the legends of Nicklaus and Palmer were not in attendance.

 

It didn’t make the event any less spectacular.

 

After arriving at the TPC Sunday morning around 10 a.m., my brother and I headed to the driving range where our brother-in-law, Mark Edwards, was volunteering. We chatted briefly with Mark, then ducked out of his way and headed to one of the course’s most popular holes — the seventh.

 

Dubbed “Tom’s Thumb” in reference to PGA tour player and course consultant Tom Lehman, the green on this 318-yard par-4 may be reached with a long and accurate tee shot that carries the lake on the left side and avoids the massive bunkers short and right of the green. A conservative tee shot into the fairway will often render an approach of less than 100 yards to the two-tiered green.

 

My brother, David, had attended the 3M Championship’s third round Saturday, so he knew where to go and what to see while I followed him around because of my unfamiliarity with the course.

 

Neither one of us knew what delights our VIP tickets had in store for us once we found our pavillion.

 

We had a quick run-through of the Pro Shop and grabbed a few sodas before we decided to get out of the sweltering sun and find our venue. We walked by many of the tented pavillions surrounding the 18th green until we found the one titled, “Executive Tent”. We both probably looked a little star struck at the convenient and well-placed temporary structure, but we ascended the stairs with eagernesss and were approached by a ticket-taker.

She glanced at our tickets a few times noting the ticket indeed said, “executive skybox” and she pointed to some plastic lawn chairs in the middle of the stands and told us we could sit on any of the white chairs.

 

Wow. We both were excited and pleased to have such good seats out of the sun and in comfortable surroundings as she told us the food would be coming out soon and the bar was open for our free drinks.

“Free drinks? Free food?” I said to myself. David turned to me and said exactly what I was thinking.

 

We sheepishly sat down in the uncrowded seats and just smiled at each other.

 

“This is nice,” David said to me.

 

“I know, right?” I said back to him.

 

But there was more.

 

About five minutes later, the ticket taker asked to see our passes again and told us we didn’t have to sit in the lawn chairs, but could move to one of the half-moon tables a row closer. She gave us a colored wristband to use to come and go and apologized for not guiding us to our proper table.

 

We were now feeling mighty privileged.

 

We took our seats at a table that had a giant Spire Credit Union logo on it and settled in with our cameras and binoculars. The view was spectacular and just as we settled into our comfy seats, the first trio of golfers was teeing off on the 582-yard, par-5 18th hole.

 

Moments later, the same ticket-taker approached and asked if we would move from the Spire table to the Callaway table since the VIPs from Spire had just arrived.

 

“No problem,” we said as we found a table even closer to the railing.

 

About a half hour later, some people from Callaway showed up and had us moved again, but this time the ticket taker said, “Sit up there,” as she pointed to a front row table, “They probably won’t be showing up.”

 

I can’t remember whose name was emblazoned on the table but the seats were ideal, right along the rail overlooking the large sandtrap on the 18th hole.

 

The food was fantastic, too as we enjoyed a first course of beef brisket sandwiches, fruits and a salad and an hour or two later, they brought out chicken wings. Our brother-in-law, Mark went off-duty at around 1:30 and he joined us for the final six or seven golfing trios to close out the day.

 

By the way, Joe Durant was the eventual winner of the tournament after he eagled the 18th on the first playoff hole over Miguel Angel Jimenez.

 

“That was great,” my brother exclaimed after watching what he described as the most exciting round of live golf he’s ever seen. “This was so much fun and we got to see it all from a perfect viewpoint.”

 

It was perfect. Thank you Gary and thank you ECM for the special treat. The food was delicious, the drinks were refreshing and the golf was second-to-none.

 

Oh yeah, I also got to see one of my golfing idols from years past — Dr. Gil Morgan (no relation). 

 

This was all something I would have never been able to experience had I not grasped that old seven-iron back in ‘76.