Maddie's FIRST Golf Tourny!

I gotta say this... Maddie's daddy deserves A LOT of credit. When a major golf tournament comes to town, I'm guessing that most men think, "wahoo - guys day out!" Did I mention that he had VIP tickets which were donated by the Sr. VP of HSBC? Well, daddy decided to take Maddie and mommy to a day of golf... with Ernie Els, Paul Casey, and Retief Goosen to name a few.

Maddie decided to wear her pinkest dress possible for the 2007 BMW Asian Golf Classic here in Shanghai. We arrived at 8:00am with our VIP tickets and parking pass in hand and made our way to the Fairway Club where we showed the nice people are VIP tickets so that we could enter. We enjoyed a leisurely champagne brunch while looking over the 18th green before we decided to actually watch some golf! We watched a few people tee off before heading over to see Paul Casey make birdie on the 6th hole. I've never seen so many news cameras and photographers with such big lens' before and what's funny is that they all turned their attention to the little girl in the pink dress telling her mommy "shhh" while Paul Casey set up his shot. I wander if she'll appear in some magazine or on a sports channel somewhere in this world!

Maddie was a trooper and walked 9 holes with us. Actually, daddy was a trooper because he carried Maddie on his shoulders most of the way. One of my favorite shots was when we were sitting on the back of the 2nd green watching a French golfer trying to make eagle and she was more interested in the grass and the holes in leaves! At least she was quiet... well, she was quiet most of the time! She finally feel asleep around 12:30 so we parked at the 5th hole for awhile to watch a few pairs play through before heading back to the VIP Fairway Club for the rest of the afternoon. Why watch golf in the sun, humidity and heat when you can sit in the comfort of A/C? HA!

We enjoyed another great buffet lunch and headed downstairs where we sat and watched golfers for about 4 hours. Andy was trying to convince me that it really wasn't normal to be sitting on white leather couches in the A/C, 4 feet from the 18th green, having servers in tuxedos bringing drinks on a whim. Well, I just can't believe that and that standard has been set! ;) In actuality, Maddie slept the entire afternoon, but we watched all of the leaders finish on the 18th green and chatted and dreamed about things to come while waiting for the next pair of golfers to come through - it really was a perfectly relaxing day - finally.

Thanks Andy for being such a great husband, a great daddy, and for including us girls in your golfing fun! WE LOVE YOU!

Why, yes.... that is Ernie Els!