Danica on the course

By |  October 3, 2013
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Either Seth could play small forward for the Lakers or height isn’t a necessity to drive a race car. Or maybe a little bit of both… Photo: BASF

Awesome round at Pinehurst No. 2 yesterday. A huge shout-out to our friends at BASF for making that round happen. I won’t tell you what I shot, but I will tell you that I was about 15 shots worse this round than when I played it at the Golfdom Summit in 2011. That 2011 round was a special one for me, maybe even my best ever, considering the course. It maybe helped that I was playing with one of my best friends, Thomas Lervik Jr. Who knows? But I could have guessed that I wouldn’t recapture that magic from 2011…

So, anyway. Before my round, I’m doing video interviews with Dr. Bruce Martin and some of the BASF brass. I’m out by the bag drop. And I see this pretty brunette who looks just like Danica Patrick. But it couldn’t be Danica Patrick because Danica Patrick is way taller than that, right?

I walk by her about three different times, and each time I tell myself, “That can’t be Danica Patrick.”

After our round is over, there’s a small crowd of people waiting around No. 18 green (thankfully I hit a nice wedge into 18.) Was this typical? Probably not a crowd of this size… because they were all waiting for Danica Patrick to finish her round.

I slap my forehead and cuss under my breath. I mean, I had my video equipment all set up, and Danica was just standing there. I’m such an idiot, you know? But maybe I could redeem myself…

Danica hit a nice shot into 18, drawing applause from the crowd. I waited for her to finish up with her caddie… and then I introduced myself.

Total sweetheart. That’s her boyfriend, fellow driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., with us. I got photos of myself with them as well as some pics of my BASF colleagues with them. Turned out great. An absolutely lovely couple.

You know this photo is going in the next issue’s Golfdom Gallery, right? Well, you saw it here first!

And thanks to Danica and Ricky for being so cool and friendly after their busy day at Pinehurst.

This is posted in Columns, People

About the Author: Seth Jones

Seth Jones, a 25-year veteran of the golf industry media, is Editor-in-Chief of Golfdom magazine and Athletic Turf. A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Jones began working for Golf Course Management in 1999 as an intern. In his professional career he has won numerous awards, including a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) first place general feature writing award for his profile of World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman and a TOCA first place photography award for his work covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In his career, Jones has accumulated an impressive list of interviews, including such names as George H.W. Bush, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Charles Barkley. Jones has also done in-depth interviews with such golfing luminaries as Norman, Gary Player, Nick Price and Lorena Ochoa, to name only a few. Jones is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association. Jones can be reached at sjones@northcoastmedia.net.


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