You were expecting a post on a different subject today. But I try to be topical, and since I went to the LPGA tournament yesterday, I thought I’d talk about that.

I took my grandson. I wouldn’t have gone otherwise. He plays golf with me. I’m a 9, so I hit shots good enough to be a 9. Believe me. My good shots are nowhere near what a professional golfer’s good shots look like. He needed to see what a good golf shot really looks like.

We got to the course at about 10:30, and the morning wave had all teed off. We picked up a few unknowns and followed them for a few holes and by chance ran smack into Ai Miyazato, Vicky Hurst, and Anna Nordqvist going the other direction. So of course, we switched to following them. Miyazato turned a drive that would have given me a double bogey into a routine par, Norqvist sank a birdie putt from downtown, and Hurst, well, she wasn’t having a great day.

Later we saw three players about 70 yards away on a par 5 all put their pitch birdie-close to a tucked pin. That was impressive.

I also noticed the around the green, the players kept the ball on the ground hitting it up to the pin. No flying it up there with a lob wedge. Ground all the way.

We saw players who had it clicking and players who were just that much off that the strokes were piling up. There are so many golfers and the course is so big, you can’t see everybody. We did have a chance to see Morgan Pressel, Grace Park, and Suzann Pettersen play a few holes. Park and Pettersen were doing well, Pressel wasn’t, long story short. I noticed that Pettersen moves her head all over when she putts. Maybe that’s why she isn’t making those 8-10 footers in the crunch.

As for Grandson (age 12) he followed with interest for a while, then made a golf club out of the foil wrapper his hamburger came in, a sign his interest had faded. We made our way back to the clubhouse, watched the last of the afternoon wave warm up on the range (a succession of easy, unforced swings), headed out toward the parking lot, pausing to watch one group tee off, then went home.

An airport nearby has an annual air show on the same weekend as the tournament, so Grandson was fascinated by the aircraft flying over, especially the F-15s. Try putting with all that racket sometime.

We got caught in Friday afternoon traffic on I-5 coming home, so a long day ended up being a bit longer than we had planned on. We both had fun watching the golf and with each other, though, so I think we’ll be back next year.

My father took me to see the Portland Open Invitational in 1960, the year he became ARNOLD PALMER. Billy Casper won, and I got Arnold Palmer’s autograph. It was just the two of us. I still have vivid memories of that day, which I might share with you sometime. I don’t know what of today’s trip got into Grandson’s head, but I gave him the exposure, and no doubt it is something that he will remember forever.