Sindelar: Having a blast out here

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Joey Sindelar turned 50 last month and now has two Champions Tour events under his belt. He tied for 61st at the Cap Cana Championship (more on that below) and tied for 15th at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. Sindelar, a seven-time PGA TOUR winner and one of the TOUR's most likeble guys, last captured a title at the 2004 Wachovia Championship for his first win in 14 years. He's writing a diary for PGATOUR.COM throughout his rookie season to share some of his more memorable moments.

Blog No. 1: My Champions Tour debut

My two weeks out here on the Champions Tour have been a blast. It's been non-stop of seeing guys and thinking, "Oh my gosh, I forgot about him" then catching up. All I can equate this to right now is like going to a class reunion. You haven't seen these people in at least five if not 10 years and everybody wants to catch up. That's exactly what this is like, except on a golf course.

Condon/PGA TOUR

Joey Sindelar encountered some trouble during his first week.

So many of the guys that I'm now out here with were ones I always talked about and studied when I wanted to improve my golf game. What do I mean by that? For instance, Tom Purtzer and Gil Morgan were always my tempo guys. You pick pieces of another player's game -- you could never completely mimic someone -- but for much of my career they were my tempo models. They had the most beautiful, slow swings yet still pounded the ball nine miles so they were my vision for keeping my own swing slow.

Then I would always look at Tom Watson for never quitting on the ball. You never see him baby a shot. No matter what he's doing he's always going for it, committed to it and letting it fly. And Lee Trevino -- I just walked on the range and saw him. I haven't seen him in so long and he says how happy he is to see me, asks how I'm doing and how the kids are doing. A whole spurt of life has passed for a lot of us from the time when we all first met.

My first week out here at the Cap Cana Championship, I don't know why -- I think it happens to all of the guys -- but I was nervous out of my gourd. In hindsight, I think it was the countdown. Not just my own countdown but also all my friends from home and my Tour player friends. We'd been staring at this moment for three or four years then all of the sudden it was here.

The conditions in my first week were tough and windy. It was a magnificent place and beautiful golf course. But, with my golf game, I could not have imagined a worse nightmare. The things I did wrong you couldn't do wrong on purpose. You couldn't aim where I was and hit it there. The disappointing part, too, was that I pulled a muscle in my hip on Sunday then I got a sinus infection so I haven't been myself yet.

I've been very lucky throughout the years to have not suffered a major injury. Oh sure, I had a couple of things here and there, but nothing major. When the calendar flipped, I guess it was somehow necessary that I have a couple of things wrong with me!

It's incredibly weird how most of us get really nervous in our first week. Fred Funk's caddie said it took Fred nine holes to feel his hands on the club when he first came out. Sandy Lyle said he was thinking, "You know, just calm down. This is what you do." But you can't because you have been waiting for this moment for so long.

It's a very interesting mind explosion that occurs and often does for these guys. That's why I was so thrilled for my friend Mike Hulbert, who debuted last week at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am and tied for eighth. He hadn't even played regularly on the PGA TOUR for four or five years and then came so well out of the gate -- obviously he dealt with it better than I did and I was thrilled for him.

As for me at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, I played with Hugh Connerty, one of the original founders of Outback Steakhouse. It was fun to hear the story about how the restaurant began. My question to him was, "Are you guys so smart that you figured out this Australian love affair in the U.S. before it happened?" And he said -- and I hope I get this right -- that they knew they wanted to do a restaurant with a steak theme and Crocodile Dundee had just come out. But thirdly, they were passionate golfers and didn't want their restaurant to serve lunch because they wanted to still have time to play golf. So that's why Outback still doesn't serve lunch.

We have so much fun meeting guys like that. Like the award-winning singer Vince Gill, a huge golf fan who is often present at PGA TOUR and Champions Tour events. Here's a funny story -- I ran into Vince last week after not seeing him for several years. It was great to get a chance to catch up and congratulate him on all of his success. Then I handed my phone to him and asked if he would say hi to my wife. She was just shocked to be talking to Vince Gill! She thought it was great and chatted away with him.

These are the things that are cool for us, getting to know guys in the entertainment and business world and hearing their stories.

Next week is the Wachovia Championship on the PGA TOUR, an event I won in 2004. But I have absolutely no regret about not being there. I'm very comfortable here -- I'll just go forward and play on the Champions Tour.

Obviously it was a huge thrill and accomplishment to experience what I did there a few years ago. I've known the tournament director there, Kym Hougham, for years. Before they started the event six years ago, he said it was going to be something incredibly special. Sure, Kym, we've heard that story 20 times in my 30 years, I thought. But boy did they pull it off!

For me to be able to win that tournament -- at the time I hadn't won in 14 years -- it was so neat because my boys couldn't remember me winning a tournament. Oh, they knew that I went to golf tournaments all the time but weren't sure if Dad's trophies were real or not. It was Mother's Day when I won and they were having a big party at the house for that reason. My first nine holes on Sunday went well but then I double bogeyed No. 10 -- a par-5 that you do not want to double -- and they must have thought, "Ok, back to the party, we don't need to watch TV anymore."

All of the sudden things started happening and the chess pieces started realigning themselves so it was great that they all could celebrate as a group back home. I can still remember being so nervous. I hadn't had much of a season up to that point and I needed a good finish. I got through the torture chamber at Quail Hollow -- I actually birdied Nos. 16 and 17 and parred No.18 -- then didn't look at the leaderboard. Normally I am a guy who would want to look at the board and know exactly where I am. But, when you you haven't had that great of a year, I just wanted to do my job and glance later.

When I finished, at first it seemed like I could do no worse than sixth or seventh place. By the time I walked the 40 yards or so to sign my scorecard, it was like fourth or fifth at the worst. By the time I signed my card, it was second at the worst.

It was changing so quickly and I was trying to dial home but instead of pressing and holding the 2 key to speed dial home, I was pressing and holding 1 and kept calling my own voicemail. I was so nervous I couldn't even function. But luckily the golf was almost over (except for the playoff with Arron Oberholser, of course).

I'll always treasure the memories of that day. In a short time I think I made as many friends there as I made at any other event. To win that tournament with that field and at such a magnificent place -- every time I watch it on TV I'll feel like I'm there. But it's time to move on -- I got to play there several times and it was a great place but I'm here on the Champions Tour now.

I finished tied for 15th last week so I think I'm starting to find my comfort level. As for my hip, well, our fitness guys are just spectacular. It's only a pulled muscle in my left hip area and am very lucky that it's not a problem with my back. So many of the guys out here are lying on the tables in the fitness trailer, not knowing what their back is going to do next.

I'm very fortunate in that respect but when you are raring to go and can't quite do what you want to do, it can be hard. That's ok, though. We've got a long year to go out here and they can't kick me out now!