Editor's note: Gilles Samson and his wife, Suzette, always wanted to travel around the United States. So after retiring from their jobs late last year, the two Canadians decided to combine their wanderlust with their love of golf. The Samsons will be driving their RV across the country and attending every PGA TOUR event in 2006. While on that journey, they'll be writing a diary for PGATOUR.com. This is their eighth installment. TUCSON, Ariz. -- Another excellent week with two days in Los Angeles, two days on the road to Tucson and a short visit to Joshua Tree National Park. The rest of the week was spent enjoying Tucson’s perfect weather, discovering what grows and lives in the southwest deserts, a visit to Nogales to stroll and shop in Mexico and attending a golf tournament that will soon take a new look. This past week puts an end to the 2006 West Coast Swing and to our two-month journey through California and Arizona as well as the two weeks we spent in Hawaii in January. We are already dreaming to be back to California to spend more time in the State National Parks, to ski in the Sierra Nevada -- at least on the gentle slopes -- and to walk the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco one more time. We also would like to come back to southern Arizona in the month of April to see the cactuses produce their blooms and to northern Arizona to spend as long as we need to discover both the South and the North Rims of the Grand Canyon. Dreams do come through at times. We’ll talk more about our sightseeing later, but first we wanted to tell you about our visit to the Chrysler Classic of Tucson. Chrysler Classic of Tucson A tournament celebrating its 60th anniversary. It was being played at the same time as the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship in Carlsbad, Calif., and it was also the last week of the West Coast Swing.
The Chrysler Classic of Tucson is an opportunity for newcomers to show their talents. The brigade of new and talented players is on the rise and we may well be witnessing a change of guard over the coming years. Nevertheless, on Saturday night, a good old guy was leading the pack. It was the first time I was seeing Duffy Waldorf play and I enjoyed his personality and style. Unfortunately, he played an even par round on Sunday while no less than 55 players shot under par. He was relegated to third place, three shots off the lead. Whether or not we’re concerned by a change of guard, the winner Kirk Triplett (9-under par) and the runner up, Jerry Kelly (7 under par) and many other well-established players had a great day. The debate is not over yet. The crowd was definitely smaller than at previous tournaments because the top 64 players in the world were playing in Carlsbad. But it was announced on Sunday that the Accenture Match Play Championship was moving to the Tucson area next year. It will definitely change the scope of the tournament, allowing more of the best players to participate and attract larger crowds. I can’t avoid noticing that this year winner at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship is Geoff Ogilvy, who won the Chrysler Classic of Tucson in 2005 and will have to come to defend his title next year back here. What a seamless transition to a new era of golf in the Tucson area. Saturday afternoon, a very large number of players went to the practice range after their round. More so than the previous weeks, I think. This is becoming more and more part of the work plan of professional golfers. It can only contribute to the betterment of the players and increase the overall level of play. Before we got to Tucson we had several other adventures. Hollywood Oscars hype After attending the Nissan Open last Saturday, we met with friends at Hollywood and Highland Complex, where the Oscar night will be held on March 5 and were able to witness all the excitement surrounding this event. We had a wonderful time strolling along the walk of fame through a large crowd. We have seen some of the movies nominated and read about the others. Here is our ballot for the following categories … “and the Oscar goes to”:
Best actor in a leading role -- Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) L.A. County Museum of Art, downtown and Little Tokyo Our visit to the L.A County Museum of Art was mainly to see furniture and decorative arts of the American Arts and Crafts Movement of the beginning of the 1900s. This movement, which basically was a quiet revolution to protest the mechanized replacement of art as well as the expression of beauty in everyday objects, has been an ongoing concern for craftsmen and artists throughout the 20th century. Its influence remains tremendously popular in today’s homebuilding styles of the western United States. We also appreciated being able to visit, during the same week, Corbett House (1907) in Tucson with its interior beautifully decorated in Arts and Crafts style. The LACMA has a wealth of paintings by well-known American, European and Asian artists, as well as ancient and Islamic art collections. We were also impressed by its modern and contemporary art collections including works by Picasso, Modigliani, Chagall, Matisse, Magritte, Alberto Giacometti’s Large Standing Woman (bronze 1960), and Andy Warhol. Walking through different rooms of American painting periods, we came across the expression “Manifest destiny” which attracted our attention. After a quick research we found that it appeared in the 19th century and was more a general notion than a specific policy expressing the belief that the United States had a divinely inspired mission to expand, spreading its form of democracy and freedom. An interesting concept that would be worthwhile reading about. In the same tour, we read that in 1890, the frontier was declared officially closed. That was enough to spark new research that led us to understand that the frontier meant the unsettled territory west of any settled territory in the expansion of the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. Declaring the frontier closed meant that all the territory had been settled by then. Once again we’re impressed with the L.A. highway network. We got downtown easily, driving through Koreatown, the Financial District with many impressive skyscrapers and past Bunker Hill and the Civic Center to Little Tokyo, where we had dinner in a small, authentic restaurant. Regular customers were kindly suggesting their favorite fares for us to try. Sitting at the sushi bar, we enjoyed sharing with our neighbors, the good and bad sides of living in L.A. Going back to our RV park on Interstate 5 that night, we experienced one of the famous traffic jams and really understood what our neighbors at the sushi bar said about one of the bad side of L.A. Interstate 10 to Tucson with a stop over at the Joshua Tree National Park This park is an ecological cornerstone as it encompasses some of the most interesting geological displays in all California deserts. We reached the Visitor Center from I-10, five miles into the mountain range. We were immediately attracted by the exposed granite and rocky boulders that testify to powerful earth forces. It is part of a mountain belt called the Transverse Ranges which are unusual in the North American landscape. The story of the origin of the bedrock of the Joshua Tree landscape is also the story of how continents grow. It would have been fascinating to spend more time there and better understand the forces at work. As we were running out of time to familiarize ourselves with the geology, plants and animals of the southwest deserts, we decided to buy a book and a video to have a better understanding of this complex environment. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Saguaro National Park This outdoor museum is both a garden and a zoo with hundreds of species of plants and animals in natural desert settings surrounded by an invisible fence. Our visit there the day after our visit to Joshua Tree park has given us a great insight into the Sonora Desert: all types of plants and cacti, animal habitats and the plants that have been used to simulate and re-create these habitats for mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats, rattlesnakes, Mexican wolves, ocelots, black bears, prairie dogs, etc., and a spectacular hummingbird enclosure that includes more than 40 species of plants and dozens of hummingbirds. We’ve also stopped at the Saguaro National Park West, the only place in the nation dedicated to protecting the giant Saguaro cactus, the supreme symbol of the American Southwest. They were standing tall before the Tucson Mountains from where we observed them at the Visitor Center. They live between 175 to 200 years and it takes 75 years before they grow a branch or an arm. They weigh up to 8 tons and are subject to many death threats -- animals eat the seeds and the cactus is vulnerable to lightning, wind, severe droughts and freezes, as well as vandalism and cactus rustling. The park offers the possibility to explore the land of the saguaro cactus and better understand its fascinating biology and cultural significance. It was worthwhile spending the time. Nogales, Mexico I’ve traveled to Tucson for business purposes for many years and had never been to Nogales. Now was the time to take Suzette and discover this frontier town together. We wanted to have a taste of Mexico so we crossed the frontier on foot. In fact, the towns on each side of the border are called Nogales. It was a quick visit that allowed us to shop for jewelry and drink a margarita into a typical Mexican bar with mariachis. The supply is unbelievable and the number of outlets by the dozens. We were constantly solicited to enter if not dragged. It was quite an experience -- lots of noise, confusion and back and forth bargaining, we had pursuers all the way back to the border crossing trying to sell us more. Wrap-up of the first 8 weeks of the year-- 36 weeks to go:
• 9 tournaments The trip (cumulative):
• Coach -- 8,917 km or 5,541 miles The PGA TOUR’s 2006 schedule is now taking us to the East Coast for some new discoveries and golf experiences. Suzette and Gilles Samson |
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