Wells Fargo Championship favorite memories

Spent three days at the Quail Hollow Club Golf Course in Charlotte this week--helping again, as an ambassador/volunteer, with the Wells Fargo Championship.

Most of the top players in the world were there, with the exception of Bubba Watson, winner of the 2012 Master's. (Bubba has a new baby and wanted more family time.)

Tiger Woods, the most famous name in golf on the planet, unfortunately did not make the cut, so he went home after Friday.

But I did get very close to him on Thursday afternoon. My work station was between the ninth and tenth fairways. I along, with thousands of others, had waited for quite some time for Tiger to play the ninth hole.

After all, what's more exciting than to get near someone who one day will eclipse the great Jack Nicklaus' record (18) of golf major championships?

As it happened, Tiger hit a long shot off the tee on number nine but it veered right of the fairway into some pine trees. His ball came to rest on a bed of pine needles near a tree.

Not lost, but in a bad place.

We waited for about 10 minutes for Tiger and his caddie (and PGA officials) to arrive at the ball for shot #2.

At best it would be a really difficult shot--even for the former number one ranked player in the world.

Reason being: the ball was not on grass but on pine needles ("a bad lie," as they say in golfdom.) Tiger would have a clear, clean swing at it (a good thing) but in front of him was a tall tree and on both sides of that tree were more trees--all of them barriers to the fairway and green.

I wondered what he would do. Try to hit a low, half throttle (sort of field goal) shot and go through those trees and get safely into the fairway?

Or would he actually go for the green from such a precarious spot? To do that, he'd have to come down exceedingly hard on the ball and try to lift it quickly OVER the trees, OVER the fairway and onto the green.

You know what?

He did the riskier latter, and it didn't work. The ball didn't clear the tree; it hit a branch and plummeted back to the ground--again on a bed of pine needles.

"Get back!" I yelled to all those sun-baked spectators seated on the edge of the fairway--just beyond the trees and between Tiger and the green (about 200 yards away from the errant ball). "He's still in the trees! He's going to hit again! The ball could hit you! Get out of the way!"

For his part, Tiger did not cuss. He did not spew venom. He threw no F-bombs. He said nothing that I could hear (and I was within a few feet of him.)

Instead, he pulled out an iron (maybe a seven or eight) and swung again.

Solid contact. The ball took off, high, like a missile. It cleared all obstacles and plopped gently onto the green where it came to rest.

One of the best golf shots I've ever seen. The man may no longer be ranked number one in the world, and, yes, he missed the cut at Quail Hollow, but he's still a force.

Tiger Woods, ranked seventh in the world before the Wells Fargo Championship, will win again, will regain his top ranking, and

WILL break Jack Nicklaus' record.

Meanwhile, the winner yesterday at the Wells Fargo Championship at beautiful Quail Hollow was 23-year-old Rickie Fowler from California. Charlotte Observer columnist Tom Sorenson described Fowler, dressed in orange from head to toe, as looking a bit like a cream sickle. The young cream sickle, who resembles Johnny Depp, won $1.2 million, as a result of what he did on the first hole of a playoff late yesterday afternoon. You have to be good (and lucky) to beat Rory McIllroy (the current number one ranked golfer in the world) and D.A. Points in a playoff, but that's what Fowler (who won for the first time in his fledgling PGA career) pulled off. Talk about drama! Turn up your sound and enjoy his winning approach shot: