G'Day Mate (part 3)

I went about with my daily plans with the agreement that we would all be having dinner together that night (Wednesday).  I went and had lunch with a friend and then brought her back to the house for a bit.  We weren't home but a few minutes when Andre and David came back.  By this time it was about 2:00 and I would need to leave by 2:30 to go and pick up the girls from school. 

They came in quickly, met my lunch partner, and announced that they had made a difficult decision to go back to the original tournament that they had left on Tuesday in South Carolina since the call had not yet come advising them that a player had withdrawn allowing Andre a spot to play here.  The choice was to wait it out here with the hope that someone would withdraw later that day or Thursday before teeing off, or to go back to where they would have a guaranteed spot.  The tournament in South Carolina was a much smaller tournament with a purse of $600,000 compared to the tournament here with a purse of $6.1 million.  Tough choices and such is the life of a professional golfer.

Within minutes they were packed and ready to go with only time for a very quick picture.  We had plans of taking more photographs at dinner that night, but the opportunity was gone.  They left for the airport as I left to get the girls from school. The girls would be upset when I had to pick them up and share the news that our house guests were on their way back to the airport without even a chance to say good-bye.  They were so looking forward to having them back for dinner and to watch the second night of American Idol.

When the girls and I arrived back home, we found that they had secretly left some golf balls and other golf goodies for us as well as more tickets and their golfer/caddie parking pass.  We would also find that they used my "too pretty to touch, please don't ever use" decorative bathroom towels that were on display in the bathroom.  I'll forgive them, but please don't ever try it when you come to visit!

We got a call from them later Wednesday night advising us that they had made it back to South Carolina and thanking us again for the hospitality.  The highlight for Haley is when they asked to speak to her so that they could find out who had gotten eliminated from Idol.

So there you have it.  It was a busy and fun, but very short lived experience and one that we'll remember for awhile.  We were hoping to have them stay with us through the weekend and chance to be able to follow Andre's progress here, but that wasn't meant to be.  As it turns out, a spot did open up here and Andre would have gotten in and perhaps this tournament would have been better for him.  We had some communication with them Thursday night and learned that Andre did very well that day, but Friday wasn't so kind to him.  He didn't make the cut for the weekend and that tournament was quickly over for him.

We enjoyed the tournament everyday that it was here, but often thought about how much more fun it would have been to have our house guests back and to actually have a connection with someone that was playing.

We're looking forward to next year.