What a thrill it was for me to sit right behind the 18th green at Annandale Golf Club Sunday afternoon and watch the final six or seven twosome finish the last round of the Southern Farm Bureau Classic PGA Tour.

Those guys are good!

At least half the players I watched reached the part-5 hole with their second shots, and three or four of those made their putts for eagle. Most of the rest made birdie, except for poor Brandon Pappas, who made bogey after having to take a drop then laying-up before he reached the green.

He then two-putted for bogey. A par would have given Pappas a score of 61 for the day and would have left him tied for the lead with John Huston, who birdied two of his last three holes to gain the win and a check for $540,000.

Two of the more important members of the PGA Tour staff at this tournament are Joan Alexander, who ran the media center, and Greg Quinn, the meteorologist on site. Alexander’s husband, Buddy, is the golf coach at the University of Florida. He is a former U.S. Amateur champion and was golf coach at LSU for several years.

Joan Alexander was a tennis player until her senior year at the College of Charleston when she was prevailed upon to help start the school’s varsity women’s golf team as a player. She joined the PGA Tour staff about five or six years ago and will be assigned to work 15 to 20 events a year.

Joan Alexander is the liaison among the players and the media and plays a vital role in enhancing the popularity of the PGA Tour and its players. She was pleased to take time to help me gain access to the rules officials I needed to talk to.

Another important position on the staff for each tour event is the meteorologist. The Weather Channel, through a consulting firm, contracts to provide minute-by-minute weather information to those officials who have the direct responsibility for the safety of not only the players but also for all of the volunteer workers and the thousands of fans in attendance.

Greg Quinn, who filled that position last week, is a graduate meteorologist from the University of Arizona, where he played baseball. The equipment used by Quinn is impressive &045; there is a real-time radar, but probably the most important device is a lightning detector which can pinpoint lightning strikes all over the United States.

It can be set to show strikes at set distances as close as a mile from the course.

Even more necessary is the Thor-Gard, which will show the potential for lightning in any approaching storm. Greg and his crew provide much more timely information about the actual threat from weather at the tournament than local weather stations.

I am grateful to PGA Tour officials Mark Russell, Steve Rintoul, Arvin Ginn, Joan Alexander and Greg Quinn as well as others who were such a big help in staging this event. They were all gracious and eager to provide all the information this curious fan/writer could possibly absorb.

And that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. You can reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com.