When it’s hot and sunny you have to find the shadows or you’ll melt.
Or you can always make your own shadows!!
Shadow Shot Sunday or bust is my motto!!
A Shadowy PGA Golf Tournament
Tag Archives: Oklahoma
2022 PGA Championship – Tulsa, Oklahoma
Monday morning I used my trusty stubhub app to purchase a deeply discounted grounds pass to the day’s practice round at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills here in Tulsa.
This is the third major championship I have seen at the club. My first major was the 1994 PGA and then the 2007 US Open that Tiger Woods won. I also volunteered for several rounds in 2007 as a marshall.
I generally avoid the practice events, but I changed my mind this year. The crowds are a lot less than during the competition phase and you can take photos which they don’t really want you doing during competition. (And I’m a rule follower on such things.
So Monday I just took off on a tour of the course. As a side note that everybody has forgotten. A Trump owned course, Bedminster was slated to host the 2022 PGA but the PGA pulled it from the club after the January 6, 2021 riot at our nations capitol. This year’s tournament is Southern Hills fifth PGA championship. The most of any golf course in the country.
With the actual tournament it is easy to know who you are looking at on the course. They have somebody carrying a signboard with the group and there are event apps and leaderboards. During practice it seems like the players team up informally and go at their own pace. They may hit several balls and when they get on the green they will putt from various locations on the green and try chipping from different places as well. It’s booorrrring.
In this pic you see a glimpse of what drives the PGA and really all professional sports. See the white buildings in the back. Those are the hospitality chalets paid for by various companies and organizations to host their customers. Those chalets are all over the course. Back when I worked my employer would have one and I would take my customers there for refreshments and food and maybe some merchandise. Lots of fun, but a lot of work as well.
I call this tree “dog leg left.” Lots of big, huge, beautiful trees on the course.
The players of course have perfect form. The tournament invites the best of the best golfers and some distinguished older golfers. In 1994 I saw Arnold Palmer play at the course. He wasn’t competitive any longer but the fans loved him.
There are lots of big houses fronting the course.
The course is about 7500 yards in length or about four miles. I ended up walking about 4 miles. The course is built on the side of a hills so there is lots of up and down.
On the practice rounds all sorts of people walk with the golfers like their wives. (I like to think they are the wives!!)
Somebody built this gigantic building right on the course. I don’t know if it is a club facility or a private house but it sure is nice.
And a parting shot before I headed to the shuttle bus.
I got a solid four mile walk in. I don’t know yet if I’m going back for the tournament.
Shadow Shot Sunday – Dynamite Shack
On a tour of Tulsa’s Chandler Park, the staff showed us the dynamite shack used way back when what is now Chandler Park was a rock quarry. I love stuff like this.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2. Go check it out!!
Proposed Site!
This site has been proposed for a long time. We moved here 30 years ago. I’m about to give up hope!! I’m wondering if Washington Irving put up this sign when he came through the area 190 years ago.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2 by the Magical Mystery Teacher,
America’s Muralist back in Oklahoma
I drove up the freeway from Tulsa to the little town of Collinsville, Oklahoma to check out a mural painted last summer by a friend of the family, Raine Clotfelter, of Branson, Missouri. He was commissioned by a business owner who had bought a new building for his establishment and wanted something to make it special.
It’s special alright, 140 feet long and 20 feet tall of special, showing a lot of Oklahoma features under a beautiful sky and a huge United States Flag. It was too big to put it all in one photograph, even with my drone so I made a short video further down this post.
Raine does this thing all over the country. You want a mural painted he’ll come and do it for you. He goes by the moniker America’s Muralist and he is very accomplished artist. Check the link for examples of his work and his clients. He has done work for Walt Disney Productions, Columbia Pictures, and others.
He grew up in the small town of Antlers, Oklahoma and you can tell his small-town values are still with him. He likes to do work in small towns to help enliven them. He has certainly done that in Collinsville.
This link is to a local television story about Raine and his mural. This link is to a newspaper article about the project.
Check his website Americas Muralist. See if there is one of his mural near you.
I am linking with Our World Tuesday. Come join the fun!!
Skywatch Friday – The Skies Are Back
So lately our plain jane skies have spiced up a little bit, especially at sunset. So I have been flying my drone quite a bit.
There are even interesting skies on our dog walks.
One day we had a spectacular sunset to the west and…
to the East we got a nearly full Wolf Moon rising.
And a big thank you to Klara. Her excellent moon shots reminded me of my humble Wolf Moon shot for this month. Go check the link and see what she did with the Wolf Moon. Truly Spectacular.
Happy Skywatching to you! I am linking up at Skywatch Friday.
Our World – Scavenger Hunt
Not to toot my own horn, but I guess I will. I helped to plan and implement a scavenger hunt on Turkey Mountain this past weekend. It was originally supposed to be New Year’s but it got postponed because of weather.
The RiverParks Authority gave me thirty items to give away. Small stuff like stickers (people go nuts over stickers these days) and key chains. I conceived the idea of using repurposed cd jewelboxes and designed new covers and “liner notes” for containers for the giveaway items.
So late last Friday I loaded up my jewel boxes and headed to Turkey Mountain. My friend Laurie from the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition helped me place them on different parts of the mountain. It turned out to be a good workout with about 5 miles of hiking involved.
We didn’t really hide them because we wanted people to find them. The RiverParks Authority also had people out and about placing bigger items like water bottles and tshirts on the mountain. They also had people adding new stuff during the day.
We hid one in the famous washing machine at a crossroads on Turkey Mountain. (It’s actually a drier but I get dirty looks when I bring up that fact. Ever notice that anybody who says “actually” gets dirty looks.?
I was busy but I always take time for photos.
Especially when the sun is setting.
Here’s a screen shot of the facebook invite for the event.
Channel Six here in Tulsa showed up and did a story on the event.
A good time was had by all. I was proud to be a part of it.
I’m linking with Our World Tuesday. Come join the party!!
Rhema Bible College Christmas Lights
One warm evening last week all three of us headed out to Broken Arrow to check out the Rhema Ministry Christmas LIghts.
They have been doing this for years and it is free and quite the show. The lights are spread out all over the campus. They also have really good pedestrian flow compared to previous years and that is important in these pandemic times.
There is no charge and there is a very chill vibe going on.
There are milliions of lights, and reflections of those lights all over the place.
It’s a Christian organization and of course Christmas is a big deal in Christianity, celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
There is certainly a lot of joy on the Rhema Campus.
I love the marching band.
And of course, you have to have Santa Claus.
I’m linking with Our World Tuesday. Come check it out!!
Skywatch Friday – Rainman Revisited
A few weeks ago after dropping Logan off at college I revisited the small Oklahoma ghost town of Cogar. It’s claim to fame is that a scene from the 1988 Movie Rainman was filmed here at a local gas station. The film stars Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. I can’t believe that it has been 33 years!!
The gas station is still standing, kind of, and it looks like a brand new sign is up. Cogar has become somewhat of a mecca for bloggers, instagrammers, and camera bugs. Abandoned stuff is big these days.
I posted about it last January. Nothing much has changed.
Logan is out of college now so I may never visit this place again.
In other news this week, Heather had a birthday, so the three of us celebrated with a hike among the venomous snakes of Turkey Mountain. We didn’t see any. I always get the feeling though they could see us.
And closing with a drone shot up over my back yard.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join the party!!
The Chickasha Festival of Light
After our son graduated last Friday we decided to go see Chickasha’s Festival of Light at a local park. We have been hearing about it for years so this was our chance.
It was fun. Lots of lights and stuff to do. The vibe was mellow. We loved it.
Our favorite lights was this Santa skiiing behind a reindeer driven motorboat.
The had a cool bridge covered with lights going over the pond.
It was a great place to take photos.
There was another area covered with colored lights, another fun photo op.
Yep I know, I need a haircut. Coming up this Friday.
In downtown Chickasha, not part of the Festival is this crate. It has a 40 foot tall leg lamp like the one in the movie Christmas Story. It is a tethered inflatable balloon and it was grounded Friday night because of high winds. We were disappointed. I found this youtube video that shows it.
We had a good time in Chickasha. Logan has graduated and I doubt we will ever be back. Oh well.
I am linking with Our World Tuesday. Check it out.