One & Done: The Honda Classic

To say Julie Blum has worked in some non-traditional jobs in her life would be an understatement. In college in the late 1980s, she was a disc jockey in some of the most popular nightclubs on Sixth Street in Austin, Texas. She'd work happy hours and sometimes on weekends, expertly sizing up the crowd to see whether to play rock and roll or techno music or country and western that night. Later, Blum's proficiency in Spanish - as well as Italian, Dutch and even a little Russian - brought her to the city of Houston's protocol department where she worked in the aviation arena. She'd meet with security personnel and help dignitaries like Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union, navigate the airport landscape after their planes touched down. And she has spent the last 25 years at Memorial Park golf course, starting out as an administrative assistant and working her way up seven years ago to become the general manager of the facility that will host the Vivint Houston Open for the first time since 1963 this week. As she walked toward her office for a telephone interview on Tuesday, Blum passed Phil Mickelson, who was preparing to tee off in a practice round. She'd seen Jason Day working on his short game for hours. She calls the experience of hosting the PGA TOUR's best players at Houston's municipal gem somewhat surreal. "When I saw all this come to light … the signage, the ropes, the tents, watching the sun rise and seeing all these people working, it’s just been unbelievable to me that this is Memorial," Blum says. "Like how really the dream came true, and what a gift for our Houstonians. "We’re so lucky that we can play this course that the pros play." Truth be told, though, Blum wasn't quite sure what she was getting herself into when she started working at Memorial. She had left the aviation department by then and was the assistant to Houston's director of purchasing, dealing with the city council and the mayor and learning the internal workings of the largest city in Texas. Then she fell in love with her boss' son, Brian Blum, the man she would later marry. Obviously, Blum needed to make a job change given potential nepotism and favoritism concerns given that relationship. Her soon-to-be father-in-law told her there was an opening at Memorial Park for an administrative assistant and suggested she apply. "So, I came to this place in 1995 and it was under renovation," Blum recalls. "It was kind of comical because I showed up in my business attire, which at the time was a suit and high heels. Well. this was a mud pit, and my heels kept getting stuck in the mud. I’m like, what kind of place is this?" During that first push to improve the property, Blum met Nancy Reynolds, a member of the Houston Parks Board who, along with Mayor Bob Lanier, spearheaded the push to upgrade the municipal golf course that is located in the heart of Houston near the Galleria shopping complex and downtown. "She was definitely my inspiration to stay here at Memorial and to fill her wish that this would be a place for definitely keeping our seniors happy and developing the game of golf by making sure our juniors are interested," Blum says. "That was always her goal is to make sure we promote the game of golf. So that was her wish. And I promised her that I would take care of this place for her as long as I was here." Reynolds likely has heard about a young boy named Brian who asked Blum for free range balls one day after school. She put him to work vacuuming the pro shop and doing other odd jobs. He grew up to be a lawyer, invited Blum to his wedding and now brings his three sons to play at Memorial. Blum, who calls herself a recreational golfer, learned about Memorial Park from the ground up - literally - and that helped her gain the respect of the people with whom she works. She helped the maintenance crew edge cart paths and lay sod. She's worked the driving range, rolled greens and figured out how to drive the golf ball picker and maneuver a Skid Steer. And Blum's boss, Jason Harsh, who has a degree in agronomy from Texas A&M has also shared his expertise with the Chicago native and University of Houston grad whose first love was geology. The two, who have worked together for more than two decades, talk chemical compounds, fairy rings, web worms and the merits of Arkansas sand versus river sand, among other things. "So that’s how I learned so much in the past 25 years about golf course maintenance," says Blum, whose hands-on experience also helped her understand the tools her staff needs to do its jobs. She calls grounds crew the unsung heroes of Memorial Park, particularly after the recently completed second renovation, this time done by renowned golf course architect Tom Doak, that brought the layout up to the standard a PGA TOUR event requires. The long hours and hard work will be showcased this week. "Without them we wouldn’t be anything," she says. "So, if there’s anything I want to get out of this conversation is our maintenance guys … doing these jobs in a hundred degrees and this morning it was 46 — hats off to those guys and girls." The eight-month renovation, of course, wouldn't have been possible without the support of the Astros Golf Foundation, which stepped in two years ago to rescue the Vivint Houston Open. Memorial Park, which hosted the tournament from 1951 to 1963, is now PGA TOUR ready again. "To me, it’s just unbelievable to see the metamorphosis, the change going from a local neighborhood, kind of like a "Cheers" bar where everybody knows your name," Blum says "And now … I was watching Jason Day and Phil Mickelson was on the other tee box. "So to me, our values are not going to change. We’re still going to treat everyone with kindness and great communication and encourage development. And we want our locals, but we also want to just maintain that PGA flair that we’ve been gifted. "And we’re very lucky to have the Astros Golf Foundation in our life and great partners." Astros owner Jim Crane appears to feel the same about Blum and her stewardship of Memorial Park. "The other day, Mr. Crane looked at me and he goes, well, Julie, how does it feel to be the CEO of this asset?" Blum recalls. "And I looked at him and I’m like, okay, I never really thought of it that way, but now you just made me a little nervous." While she is more comfortable staying in the background, Blum thinks it's important for women to support each other - "we have to at least let women know that we can do anything," she says. That fact was driven home recently when a PGA TOUR staffer stopped by her office. "She looked at me, she was like, you don’t see this," Blum says. "And I was like trying to see what she was pointing at. And she was like pointing at me and I’m like, I don’t know what you mean. I'm sorry. She goes, you don’t see this — a woman behind the desk. "And she goes, I’ve been to Thailand, I’ve been to California, everywhere, Australia. You don’t see this. And she said hats off to you."

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Even Adam Long wasn’t certain where he stood after hitting his approach into the Desert Classic’s final hole. Winning wasn’t at the top of his mind when he teed off in Sunday’s final group with Phil Mickelson and Adam Hadwin. A top-10 finish, and a spot in next week’s event, would have been nice. Long was an afterthought in a final group that included a World Golf Hall of Famer and a Canadian playing in front of countrymen who flock to the California desert in the winter. Long was just a 31-year-old rookie making his sixth PGA TOUR start. And then he was the champion. He won in a way that most players can only dream of: by making a 15-footer for birdie on the last hole. Long arrived at the final hole tied with Hadwin and Mickelson. After hitting his drive into the right rough, Long hit his 175-yard onto the green. That’s when he asked his caddie to confirm that he shared the lead. “I wasn’t 100 percent sure. I didn’t care. I had nothing to lose,� Long said. The stage was set for him after Hadwin’s bunker shot stopped inches from the hole and Mickelson barely missed a long birdie try. Mickelon’s miss helped Long see the line for his career-changing putt. His 65th stroke of the day found the bottom of the hole. Long, who was 20 over par in his previous five PGA TOUR starts, shot 26-under 262 on the Desert Classic’s three-course rotation. He shot 63 in the first and third rounds, then fired a 65 that was Sunday’s second-lowest score on PGA West’s tricky Stadium Course. Long, who started the final round three shots behind Mickelson, chipped in twice on the back nine. He didn’t make a bogey. “I just kept plugging away and it was kind of the Phil and Adam Hadwin show for most of the way,� Long said. “Everyone was chanting Phil’s name most of the way and there are a lot of Canadians down here. I was just in the background.� Not when it was time for the trophy ceremony. He was the last player left on the 18th green. Before the win, he was an alternate for next week’s Farmers Insurance Open. Now THE PLAYERS Championship, Sentry Tournament of Champions, Masters and PGA Championship are among the events he can add to his schedule. Long leapt to 12th in the FedExCup standings. He started the week ranked 205th, ahead of just 13 players. The win was worth 500 points. He began this week with just four FedExCup points after missing the cut in four of five starts this season. His best finish was T63 at the Safeway Open. “He hit shot after shot and putted great, had a couple chip-ins and did what you had to do to win,� said Mickelson, who owns as many major titles (5) as TOUR starts Long had made before this week. Hadwin was still three shots ahead after Long’s chip-in on the 12th hole. Hadwin played the final six holes in 1 over, though, while Long birdied half of the remaining holes. He holed a 5-footer for birdie on 14 before holing another chip on the next hole. Then he birdied the last hole, an incredible finish for a player who admitted that just receiving the text with his final-round tee time gave him nerves. Long didn’t look intimidated, though, when he birdied Sunday’s first two holes. “Birdieing those first two really calmed a bit, like, ‘All right, I got this, I can compete, I can play, I belong,� Long said. He’d spent nine years as a professional waiting for this moment. His only TOUR start before this season came at the 2011 U.S. Open. That was the same year that he won his only previous professional title, the Woodcreek Classic on the now-defunct Hooters Tour. He estimates that the winner’s check was $25,000. He played his first Web.com Tour season the following year but finished 127th on the money list. He didn’t get back on that tour until 2015. He never doubted that he could make it, though. “I wasn’t doing great, but I never really doubted it,� he said. �I still wanted to play and I still loved it and I still wanted to see how good I could get.� He became a PGA TOUR winner on Sunday. And it was worth the wait.

Click here to read the full article…