LOS CABOS, Mexico – When El Cardonal at Diamante was completed in 2014, developer Ken Jowdy didn’t let anyone hit a shot on the course until course architect Tiger Woods could do the honors.
“I told him wherever he hit the opening tee shot, we’re going to put a plaque,” Jowdy said on Saturday as the third round of the World Wide Technology Championship was getting under way.
Then he shared a funny story about how his friend, the Hall of Fame pitcher Roger Clemens, swears that every year the famed red seat amongst a sea of green ones in the right field bleachers at Fenway Park in Boston — Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21 — where a Ted Williams home run blast in 1946 supposedly landed gets a little longer as if the seat has been inching back over the years.
“I told Tiger if you put your drive in the fairway, I can move it down the fairway as you get older,” Jowdy joked.
There was only one problem with that plan: Tiger hit the ceremonial drive into a fairway bunker. That’s why there’s a plaque in the bunker on the first hole. But that plaque isn’t there during the World Wide Technology. It was still there for the pro-am on Wednesday but the PGA Tour requested the plaque be removed during the tournament to avoid a potential situation where a players needs relief and the lie after a drop is worse than it was before. Other times during the course of the year, they will remove a drain out of a bunker for the same reason, but a plaque is unique.
Note to Jowdy: Seems like a great opportunity to stick Tiger’s plaque ahead a few feet when it is returned to its post after the tournament is over.
