Benzel Blog: Opening Ceremonies and Day One arrives

All this week, Ryan Benzel of Bothell, Wash., a PGA teaching professional from Tulalip, Wash., will provide an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the 24th PGA Cup. This is his third installment.

THURSDAY, Sept. 17

We enjoyed another great day, with the weather absolutely perfect. How lucky are we to have it like this in Scotland?

The pro-am today -- which was played under a point, not stroke format -- was our opportunity to play the golf course in a tournament atmosphere. I thought I played well, posting a 74 despite a lost ball. You have to drive it well on The Carrick.

Our pro-am team included PGA of Great Britain Captain-Elect Eddie Bullock and Rich Taylor of Bend, Ore., who is the public relations leader for the PGA Cup site in 2011 at CordeValle in San Martin, Calif.

We lost out on the prizes by two points.

The Opening Ceremonies were tremendous. This is the time when you get the butterflies in the stomach. It was fun to hear Peter Alliss say a few words and add humor as only Peter can do it.

We went back to the Team Room after the ceremonies and really had a great time together. Captain [Brian] Whitcomb presented us with two video greetings from Ryder Cup Captains Corey Pavin and Paul Azinger. That was really cool.

They passed along their good wishes to us, and Corey had a really cool comment that he was going to use us as an example of how to retain a Cup on foreign soil.

At the end of the Opening Ceremonies, the pairings for tomorrow's foursomes were announced. I know that I will enjoy being paired with Lee Rinker, and I really enjoy the alternate-shot format. Lee and I have similar games.

The object is to try and get going. The mood in the Team Room has been upbeat and energetic. We have had the time to get to know each other, and the focus is on performing as well as we can.

FRIDAY, Sept. 18

After two years, the planning and the long hours of practice, I am really excited to get out and play again in the PGA Cup.

I was paired today with Lee Rinker of Jupiter, Fla., and we both played pretty good. We hit it really well, and if we could have improved on anything it would have been making some putts.

What we didn't expect was to run into the hottest team in the morning -- Jon Bevan and Will Barnes. They were about 5-under-par in the foursomes, which is pretty amazing in alternate shot.

We played well, and when we asked others after their matches how they did, they were all about 1 under or even par, like us. It was not enough against Bevan and Barnes. We were taken down, 4 and 2.

The second half of my day was playing cheerleader. It was important to get a good start for our team, and we finished 3-1 in the morning and 3-1 in the afternoon four-balls.

The guys really played hard in the afternoon. Scott Hebert made a huge putt on 18, and that really lifted us.

Lee went back our and played with Eric Lippert and they blended so well together.

The other big news was the story of Sonny Skinner and his rolling out of a golf cart in his match in the morning. Everyone was talking about it, and later asking him if he was OK. At the end of the day, the official who had driven him in the golf cart came over to him and again asked if he was OK. I felt bad for the official, who is a very nice guy, and it is so fortunate that everything turned out OK.

I agreed with Captain [Brian] Whitcomb that things could have been way different if a putt doesn't fall here or there. In match play, anything can happen.

I am really looking forward to Saturday morning, and I'm off the tee at 7:45 a.m. I'm paired with Mike Small and we have a tough match [facing Paul Wesselingh and Jeremy Robinson].

I am prepared to play 36 holes.

We know that we have to go out and work as hard as what we did today. There is plenty of work left, and I believe everyone on the team understands that.