PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Fourteen people watched Joey Sindelar size up his tee shot on the 471-yard, par-4 fifth hole. But it's easy to get carried away when estimating crowd size, and to be fair the group of spectators included his caddie, the walking scorer, the standard-bearer, one writer and a half-dozen blue-shirted marshals.
It was 8:50 am. Sindelar, five-over-par for the tournament, had gone off first at 8:10, by himself, in the third round of The Players on Saturday. He nutted his drive, which soared high and true down the middle of the fairway, briefly invisible against a flat sky.
Silence.
"What's all the clapping for?" Sindelar asked, breaking up the group.
"We couldn't see it," someone said, laughing.
Sindelar smiled, and he and his longtime caddie John Buchna walked down the dewy fairway. At the back of the driving range, across a small moat, not 100 yards from Sindelar's ball in the fairway, Phil Mickelson hit balls with his caddie, Jim MacKay, and his new coach Butch Harmon looking on. They were alone except for Ponte Vedra resident Fred Funk, who'd missed the cut, far down at the other end of the range. Someone cracked a joke and Mickelson laughed loudly. He wasn't scheduled to go off for another five and a half hours.
Buchna gave a yardage, and Sindelar hit his approach shot just left and short of the green.
In a profession where the relationships are measured in months if not days, Sindelar and Buchna are in their 24th year together. Sindelar is 49. He has been at this for so long that his wife, Sue, and sons, Jamie (17) and Ryan (14 on Sunday), don't need to be there for every round, not even at the majors or almost-majors. Jamie has his own golf career, having blossomed into a winner on the American Junior Golf Association. Another player approached Sindelar in the locker room earlier this week and mentioned that he'd heard about the big things Jamie was up to on the AJGA. It was Tiger Woods.
Sindelar methodically moved through the course, exchanging banter with the few fans. On the sixth green, after spinning his approach shot to within six feet of the pin, he looked at the scoreboard, which showed his name with Anthony Kim's mug shot. Sindelar turned to the few onlookers behind the green and quipped, "Is that what I look like?" He gathered himself, missed his short birdie putt and walked to the next tee.
Buchna lives in Jacksonville, and some of the fans were friends of his, but he only occasionally and very discretely acknowledged their presence. There was work to do, and with an understated but unwavering focus on his boss, he picked his spots to offer assistance.
"Joe, you want a tend?"
"Joe, you want a Powerade?"
"This green's 23, five right," Buchna said as the two approached the seventh tee. That's one difference between the pros and the rest of us. The pros want to know where the pin is even as they stand on the tee of a 442-yard par-4.
Sindelar hit his drive in the left fairway bunker but got a good lie, and he creased his approach shot to within six feet. Again, he missed his short birdie putt and walked to the next tee. He was nearly two holes ahead of the 8:15 pairing of David Toms and Ryan Palmer.
"Just a nice 4?" Sindelar asked on the tee of the 237-yard, par-3 eighth.
"Yep," Buchna replied.
And so it went, Sindelar and Buchna worked their way around the course, no one in front of them, no one behind them, almost no one watching them in the increasingly hot, still air. They made the turn at even par in 1:30. Buchna's wife, Victoria, showed up to watch them on the back nine, and someone brought up the subject of the Champions Tour, for which Sindelar is on the verge of being eligible. When would that be again?
"March 30, 2008," Victoria said. "John has it down to the months and days."
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