As Padraig Harrington gets ready to hit his tee shot at the famous par 3 7th at Pebble Beach, I'm a bit more nervous than I would normally be watching a professional golfer on TV. After all, it's only the first round of the tournament. I turn my head to the right, eyes darting back and forth, finger on the mouse, heart rate up. Eyes back on the screen. Back to the right. Now left. C'mon, hit it already. Finally, he lofts a soft sand wedge high in the air and the ball lands on the green, takes a hard bounce and stops just before rolling off the back edge. I click the mouse and start coding another document, secure in knowing I haven't been caught this time.
Ah, the life of a golf junkie who can't quite control himself from streaming live golf at work, especially when that golf happens to be the United States Open Championship. How many of you did the same thing last week? I didn't go in to work Thursday knowing for sure I was going to watch on the Internet. With ESPN and NBC broadcasting 9 full hours on TV and me DVRing every minute of it, I was pretty sure I could wait until I got home to take care of my golf fix.
Sure, I thought I might take a peek every now and then at the leaderboard, but that was it, and I would only do that until 1 when TV coverage started. So I went to the U.S. Open website for a quick look - seriously, that was all it was supposed to be. But what's this? Live Play Tracker? Hmm, sounds interesting. Must be like the Gametracker I sometimes use to watch football games that aren't on TV in my area. Guess it wouldn't hurt to just see what it's like......just for a sec......then back to work and checking my email (OK, mainly checking my email).
Wow! This shows each group on each hole; it shows whether a hole is playing over, under, or even par for the day; it shows who's set to tee off next. Wipe the smile off your face Ryan before your co-workers and bosses start to get suspicious. Coding documents is an exciting job and all, but maybe not that exciting.
OK, that was fun for a couple minutes. I should really get back to work. Wait, what's that? Follow the "feature group?" Live? Oh boy, is this a good idea? Could be risky. Mmm.....maybe just for a quick look. So I did, and of course a quick look turned into the rest of the afternoon. Work can be stressful enough without worrying about getting caught watching golf, but I just couldn't help myself. I really couldn't.
Hey, this was the U.S. Open. America's tournament. It was my patriotic duty to watch. Maybe I should have been shooting dirty looks at the rest of those unpatriotic workers busily coding document after document.
So now, with that tournament finished and a new work week upon me, I think I'll get back to actually working.....at least until the British Open.
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