A beatdown of epic proportions

Let's just call it the most fun you can have in a massacre.

Brian and I golfed Sunday morning at Tiburon. We teed off at the crack of dawn (Seriously, I think I heard a rooster crowing on my way up to the clubhouse), out of necessity rather than choice. Tiburon was having some kind of tournament, so they only had really early and late times available.

They decided to pair us up with a couple other dudes. Younger guys, but the tucked-in shirts with sponsor names told us they weren't just your everyday golfers. And they had accents.

Playing from the tips, they both crushed drives through the fairway on the first hole, and as we were looking for their balls, one of them asked a question I had never heard before on a golf course.

"Do you guys know the altitude here?"

Brian and I looked at each other and ventured a guess. "Two thousand feet?" "Fifteen hundred?" "Who knows, why do you ask?"

"Well, we're used to playing at sea level and our ball is flying a lot farther here than we were expecting."

*Thinks to self* "Oh crap. I'm worried about making bogey from the middle of the fairway, and these two are worried because their ball is flying 5 YARDS more than they're used to?! This is going to be a long day."

What followed was easily the most impressive 17 holes of golf I have ever witnessed. One guy was six under ON THE FRONT NINE. He made a 60-footer for his second eagle before the turn and just shrugged, giving us a little laugh. Every single drive was 300, down the middle. I'm serious when I say I don't think they missed more than four fairways combined. One hole, a dogleg left, both guys hit drives over a patch of trees to a blind spot in the fairway no more than 10 feet wide. And if it hadn't happened on nearly every green on the course, we would have been convinced that landing their balls within six feet of each other every time was some sort of crazy coincidence. And they had never set foot on the course before this.

Come to find out, these two were in town for Monday's Cox Classic qualifying tournament. Their morning with us was a practice round. They were both from South Africa, spending the summer in the U.S., flying all over trying to qualify for tournaments. One guy was headed back to his hometown after this week, only to return in the fall for Q School.

Having never seen professional golf in person, I had no idea how good these guys really are. Everyone who plays recreational golf thinks about the possibilities of playing at his best. "All I need is a couple more drives in the fairway and a couple more putts to drop for me to shoot par. Then I could compete with anyone." After seeing a couple pros first hand, I'm convinced that these guys think these same things. Straighter drives, better chips, smoother putts. But rather than hoping for a 72, these guys aren't happy with anything more than 59.

In today's qualifier, one of the guys made it into the Cox Classic field, one didn't. So, when you see Tyrone Van Aswegen on the course at Champions this week, cheer a little louder. Then one day when he wins the Masters, we'll all be able to say we knew him when he crushed my dreams of playing professionally.