2005-12-01

Golf Tournament Press Pass Wanted

How do you get one?

Here's the deal. The Nissan Open, one of my favorite tournaments, is coming up in a few months and I would like to go there and represent. Last year, I only made a brief showing and pretty much just followed Freddy around until it started pouring rain. This year I have plans to do quite a bit more.

I spent a few hours searching the net trying to find out how to apply for a badge, a pass, a credential, press this, media that - no joy. I did learn that the PGA Tour has to approve such a thing but other than that I am 100% clueless on the press issue and even clueless on how to apply. It seems that sort of info is privileged to big media.

That said, here is my plan: Next week is Tiger's tournament. It just so happens that it is being played practically in my home town at Sherwood Country Club. I am going to go there early in the week for one of the practice rounds, or for the Wednesday pro-am, with a bunch of camera gear and film what I can and then ask around in the media area how to go about getting the cameras allowed in for the actual tournament. Best case scenario, I'm thinking they will say something along the lines of *oh, simple, but you should have completed this form three weeks ago and they mail you the...* Perfect! I'll know what to do to get one for the Nissan Open in February! More realistically, I have a feeling that they might say something along *other* lines..

No matter - 'sall good, but I feel that golf blogs should be part of the events from now on. TV, newspapers, and magazines might not realize it yet but the internet has arrived.

Even Eat Golf, with all the typos, bad grammar, spelling errors, and all the other flaws, has become large enough to warrant some sort of respect from traditional media and props like a small acknowledgement in the form of an Eat Golf press pass to the LA Open would be a fantastic start. Eat Golf doesn't need anything fancy - all I want is to be allowed in with a movie camera, a tripod, a digital camera, access to an electrical outlet, perhaps a parking spot where I can get to my gear (or a locker?) and that is about it. I don't need to be inside the ropes, I'm still happy to pay for a ticket for admission. I don't really want to be in a media tent blogging to the TV while the tournament is happening - basically I would just like access in with some cameras.

In order to ask around in the media area about getting a press pass, or even mearly the scoop on how to apply for a pass; I figure that I need to look real official like - with badges and what-not (billowy is good ).

So to look legit, I decided to put the Eat Golf logo on a shirt so I appear all big time.

I used cafepress, uploaded the logo, and put in big bold letters *PHOTOGRAPHER* on the back:

Front

Back

I ordered two figuring that I would probably rally up a second person to man the digital camera while I work the movie camera.

No big deal about the shirts though, I know they won't actually suade anybody - that is up to me but half the fun of having a blog is the adventure right?

I'm looking forward to being at Tiger's event. No matter what it will be a lot of fun and I'll get some fantastic footage for the site during the practice rounds (where cameras are allowed).

By the way, I left the shirt up there on Cafepress. So if you would like to be the proud owner of a one of a kind Eat Golf shirt, if you act now they are only $18.99! - sorry, the back-scratcher-shoe-horn costs extra!

(markup = zero - Eat Golf makes $0.00 on the shirt)

However, I've got to tell you that Cafepress custom shirts in a low quantity like this are pretty expensive. This shirt costs $18.99 (+$3.00 for xxl to make it jacket size) = $21.99 (I ordered two) x2 = $43.98 + shipping $5.00 + tax $4.29 = $53.27 /2 = $27.00 each. That is a lot of money for a T-shirt! But if you want one click here

Yes, that Cafepress store is called highcoder. That is me the high coder (highcoder = an anagram of my name)

Remainder Post (edited out for being too detailed / too boring / unproffread / didn't make the cut)

Lately, I like long sleeves shirts not only because of winter but because of spending so much time on the computer, I like to scrunch the shirt up my arm so there is some extra elbow cusion on my desk. - Hot tip - I also have extra mouse pads under where my elbows touch the desk...

Being from Los Angeles, I actually do know a guy in the industry with connections that has filmed golf tournaments and if I could track down his email address I bet I could make an Eat Golf press pass happen. Last year, he tried to convince me to *take a vacation* and help oversee a crew for a month or so just for the fun of it. I skipped it - was too busy - plus it was mostly filming NASCAR and stuff that I just wasn't interested in. I was bummed though when he got back in town and told me they ended up working Augusta..

Speaking of Augusta National and the Masters, once I find out the process and what is involved in securing a press credential, you know I'll hook Mediaguru into the loop - after all, he should to be the very first golf blogger to cover The Masters. If any of you know how to get a press pass for the Masters let him know.

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