Brushes with the friends and relatives of greatness.

Day two at Bulle Rock was Seniors Day, where anyone 50 years of age or older was admitted free. Thankfully, I still have to pay. The joint was full of geezers.

I caught the shuttle from Ripken Stadium and got there at 7:30, and true to my word, I would be there to walk the course with Paula, and as an added bonus, Karrie Webb, another great player on the tour and In-Kyung Kim when they teed off at 8:32. Among the interesting sites would be Karrie's opening drive into a shallow stream on the first hole, where she would remove her shoes to play her second shot. I got to hold the rope over her head while she walked to the stream to find her ball. I got an Aussie "thank you" for my efforts. Sorry I had to do it, Karrie.

The round would go in rather uneventful fashion, with Paula hovering around even par (bogey one - birdie one), Karrie playing slightly under and In-Kyung struggling to recover from the first three disastrous holes. By the time we got to the eighth hole, things started getting interesting.

A spectator overheard me saying that In-Kyung was a pretty good player after recovering to 2-over par after 8 from a 4-over start. The spectator was a friend of hers, who was housing her for the tournament. Her parents could not afford to come here from Korea to see her play, so she depended on her friend from Maryland to give her a place to stay for the week. We talked about her game and career - she is just 18 and a medalist at the LPGA qualifying tournament which earned her exempt status. She's a good player and impressed a lot of people today.

Later in the day, someone pointed out a couple of people who had been walking the course with Paula. One of them looked amazingly like Paula, and was even dressed similarly in pink skirt and white top. The other, in blue Capri pants, I was told, was her mother. By the time we got to the 15th hole, she was by herself, so I decided to approach her and find out if my sources were correct.

"Excuse me, but I understand that you are Paula's mother," I wondered.

"Yes, I am. My name is Karen," she replied.

I introduced myself and told her that Paula "is my favorite professional athlete." She looked back with a smile and said, "Really? All athletes?" by which she meant, baseball, football and such.

"Yep. I'm a good judge of character, and I like everything about Paula. She was very nice to me yesterday." By now I realize that I'm talking to her mom, and just as we finish our little chit-chat, Paula hit a terrible shot on 15 which went into the rough to the right. "That's a little right," I said.

"Oh ... it's worse than that," Karen replied.

"Well, I'm just trying to be nice because you're here," I told her. As it turned out, it wasn't as bad as it seemed, but you know mothers. I won't bore you with minuate (unless you want me to), but we had a nice chat through a couple of holes and it is obvious that the apple did not fall far from the tree.

After Paula had finished her round, I found a concession stand and was in dire need of something besides the 80 ounces of water I had drank over the past 5 hours. A cheeseburger and ... Powerade for lunch. There was a nearly empty table with a lone woman sitting there. I wondered if she would mind some company.

"Not at all, sit down," she told me. Then she asked, "Who are you following?" To which, the obvious answer would come from me.

"Well, that's OK, but if you need someone else to root for, you should root for my niece - Christie Kerr," she said. She was wearing the telltale "GUEST" pass that tells people she didn't pay to get in, regardless of her age.

"I like Christie," I said, without fear of being uncovered as a fibber. How can you not like Christie? She hates to lose, gets assed-up over stuff and shows her feelings on the course. Besides, I had already decided to find her on the course and follow the rest of her round after I finished my lunch, so I would see her later whether she knew it or not (and I did).

She went on to tell me some interesting details about Christie's life as a pro golfer. For example, she got $250,000 as an appearance fee to play a tournament in Korea rather than play the Ginn Tribute and how the money they make as "earnings" on the tour is a fraction of what they really earn. Money from Mutual of Omaha (plastered on her bag and hat), shoe contracts, club contracts and even make-up contracts - where she is paid for wearing Estee Lauder make-up, as though we would care. This, in addition to a swing coach and a putting coach. Not to forget the caddies, who get a salary plus 10% of the golfer's earnings. Christie pays her coaches' expenses if they have to travel to find her and help. It's a bit of a racket, but as long as nobody is holding a gun to another's head, I say - go for it.

Christie wasn't playing very well on Thursday, and wobbled between 1 over and 3 over for the time I followed her. She missed an eagle putt on 8 (she started on 10), birdied it, then bogeyed 9 to finish at 3 over par, eight shots off the lead and was last seen heading for the driving range after her round.

Through all that, I walked a little over 9,000 yards (18 holes with Paula and 6 with Christie), met 3 relatives and friends of three great players, had a nice nap on the grass behind the first tee and saw some great and not so great golf. There is a severe heat warning in the forecast for Friday, with high temperatures in the mid 90s and high humidity. I will skip the second round in lieu of TV coverage and heat stroke and return on Saturday for the third round and hopefully, more stunning revelations from the good people who populate the LPGA tour. These Girls Rock is not just an advertising slogan. They really do. They so really do.

Upon boarding the bus back to Ripken Stadium, I asked the man in front of me what time it was.

"Six thirty-five," he replied.

"Holy cow! Really?" I said, as though he would lie to me.

"Yep."

"Wow. I completely lost track of time." I told him.

"You must have had a good time." he wondered.

"Yes ... I did."

I so really did.