It wasn’t Benzel’s week, but swing coach’s e-mails amuse

Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., was not kind to Ryan Benzel this week.

The former Ritzville resident and University of Idaho golf standout tacked a messy second-round score of 11-over-par 83 onto Thursday’s opening-round 81 and missed the cut at the 2009 PGA Championship.

But the experience – if you believe the musings of his former college coach – was well worth the disappointment of finishing 151st in the 155-player field that is traditionally considered to be the strongest of any of golf’s major tournaments.

Benzel, a former Rosauers Open champion, who now works as a teaching professional at Battle Creek Golf Course in Tulalip, Wash., qualified for the PGA for the third straight year earlier this summer by finishing fourth at the PGA Professional National Championship in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M.

And for the third straight year, his former coach at Idaho, Brad Rickel, accompanied him to the prestigious tournament to serve as his swing coach.

In that capacity, Rickel – who serves as the women’s golf coach at Gonzaga University – not only helped Benzel on the range before and after his ventures on the torturously long Hazeltine layout, but also kept a daily log of their activities, which he shared with certain parties via e-mail exchanges.

I was fortunate enough to receive Rickel’s daily accounts about life at a major event like the PGA, which were also posted on GU’s athletic department’s Web site, and thoroughly enjoyed each entry – from Benzel’s equipment malfunction on the practice range on Monday, to his Tuesday practice round with Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson to Rickel’s own amusing assessment of Mickelson’s swing coach, Butch Harmon.

I’ve put together some of my favorite excerpts.

On Sunday’s arrival:

•After check-in (at the hotel) we headed to Hazeltine to get our credentials. At PGA Tour events all the players get courtesy cars for the week. This week the courtesy cars are Mercedes and I can tell you Ryan is already testing out the “abilities” of the car.

On Monday’s practice range fiasco:

•All the club manufacturers are at the events with the tour trailers each week and spend Monday through Wednesday helping the pros with any equipment needs … The Titleist guy has tried to put together a couple of drivers in a rush for Ryan to hit before we head out for the practice round … and the first swing sends the driver head 100 yards out into the driving range. This gets a few oohs and aahs from the crowd. The Titleist guy says … “Uuuh, glue must not be dry yet” … ya think?

On Wednesday’s practice round with Freddie and Phil:

•Well, today was one of the best days we’ve had in the last three years of playing the PGA Championship. … We knew we were playing with Freddy today, so we were looking forward to playing. When we arrived on the driving range we found out for sure that Phil Mickelson would be joining us. This was pretty startling news and took the day to a whole new level.

•It also becomes apparent that Butch Harmon and Dave Pelz will be with our group and teaching Phil today. Butch is widely recognized as one of the best teachers in the world, No. 1 in the world if you ask him … so I don’t ask. … I was fascinated by the lack of communication between Butch and Dave. I am not sure if it is just teacher rivalry or just that they don’t care for each other, but they never talked to each other once. … ain’t nobody loves Butch as much as Butch loves Butch.

On Friday’s second round:

•Ryan played his butt off today, but this was just not his week. His putter has always been his greatest strength. If your greatest strength becomes your greatest weakness you are going to struggle. Ryan played the last seven holes today at even par, definitely his best stretch of the tournament. I am really proud of him for keeping his chin up and finishing strong.

On the week’s other highlights:

•Going through the caddies area each day and stealing a chocolate donut.

•Practice rounds with Beemer (Rich Beem), Freddy, Phil, (Steve) Stricker. Beemer asking for my card so we can play Black Rock next time he is in town.

•The guy saying, “Go get ’em, Henrik,” (thinking I was Henrik Stenson) … I just gave him “the nod.”

•Going into the Nike trailer … telling them I was the coach at Gonzaga and getting free hats.