Supervising Producer Dave

If you’re a fan of Robin’s podcast – and I know you are - then you’ll remember an episode from a few weeks ago where Rafer and Bob were hanging out at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. They got to meet and joke around with some of the world’s best golfers, who were getting ready for the PGA’s Tour Championship.

Dave goes elite, for a day.

Well, I recently did Rafer and Bob one better. I played the course.

Although East Lake is an ultra-exclusive, private club, the experience got me thinking about how golf - despite its elitist image - separates itself from other, more populist sports by allowing the average Joe (or Dave, in this case) to play some of its most magnificent venues. Any golfer with the patience to wait for a tee time, and the money to pay for it, can play legendary courses like Pebble Beach, Pinehurst #2, TPC Sawgrass, Torrey Pines, Bandon Dunes, Whistling Straits, and Bethpage Black - not to mention most of the great British Open courses.

On the other hand, I guarantee that you and your buddies can’t play a pickup softball game at Fenway Park. You can’t play three-on-three basketball at Madison Square Garden, or flag football at Lambeau Field, or a friendly tennis match on Centre Court at Wimbledon.

(In case you’re wondering how I got to play East Lake, a buddy of mine won a silent auction for a foursome and was nice enough to invite me. I got the word via text message at 6am on a Saturday, and I couldn’t type “Count me in!” fast enough.)

Although I play most of my golf on municipal courses, I’m no stranger to some of the game’s hallowed grounds. I’d played Pinehurst #2 and TPC Sawgrass (yes, I put my tee shot in the water on #17.) But East Lake was going to be different. For one thing, I rode in a cart at Pinehurst and Sawgrass, and played with strangers. At East Lake, I’d be playing with friends and walking the course like the pros do, with a caddie who knows the layout’s every angle and break like the back of his hand.

Plus, East Lake is just a few miles from my house. I drive past the course every day on my way to work. And, I often play at a neighboring par-3 course, from which you can look across the street and see East Lake’s rolling fairways, treacherous hazards and frighteningly fast greens.

I’d walked East Lake as a spectator during the Tour Championship, but I never thought I’d get to play there. And yet, on a cool, clear mid-October morning, there I was, standing on the first tee.

Seven shots later, my ball was in the hole. And, that’s pretty much how it went the rest of the day.

East Lake is tough, but fair. The standard rules apply: keep the ball in play and out of trouble around the green, and you can shoot a decent score. But if you start spraying your tee shots and putting yourself on the wrong side of the hole, you’re in for a long day. Championship courses like East Lake really penalize bad shots, as I found out again and again.

But in the end, I had fun. My caddie was great, I only lost one ball, and I finished with consecutive bogeys on the difficult 17th and 18th holes. As for my overall score, let’s just say it was a big number. So big, in fact, I had to get some of my scientist friends to work on it. Click here to check out the result.

When BVD Attacks: It’s Me v. Bob Van Dillen
This all started when writer Mike asked me which river the Elm Point levee is on. Good question, I say.. I assumed all these failing levees were on the Mississippi. He says, “Van Dillen says it’s the Missouri River.” I do some investigating on the news wires and the Internet and find numerous references to it being on the Mississippi. Local newspapers, TV stations, the Associated Press all agree with me.

Supervising Producer Dave Siff, left, and meteorologist Bob Van Dillen compare "guns."

So, I blast an email to the entire Morning Express team. Bob replies to the whole group, “NO. It’s on the Missouri.” So, now I’m steamed. I call upstairs and ask for someone to call a St. Louis affiliate and ask what river this levee is on. “I want to smack down Van Dillen,” I say. This is gonna be good. Five minutes later, I get a call back. “Bad news,” says the voice on the other end. I spill my coffee. Now, I’m really steamed. In a gesture of goodwill, I blast another email saying, “Bob’s our guy, we go with Bob. Missouri River it is.”

I look up and see one of our competitors reporting the story with a map indicating the levee is on the Mississippi. Now, I am going to have a brain cramp. I briefly consider challenging Bob to an arm-wrestling match, but he’s got those infamous guns. Time to go to the gym. Of course, his guns are pea-shooters compared to the missile launchers I’m hiding under my supervisor costume.
- Supervising Producer Dave Siff

Response from Bob (a.k.a. “part-time cartographer”)
So I'm running around checking all these river gauges along the Mississippi Tuesday, and things are kind of hectic. I need to know what levees are breaking, on the verge of breaking, or are just 'overtopped', so I can make a snappy graphic for my weather segment. All of a sudden I see live pictures of a levee failing in St. Charles County, MO.

I flip open the Atlas to see what river is flooding the countryside, and see St. Charles County is actually on the Missouri River. I send Robin a message, alerting her that it is not the Mississippi, and start making a graphic showing the break. Five minutes later, Siff sends out a note to EVERYBODY that the break is in fact the Mississippi, according to local papers. I recheck the map, just to make sure I wasn't crazy and that Siff trusts a recent college grad FIRST over me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he checks the facts. Turns out, I was right, and the local guys were wrong. I email everybody back and say: "No. It's the MO and those guys are all wrong." Apparently, Dave gets angry and does some more checking, and finds out I'm correct. My producer Vickie says she wants us to fight in the parking deck, but I hear Siff is some sort of Kung-Fu master, so maybe I'll just sneak up on him and whack him in the back of his head with a map of Missouri, and run.

Or maybe we'll have to have a “gun-off” in a few weeks just to see who has the pea-shooters. If they take into account the girth of the triceps, I win hands down.
- Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen