Rob Rashell is playing his first season on the PGA Tour. Throughout his rookie year, Rashell will provide a glimpse of what it's like to break into the Tour.

HONOLULU — A reporter asked me on the way out of the scoring trailer after my third-round 74, “Is this really your very first PGA Tour event, ever?” I have worked the past five-and-a-half years waiting for someone to ask me that question. I was happy to answer his question with a big grin, “Yep, my first one.” The Sony Open in Hawaii was the first full-field event on the 2005 PGA Tour schedule and also served as my PGA Tour debut.

My girlfriend and I left for the tournament a week early to enjoy some island life in Hawaii and to get acclimated to life on the PGA Tour. Not knowing what to expect, we went out to the golf course on Sunday afternoon to avoid a bit of the Monday morning rush. I spent a little bit of time chipping and putting and after getting a good feel for the whole environment headed back to the hotel for a nice dinner and a quiet night.

Rookie on Tour Return to Q-School Family, friends, fun Learning from Tiger Taking time off Practicing patience   Major highs, lows Open a thrill It's the driver Alligator ... yum! Clubs, car ready Raindelay by a nose Alternate anxiety Rain, rain go away Pebble amazing Home, sweet home Pro-Am popular Club changes Happy in Hawaii

On practice days I like to get going bright and early. Showing up on a Monday or Tuesday morning at 9 is like showing up at 8:30 on a Saturday morning at your local club — lots of people. The only difference would be the PGA Tour doesn’t have any practice round tee times, it's first come first serve and even that doesn’t always hold true. My thought was by getting up early I’d be able to beat the rush, playing with only one or two others. Unfortunately, there are many other eager people like me who enjoy playing and practicing early, leaving the majority of the afternoon for rest and relaxation. 

Here was my experience this week:

Monday went perfect. I ran into a friend of mine early and we went out and played together in a twosome. We had lots of time to play some extra shots and still finished under four hours. After a quick lunch and a little practice I was finished by 2:00 and had the rest of the day to rest and enjoy Hawaii. 

Tuesday morning I arrived around the same time and realized there were twice as many people out getting ready to play. I finished warming up and not having anyone to play with I just headed over to the tee by myself, hoping to get paired up with someone.  Well, when we got to the tee there were already about six or seven guys waiting to go, so I just plopped the bag down and waited to see what would happen. After watching a couple of groups go through and at the same time watching groups of four players come to the tee together, I wasn’t sure when I was going to play.

Rob Rashell

Here I was standing on the tee and all of these veteran players who all knew each other, were teaming up and getting ready to go, while at the same time wondering who the guy standing on the tee by himself was. Three of these guys had played their tee shots and started to walk and I decided I should but in there and ask, “You guys three? Mind if I jump in?” They all kind of looked at each other still wondering who I was and after a brief moment of silence said “Sure, come on.” So standing there on the first tee with various major winners I whacked my tee shot somewhere up the left rough and took off down the first.

Just as anybody in a new environment with new peers would be nervous about making new friends, so was I. I decided to jump in with both feet and try to make some new friends while at the same time try to learn as much as I could from these veteran players. Where do I stay?  Where are the good places to eat? What do you think about this or that?

Although I’m a bit nervous going through some of these things for the first time, I know I’ll get more comfortable as the tournaments go by. Having played all over the world with the European Tour in 2004, I’ll have a great deal of experience to draw on. Traveling, hotels, food, all of these will be much easier on a tour that uses one language and one currency. 

Now it's off to San Diego for the Buick Invitational, another beautiful place with two fantastic golf courses.

2005 results     How Rob Rashell stacked up on the PGA Tour this year. He made six of 25 cuts and earned $84,391. — 11/3-11/6: Southern Farm Bureau Classic (70-70-69-69—278, -10, 44th-tie, $9,070) — 9/22-9/25: Texas Open (67-73—140, Even, cut) — 9/15-9/18: 84 Lumber Classic (71-76—147, +3, cut) — 9/8-9/11: Canadian Open (72-73—145, +5, cut) — 9/2-9/5: Deutsche Bank Championship (75-73—148, +6, cut) — 8/25-8/28: Buick Championship (73-69—142, +2, cut) — 8/18-8/21: Reno-Tahoe Open (77-77—154, +10, cut) — 7/21-7/24: U.S. Bank Championship (71-72—143, +3, cut) — 7/14-7/17: B.C. Open (74-70—144, Even, cut) — 7/7-7/10: John Deere Classic (72-72—144, +2, cut) — 6/30-7/3: Western Open (72-72—144, +2, cut) — 6/23-6/26: Barclays Classic (75-73—148, +6, cut) — 6/16-6/19: U.S. Open (74-72-73-74—293, +13, 42th-tie, $26,223) — 5/26-5/29: St. Jude Classic (73-68-69-71—281, +1, 39th-tie, $20,090) — 4/28-5/1: Zurich Classic (74-73—147, +3, cut) — 4/21-24: Houston Open (78-73—151, +7, cut) — 3/31-4/3: BellSouth Classic (79-73—152, +8, cut) — 3/10-3/13: Honda Classic (73-68-76-70—287, -1, 58th-tie, $12,100) — 2/24-2/27: Chrysler Classic (71-68-71-75—285, -3, 64th-tie, $6,300) — 2/17-2/20: Nissan Open (73-72—145, +3, cut) — 2/10-2/13: Pebble Beach Pro-Am (72-75-73—220, +4, cut) — 2/3-2/6: FBR Open (77-74—151, +9, cut) — 1/26-1/30: Bob Hope Classic (66-76-73-72—287, -1, cut) — 1/20-1/23: Buick Invitational (73-72—145, +1, cut) — 1/13-1/16: Sony Open (73-67-74-69—283, +3, 56th-tie, $10,608)

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