The Greenbrier Classic is underway at the famed resort in White Sulphur Springs. In the aftermath of the storms which came through the state Friday evening and left well over six hundred thousand people without electricity, some are asking, with all this going on why is their a fuss about a golf tournament at the resort for the rich and famous? The reason is: It’s on the schedule, and when the PGA Tour has you on the schedule, golf is played. At Congressional Saturday they did not have a gallery, because of the amount of damage to the course…put the tournament was finished (weird looking watching golfers play without a crowd). A lot of people came in over the weekend to volunteer to get The Old White TPC ready, let me tell you, it is ready. We walked out this morning and took a look around; some trees are no longer here which were here Friday around five. Notably a large sycamore that stood beside the 16^th green which after the storm came in was on the 16^th green. Tree was taken away, stump was ground up, turf was placed over the sight and no one will ever know that a two hundred year old tree was there. Also part of the green was replaced, and that doesn’t happen overnight, but here it did. This course looks great and some of the world’s best golfers are here to put it to a test.

Over a thousand volunteers showed up here Sunday morning with chain saws, gas cans, rakes, shovels and other tools to help. Why? Because they wanted to, many of these people don’t have power at their homes, but coming here and working on the course was a release, some thought it beat sitting at home sweating, might was well do something, and it was important to them to make sure that West Virginia shined brightly on national television. 140 thousand tickets were sold to this event; will all 140 thousand be used? Probably not, some will not be able to make it this week because of the storm, they will be home trying to get everything back in order, some may see a bit of it on television, or hear about it on radio, or read about it in the newspaper or online wish they were here.

Thanks to all those who spent all the hours it took to get this place ready. The pros are here, including one Eldrick Tont Woods who will be playing here for the first time. He will be making his 286^th career start on the PGA Tour. Kenny Perry from over in Kentucky is here as well, he incidentally is making his 624^th PGA Tour start. Ole Lefty Phil Mickelson is here, Erik Compton who has had two heart transplants is here, Jim Furyk is here, Inaugural champion Stuart Appleby is here, last years champion Scott Stallings is here…and one of the really nice guys that you will ever meet Tom Watson is here. Tom who is the Greenbriers Golf Professional Emeritus is the tournaments unofficial host.

If you have tickets come on over to the Greenbrier, enjoy some golf, enjoy meeting some friends and take your mind off all this mess that is going on around you for a few hours.

SPORTS 01/11/2011

MOUNTAIN STATE AND WVU TECH PLAY TONIGHT IN MONTGOMERY. THE COUGARS NOW 12 AND 2, HAVE WON THREE IN A ROW SINCE THE CHRISTMAS BREAK, TECH IMPROVED TO 6 AND 6 AFTER A TRIPLE OVERTIME VICTORY OVER CONFERENCE FOE, THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS. TONIGHTS GAME IN MONTGOMERY TIPS AT 7PM AND CAN BE HEARD ON 105.9 WTNJ.

 MOUNTAIN STATE HAS MOVED UP TO FIFTH IN THE NEW NAIA COACHES TOP 25 POLL WHICH WAS RELEASED MONDAY EVENING. THE COUGARS HAD BEEN AT NUMBER 8.

 THE UNDEFEATED WVU WOMENS BASKETBALL TEAM IS BACK IN ACTION TONIGHT AT MARQUETTE. WVU IS 16 AND 0 AND 3 AND 0 IN THE BIG EAST, MARQUETTE IS 13 AND 3 OVERALL AND 1 AND 2 IN CONFERENCE PLAY.

 girls high school basketball games scheduled this eveing include: south charleston at greenbrier east, summers county at james monroe, westside at liberty, george washington at princeton, fayetteville at midland trail, mountcalm at mount view,  and bluefield at pikeview.

 in boys high school play this evening. woodrow plays at wyoming east, summers county is at oak hill, westside visits shady spring, james monroe goes to bluefield, independence is at pikeview, covington virginia plays at meadow bridge, webster county is at midland trail, mount view at montcalm, richwood at mount hope, burch at river veiw and valley at teays valley christian.

 in high school play last night woodrow beat huntington 79 to 49 in beckley. shady takes liberty 78 to 70, pocahontas county downs webster county 66 to 59, and princeton was a 58 to 332 winner over nitro. in girls play woodrow beat princeton 58 to 37, meadow bridge was a 44 to 36 winner over richwood and greater beckley beat liberty 48 to 28. 

 deandre kane scored 18 points as marshall won in huntington last night 71 to 57 over savanah state. the herd is now 12 and 4.

 vinny curry will return next season to marshall. the 6-4-260 pound defensive end made that announcement yesterday. curry was exploring the possibility of skipping his senior season and declaring for the nfl draft.