Kentuckians J.B. Holmes and Kenny Perry truly were treated like rock stars by the crowds - and should have been.
I watched Holmes patiently sign autographs for almost 35 minutes after a practice round and dazzle fans with his driving range performance. But as much as Holmes enjoyed the atmosphere, Perry liked it even more.
He signed autographs for almost an hour after play Wednesday.
He might have signed more but he ran out of fans.
Before that, he had playfully led the crowd in a USA chant and thrown golf balls to lucky fans. One woman convinced a security guard to take several items she had over to Perry to make sure he would sign them.
She shouldn't have worried because a Ryder Cup volunteer told our Gary Moyers that on Tuesday Perry had stopped to take pictures and sign autograph for a woman celebrating her 60th birthday at the course.
While some players avoid the media, Perry embraced the Ryder Cup coverage. He stopped for an interview with a Bowling Green TV station even though he was late for a rules meeting.
"I want the folks back home to know what is going on," Perry said. "This is important to me, but it is also important to our whole state."
He's right, but it is bigger than that.
'We didn't need our husbands here to bother us'
Three elderly women from Utah left their husbands at home and came here for the week to watch Ryder Cup play.
"We are eating hot browns, drinking some Kentucky bourbon and watching every shot we can," one woman said while we watched Perry and Holmes finish a practice round. "We didn't need our husbands here to bother us."
Todd Tremaine of Corbin is a special agent for the U.S. Department of Justice.
He's on special duty at Valhalla for obvious security reasons. However, that didn't stop the golf fan in him from showing.
He had a Valhalla hole flag he managed to get every member of the United States team to sign.
He even had me take a picture of him with Perry.
Who could blame him? That's a keepsake any golf fan would cherish.
Holmes' caddy, Brandon Parsons, says fans constantly wanted autographs or hand slaps from Holmes, the former University of Kentucky All-American.
The good thing is that Holmes understands why he's become something of a cult hero for Kentuckians of all ages.
"It's unbelievable just to make the Ryder Cup team, and I'm so honored to be able to represent my country," Holmes said.
"I came from a small town, and it shows the people in Kentucky and in small towns that you don't have to be in a big city, you don't have to have the nicest golf course, you don't have to have the nicest stuff, you don't have to have everything be perfect to be able to be successful.
"You can just go out, work hard, do your best and be committed and good things can happen to you. I wasn't highly recruited coming out of high school. I mostly played my golf in Kentucky. I went to a Kentucky school and had a lot of SEC schools say I wasn't good enough to play for them. I was SEC Player of the Year my last year.
"It's not given to you or anything like that, so you have to work your butt off. That's what it takes to get here. It's not just wake up and here it is. You've really got to work hard to get to this position."
And what a position it is for him as well as those of us lucky enough to cover the event.
