For the second day in a row, I attended the Bank of America Open in Glenview, IL. Since the morning tee times were postponed about 4 hours due to rain, I decided to go after work. The last tee time was scheduled for 6:30 pm after the rain subsided. In addition, The Glen (the shopping area that surrounds the golf course) was hosting a wine tasting event that started at 5 pm. The ticket I bought for the event ($10 for the week) came with one free drink at the wine tasting event.

Generally, I have strict attendance rules about how much of an event I need to attend in order for the sporting event to be “official.” For example, I need to watch at least 5 innings of a Major League Baseball game and at least the 1st or 2nd half of an NBA or NFL game. While I normally stay for the entire event, these rules were created for extraordinary exceptions.

When it comes to golf attendance rules are especially important. For the fan, one round of golf can take up to 12 hours. The first tee time occurs around 7 am while the last golfer finishes around 7 pm. While I have attended one full day of golf before, I do not recommend it. It is a long and sometimes boring day. Even attending half the event (6 hours) can be too much time.

Thus, I have allowed the golf attendance rules some flexibility – in order for a golf event to count, I must watch at least 9 holes of golf. Since playing 18 holes for a single golfer takes around 4.5 hours, 9 holes of golf should last around 2 and 2.5 hours. Thus, as long as you are at a golf event for over 2 hours you can consider your attendance official.

In addition, one may not leave a sporting event in order to attend another sporting event. Since a golf event does last for 12 hours, I would not attend an afternoon baseball game for example.

The one exception to that rule is to attend a night game after a golf event. Since golf does last until the early evening I do allow myself to leave early in order to attend a night game, which was the case Thursday night.