Nick S' Blog

The game of golf seems so relaxing and peaceful in Bob Smiley’s Follow the Roar until Tiger Woods shows up on the tee at the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic.  Through my blog post you will understand that not all jobs are easy, even if it is sports related.  But it is clearly not what it is said to be.  Bob Smiley describes the first minutes of the tournament as a “strange feeling”.  He seems to be the only American here in the Middle East.  He describes it as “Being a needle in the hay stack” (84).  But when Bob starts to think about why he is on this journey all of his thoughts change to positive thoughts.  And when Smiley meets his taxi driver whose name is Rashid he really starts to miss home (92).  “The officials at the golf course are not like the ones at home” Bob Smiley says (94) when they ask you to “Please Stand Up”.  But when Smiley gets the sickest he has ever been in the past 8 years he knows that his streak is about to come to an end.  He describes his pain as if he got “shot in the stomach” (97).  He thinks to himself and ponders about what to do.  He then thinks about how he has already followed Tiger Woods through all 108 holes and 3 weeks of the 2008 season.  Smiley then picks up the phone and calls Rashid and tells him to meet him out front.  Instead of sitting around and complaining about being sick, Smiley gets in the taxi and knows that he is ready to Follow the Roar of the Tiger.