From the intersection of River and Swan, it is 26.2 miles to the entry gate at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. You can't miss it. Take a right at La Cholla, a left at Tangerine and a right at Dove Mountain Boulevard.
Three turns. You can get there in 43 minutes unless you get behind a school bus. That's probably an average drive to The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club from the Tucson valley.
So don't say you can't get there from here or that it's too far. Some people used to drive to Phoenix just to get a Krispy Kreme doughnut.
It's not the distance. It's the dollars.
At noon Tuesday, three parking lot shuttles arrived almost simultaneously at the Ritz. One bus unloaded 19, another 14. The final bus dropped off nine golf fans.
Of that 42-person group, just one man walked to the ticket tent and paid the daily walk-up fee, which was $35 for Tuesday's practice round. As Allen Iverson might say, "C'mon, man, $35 for practice?"
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The other 41 people already had tickets in hand, which meant they were probably part of a corporate group that buys in bulk and distributes to friends and associates. That's how it works at most PGA Tour events. The Big Guys pay. The Little Guys stay away.
There aren't any $5 grandstand seats or $2 beers at any WGC event, especially this one.
At the Ritz, the walk-up fee climbs to $65 today, but no longer are the golfers practicing. Today is one of the four or five best days on the pro golf calendar: Sixty-four of the world's 66 leading players engage in the only sudden-death tournament on the schedule.
Nevertheless, it makes the Diamondbacks' most expensive spring training ticket, $18, come off as pocket change.
The average working guy in Southern Arizona, the average muni golfer, isn't going to dig $65 out of his pocket and drive to Dove Mountain. It is worse elsewhere. At last week's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, the average daily-fees guy paid $9 for entry onto 17-Mile Drive, $15 for parking and $60 for a grounds ticket.
But at least they could sell the sea breeze and a chance to see Bill Murray. The most recognizable mug at the Match Play is that of Vijay Singh, who turns 46 next week and hasn't won in more than a year.
But because Singh is cast as a sourpuss, and because he's unlikely ever to challenge for the world's No. 1 status again, he's not the type of golfer who can persuade you to part with $65.
In a world without Tiger Woods, and with Phil Mickelson about to turn 40, golf is desperate to produce a star who can sell those $65 tickets. The five dynamos best positioned to do so are here this week:
• Japan's Ryo Ishikawa, 18, who is already a cosmic star on the Pacific Rim.
• Northern Ireland's personable Rory McIlroy, 20, who is the first 20-year-old to reach the world ranking top 10 since Sergio Garcia.
• SoCal's Anthony Kim, 25, a two-time winner in 2008 who has barely tapped into his potential.
• Pebble Beach champion Dustin Johnson, 25, a long-ball hitter from South Carolina.
• Germany's Martin Kaymer, 25, a five-time winner on the European Tour over the last 25 months.
On Tuesday, neither Kaymer nor Johnson sounded as if they were prepared, or cared, to grow into the role.
"I don't want to be bothered," Johnson said, acknowledging that he prefers not to be recognized in public places.
Kaymer, an engaging personality, is already feeling the pressure to grow into an international star.
"In Germany," he said Tuesday, "they're expecting me to win almost every week. But it's very difficult to keep that level and to play for the win every week. Of course, I'm trying my very best. But I can't make everybody happy, especially the press in Germany. They are really looking for someone new."
They're not looking for this week's No. 1 seed, 42-year-old Steve Stricker, who is the classic case of a journeyman touched by unexpected stardom. Stricker is unassuming, almost too nice and polite to lift golf on his back and carry it down the road.
"I'm accepting it," he said Tuesday. "But I don't really care for it that much."
For those unwilling to pay $65 - or even the Thursday-through-Sunday $55 daily fee to watch a tournament that is televised live and features Stricker vs. No. 64 Ross McGowan - Stricker put this tournament-without-Tiger in perspective. He said:
"I'm sure Ross likes having me as a seed rather than Tiger."
It might be one seed in golf that will not grow.
