By Andy North
Special to ESPN Golf Online
Wednesday, March 29

Editor's note: Two-time U.S. Open champion Andy North is chronicling life on the Senior Tour in a special column for ESPN Golf Online. His first diary entry comes on the eve of his first official tournament, The Tradition, which is also the first Senior Tour major. After turning 50 in March, North teamed with Jim Colbert two weeks ago to win the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, an unofficial event.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The way the schedule fell this year, it couldn't have worked out better for me. After turning 50, I got my feet wet at the Legends of Golf, then get to begin my Senior Tour career at the first major of the year.

The schedule worked out real well. Down there at the Legends, I got to play with a partner. It's more relaxed, and your partner can cover you if you mess up. Now this week we get to play a good, hard golf course, a major with great atmosphere. It's really neat.

One benefit of starting with a major is we get to play four rounds instead of the normal three on the Senior Tour. With just 78 players in the field, there won't be a cut. If you happen to play a round not so well, you've got an extra round to get back in it.

If you play the first nine holes in 40, for instance, you know you've got a lot of golf left to make up ground. But play the first nine holes in 40 during a normal week, and you're behind the 8-ball.

It was nice to play well at the Legends. Guys are coming up to me and talking about that instead of rookie talk. It's fun to be back around these guys. A lot of these guys have been my friends for 25-30 years. That's one of the neat things about tour life; you have two sets of friends -- those on the tour and those at home.

It's kind of weird being back on a tour, although it isn't like being a normal rookie. Having been a broadcaster at ESPN, I've already been around these guys for the past five or six years. But it's a little different. I always tried to be careful so that they knew when I was there as a broadcaster and when I was just one of the guys hanging around the locker room.

The Tradition is a really special event. They had a dinner Tuesday night where they had all the major championship winners from both tours, and about 40 or 50 guys were there. It was an incredible group, with guys like Paul Runyan and Tommy Bolt. Those are the things that make this special.

The course here at Desert Mountain is long, and the ball is not running as much this year, which makes it even longer. There's some rough around the greens and some off the fairways. I think the field will be separated quite a bit this week.

The back nine has three par-3s, three par-4s and three par-5s, which is a little unusual. It's a neat mix of holes, however, and almost anything can happen. If you take advantage of the par-5s, you can score really well. But you can also be 2- or 3-over without playing that poorly.

When looking at favorites, you have to start with Gil Morgan. He won last week, he's won here twice, he's long and strong and playing great right now. After that, you have the regular cast of characters you talk about every week: Bruce Fleisher, Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Lanny Wadkins.

And don't rule out Jack Nicklaus. He designed this course and has won here four times.

Realistically, there are about 25 guys who have a shot this week.

As for my chances, I'm playing reasonably well right now. It's important for me to get off to a decent start and play a good, solid round.

I'm playing the opening round with Tom Kite and Jose Maria Canizares, which is a good pairing. I played a lot of golf with Tom; we go back to junior golf. I've played a handful of rounds with Jose over the years. Both of them are good guys to play with.

I've practiced and worked out and done a lot of things I needed to do, but you really have no idea what's going to happen until you get out on the course. It's a matter of going out and hitting the shots and playing the hole in front of you. It's a cliche you've heard a million times, but the idea of playing every hole, one at a time, is really true.