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By Brett Avery
PGATOUR.com Correspondent

Editor's note: Brett Avery, PGATOUR.com's Fantasy Insider, is going to do a live blog direct from the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic this week. Check back frequently throughout the day for his next entry. Have a question or comment for Brett? Send it to him at brettavery@aol.com.

All times are pacific.

• First-round blog | • Caddie Blog: Get the picture, lady?

George Lopez is the new tournament host of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. (AP)

BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

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3:47 p.m.
Calling it a day
OK, so on tomorrow's wish list is a few holes with Boris Said, the stock car driver. Bit of a wild swing to go with that frizzy mop of hair (do a Google search for a photo, worth the keystrokes). Plus it's refreshing to see a guy in his business wearing only one teeny logo. The other interesting pairing is Justin Rose, at 12 under, a shot away from Scott Verplank's lead. He's got the football boys -- Sterling Sharpe, Marcus Allen and Jerome Bettis -- who are having way too much fun. They should know enough to stay out of his way but interject enough competitive mojo to make it lively. Time to find the car, head back up Washington to the hotel and give the BlackBerry a long drink of juice. See you tomorrow at PGA West for thr third round.

3:22 p.m.
Winding down
Things are winding down as the sun dips nearer the mountains. Alice Cooper acts as a magnet one more time on the course, this time for the media circling the scorer's tent seeking a quote or juicy nugget. Not much in the interview but it's even money something will make tomorrow's notes a column. Only a handful of teams remain on the course and the team lead is posted at 30 under, meaning Team 26 is only two back. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with the pressure tomorrow. As with a TOUR event, the third round is a moving day. The Palmer Course at PGA West will be a formidable test, especially as the last group off the tee at No. 10. Good thing they have Ian Poulter as their pro. The man in pink will keep Pesci loose.

2:27 p.m.
Hold the Tabasco, please
CNBC's Joe Kernen practically whiffs a two-footer at the last green and walks away red-faced. "I think I won't be able to play the rest of the week," he says to partner Mossimo Giannuill. "I think I've got a Dangerfield," he says, winging his arm to feign injury. So, Mossimo, does Joe have the yips? "From the center of the fairway he does." One more question: If you could give a makeover to any TOUR pro, who would it be? (And, for the record, that's not my question.) He ponders for about 10 seconds. "Anyone wearing Tabasco logos," he says, "That (expletives) meant to be eaten, not worn."

2:16 p.m.
Sweet finish for Bolton
When the team needs Nelson most he cannot contribute, glancing his drive off a palm tree and then hooking his layup into the lake. Pesci and Bolton drive down the left side. Pesci thumps his second towards the green, leaving Bolton. He's clearly feeling the pressure taking extra time to gauge the wind and then waggle his club. The shot is pure genius, what kids dream about sitting in school. Gore hits a gentle draw that floats on the crossing wind, landing about 12 feet short of the stick and gliding up to about three feet.

Thunderstruck, Bolton turns to his partners with a look of "how did that happen?" Gore finishes a miserable 75 with bogey, Pesci burns the edge with his par try and then Bolton, in the moment he'll savor for a long time, rolls home the natural birdie, net 2, for a 28-under total. "I was feeling like a nervous wreck because I hadn't contributed the last hole and had a shot," Bolton says. "It was an 8-iron, perfect distance. I changed my grip about a week ago so I was still uncertain about it." Bolton tied for third last year in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with Tim Clark as a partner. He hadn't played much in recent months, spending 14-hour days in the studio on the next project. He spent time nine days ago at Ojai C.C. with pro Rob Wiseman, who at the end of the lesson suggested ditching his baseball-style grip for a more conventional style. So far, it's working for the team.

1:53 p.m.
Toasty
Couldn't help it. Approached a woman wearing a winter jacket and gloves and asked, "What's the over-under on the temperature for taking that off?"

Answer: 70.

They give the same answer in Mumbai, don't they?

1:34 p.m.
Share the love
Craig T. Nelson's caddie says it's an evenly balanced contribution which is helping them keep the pressure ratcheted up. They know fully where they stand despite the small number of leaderboards on the property.

Joe Pesci seems the key, though, to whether they take the title or fall away. Although a player's Handicap Index is based on potential, not the misconception of asbility, as the C player his 18 shots can go a long way. Nelson, a far more proficient stick, is a 5 and needs to play his butt off to better a hot Pesci.

Even more than performance, Pesci's attitude is crucial. If he gets tight and backs off the jokes there's no way the gallery can feed into the flow. And even at his abbreviated height he's an imposing presewnce because of some of the bad-guy roles in his resume.

That one-putt 4 net 3 he just made at the 16th helps the entire cause.

1:27 p.m.
Goodfella
Team 26 makes birdie at the 15th to get to 25 under. Among the highlights is a net 1 at the short 12th by Pesci, who (according to Bolton) canned the prettiest uphill 24-footer for a natural bird.

This team is so much looser than the front nine, when pro Gore struggled through a double-bogey 5 late in the nine.

Going to walk them into the clubhouse.

1:13 p.m.
Making a charge
Don't look now but Nelson, Michael Bolton and Pesci are on the board at 23 under, tied for fourth and one out of the lead. Taking a detour to find out what the heck they're doing right.

1:00 p.m.
No surprise
The Hope Chrysler Classic girls, a staple of this tournament, are squeezed in a cart following play at the 17th.

The group's pro is Will MacKenzie.

There's a shocker.

12:53 p.m.
Soul Patrol
Taylor Hicks hits his drive so far right at the par-5 11th that he's almost in the far rough at the adjacent 17th fairway.

Learning where his ball is located, he abruptly halts.

"Can I play it from over there? Am I allowed?" He asks his caddie.

Gotta love those rookies.

12:43 p.m.
Hey, I know you
Walking to the 11th tee, Cooper is stopped by a white-haired guy who the musician instantly recognizes as having worked on his first music video.

A five-day shoot.

Imagine that wrap party ...

12:21 p.m.
Quite a group of fans
And now the moment you've all anticipated.

Not the anti-Kenny G screed.

The Alice Cooper gallery watch.

Like those two blondes over there, wearing similar white parkas trimmed with fur. Are they also wearing ... ski pants?

There, at 4 o'clock, the four women wearing tight denim and -- how to say this delicately -- figure-revealing sweaters.

And the three brunettes walking toward us, two in short skirts. And all showing their best ... assets.

Let's face it: Professional golf tournaments are places to see and be seen. There no shortage of women who put themselves on display. And no shortage of men willing to provide the required eyeballs.

Cooper's gallery takes this to a new level. It's not just one or two women in the gallery who are giving what men of a certain vintage would call "come hither" looks. It's that there are dozens of them following the 9:33 group.

OK, wise guy, perhaps they're watching the rest of the group: Mike Weir, American Idol winner Taylor Hicks and figure skater Scott Hamilton.

Um, no.

These women know the routine. They cluster on the right side of the tee, because that's where the contestants stand while teeing off. At the greens they gravitate to the roped corridor leading to the next tee.

He signs a lot of autographs. You would too with such an ... appreciative audience.

11:48 a.m.
Lunch time
Back at the clubhouse (or what's left of it during La Quinta's extensive facilities renovation). Good time for a quick sandwich and to plug the PDA into an outlet. Back in a bit.

11:28 a.m.
At least he's loud
Anthony Anderson can't drive the ball, can't control the irons, can't putt worth a lick.

But the man can yell with the best of them. At the par-4 ninth he slices a drive so far off line it nearly crosses the lake and lands on the 18th fairway.

"Oh, GOD!" He screams, turning heads two holes away.

If nothing else he's comic relief -- and a lovely sight in slacks and shirt of pink sherbet.

11:16 a.m.
Eruzione's got "it"
Mike Eruzione does not shut up. He's been chewing on Ian Poulter's ear the length of the eighth hole and shows no signs of letting up. Not that Poulter minds. He's giving it back just as well. Plenty of belly laughs in this group.

Watch Eruzione for a while and it's no surprise that he receives as much credit as he does for that 1980 Olympic hockey miracle on ice. Not only does he keep everyone loose with the chatter, he's got that bulldog competitive nature so valuable in a pro-am format.

The eighth is an ideal example. He hits a long drive but ends up on the downslope of a fairway bunker, awkward enough a stance to cause his second to come up short. He flips his third up to five feet, just beyond a small hump in the surface, then pours the putt home for a 4.

Not surprisingly, his team is counting most of his holes on its card today.

10:34 a.m.
Whoops
Jason Gore and his caddie spend about 60 seconds helping Craig T. Nelson line up a 32-foot birdie putt at the seventh. Gore helpfully points over his shoulder toward Indio, where every putt breaks.

"Right edge," Gore pronounced with unquestioned confidence.

"Right edge?" A confused Nelson says.

Gore nods.

So Nelson hits it, the ball grazes the right edge and the gallery groans.

And groans more when the ball continues rolling another 15 feet, onto the fringe.

"And it's downhill," Gore quickly adds with an enormous grin.

Good thing Nelson's not a pro and Gore his looper. Someone would be looking for work.

Tomorrow.

10:23 a.m.
Easy breezy
It's been a breezier morning than yesterday and now the wind is gathering steam. As with Bermuda Dunes, the holes here are lined by homes, so there are occasional spots where it can seem calm on the tee. But for the most part, it will be easy to tell the direction, even if the intensity of the gusts is uncertain.

10:06 a.m.
It's all about Yogi
Much as anyone in the gallery emulates the swings of the TOUR pros, what everyone wants to be when they grow up is Yogi Berra.

The amateurs can take a cart during their rounds and a handful do for a variety of reasons. Berra doesn't get around that well so he takes one at the first tee he pops up the drive, the ball tickling the fronds of a palm left of the fairway before thudding in the rough. After hitting a solid 5-wood down the fairway, and giving a polite wave to acknowledge the applause, he settles into the passenger seat.

After hitting his third up near the green, Berra ambles over to pro partner Billy Andrade, flashes a smile and puts his arm around the kid. Gotta believe Rhode Island native Andrade wants to grow up to be Berra, too ... even if the guy played for the Yankees.

9:51 a.m.
New-school swings

Was three-quarters out the practice door but stopped to see Will MacKenzie hitting balls.

Call me old-fashioned, but the key message of golf instruction throughout the years is "keep your head down." And here's MacKenzie, like so many players of his generation, turning his head toward the target during the downswing.

David Duval and Annika Sorenstam are two prime examples of this swing philosophy. There are hundreds of others on the men's and women's circuits around the world. What's amazing is how they can look away from the ball and make consistently solid contact while the rest of us dig the club into the ground or top the ball.

Which begs the question: If so many younger pros are doing it with success, how long before golf teachers start espousing the early head turn as an advantageous component of the ideal swing?

9:41 a.m.
The Daily Grind
Spent the last 15 minutes or so watching Carson Daly on the practice tee. Difficult to believe he's a 7 handicap with that swing but we all have our demons and shortcomings.

The range at La Quinta is playing downwind today. The majority of ams, celebrity or otherwise, ramped up to the driver fairly rapidly to blast at least a few balls toward the wall and palms off in the distance. Daly, unfazed, kept to the wedges and short irons. That's a mark of diligence not enough of us show, in practice or on the course.

8:58 a.m.
In case you were curious ...
The high-speed cameras used by The Golf Channel capture 500 frames per second (full body) and 12500 frames (ball impact). Between them they capture about a gigabyte of data in a few seconds.

Each camera is connected to a processor that hums away in a plastic tub (to reduce noise). Cables run to a nearby cart, where a gas generator and editor are positioned. The editor uses a small monitor and screen to download the data, cherry pick out each swing and impact after the download and burn it to a hard drive. At most tournaments, the full swing is at 1000 fps but because the hardware isn't hard-wired to the control truck (which is across town at the Classic Club) the reduced speed must do.

This afternoon they'll be back at Classic shooting the pros.

8:39 a.m.
Still bland
Joe Kernen redeems himself. Classic black slacks, tan windshirt with the CNBC logo, white shirt collar.

Still has the ugly tan visor, though.

So why the frumpy garb Wednesday? He gives to reasons.
1. "Cold."
2. "It was my lucky outfit from the day before."

Whatever. He's still bland man in this field.

8:26 a.m.
Fire up the TiVo
The Golf Channel's got the high-speed swing gizmos at the first tee long enough to catch the first six groups of celebs. Marin, Cheadle, Jerome Bettis, Oscar de la Hoya are all in that mix.

Set the TiVo. Better yet, make some popcorn.

8:15 a.m.
Fashion blotter
Don Cheadle: dark green-grayish shorts (!), dark greenish-gray and black sweater.

Fabulous.

Until he hits his first wedge warmup and shows the brown leather weave belt. Somehow it doesn't make sense until Shannon Sharpe, walking past, asks him about last night.

"Tequila" is in Cheadle's first sentence.

Enough said.

8:08 a.m.
Fashion police
Cheech Marin: orange corduroys and an orange cap with a tan sweater.

As the saying goes, it looks good on him.

7:59 a.m.
Homemade putters
One of the terrific things about being a journalist is the ability to walk up to anyone and ask practically any question.

That means walking out to the practice tee, bumping into rocket scientist Burt Rutan and quizzing him on his putter. As expected, it's a homemade jobber, obviously a point of great pride. It's a carbon-fiber head, shaft balanced (most putters are face balanced) and just inside USGA specs. Takes about four days to make each -- the one he's using these days is model No. 3 -- and were it not for weights placed inside it the clubhead would blow away in the slightest breeze.

And then he began the technical speak and lost me. He described the club's exceptional moment of inertia and several other measurements, principles and theories. The bottom line is that he's not planning on putting it into production. So anyone who had dreams of improving their putting the Burt Rutan way is out of luck.

5:35 a.m.
No frost here
Another rising before the wake-up call, this time blamed on the three-hour time difference to the East Coast. A peek through the hotel room's drapes and a check of The Weather Channel confirm another glorious day of weather for the "Hopez." The temperature apparently never dipped below 40 overnight which means no repeat of yesterday's frost delay.

That¹s good news because the last groups on all four courses were scraping up against dusk when they completed play Wednesday.

Today we¹re headed out to La Quinta CC, where leader Robert Allenby made nine birdies Wednesday in shooting 63.

The Desert Sun, the local newspaper, has scorecards for the low round at each course and shows the 434-yard second and 516-yard fifth as "challenging holes." Considering the celebs begin play at No. 1 today that should make for some early fun.

The paper also lists all of the pro-am scores and several celebrity teams are near the top. Craig T. Nelson, Michael Bolton and Joe Pesci are tied for second at 15 under; Samuel L. Jackson, Oscar de la Hoya and host George Lopez share eighth at 14 under; and the football guys Sterling Sharpe, Marcus Allen and Jerome Bettis are among a ton of teams at 13 under. Guess that means Bettis finally got over his nervousness and began contributing.

Ed Marinaro¹s team is also at 13 under along with Mossimo Giannulli, Huey Lewis and Joe Kernen. Five bucks says Kernen¹s in khakis again. As low as they are, these aren¹t potential winning scores for a round at Bermuda Dunes. Team 41 (Todd Ziplow, Gary McLean, Dennis Frandsen) went 16 under at La Quinta yesterday and the best teams at PGA West¹s Arnold Palmer Private Course and the host Classic Club also were 15 under. So the celebs have got to start ramming home birdies and eagles to remain in contention. The BlackBerry¹s charged and ready to go. Time to answer the wake-up call, hit the shower and start driving south on Washington Street.