EDITOR'S NOTE: Kokopelli Golf Course professional Jesse Barge is serving as a rules official at this week's PGA championship. He will be writing a daily diary from the course. The first installment covers Tuesday and Wednesday.

I left Murphysboro at 3 a.m. to catch 6:43 a.m. flight to Detroit. We arrived in Detroit at 9:40 a.m. Eastern time. After a 50-minute trip to the hotel, the first order of business was to go to PGA headquarters at the hotel and get credentials.

With credentials in hand, the shuttle to Oakland Hills Country Club took 50 minutes, as traffic was very heavy. At the clubhouse, I got my locker and headed to the PGA trailer to pick up hole-by-hole notes.

The notes tell us what to look for as we walk the course and look at each hole. Notes include water hazards, movable obstructions, immovable obstructions, temporary immovable obstructions, integral parts of the golf course as well as par and yardage.

Obviously, these notes make all the rules officials aware of the primary rules issues on each hole.

I spent three hours and fifteen minutes walking all 18 holes. In the process, I watched Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood play No. 3. We walked No. 6 with Vijay Singh. Finally, we caught David Toms and Jim Furyk on No. 9. We had a brief conversation with them and a member of Oakland Hills about the revisions Rees Jones has made to this Donald Ross design. The members seem very happy. Both hit 3-woods on the par 3 that will play 257 yards.

Hole No. 11 is a beautiful par 4. It will play 423 yards with a dogleg right. The rolling terrain and elevated green make it one of the best par 4s I have seen.

The course is fabulous. The three finishing holes are very demanding. If we do not have rain that softens the greens 5 or 6 under over could very well be the winning score.

On Wednesday, there was a Rules Committee Meeting at 7:30 a.m. We reviewed local rules, pace of play guidelines, evacuation procedures (for thunderstorms and lightning) and received our assignments. There are 33 officials working this event.

I will be on No. 13 on Thursday and Saturday. On Friday and Sunday morning, I will be on No. 3. I will be the walking rules official with the third to last group Sunday. At the PGA Championship there is a rules official on each hole. On Saturday and Sunday, an official is assigned to the last five groups of two.

After the meeting at the hotel, we went to Oakland Hills Country Club. We had a review of the situations that arise with temporary immovable obstructions. These include TV towers, grandstands, concession stands and so on.

Dave McAtee is a member of the committee from Evansville, Ind. We will share duties on No. 3 and No. 13. We went to those two holes and reviewed the hole-by-hole notes, indentifying all the items on our holes.

We then had lunch with Andy Yamanaka from Tokyo. Andy is the head official for the Japanese Tour.

After lunch, we walked the entire 18 holes. We walked the 5th hole with Padraig Harrington. Later we caught up to Vijay Singh, Tom Pernice Jr. and Bob Tway. We walked the last three holes with that group. Other than getting familiar with the course, we saw some spectacular shots.

Dave and I will catch the shuttle at 5:30 a.m. today. We will get a quick breakfast at the club and be at our assigned holes by 7 a.m.