Whirlwind tour of Lake Nona, Golf Channel and more

	Charlotta Sorenstam was one of the people I almost ran into on my adventure. Grant Halverson/WireImage
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MEXICO CITY -- I am nearing the end of one of the crazier 24-hour stretches of my sportswriting career. Tuesday night I caught a red-eye from Cali to Orlando, proceeding directly from the airport to the swish surroundings of Lake Nona Golf Club for a morning interview with one of the best players in the world, whose identity I'm not at liberty to reveal, at least not yet. Of course, Lake Nona is home to Ernie Els, Henrik Stenson, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Trevor Immelman, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter and Annika Sorenstam, among others, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep the secret.

After a wide-ranging Q&A with said golfer, I drove cross town to the Golf Channel headquarters, which are tucked away in a non-descript industrial park hard by Interstate-4. I had to see a few peeps there for yet another story that I'm working on. What the GC campus lacks in charm, it makes up for in sheer size, as it is a labyrinth of cubicles and offices and sounds stages, each of them littered with golf detritus.

The highlight was stepping onto the main sound stage, where Golf Central and the pre- and postgame shows are filmed. These backdrops are instantly recognizable to even the most casual Golf Channel viewer, and it was cool to poke around the sets. I even took a spin in one of the postgame chairs, and as soon as my buns hit the leather I became swollen with knowledge (or was it self-importance?).

In a separate room is the jazzy set of the Grey Goose 19th Hole, replete with rubber olives and bottle after bottle topped off not with vodka but spring water. This was a startling discovery -- if the 19th Hole hosts are chugging agua, how to account for their antics?

From the Golf Channel I drove straight to the airport, ending my seven-hour journey through the O-Town golf firmament. Slouching at my gate, waiting to fly to Mexico City to cover the MasterCard Championship, I got a thrill when a passenger by the name of Sorenstam was paged. It was not Annika, whose fastidiousness would never allow her to blow into a tournament so deep in the week, but rather her kid sis Charlotta, a late addition to the field. I was hoping she would get busted for trying to smuggle contraband out of the country, thereby gifting me a nice scoop, but, sadly, she was merely being upgraded to the pointy end of the bird.

Driving to my hotel in Mexico City, I was pleased to see two billboards with Lorena Ochoa's sunny visage. Even though golf is not yet a big deal in Mexico, Ochoa has earned a national profile, and I'm looking forward to seeing the love-fest this week. Next week I'll report back with observations on all things LPGA, but just now I'm going to lay down for the first time in about 40 hours. If I have trouble sleeping I'll count all of the LPGA's Kims in my head. Works every time.

Senior writer Alan Shipnuck has covered golf for Sports Illustrated since 1994 and frequently contributes to SI.com.