The FM Championship 

Sunday August 31, 2025 

After what I’d been through for the previous two days of this tournament, I was glad that the final day was a return back to normal, meaning a reasonable 12:10pm midday teetime. Our player group consisted of Aditi Ashock, India and Minjee Lee, Australia. We were back to twosomes which meant for a much more reasonable 4 1/2 hour round.

I had another great talk with Mike over lunch waiting for our respective rounds to begin. He gave me a lot more details about walking scoring for the PGA and how it differed in complexity to the LPGA system. He said there’s less margin for error and it’s a more complex, exacting system, which is tied into video recording as well. I had been thinking about pursuing walking scoring at the PGA level, specifically at Travelers, but I might have some second thoughts about that. This past weekend may have been the peak of my comfort level; laser focused for five hours to record every shot accurately and I sort of can’t imagine taking it to an even higher level.

Our standardbearer for today, Jill, was terrific, a super LPGA fan, who seemed to know all of the players and filled me in with lots of tidbits. My contribution generally amounted to telling her little stories about incidents that happened at certain holes around TPC Boston back when the PGA played the FedEx cup here. It was a lively discussion and the day went by fast.

Both Minjee & Aditi started this round at -8 and played really well although didn’t gain enough ground to catch the leader Miranda Wang who ultimately won at -20. Still, it was great to watch the precision ball striking and accuracy of women’s golf at the professional level up close from the fairway. 

13,127 steps 

4.5 miles

 FM Championship 

Saturday August 30, 2025

As it turns out, this was the situation I had been hoping to avoid by becoming a walking scorer rather than a mobile Marshal at the FM. By that I mean, the predictability of knowing exactly when your teetime is was such a tremendous benefit to the walking scoring assignment. Today, however, it was like being back in MM scheduling having to awaken at 4:45 am and make the drive up to TPC Boston in order to arrive by 6:20 am. I quickly grabbed my scoring equipment consisting of the radio and handheld device (iPhone) and headed out to the 11th green where we left off last night. It was rather pleasant actually, no one else was around, all I heard was crickets. The three players, Porvasnik, Kang, and Phatlum arrived with their caddies, ready for the 7 am restart. Immediately, Jessica Porvasnik asked me to summon a rules official with my radio as she was concerned that her ball mark from the previous night had been moved. As it turns out all three balls had been moved apparently so that the greens could be rolled for resumption of play. A rules official determined the players could estimate their previously marked positions and play resumed. It was a rather peaceful and pleasant golf experience, although a little chilly at 55°.  Early morning mist was rising off the ponds and we could hear roosters crowing nearby. Managing the scoring system was becoming second nature, although constant attention was needed to log every single shot accurately. I got to chatting with Phatlum’s caddy who told me that her nickname is “Whin”, pronounced just like my name “Wyn”!  I asked if she would object to me mentioning we have the same name and he said go for it, she would love it, and she did! She and I later chatted about her terrific par save on 9, the last hole, which enabled her to make the cut at -3. She was ecstatic. Such a sweetheart.   

A disheartening moment occurred after Kang sent her shot wide left of the green at the par three 8th hole. She was dragging her 7 iron along the wooden walkway from the tee to green as she was +7 for the tournament. I thought any minute she was going to wing it into the pond off to the left but she held it together nicely. Not so sure I would have seen the same degree of composure a few years back at the FedEx Cup event, (I’m looking at you, Mr. Poulter).  I received a signed golf ball from Whin at the end of it all. Handshakes and thank you’s from Kang and Porvasnik.

Took my lunch to the car, very nice chicken sandwich and fruit cup all the while wondering if I would get an assignment for the afternoon as there was a surplus of walking scorers apparently. Brian did set me up with a good group although not marquee, with the exception of Megha  Ganne, recent winner of the Women’s US amateur Championship.

Also playing in this afternoon group teeing off at 1:42pm was Jin Young Ko, Korea & Yahui Zhang, China. For this third round, I was joined by a standardbearer, Scott, a terrific guy, chemist from Stowe, Mass. He didn’t need my help in posting the scores accurately and it was a good check and balance situation.

A little bit worried that an entire second round would be exhausting, but I was able to make it through successfully, ultimately 35 holes for the day. At the conclusion, had a great interaction with Ko’s caddy, a burly Australian dude who came up behind me, slapped me on the shoulder, and said some encouraging words, acknowledging my very lengthy day helping out with walking scoring, ending with him saying to those gathered round, “He’s a legend”!

Nearly 12 hours on the course

24,625 steps

8.3 miles

FM Championship 

Friday August 29, 2025

The prediction of rain for the entire day was an understatement. Ultimately, there were three thunderstorm delays, the first just ending when I arrived at TPC at 11:30am for my 1:10pm assignment. My players group included Jessica Porvasnik, OH; Haeji Kang, Korea; & Pornanong Phatlum, Thailand. 

I was then informed that our starting time had been moved back to 3:15! Two more rain delays would ultimately result in my assigned group not teeing off until 7 pm!

It was an unprecedented circumstance as everyone I spoke with had never experienced anything like it in all their years of involvement with the LPGA and PGA. The volunteer headquarters was jammed with us all seeking shelter. I met up with Mike from Travellers from two years ago and had a great lengthy chat about what he has been up to down in Florida, working at multiple tournaments as a walking scorer.  We both got to talking as a threesome with Brian Turbitt, Chairman of the walking scorer committee who has a very interesting background living on Nantucket as the town Finance Director. He has been involved with walking scoring going back at least 15 years to the FedEx cup era at TPC Boston.

As the hours dragged on during the delay, I went back to my car for a respite from the HQ bedlam. The restart for 5 pm was pushed back by the LPGA to 5:30, then to 6 pm.

Eventually play restarted at 6pm, with my group not scheduled to tee off until 7 pm.  When we all gathered at the 10th tee the players were surprisingly upbeat, I guess having been used to these kind of delays from past experience. The volunteers, on the other hand including the starter and myself couldn’t believe we were about to start a round of golf when it was nearly dark. We completed the 10th hole and teed off on 11 when the horn blue at 7:15pm halting play on account of darkness. Players marked their positions on the green and we walked back to the clubhouse cutting through the driving range area. During our long walk back, I had a great chat with Pornapong Phatlum and her caddy, both extremely pleasant people and very curious about my circumstances, background, history with walking scoring, etc. They both thanked me profusely for sticking it out to that late hour under trying conditions. I said goodbye to them at the parking lot where they all got into their courtesy BMW’s while I continued on to make my way home. I was fortunate that there was virtually no traffic driving back to the Cape on the Friday night of Labor Day weekend. Thank goodness since it poured rain for nearly the entire way.

The FM Championship

Thursday, August 28, 2025

I can sort of never get over how different it is to volunteer as a walking scorer at the LPGA FM Championship at TPC Boston than it is to be a mobile Marshal crew leader for the PGA. Part of the difference is the appearance of TPC Boston at this event, with the nearly complete absence of built-out infrastructure, far fewer corporate pavilions, grandstands, and vendor exhibits. Far fewer people in the galleries as well. But mainly, it’s the difference between the actual job of being a scorer versus a Marshal. Instead of walking inside the ropes with a crew of anywhere from 2 to 8 Marshals, I’m inside the ropes “alone”, just me and the three players and their respective caddies. We didn’t even have a standardbearer with us today. Since none of the players in my group were in the top echelon, we basically had the course to ourselves, virtually no gallery. It was only later when I watched the playback on Golf Channel that I saw that there were actually thousands in attendance, but they must’ve been on the other side of the course! It was a pleasant walk in the sun on a perfect late August Thursday. Of course, the responsibility of being the scorer required my absolute focused attention to record each and every shot from each and every position on the course and accurately enter it into the handheld iPhone scoring device. My player group consisted of Yahui Zhang, China; Kate Smith-Stroh, Detroit Lakes, MN; & Brittany Altomare, Shrewsbury, MA. They were all extremely pleasant to be around for 18 holes, introducing themselves to me at the first hole, both players and caddies. As volunteers we are instructed beforehand to not chat up any of the players in order to avoid distracting them, so there was no chitchat with them throughout the day. Although none of them scored really well on the leaderboard (the best of the bunch at the end of the day at even par), it was terrific to watch them play at such a high level from my vantage point in the fairway alongside them. I wasn’t absolutely certain I’d accurately recorded all 18 holes worth of golf for all the players (219 shots!), but once we got to the scoring area, everything matched up perfectly. All three players thanked me for my help, then it was a handshake and goodbye. I returned my scoring device and radio to Scoring Central and was reassured that the schedule for tomorrow was certain, (unlike last year!)

 Travelers Championship   Sunday  Round Four, June 22, 2025

 

A crazy start as the weather was not cooperating one little bit. A severe storm front was moving through Connecticut with possible thunder and lightning strikes from 8 AM until 10. Consequently everything was moved back, teetimes would begin at 11. Our assignment meeting would be at 10 AM and golfers would go off in threesomes from both the first and 10th tees. When I initially looked at my weather app the entire state was one massive orange and green blotch with little jagged lightning arrows everywhere. I thought we’ll be lucky if we even get any golf in from the looks of this, but by 10 AM it had completely cleared up and that allowed the heat to kick in reaching temperatures in the upper 90s eventually. At our morning assignment meeting, I was disappointed at having JT again, along with Austin Ecroat. I was hoping that I would get to work with Scottie Scheffler at least once this week and if not, then Rory or Keegan again. I guess I have to be happy with having worked with the Rory and Keegan in the “mini Ryder Cup” matchup on Thursday, which was a tremendous round with a massive gallery. My Mobile Ambassadors crew consisted of Bob and his son Brendan, and Adam. Bob and Adam were semi- rookies, in that they had only done MA work one other time earlier in the week. However, they were born natural Marshals, both being involved in coaching several sports at high school and collegiate levels so they weren’t overwhelmed in any way. Brendan was pretty much along for the ride with his dad Bob, but he was OK. We only had about an hour to kill before our teetime so I grabbed some breakfast and then had a nice talk with Karen and Diane about the adept way that weather-related chaos was avoided this morning by the well oiled machine that is the Travelers crew. 

At the first hole the atmosphere was absolutely electric. We were accompanied for our round by four honorary of observers who were by and large great guys, but every once in a while would stray too far from the ropes and need to be herded back again. They were always quite willing to comply. We got to witness a spectacular eagle by Austin Ecroat on the second hole. There were a few instances where both players hit outside the ropes, but my guys were tremendous at managing the gallery in each situation. The round went pretty smoothly for JT and Austin until the 13th hole when both players encountered disaster, pretty much tanking their chances for a high spot on the leaderboard. The gallery was extremely supportive of both players, but especially JT who received tons of love and comments of “Roll Tide”. 

There was a hairy moment at 18 when Ecroat landed his drive outside the rope along the left fairway but then had to contend with a TIO/scoreboard. He finally got a ruling to move his ball and played an unbelievable shot up onto the green from there.  

The 18th green and surrounding stadium-like atmosphere was its usual raucous self. Kind of tricky to escort our four honoraries outside of this situation along the really steep hill leading up and away from the green. I said goodbye to my crew and we took a selfie, although Adam had already bailed.

 

I decided I would try to stay a bit to assist with marshaling the 18th, but after Scottie Scheffler finished up, I realized there was still 45 minutes or so left before the final group came through. By then the heat had me physically and mentally exhausted and with the prospect of a three hour+ drive home, I decided to grab something to eat from the concession stand, which would soon be closing and beat the massive crowd at the parking lot. I hunted down Maureen, Diane, and Karen just say a quick goodbye and “hope to see you next year!” At that point, I didn’t know who would win the championship, but Captain America came through in an incredible finish, which I am kind of sorry I missed.  

 Travelers Championship   Saturday   Round Three, June 21, 2025

Another terrific start to the day with our meeting delayed until 8 AM. I had a pleasant chat with a couple of my Marshals from earlier in the week Matt and Julia, who actually work together at Travelers Insurance. They’re still buzzed about their experiences with marshaling over the past two days. I am assigned to Patrick Cantlay and Eric Cole for 1:45 this afternoon which is an odd pairing in that they will not draw a large gallery, but the circumstances are such that we will be sandwiched between Rory‘s group at 1:35 and Keegan‘s group at 1:55. I spoke with Greg Hammond, and we are of like minds that our small group of two MA's (me and Kara) will be roving between both of those much larger galleries to fill in the gaps as things get wild this afternoon. 

I had a nice chat with Jim “the Mayor” who asked me how it worked out finding my lost car key and he was happy that it was a positive outcome. I also sat down for a leisurely breakfast with Bill and Ellen Gerke, who I have known forever from Boston and Cromwell, and we shared a number of past experiences, most recently involving the LPGA as walking scorers at last year's FM Championship. Evidently, Ellen got stuck acting as a sign bearer for a round or two and says she “will never do that again!”

So, with roughly 4 hours to kill, I grabbed some extra food and water and headed to my car. I was able to move it to a shaded area which will make for a much more pleasant rest spot. I texted my family about my assignment for today and also reached out to Chris Rogers to update him on what has transpired over the week. He so wishes he could get back to the Travelers and he loves hearing some of the details of our Marshal experiences. I eventually got lunch and sat with all of the marshaling big wigs in the volunteer villa. I then headed out and sat in the shade at the ninth green and gave Mary a call and had a very pleasant chat, updating her on the week so far. 

When it got close to our tee off time, Greg texted me saying he got an extra marshal for our crew Cheuleun Kim, who I had worked with last year. I was more than happy to have him help us out. As it turns out, we had enough gallery to justify our small crew, so it was a perfect workload. My initial plan to assist and monitor the group in front with Rory and the group behind with Keegan never materialized, both of those groups never coalesced into one massive gallery, which had been my concern. It was a hot day though, in the low 90s, and I spent a fair amount of time seeking out water and snacks for my crew so that they wouldn’t wilt, me too. Using the ice wrap around my neck was a lifesaver as well. I was refilling it seemingly at every fourth tee box cooler. When we finished up, we took a quick selfie at the 18th green and that was it for the day. 

 

Travelers Championship  Friday   Round Two , June 20, 2025.    

 Ran into Jim and Kim Miscoe first thing on arrival TPC River Highlands. Jim is otherwise known as “the Mayor” of the Travelers Championship and is an exceptional personality, and now that he’s here, the cast is complete, with the exception of Chris Rogers who texted me yesterday saying he would certainly be watching on TV and hoping to see some outstanding marshaling!

Ran into Cece from my crew last year and had a wonderful conversation over breakfast. She is such a sweet person and is looking at retirement in four years from her high stress job at Travelers. It was fun to compare her plan with how I have been spending the past year in retirement. 

Afterwards, I got a ride to the walking scorers trailer to search for Buddy Buder, the Walking Scorers Chair, to follow up on my conversation with Jim Horvath about possibly becoming a walking scorer. Unfortunately he was not there, but I got his number to be able to send him a text. Hopefully we’ll be able to connect later in the championship. From there, I went back to the Villa to see if Jeff could arrange for an earbud for my radio, which he was subsequently able to do. He is such a scrounging whiz. I then went to my car to spend about an hour, just relaxing in anticipation of the arrival of my family who I had arranged tickets for today. They came on property at 11 and texted me to meet them at the 17th green where we had a fun time watching several of the early twosomes hit some very nice shots. I then suggested that we move over to the first tee area where they could be positioned for about 30 minutes and get a sense of what the start of the tournament was like at the first hole for each group of golfers. 

My assignment for today was with Ludwig Aberg and Sam Burns. My crew consisted of four experienced MA's: Julia, Bob, Brandon, and Babur (Bob). Even though we were positioned immediately in front of the largest group of the day, Rory and Keegan, our gallery was semi-light, and therefore easy to manage, especially with this very experienced crew.  It was a great day up until the time I realized that I was missing my car key, which evidently had fallen out of my pocket when I was visiting with my family and seated on the hillside at the first tee. Trying not to panic, I held out hope that someone may have turned it into the lost and found. It was a nerve-racking situation through holes 5, 6, and 7, then I finally left to go over to the volunteer villa to check at the registration desk, where they informed where lost and found was located. They told me that they had received a report of a Nissan key being found, which was very encouraging. I then got a cart driver to take me over to the lost and found office and lo and behold was able to recover it. In hindsight, this was incredibly fortunate as I only had to step away from our group for the ninth hole, maybe 20 minutes tops. Everyone on my crew was excited that I had recovered my key and totally reassured me that they had managed the ninth hole in my absence. I had a new lease on life for the back nine consequently and it went extremely well. The pace of play bogged down on the back nine and there was a significant wait for  most shots from the 11th hole on. Additionally, a very unusual circumstance had occurred in the morning when heavy winds had dislodged large tree branches onto the newly installed Treehouse beer pavilion at the fourteenth green. It was closed down for safety sake and probably won’t reopen for the remainder of the championship. Our round finished up in just over four hours nonetheless and it was a very pleasant day for all of us highly experienced marshals. I was proud of them all.        

All photos courtesy of Adam Mitchell