Wyn Morton
Friday
Welcome to the Diary of a PGA TOUR marshal. These entries are taken directly from my journal as a volunteer at PGA TOUR and USGA events, starting with my first day in 2009 and continuing up to the present time. The most recent event is listed at the top, followed by subsequent tournament days in sequential order. You'll also read about some of my golf travel experiences and opinions pieces on the state of professional golf along the way. My intent is to share my experiences and attempt to provide a window into what is otherwise a relatively unknown view of PGA TOUR life, as witnessed by a volunteer marshal, who initially didn't know quite what I was getting involved with, but which has exceeded all of my expectations.
Wyn Morton
Wyn Morton
The FM Championship Sunday September 1, 2024
Still no word as of 8 am so I texted Larry about confirming an assignment for me today, never heard back. I decided to go on their word from yesterday. On arrival, I again was greeted warmly by Mike and Larry, who said I would be assigned to the 10:26 tee time for Ariya Jutanugarn, Jennifer Kupcho, & Hannah Green. Once again the dual scorer system would be in place, this time I would be handling paper scoring duties, while my fellow scorer Bob would be on the device and radio. This would be fine with me as it would be a bit more relaxed without the chatter in my ear. Mike explained that the best practice was for us to keep a separate accounting of each player's shots, then come to agreement with hand signals before Bob hit the final "ball in the hole" button on the device. We had no standard bearer today, but our double check system was perfect once again. Bob turned out to be a great companion for the round, a real veteran scorer from every PGA event going back to 2003, as well as a TPC member. He's known as "The Commissioner" at TPC since he coordinates the men's league.
We were also joined by two honorary observers, a very pleasant couple who'd just returned from St. Andrews where they'd attended the AIG, stayed at the lovely Old Course Hotel, and played several rounds of golf in Scotland. They had lots of stories to share with us about their adventures, and were also very receptive to hearing Bob and I telling stories about our FedEx experiences at TPC, a story on every hole it seemed. I even tasked them to keep us posted regarding the overall FM leaderboard, which they could follow on their phones. They were psyched to be included inside the ropes.
Our players were excellent, greeting us at the first tee, thanking us at the start for helping out. All were tied at -4, five groups back from the leaders. They played superb golf, Ariya and Jennifer both shooting 65 to end up at -11, Hannah at -9. At 18 scoring desk everything matched up perfectly, the players and caddies again thanked us and gave us autographed balls. Bob and I congratulated each other on a job well done. I speculated to him that he'd probably accumulated lots of signed golf balls in his day at FedEx, he said so many that he ended up giving most away or even using some out on the course! (He's kept Tiger's ball).
Less than 20 minutes later the weather alert horn sounded, suspending play for what would eventually be 2 hours. Thank goodness we'd just made it. Play would resume with a playoff between Haeran Ryu and JY Ko, with Ryu victorious after one hole of sudden death.
The FM Championship Saturday August 31, 2024
Well, no overnight email about my assignment for today left me wondering if this was just an oversight, or a symptom of a new tournament not quite getting all of the details together. I texted Chewie who responded that Larry would get me out on the course "somehow". Kind of vague, but I made the 75 mile drive on faith, figuring if there really wasn't a need for me to serve as a walking scorer today, I could at least jump in to help as a hole marshal with one of my buddies. On arrival at scoring HQ, Mike May was reassuring, saying I was one of his best guys and they definitely had a spot for me. He complimented me on handling the scoring perfectly, no errors/corrections, and that I was one of his best guys. He confessed to me that he was dismayed by the FM scheduling system was this loose and was impressed that I had shown the initiative to reach out and then actually showed up! Evidently, there had been some scorers who were one-and-done's earlier in the week.
Larry set me up for an 11 am tee time with Gaby Lopez and Jennifer Chang. Two scorers would be going out together as a double check system to reduce the number of errors which had evidently been occurring to date. I would be handling the device and radio while Donna, a TPC member, would corroborate using a paper scoring system. I was a little skeptical that such a degree of oversight was unnecessary, but Mike said the LPGA and Golf Channel was shooting for an error free event from all its scorers. We would also have a standard bearer, Tiger, who I initially had some concerns about, him being only 13, a native of China, with ESL. Turns out he was excellent at keeping right on top of our player's leaderboard standings, making the necessary changes without me or Donna having to feed him the numbers. Great kid! We complimented ourselves on having a triple-check system here! Donna was very nice, soft spoken, efficient, in keeping with her background as corporate lawyer at a Boston pharmaceutical company, specializing in intellectual property. She'd evidently never worked a professional tournament other than scoring for the past two days, and was a reassuring presence.
I was fully aware of the time sensitive nature of making accurate scoring entries which were then sent to LPGA and Golf Channel for broadcast and on-course leaderboard posting. We were able to develop a relaxed routine, which then allowed us to also enjoy the experience of being in the moment with these players. We were also able to chat about our backgrounds, PGA experiences, and TPC membership including playing the course. Keeping track of only two players versus three was also less taxing, involving less walking as well, trying to view each player's shot situations. It was also nice to take a seat occasionally as hole marshals would kindly offer their chairs to us for a short rest.
At the 18th tee we had an exceptionally long wait and I'd been debating whether to introduce myself to Jennifer Chang, who had a USC logo on her bag. I was well aware of our directive to not distract players unnecessarily but the round was almost over, and she was not in serious contention. She was completely receptive to meeting a fellow alum, becoming quite animated about it. After a couple of comments, I excused myself to let her get back to her job and tee off. As we walked off the tee, she came up to me and resumed our chat about our respective USC experiences, talking the entire way to her ball. There really is something about being members of the Trojan Family!
Jenn subsequently needed me to call in for a rules official as she her second shot had landed near the cart path, affecting her stance. Her next shot ended up with interference from the 18th grandstand, necessitating another call by me for the official. She thanked me for making both calls for which I was glad to help. At the scoring tent, I rectified the device with the scorers, perfect. We all received signed balls from Gaby and Jennifer, and thanks from both and their caddies as well.
Once again at Scoring HQ I tried to nail down an assignment for Sunday, but was informed that the schedule would not be determined until the end of play, but that I would receive an email later to night. Mike May verbally reassured me I would definitely be scheduled, since "We need guys like you!" By 10 pm, no email.
Thursday
The FM Championship Friday August 30, 2024
I felt pretty proficient in terms of mastering the scoring system by this point, it almost becoming second nature, but I hadn't been challenged with any complicated penalty entries yet, so I still had some lingering concerns. Today's threesome included So Me Lee, Eun Hee Ji, and Matilda Castren. Again having virtually no exposure to the majority of LPGA players, it was a challenge to differentiate one from the other to accurately enter their shot making for scoring purposes. The scoring device interface was set-up with each player's data, including a photo, which greatly helped in tracking each one. In particular, So Me Lee wore a white hat in her picture, Eun Hee Ji a black hat, which they both thankfully did today as well. So for the majority of the round, I found myself recording shot data as Black hat, bogey, White hat par, and so on. What can I say?
We were joined by a standard bearer today, Bob, a long-time veteran of 10 FedEx championships as a #1 hole marshal. He needed some help initially as he had no score displayed on his board, thinking we would just be concerned with today's scoring. I quickly got him set-up with the player's leaderboard standings, and continued to update their standings as the round proceeded. Bob was funny in that he became focused on how poorly engineered the standard pole and display board were, too heavy, too short, and susceptible to windy conditions. By the end of the round I think he had decided he'd found an opportunity for a retirement side hustle, reconfiguring and marketing standard bearer signs! We had fun comparing notes from our respective TPC FedEx experiences. He'd never walked the back 9 holes, having been assigned to Hole #1 exclusively. I entertained him with a story for each hole from my mobile marshal days.
Our group was low key, not much interaction between the players, although I heard Lee and Ji chatting in Korean frequently throughout the round. All were playing consistently without much change in their leader board standings. Castren went as low as -4 but fell back on our last hole, #9 after hitting into the treeline on the left fairway, asking me to call for a rules official. This went quite smoothly, the scoring central radio system exceedingly efficient and prompt.
Because we'd begun the round on #10 consequently concluding on 9, we were carted to the scoring tent at 18, where the officials reported there were no discrepancies between the player's cards and the scoring device entries. That made my day. It had been explained to me earlier that one of the main objectives in walking scoring was accurate shot reporting, as this information was instantly transmitted to the TV broadcast (Golf Channel) as well as to the various leaderboard displays throughout the course. The objective was to avoid any inaccurate entries in scores, having to make on-course corrections.
As I turned in my radio and scoring device at Scoring HQ, I made sure to check in with Larry the chairperson, and Mike of the LPGA about tomorrow's assignment. The reason I was concerned was the FM volunteer website had me scheduled only through today, nothing for the weekend. I figured this was a function of the field being reduced by the cut, and not yet knowing the weekend leaderboard schedule. I was verbally reassured by both guys that I was definitely needed tomorrow and that I'd be receiving an email with details tonight...
The FM Championship Thursday August 29, 2024
One fantastic advantage of being a walking scorer was knowing your tee time in advance rather than being in the dark (literally) and not having to be on site at 6 am to then receive your assignment, as I've reported multiple times in this blog. Today I knew we'd be teeing off at 12:26 pm, giving me a relaxed morning before I had to drive the 75 miles from the Cape to TPC Boston. Such a luxury!
The scoring officials are pretty guarded with the equipment and won't let you pick it up until 30 minutes prior to your tee time. I grabbed some lunch at the concession stand and sat outside the volunteer center in perfect summer conditions, much less humidity than yesterday, twenty degrees cooler. At the appointed time, I got my radio but was informed that I'd be issued a special scoring device down at the first tee, a GPS player tracking system. I thought to myself "I'm not ready for any upgraded special device, just give me the old one I'm barely used to!" I got a ride from "Chewie", the scoring committee co-chairperson, down to tee #1. He'd worked several Travelers and FedEx events and we had a lot of mutual acquaintances although we'd never met up til now. Great guy! At the 1st tee, two technical specialists were handling the scoring devices, which involved attaching a small GPS tracker to the waistbands of the player's outfits, about the size of a pack of gum. This was a new device rollout evidently, there were only nine in use. I heard that some players refused to be bothered with wearing the device, fearing it might fall off or something during play. One of the tech guys pulled me aside and asked that I warn players to be careful with the device when they head to the porta-potty! Yeah right! On our end, the scoring device interface was identical except for now having a "tap in" feature to streamline the process of recording putts. I was thankful I didn't have to learn a new system, especially since today's round would involve tracking every shot of three players.
Jiwon Jeon, Yan Liu, and Celine Borge made up our threesome. I'd never heard of any of these players, thankfully the caddy bibs and golf bags had the player names in view. Accurately identifying who hit which shot in order to enter into the device was challenging initially. The learning curve was in play but by about the third hole I was settling into a routine. Walking with the players in order to see every single shot was a thrill but also required a continuous focus. I got to closely witness some incredible shot making skills from each of these players. It was an even better experience than being a mobile marshal.
On the 9th tee, one of the GPS tech guys showed up, stating we had a problem. For a moment I thought I'd somehow made an error in the scoring process but he reassured me that the device itself wasn't transmitting its GPS data, not my fault. He took over the scoring function while we walked all of the ninth and tenth holes, eventually having to call in his counterpart as to reboot the device. All was well by the 11th hole, but...
At the turn we were joined by a walking NBC spotter who was sent to observe Borge's play as she was climbing the leader board at -3. Although initially seeming to be a congenial presence in our group, "NBC lady" soon began peppering me with questions about each players score, their place on the leader board, and even course details, ie., "Is this a par 3 or 4?" She would then report in to her producer, who would ask for more info, then turn to me for an answer. It was distracting but tolerable for a couple of holes but then Borge lost her ball in the right rough on 12, I was the one who eventually located it. Meanwhile, I'd missed that Jeon had played a provisional ball, not her original shot, which meant I had to enter a scoring correction. This took me 2 holes to accomplish as NBC lady continued to pester me with questions. Finally, I had to cut her off, I had enough to worry about doing my own job, not her's as well. I felt badly having to ask her to back off but it had to be done. By this time my confidence in using the scoring device was great or these situations would have soured me on the process.
On the 15th hole, a rules official put our group on the clock, specifically citing Yan Liu for slow play. We were shadowed by rules for the remainder of the round, the players responding with a noticeable improvement in pace of play. At the scoring area Liu and multiple officials ended up having a lengthy discussion about whether a penalty would be issued, therefore changing her score in my device. Mike May, the LPGA chief of scoring had me stand by for 30 minutes while this discussion was going on, but eventually he
relieved me of duty, stating he'd handle it from here, and that I did an excellent job, especially with some complicated scoring issues.
Wednesday
The FM Championship Wednesday August 28, 2024 ProAm
It was.
I completed three power point training sessions coordinated by the LPGA to become familiar with the scoring device, but seeing a depiction on my laptop still left me with some doubts about actually entering the data out on the course, in the moment of play, without any mistakes. Thankfully I had my Travelers fellow mobile ambassador Mike T's encouraging words in my head from back in June saying "You can handle it, Morty!"
Some initial impressions about the FM Championship on arrival for the ProAm: They were not ready to host a top-tier professional golf tournament, the build-out of the infrastructure wasn't complete, the concession stands weren't stocked, most of the "Fan Zone" attractions had yet to be set-up, and speaking of fans, there weren't any! No spectators for the ProAm, invited family members and their guests only, Huh!? In hindsight, this wasn't entirely surprising as the lead-up to the FM had been lightly publicized, particularly to potential volunteers in the local area. As a result, there were significant vacancies in various committees, most notably hole marshals, and even walking scorers. During the week prior to the FM start we were receiving emails encouraging us to recruit our friends to come and help out. There was a noticeable limited number of marshals at nearly every tee and green.
I won't bore you with the details of getting everything I needed to step out on the course and start my job, but I'll just say the process was not real smooth, leaving me wondering if this was going to be a sink-or-swim moment. Finally with 20 minutes to teetime, I had my scoring device and radio in hand and thankfully had a very short walk over to #10 tee where I would be meeting Allisen Corpuz and the 4 amateurs in our group. Thankfully they would be playing a scramble, requiring me to keep track of a single team score, rather than 5 running scores on my device. This proved to be scoring on training wheels as entering each stroke was pretty slow during this six-hour ProAm. The pros play only nine holes, switching off at the turn but the ams continue for a full 18. Both Allisen Corpuz and Annie Park were USC grads, my alma mater, which gave me a reason to initiate some conversation with each of them at the start of their respective 9's. They were both very pleasant, Annie Park being the more chatty of the two, and I ended up talking to her 4-5 times throughout the round as we walked the fairways and elevated wooden cart paths, and while being carted to the more distant holes. She asked where I was from, and even talked about some mutual experiences we each had at USC, ie., seeing football at the Coliseum. I told her I'd attended graduate school for Occupational Therapy and she immediately mentioned having some OT students in her Communications classes.
We were later joined by Jeff, who introduced himself as Annie Park's agent and accompanied us for most of her 9 hole round. He was a terrific guy, had a conversation with every one of us in our group, even asking me details about my background and stating that the walking scoring volunteers played a vital part in LPGA events. He had just returned from the AIG at St. Andrews, stayed at the Dunvegan, played the Old Course, so we compared our mutual experiences and agreed it was golf heaven.
The four Ams were a mixture of guys of varying golf ability, but the atmosphere was pretty relaxed and non-competitive; we knew that the winning team was something like -17, (our group was -7). The interaction with them was great as well, questions to me about where I was from, my volunteering background, where I play golf at Captains on Cape Cod. It was a strange ProAm however in that the lack of spectators meant no noise from the ropes, no requests for autographs or photos, no verbal encouragement, shout-outs, not even any good-natured heckling of the Ams. FM needs to correct this for next year's event. Nonetheless it was just terrific to be right there with the players, having to closely focus on each shot to correctly record it in the scoring device, which made watching the golf much more meaningful. I never had a glitch or a problem with the entire process, but I also realized that tomorrow's actual competion with three players would be more challenging and serious.
Monday
The Travelers Championship June 23. 2024 Sunday
Thankgoodness I awoke in time to check my email at 5:45am, received notification from Greg announcing our 7am meeting had been moved to 6:30. The PGA TOUR had decided on a reconfiguration of the tee times, as well as grouping players in threesomes in order to finish by 3pm, hopefully before any T-storms erupted. I had to hustle a bit to pack up and depart the Hotel Bednarek, luckily zero traffic at that hour so made it to TPC River Highlands with 10 minutes to spare. Got assigned to the third to last group, JT, Lowry, and Finau. Wished I'd gotten Scheffler, Bhatia, and Kim, in part to compensate for our abbreviated round yesterday. I'd also marshaled JT and Lowry earlier in the week and was a bit surprised at the repeat. Nice to only wait until 10:53. Got breakfast and sat in the volunteer villa to watch the weather and get some details about yesterday's lightning strike, which had occurred just off the 5th tee, injuring 3. I was initially overjoyed that the overcast sky was keeping it at 80 degrees, but that ended by tee time when we were at 90. Once again my neck wrap loaded with ice at every other tee box saved me. My Mobile Ambassador crew of Nick and Paul were both experienced guys so needed no coaching, making for a smooth day. My attention was focused a bit on our "Honorary Observers", two pleasant gents originally from Eastern Europe. In my experience, Honorary's initially follow the few directives: remaining within arms length of the rope and at a discrete distance from the players, but then tend to migrate closer to the action, even walking across greens and fairways. These two however were terrific, very knowledgeable about golf and today's leaderboard, and always checked in with me if they had a question about where they should be positioned.
My nephew Adam met me at the 4th tee, always a bit of a pleasant surprise when you hear your name being called by someone in the gallery. Chatted ever so briefly, but I had to keep moving along with the players, which is always difficult for my friends to keep up while they move through a congested gallery. I texted him later to see how the rest of his day went at TTC. He'd followed Scottie's group mostly and had a great time until the weather got to be too much.
I rarely saw my small crew of two throughout this round, which I view as a good sign; they're experienced and know where to go to be the most effective. An unobtrusive marshal is the best kind. They'd briefly touch base with me so we could keep organized on each hole for optimal positioning. Paul was especially adept, as he had been lead on several occasions.
We were later joined at the turn by two last minute additional Honorary's, who I asked if they'd received any instruction on the inside the ropes protocol. Shockingly, No! I half jokingly instructed them to just "Just follow these other Honorary's, they're great, fully trained", to which one of the original guys replied, "Hey, I'm just following you"! At times I directed them to the best viewing spots, and they were very appreciative. The back nine was a pleasure to have them along.
(Photos by Adam Mitchell)
At the 11th tee, I raided the semi-hidden volunteer cooler and snack bin, nearly chugging a water and grabbing another to go, also retrieving 2 Clif bars which got me through the back 9. I had an incident at the 12th tee where I quickly shut the crosswalk rope to avoid the lengthy wait for players as the gallery leisurely traversed the long cart path. The hole captain took exception to my actions, stating he doesn't close the gate until the final player's putt drops. The problem was the 100' walk for the players to the tee took far less time than the longer 500' walk for the gallery to get to the other side, resulting in an unnecessary wait. Anyway, he wasn't happy that I'd stepped to close the gate, Oh well! Not trying to throw my weight around as a Mobile Ambassador, just trying to streamline pace of play for the players.
I again decided to implement the 15 --> 17 route, skipping 16, which was fine except we missed Finau's tee shot into the lake which took him out of the lead and dashed his hopes for a win at TTC. I guess it was another one of those moments when I'd decided to move ahead of my assigned player group, only to miss a game-changing moment for them in the tournament, (Mickelson at the 13th green at Shinnecock in 2018 comes to mind). I gradually worked my way over to the 17th fairway, watching the Aberg/Hoge/Swenson and Cantlay/Yound/Pavon groups go by. Our group was next on the tee, up the hill 300 yards away, whereupon JT struck a drive that narrowly missed the hole marshal sitting alongside the 17th fairway. He was okay, and received some kind words from JT when he arrived on scene. Along with Paul and the 2 hole marshals present, we moved the crowd back a bit so JT could hit his 2nd shot to the green. He voiced his appreciation for our efforts.
At the 18th tee, I had to reposition my Honoraries at this narrow chute so they wouldn't get killed by a slightly errant tee shot, they were most appreciative about my concern. We walked our group to the 18th green to finish up, the excitement palpable for an epic finish. Nick and Paul exited but I remained at the traditional clubhouse side of the grand amphitheater, along with some of my fellow Mobiles. We hadn't received the usual directive to remain at 18 for added marshaling support, nor had a rope been issued to potentially string across the fairway behind the final group for gallery control. A playoff was becoming increasingly likely, which would have been a nightmare if fans had to be cleared from the 18th fairway.
Scottie Scheffler, Tom Kim, & Akshay Bhatia approached 18 to a tidal wave of cheers, nice to see each one receiving an ovation. It was quite the electric situation, Scottie in the lead by one stroke.
Then out of the crowd emerged five protestors carrying smoke bombs and bags of red and white powder, which they dumped on the green in a mis-guided effort to bring the proceedings to a halt. They were immediately subdued and handcuffed by the police who had been surrounding the green, and unceremoniously marched off the premises. I won't further publicize their message which was emblazoned on their shirts. Suffice to say that it's a huge stretch to draw a connection between their "cause" and a PGA TOUR event. The players were rightfully stunned by this interruption of play but once things settled down, it was terrific to see the focus that both Scottie and Tom brought to their climactic putts, Kim especially, able to pull off a birdie and head to a playoff. They went off to the scoring area, then were taken via carts back to the tee on 18. While all this was happening, the green was cleaned of this powder-like substance via blowers and towels, but since enough remained near the hole, the decision was made by the PGA to cut a new one, in record time. I received texts from a few friends watching on TV, asking "What the heck was that. Protestors on 18, that's crazy?!" Evidently the video feed had been cut soon after the protestors entered the picture. I gave as detailed description as I could my incredulous buddies.
The outcome of the playoff was more or less decided when Kim hit into the greenside bunker. Kind of a toss-up for me as I would have been happy with either player coming out on top.
Sunday Steps 15,481 Miles 5.91 Hours on site 11.0
Total stats for 2024 Travelers Championship
Steps 84,243
Miles 31.76
Hours on site 50.5
Players 8
Crew members 13
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