Day 3    September 5, 2010

Cold Sunday morning at TPC Boston, 58 degrees, wore DBC wind shirt to ward off the chill.  At the 6am mobile marshals meeting, was surprised when I wasn't assigned to any of the player groups teeing off early in the day, which meant the later my assignment, the closer those players were to the top of the leader board.  I was eventually assigned to the Matt Kuchar-Charlie Hoffman pairing, only 1 back from the leaders.  Diane was again our crew leader, found out she had requested me from yesterday's crew with Phil, so I was happy I'd made a good impression.  Diane was a real veteran of marshaling, having volunteered not only at DBC, but also for years at the Travelers tournament in Hartford.

Now came the hard part, what to do from 6:30am until our tee time at 1:30 this afternoon.  Evidently a system hasn't been developed to assign us to our player pairings other than to have us all attend the early morning mobile marshals meeting.  Since I was volunteering to get close to the players, I requested a additional morning assignment where extra help might be needed.  David assigned me to the Villegas-Streelman group for 9:50, where I could walk 9 holes with them but save my legs for the full 18 holes I had later on with Kooch and Hoffman.  Sat in the grandstand at the packed practice area, having my DD iced coffee and bagel, joined by Melinda, another marshal who was also part of the Hartford crew.  About one-half of all the mobile marshals got their start at the Travelers years ago, including our co-chairmen Karen and David, eventually coming over to the DBC to get the mobile marshals committee going.    

My 9 holes with Camillo Villegas and Kevin Streelman was pretty sedate although Villegas was new to the Tour and a hot commodity for the ladies in the gallery. I learned a few lessons in what not to do as a walking marshal during this assignment, as one member of our crew would demonstrate repeatedly.  His technique was to position himself in the most prominent place imaginable on every hole, drawing unnecessary attention to himself as he signaled for quiet with raised arms.  Sometimes he appeared almost as a caricature of what marshaling isn't all about, distracting the players as well as  the gallery.

After cashing in my lunch voucher at the concession stand, I met my afternoon crew members at the 1st tee, Diane, Tom, and Brian, all veteran marshals.  Was surprised that the gallery wasn't larger for Kuchar, maybe 50 people at the start of his round, building to a couple hundred by the 10th, then close to 1000 by the 18th tee.  Heard countless calls of "Kooooch"and "Go Chuck" for Matt and Charlie Hoffman, especially coming from the corporate pavilions starting at the 15th tee.  Found out its nearly impossible to ask for quiet anywhere from tee to green along the 16th hole at the DBC, you just give-in to the open bar atmosphere.  Roger Maltbie was even getting a fair amount of shout-outs ("ROGAH"!!) as the NBC on-course commentator walking along with us. Despite this controlled chaos, got the impression our presence was very helpful as player escorts.  After Kuchar and Hoffman putted out on 18, Diane and I accompanied them down the narrow chute through the immense crowd, into the interview and scoring areas.  Passed close by Stricker and Donald being interviewed by Gary Koch of NBC and Steve Sands of the Golf Channel.  After Kuchar exited the scoring trailer, accompanied him to the autograph area nearby, just behind the clubhouse.  This area is technically for kids only, and is blocked off by crowd barriers; its our job as marshals to stand beside the player to fend off some of the older "kids" who have snuck into the autograph-seeking crowd standing 5 deep.  Matt was in high demand and politely signed for 15 minutes.  Told Diane afterwards I'd had a great time, especially in my first experience of finishing at 18, followed by being right in the middle of all the post-round excitement.