Day 2      September 1, 2012    Saturday   DBC

At the morning assignment meeting, I had a pleasant reunion with Pat and Brian, two marshals I had met last year.  I was assigned as crew leader for the threesome of Webb Simpson, Louis Oosthuizen, & Bo VanPelt, teeing off at 1:10pm.  Decided to spend some of my waiting time marshaling for the Rory McIlroy,  Zach Johnson, and Jason Dufner group teeing off at 8:10.  Just nine holes though, have to save the legs for the main event later in the day.  I've calculated that the typical mobile marshal day of walking 27 holes at TPC Boston amounts to about an 8-9 mile walk.  The course is very spread out, especially the front 9, with lots of sections along wooden elevated cart paths through the marshlands between holes, a beautiful course.  I started with some breakfast at the volunteer pavilion then went to the ball tent on the players practice area.  Noticed Rory chatting with his girlfriend Caroline Wozniaki as he was getting warmed-up for his round.  When we got started, going off the 10th tee, I again noticed Ms. Wozniaki standing a short ways down the fairway.  Being the marshal crew leader, I approached her, introduced myself as being assigned to escort Rory's group, and let her know we would be able to offer any assistance if needed, (water, cart transport, or if she was being unduly bothered by fans).  She was very appreciative, but didn't request anything. We'd been instructed in our marshal meetings to offer these courtesies to make the DBC as pleasant an experience as possible to PGA TOUR players and their guests.

Rory had a huge gallery for this time in the morning, over 1,000 easily, as we made our way through his first nine holes. He was in the lead at 11 under par when I stopped after 9 holes to get lunch and rest up for the afternoon round.  Our volunteer lunch today was catered by Bertucci pizza, another nice perk for all the DBC volunteers.  Kind of comical though, hearing all of the hole marshal captains over the headset radio requesting pizza deliveries to the outermost holes.  At 1:00, I met my other four marshals at the 10th tee for our threesome with Webb, Louie, and Bo. I could tell right away we were over-staffed when only 50 spectators had gathered for this group.  I saw Webb's wife Dowd pushing a stroller along the 10th fairway cart path, introduced myself and offered any assistance she might need along the way.

Some strange things started happening in this round; one of our crew disappeared after the first hole, never to be heard from again.  Another member of our crew left after 4 holes; he'd walked 18 holes in the morning and then called it quits, heading over to a corporate pavilion on 16 where he had an entry pass evidently, cocktails included.  That left me, Dave and Jeff, still plenty of marshals for our small gallery, which by the end of our first 9 had dwindled to around 30 people.  As we made our way down the long walk to the first tee for our "back 9", we were stunned when we found out the small gallery had totally abandoned this group, even Dowd Simpson!  I was eventually able to arrange a reassignment for us back at the congested 15th/16th hole areas which is always pretty wild in the corporate pavilion area.  At this point, Jeff and Dave decided they'd rather find out where Tiger was in his round, and walk along with him.  I was sure that Tiger's group didn't need any extra marshals in the 8 man crew already assigned to him, as I'd already requested that reassignment for us.  Anyway, off they went, and I stayed at 16 for awhile, then went over to the 14th tee box in response to a request from the hole captain for some extra help.  After awhile I worked my way down to the 17th green, spending a bit of time talking with the serviceman tending the flagstick with the American flag rather than the standard DBC flag. He seemed like a great guy.  I could tell how honored he was with his assignment.  All along I was assessing the gallery size and heading for those areas where the need was greatest, eventually along the ropes on the 18th fairway.  Several stationary hole marshals in this area asked for suggestions, so I had them space themselves every 15 yards or so, to provide an extra presence on the finishing hole.  The gallery in this area near the 18th green was easily 10-15 people deep.  Things built to a roar as Tiger's group came through, once again demonstrating his incredible appeal to the golfing world.   After this whirlwind blew through and things settled down at 18, I took a deep breath and called it a day.