Day 2    September 3, 2011    DBC   Saturday

One of my best ever days marshaling, an A+ day experience.  I was assigned to the premier group of the day, Phil Mickelson, Gary Woodland, and Jonathon Byrd.  Their tee time was at 8am so it would be a relatively short day, no long wait, plus we would have a huge gallery in comparison to the pro-am.  Got a bagel and some coffee and went to the practice area where I watched Harrington, Na, Fowler, Garcia, Vegas, Moore, Toms, Haas, Watson, Poulter, Donald, & Phil warming up.  Went to the 10th tee for our assigned time, groups going off both 1 & 10 in three-somes due to the vagaries of the weather.  A gallery of approximately 500 people had already gathered for our grouping, this was going to be fun as it gradually grew to over 2,000 throughout the round.  Had a crew of 4 mobile marshals as well as 4 ''mobile device'' marshals who were tasked to enforce the strict PGA TOUR policy of no photographs during play.  We'd all been instructed to request spectators to delete pictures when we saw them using cellphone cameras.  I personally had 2 patrons react negatively to this policy, and frankly, I couldn't blame them.  The PGA TOUR had reluctantly agreed to allow cellphones onto the property during competition days, realizing nearly everyone was carrying one anyway, but for texting/calling purposes only, in designated areas away from the players.  We'd been told in our assignment meeting that the PGA TOUR considered any pictures taken by fans as copyrighted material, and thus prohibited.  A difficult policy to enforce but we were giving it our best without upsetting too many paying fans.

Phil was getting lots of love all day, at every tee box, all along the fairways, and every green.  He generally acknowledged all this love with a head nod and his permanent grin, even though he wasn't playing his best, using a belly putter to change things up a bit.  I was beside the players throughout the round, including being within touching distance frequently as we escorted the players along, especially through the narrow green-to-tee roped off chutes.  I actually heard someone in the gallery say, "I was this close to Phil, this is the best day of my life!" Such a nice scene to see one of the players hand his ball to a little kid waiting at the rope, just makes their whole DBC experience, mine too.  One of our biggest challenges was keeping the huge gallery patient and quiet as all three players finished their shots, the tendency being for everyone to surge ahead after Phil had hit his ball.  Phil and his caddie Bones even helped us out on occasion, requesting quiet from the crowd so that Gary and Jonathon could putt.

Turned out to be a bit warm, 82 degrees, so got lots of water at the teebox coolers as we made our way along, finishing up at the 9th hole.  We escorted the players to the scoring trailer, but that was it for us as they were being carted back to the clubhouse, about 100 yards away.  I got lunch and hung out in the shade near the practice area, resting my legs and feeling like it had been a great day.  As I walked by the putting green, I saw Gary Woodland doing some post-round practice, I caught his eye and he thanked me for marshaling for his group, signing a Titleist ball for me.  Nice guy.