Day 3   September 4, 2011   Sunday   DBC

Later start always welcome by this stage of the Championship, 7:30am mobile marshal's meeting much easier to take than 6am.  Assigned to another high-powered pairing, Rickie Fowler and Nick Watney, both up and coming golfers with plenty of fans in the galleries.  They were the third to last pairing of the day, doing pretty well in the tournament standings.  Our 1:20pm tee time meant I got to eat a second breakfast at the volunteer tent, then hang out at the practice range.  Witnessed a funny incident where a caddie tripped over one of the large water buckets near the players as they were warming up, turning a near perfect 360 head-over-heels, not spilling his bag in the process.  We all gave him a standing ovation from the grandstand.  Marveled at the opportunity to watch DJ, Overton, O'Hair, Haas, McDowell, Jacobsen, Rose, Wilson, Van Pelt, Badds, Karlson, and Harrington hit every kind of shot, all in a row.   My next 5 hours consisted of: getting a free swing analysis at the spectator experience concourse; checking out the media center for some folks I'd met at prior DBC's; snacking on various freebies being handed out at vendor tents; reading the Globe's lengthy sport section, (learned Keegan Bradley had missed the cut); made several phone calls from the designated calling area; passed Steve Stricker on the walkway at the practice green, exchanging greetings; tried sitting at the unshaded 9th grandstand but had to move to the 18th to get out of the sun on this humid 85 degree day; cashed in my lunch voucher allowing enough time right before we were to get started around 1:00.

Made my way to the 1st tee where I met up with our co-chair David who assigned me to my preferred position alongside the players, rather than forward at the landing areas.  Enjoyed walking along escorting the players, despite the heat, as the "Rickie & Nickie show" got to be very entertaining throughout the day.  We eventually accumulated a gallery of 1,500, including lots of Rickie wannabes, dressed in traffic-cone orange from head-to-toe, mostly kids but an occasional 30-something adult, which looks pretty ridiculous.  Had an NBC camera crew with us as we came down the 13th fairway to the spot where Rickie's ball had landed outside the ropes.  Had to position the gallery to form an open lane for his shot, as well as allow the camera crew to position themselves.   Later on some drunk fans got pretty mouthy at the corporate pavilions from 16 to 18, it being a hot Sunday afternoon.  Not much we can do as marshals to quiet things down in these areas but I think the players don't really mind too much.  Had a few instances of asking fans to stop taking pictures, most were cooperative and understanding.

Accompanied the players off the 18th green, through a sea of humanity to the scoring trailer and interview area.  I was surprised at one point while I stood there waiting for them, turning around to see I was standing only 5 feet from Ernie Els as he was being interviewed by Golf Channel.  Turns out we weren't needed to marshal at the autograph area so I was done for the day, completing a 12 hour shift.  As I made my way home, I spoke with a few people who told me they'd been watching the TV broadcast but hadn't seen me on camera.  Tough to pick me out of the crowd even when they know which player I'm assigned to, we're all dressed in identical outfits as part of the DBC Blue Crew.