Day 4    September 3, 2012    Labor Day Monday    DBC

If you've read this far, you learned of my typical routine putting in a 12+ hour day at the DBC.  I was assigned to the Phil Mickelson-Jeff Overton pairing, teeing off at 1:00pm.  This was the 6th from last pairing of the day, Phil at -9, the leaders being Rory McIlroy at -16 and Louie Oosthuizen at -19.  We were set-up with a 4-person crew including Pam, Jim, and Tony, all of whom I'd worked with in the past and enjoyed their low-key competence in handling the larger galleries.  I'd scored some extra passes for today's final round so I went to the volunteer tent to see if I could arrange to have them sent over to the will-call booth at the Comcast parking lot.  I was astounded when I learned that a volunteer would drive them over to the VIP parking area for me.  I called my kids to let them know of this arrangement, and looked forward to seeing them on-site later in the day.

Our round with Phil and Jeff went well, starting with around 200 spectators, then building throughout the front 9 to around 1,000, pretty sizeable, but seemed small in comparison to yesterday w/ TW.  Had the usual demands of marshaling when the crowd was there primarily to see Phil, and needed frequent reminders to avoid moving while Overton finished his stroke.  Unfortunately, he is a relatively slow player, so keeping the crowd in place felt like we were repeatedly trying to hold back the tide.  I spent most of this round inside the ropes beside the players since maneuvering outside through the crowd would have been impossible.  On the 6th hole I got a text from our daughter Jill that she had arrived with our son Brian and his girlfriend Lauren, and that they were at the 7th green, keeping an eye out for me.  They spotted me as we made our way up the 7th fairway, and positioned our crew around the green.  Jill said I looked like I knew what I was doing!  I just barely saw them when we hopped into the stretch golf carts that transport us the 200 yards down to the 8th tee.  I thought that was the last I'd see them since the crowd were pretty massive on the cart path.  As I stood at the 8th tee, I was pleasantly surprised to see the kids make their way through the crowd, just as we were about to move on.  I grabbed some waters for them from the tee box cooler, then off I hustled to catch-up to the players as they walked to the green.  I next saw them along the 9th fairway and directed them to a great viewing area to the left of the 9th green.  As we strode past on our way to the 10th tee, I had a quick chance to say goodbye to them.  Jill called me later to say they really enjoyed their day, especially at the 9th green where they were closely positioned for all the final pairings as they came by (Tiger, Dustin Johnson, Rory, and Louie).  She said she was especially thrilled when Phil Mickelson looked her right in the eyes!  Brian was surprised how quickly we were moving along with the players inside the ropes, the kids couldn't keep up due the huge crowd of spectators.

Our back nine went well, always a thrill to come up 18 with Phil drawing such a positive response from the gallery all along the left side of the fairway.  Our crew then accompanied him and Jeff to the scoring trailer, interview area, and onward to the autograph pen.  I was positioned directly beside Phil as he signed for 25 minutes, I complimented him on his patience under the onslaught of the fans asking for his attention.  He finally made his way to the locker room entrance and was gone. I then headed back to the 18th green where extra hands are always needed as the DBC finishes on this Labor Day. I worked the crosswalk rope area awhile just as Tiger and Dustin exited from the green.  I then moved greenside for the final pairing, watching as Louie missed his putt that would have tied Rory and led to a playoff for the second year in a row.  After having seen Rory up close when he won at Congressional, it was nice to see him win at "my" tournament.