US Open

Day 2   June 14, 2013

Always try to start my day of marshaling with a huge breakfast and the Residence Inn buffet was my idea of heaven.  Jim couldn't believe how much I could eat, but I told him, who knows when you'll get your next meal at the Open, might not be until our 3pm lunch break.  We got to Merion at 10:45, both of us assigned to the 17th grandstand for 1:30.  Once on the property I told Jim we needed to take a self-guided tour of the course, inside the ropes, beginning with the front 9, having great vantage points all along the way.  It was our opportunity to soak in the fact that we were at the historic course at Merion, a surprisingly small layout really, tucked into a nice residential neighborhood on the Mainline northwest of Philadelphia.  Jim and I moved about the course, basically at will, as if we were mobile marshals, helping out here and there with crowd control, crosswalks, allowing golf carts to make their way through the jammed pathways.  Jim was in total awe of this experience, the closest he'd ever been to the players other than having been at the 1st tee grandstand at Congressional.  We had a close view of Tiger, Rory, & Scott as they passed by, which was a real treat for Jim.

We eventual made our way to the clubhouse and tried to gain entry but we were stopped politely by an official, which was ok. As we approached the grandstand at 17, Jim was amazed at the size of the thing, his assignment yesterday at the 13th hole grandstand holding barely 100 people.  He wondered how we'd ever get the spectators to remain quiet while the players putted on the green below, to which I responded we probably wouldn't have to, it really depended on how strongly the captain wanted to handle the situation.  As it turned out, it was a very pleasant relaxing day, having plenty of laughs with the patrons on this sunny 75 degree day. Jim and I were among the few marshals signaling for quiet, but eventually this started to catch on and we had most of the marshals in our section following suit.  The grandstand never got fully packed so we weren't overwhelmed with a massive crowd.  Lots of people ended up dropping all kinds of things through the slats in the bleachers, with a few of us taking turns going on search parties underneath the huge structure. I think we collected a dozen umbrellas!  Our shift went until dusk at 8:30pm as the last group of players came through (Stricker, Mickelson, and Bradley).  Jim and I then followed this group down the 18th fairway, just inside the ropes, helping to marshal the spectators as the players made their approach shots to the green.  Later over dinner, I think Jim expressed his first interest at trying out the mobile marshaling thing at Deutsche Bank someday, he liked it inside the ropes.    

The 17th grandstand at Merion