Day 2  September 5, 2015   Saturday   DBC

At the assignment meeting, met up with my old friend Pat from Connecticut, as well as Melinda, Queen of the autograph signing area, and Rick who's been doing this forever, at DBC and the Traveler's in CT.  All great people.  I got assigned as the lead marshal for Rickie Fowler's group, including Jason Bohn and Sangmoon Bae, teeing off at 9:30am.  This was ideal as it allowed us a leisurely breakfast and didn't involve lots of waiting around.
At the first tee, I checked with the hole captain to see where he might need some extra help in crowd control.  He directed us toward a group of about six guys standing directly behind the tee and up in the grandstand, all with breakfast beers in hand, loudly calling out to the golfers and their caddies standing at the tee.  Melinda and I took up positions nearby, inside the rope, whereupon one of the guys said, "Uh-oh, here comes the no-talking police", which drew a laugh from everyone.  We gave them our best smiles just so they knew we were there to keep it respectable for the players without getting too serious about it all.  They kept up their give-and-take with Rickie & Co., but quieted down when play began, which was great.  The fans at DBC are almost always aware of the need to allow the golfers to play without interference.
We had a pretty good size morning gallery, around 200 people to start, which grew throughout the round to over 500.   Our round went very smoothly, my crew of 4 veteran mobile marshals working well together, spacing ourselves correctly and always adjusting our positions to where we were needed the most, hole-by-hole.  Thankfully the weather was great, 80 degrees, unlike the pro-am oven.  We did our best to minimize the use of cellphone cameras, in accordance with PGA TOUR regulations, especially Melinda, who engaged lots of fans in a good-natured way.  To be honest, I saw over 50% of the fans holding phones as we walked along inside the ropes, which means we're fighting a losing battle in attempting to enforce the no-picture policy.  We do our best under the circumstances.

We eventually accompanied our players from the 18th green, to the scoring and interview areas beneath the TPC clubhouse, then waited at the autograph area for Rickie to return.  In the meantime, Jim Furyk emerged from the clubhouse to do some signing, so we bracketed him as he made his way down the line, fans standing 5-6 deep, to have him sign hats, flags, programs, balls, etc.  At one point a small boy asked him, "Mr. Furyk, if you could have any super power, what would it be?"  Without missing a beat, he replied, "Invisible", which drew lots of laughs from the crowd.  I told him that was the quote of the day.  Rickie eventually emerged, the crowd reacting as if a rock-star was in their midst.  It was a challenge for Melinda and I to manage this frenzy, thankfully we were reinforced by 2 security staff and well as a Norton police officer.  Melinda is at her absolute best in this environment, I can only take so much of it.  It always reinforces my belief that the pros don't get enough acknowledgement about their work with the fans, to be so gracious under these trying circumstances.