Met up with my good friend and regular Wednesday golf partner Tom who was volunteering for today and tomorrow's rounds. He'd also been a mobile marshal in 2013 and really enjoyed it. We were assigned to Matt Jones and Kevin Chappell, playing in the second to last pairing of the day, close to the lead and bound to draw a sizable gallery. We would be positioned immediately in front of Rickie Fowler's group, the DBC leader.
I'd decided to wear my fluorescent green Nike Airmax running shoes, making a serious fashion statement, for which I was prepared to take a lot of grief. The reaction was over-whelmingly positive from my fellow marshals as well as spectators throughout the day. Our Mobile Marshals Co-leader David kiddingly told me at one point the he'd received word from a few players who said the shoes were a distraction on the golf course; Phil Michelson asked that I remove them. Way more comfortable than my walking boots.
I introduced Tom to some of my marshal friends over breakfast, then afterwards we headed up to the range to hang out until our teetime. We ran into our friends Mike and Chris who were there for the day as spectators; Mike was a mobile marshal in 2013. Back at the volunteer tent for our 2nd breakfast we ran into Jim, a former mobile marshal who now works the DBC as an NBC TV spotter. Very interesting assignment, inside the ropes, providing info to the broadcast crew throughout the round.
Our round with Chappell and Jones went very well, starting out at the first tee with about 100 fans, building gradually during the afternoon to a couple hundred, very manageable by Tom, Darin, and myself. It was a fairly hot day, with varying amounts of fatigue as the round wore on. I've learned I have to keep an eye on Tom to hydrate. We had a few instances of errant balls going outside of the ropes but we made a good team working with the hole marshals to drop the ropes, move the crowd, and try to keep everyone still while they stood so close to the player. Thankfully, the fans are always on their best behavior when standing less than 10 feet away. The 18th hole was packed as usual, people crowding 10-deep along the ropes, as were the hospitality pavilions and grandstand at this time of day. We smoothly escorted our players through all this, to the scoring area, no autographs, so we were done for the day.
We went directly to the volunteer appreciation dinner held on the grounds of TPC Boston. It was set-up with a buffet and bar, plenty of seating, which was nice since we'd just walked at least 6 miles. After dinner, a surprise guest appeared, Brandt Sneaker, who gave a very gracious speech, thanking us volunteers. Its nice to hear that the players recognize all of our combined efforts in making the DBC come to life each and every year. He then posed for photos with us all, another nice gesture.
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