Rain was forecast as remnants of Hurricane Harvey finally reached here after devastating the Texas gulf area. It was the first time I ever wore long pants and carried an umbrella at the DTC but was glad about my wardrobe selection. We had a delayed start due to the weather, which was just as well as driving on the Mid-Cape highway was like being in a carwash. It turned out to be a warm misty rain on & off all day, just wish my new golf shoes were water-proof. By the end of our 18-hole walk I felt like I was wearing two soaked sponges on my feet. Got assigned to Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantley, & MacKenzie Hughes for a 12:16 tee-off. This was the marquee grouping of the day so David was our crew leader along with marshal head honcho Maureen. Joining us was Big Bill and his wife Helen, very nice people, veteran marshals of 4-6 years respectively.
Killed time with breakfast and conversation with Tony who is developing into a serious runner and has completed several races including a 1/2 marathon earlier this year. He'l be competing in the Boston Marathon eventually, I told him. Quite an accomplishment for an ex-smoker. Also got another chance to chat with Maureen who was interested in hearing about my background, living on Cape Cod and working as an Occupational Therapist.
We had several hundred spectators at the first tee, and got to work with crowd control right away as the pairing of Dustin Johnson and Branden Grace ahead of us had both landed their drives beyond the ropes between the 1st and 2nd fairways. It took a small army of hole and mobile marshals to sort this out, creating 2 parallel alleyways in the crowd for both players to hit back to the fairway. Love this part of marshaling, and am always amazed when hundreds of fans can be almost right on top of the action and yet you could hear a pin drop! With the large volume of fans, our crew spent a lot of time on the cart paths keeping the crowd still and avoiding 'head-starts' while other players were still holing out. Had a chance to talk with David about his retirement plans for next year, planning to become a snowbird with a place in Florida, but also picking my brain for Cape Cod info and a potential spot to settle down. We're both signed up to volunteer at the President's Cup in a couple weeks so we made some plans. He'll be Captain of the 18th hole while I'll be a Roving Marshal.
Early on in our round I noted Jordan Spieth's family standing at the ropes and offered to assist them if they needed anything throughout our round. I ended up spending a good deal of time walking along with our 2 honorary hole marshals, chatting about how to go about volunteering and related details. Very curious about how much work we have to do 'inside the ropes'. I also met up with Maureen during the round, who said that Jordan Spieth was reportedly concerned with how narrow the rope chutes were leading from each green to the next tee. She assigned me to walk just ahead of Spieth as a buffer to hopefully keep the crowd back somewhat and tone-down their outstretched hands reaching for him. Spieth was very business like throughout the round, focused, and as a result, playing quite well. Visibly frustrated at times whenever a putt wouldn't drop.
Had an conversation with a fan at the ropes wanting to know about my pins on my credential lanyard, and how he could buy some. His jaw dropped when I told him they weren't for sale and I'd earned them from having marshaled at 9 DBC/DTC's and 3 US Opens.
It was a great atmosphere at the 18th hole despite the rainy conditions, with a fairly large crowd perched along the ropes and up in the corporate pavilions and grandstands. It had been a long slog for us but I felt bad for the Tour caddies, especially Hughes man as he tried to catch up while juggling the bag, putter head cover, towel, and umbrella. I was standing on the edge of the 18th green next to the NBC commentator Mark Rolfing, and commented that this caddy needs his own caddy, Mark chuckled. We escorted Spieth and company off the green and into the interview/scoring/autograph areas. My buddy Jim had control of the autograph area today, chatted with him as we bracketed Spieth during his 20 minutes of signing.
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