An extra special day as I was going to be joined by my son Brian for his first ever marshaling experience. To make it even more special, I had my wife Mary with me for the day, including driving up to TPC Boston, leaving our house at 4:45am. On the way, we talked about the potential assignment times and players we might have, hoping to avoid a dreaded late teetime and having to find something to do for 5-6 hours. Everything worked out fine from the start, meeting Brian at the green lot and taking the shuttle over to the volunteer tent and our MGA meeting spot. I got a coffee for Mary, then Brian and I went to the assignment meeting. I made introductions all around to all the other mobile marshals, and Brian was instantly greeted by all my buddies and welcomed into the fold, everyone asking him questions and making comments. Brian later told Mary, "Dad knows everyone". We got assigned to Justin Thomas and Whee Kim for an 8:35am teetime, which was perfect, anticipating a relatively manageable gallery plus no need to find some diversionary activity to kill the waiting time. I introduced Brian to David and thanked him for the opportunity to have Brian join me in marshaling, as he had no experience. David said I would do a good job training him as I had done so many other times with various rookies.
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| Me and Brian |
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| Brian and Mary |
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| Don't mess with this marshal! |
We then strolled to the first tee and met up with our third crew member, Frank, who I'd trained at the Pro-Am. He's such a personable guy, immediately took to chatting up Brian, including complementing me on my ability to give him a wonderful training experience on his first day as a mobile marshal. He even commented on how much better it was than volunteering as a hole marshal, which he had done on 2 prior occasions. I spoke with Karen our MM co-chair, who was again stretching her resume, serving as first tee announcer and doing a grand job. I also chatted up Rich, the first tee captain, who complemented all of us MM's and our ability as specialists to quickly identify problem areas on the course. We're the cavalry!
As planned, it turned out to be a very easy marshaling assignment for our crew, working with Justin Thomas and Whee Kim. Basically a hot walk in the park with 50-100 friends along to watch the golf. Brian and Frank responded perfectly to my subtle directions for positioning on each hole, techniques for quieting the gallery, avoiding blocking anyone's view by taking a knee, and having a good time working the crowd. Every time you're standing at the rope close to the spectators, they generally want to engage you with a question or comment, and you've got to be ready to have that knowledgeable response. To some extent, being inside the ropes means you are a part of the action, and the crowd is looking for a bit of give and take with us in a friendly bantering manner. As it turned out, I was especially proud of my wife Mary, as she was able to speak with our accompanying Norton police officer, as well as Justin's father, mother, and girlfriend Jillian Wisniewski walking along with us. Somehow Mary had learned that JT was a huge RedSox fan, despite being from Kentucky, and that he and Jordan Spieth had been to last night's game at Fenway, including getting the opportunity to throw out the first pitch. Mary later said what nice people they were, so approachable, Jillian wishing her to "Have a great day".
We accompanied the players off the 18th green and over to the clubhouse scoring and autograph area, Whee coming out to sign for about 5 minutes. There we met up with Brian's new wife Lauren and her parents Frank and Patti, and it was time for them to find some adult beverages, and for me and Brian to get some lunch and wait to see if we would be needed as reinforcements on the back-nine for Tiger's group. We got lunch and the necessary fluids at the 17th tee concession stands and found one of the few shady spots in order to beat the serious heat. Mary, Lauren, Patti, and Frank shifted into party mode while Brian and I devoured 2 sandwiches apiece and rested our legs. After awhile, the headset chatter seemed pretty calm and it didn't look like our further services would be needed. I got a beer and became a spectator for the first time at DTC. We then joined the hoards trying to get a glimpse of TW, finally doing so as he came of the 10th tee. What a difference it is trying to watch from outside the ropes! In the end, Brian and I were both pretty beat and I was sort of glad that we didn't get the word to walk another 9 holes with the afternoon groups. I told him I was very happy with having him along to experience life as a Mobile Marshal, something I'd talking about for 10 years. Both he and Mary said lots of nice things about the wonderful time they'd had, despite feeling hot and tired.
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