The 2018 Dell Technologies Championship     Pro-Am    Thursday,  August 30, 2018

Set 2 alarms so I wouldn't miss the 4:10am wake-up to be on the road to TPC Norton for my 10th year as a mobile marshal.  It was dawn when I arrived at the volunteer tent, but instead of my usual DD hot cup of coffee, I went for the iced stuff since it was going to be God-awful hot today.  The ''real-feel'' would later climb to 100 degrees!  Met up with all my old buddies to renew my connections with my extended DTC family, Tony, Jimmy, Jack, Diane and our leaders David, Karen, and Maureen.  I got assigned to Jordan Spieth for a 2pm tee-off, and would be training two new mobile marshals, Frank and Nancy.  I also stepped up to help out with marshaling for Rory McIlroy at 8:10am, partly to use up the waiting time until my main assignment, but also so I could have time working with my buddies Tony and Jim.  Over breakfast, I got to sit with Tony and talk about his recent extensive running training, which is so impressive to me as he is a 50 year-old former smoker.  David also joined us to talk about what guys our age often do, planning for retirement. In his case he is going to retire in December from publication sales, and is seeking to become a Florida snowbird.  He'd like to have a place on the Cape as well, so we talked about that in depth since I live there year round.  On our minds as well was the fact that this was to be the last DTC, if in name only, the entire FedEx Cup playoff system being reconfigured and this championship being absorbed into the Northern Trust on an every other year rotation.  We'd be trying to wrap our minds around this ''end of an era'' for the next five days.

At 8am Tony and I walked leisurely to the first tee, the temp already above 80 and extremely humid.  I began drinking water on almost every hole.  It became like a casual walk in the park for us as Rory was drawing a very sparse crowd for this Pro-Am.  In addition, he wasn't signing any autographs or posing for any pictures along the way, in keeping with the new PGA TOUR policy.  This made our marshaling job even easier.  We occasionally had to search for wayward golf balls struck by the amateur players but that made it interesting.  It was basically a chance for me and Tony to get caught up on our respective lives since last year, although we're in touch on Facebook throughout the year.  Tony works in the bio-tech field installing and maintaining spectrometers, and refers to himself as the ''biotech Maytag repair man'' although I'm sure it's way more sophisticated than that.

We finished up our 9-hole commitment at 10:45, leaving the marshaling job to Jimmy, who had no problem handling the light gallery.  He is one interesting dude, a walking Boston history book, with that dry sarcastic Irish sense of humor.  If he reads this, he'll probably say I'm full of it.
Tony and I grabbed lunch then sat at the volunteer tent with our feet up to rest before our primary assignments this afternoon.  We were again joined by David and later by Diane, and we both entertained her with pictures on our phones from the Presidents Cup last fall.  It turns out David is a real foodie and has a serious knowledge about the best restaurants from Boston to NYC, (Pepe's pizza evidently no longer the best in Connecticut).  He and Tony soon left to work the Phil Mickelson group, while I hung around the volunteer tent, getting a chance to meet two players who dropped by to thank us volunteers for our efforts, Tyrell Hatten of England and C.T. Pan of Korea, both extremely gracious guys.

C.T. Pan

Tyrell Hatten

I also spent 30 minutes up at the range watching Jordan warm-up for our round.  There was a ''situation'' developing out on the course where a credentialed volunteer was impersonating a mobile marshal walking with Tiger's group.  All of us with headsets could hear this unfolding as our fearless leader Maureen collared the fake marshal and rescinded his credential.  Don't mess with Maureen!

At 1:45 I went to the first tee to meet up with Nancy and Frank, my two rookies.  They both turned out to be great mobile marshals, responding to all my guidance and picking things up fast.  I guess I'm one of the designated trainers in our mobile marshal committee; at last count I've trained 13 in my 9 years as a MM crew leader.  Both turned out to be very interesting people, Frank is a lieutenant with the Suffolk County Sheriff Department and very active with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  Nancy is an IT wiz in healthcare.  They were full of enthusiasm and had lots of curiosity about the art of marshaling, which I was able to handle, I think.  At least that's what they told me after completing our round!

This was probably the highest profile group in the entire Pro-Am, with PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan, Dell CEO Bill Scannell, and Seth Waugh, recently named as CEO of the PGA of America.  You might think this would make for an intimidating group, playing with such a prominent player as Jordan Spieth but it was a real pleasure.  All three gentlemen were so down to earth and easy-going, it wasn't hard to get into a rhythm of 4 guys simply playing a round of golf, some spectacular shots, and some not so memorable.  My rookies Frank and Nancy rose to the occasion and performed so well, I was so proud of them not getting star-struck in the presence of such a high powered group.  Soon into the round, extra friends and family got invited in on the action inside the ropes.  We generally try to keep this tendency from getting too large and cumbersome, however, considering the amateur players involved, I couldn't say anything.  At the turn, all of the players helped themselves to adult beverages at the tent set-up at the 10th tee, (''swing oil'' we generally call it), and the fun really kicked up a notch.  Before long, there were 35 people inside the ropes, players, caddies, spouses, kids, brothers, cousins, you name it.  It became one continuous moving golf party, it was great, like nothing I'd ever seen at DTC.  Before long, everyone was getting a chance to step-up, kids chipping onto the green, spouses hitting tee-shots, everyone taking a try at putting. This was taking extra time to complete our round and it was getting close to dark but we were all having too much fun.  Plus, as lead marshal, how could I have encouraged the PGA commissioner to pick-up the pace of play?

After it was all over at the 18th green, I told Frank and Nancy how well they had done in their first mobile marshal experience, under challenging circumstances, including searing heat.  They both expressed appreciation for a wonderful experience, which, after all is the main reason any of us sacrifice so much to be a part of this great championship.

Rory chatting with fans while waiting to tee off on 3rd hole

Jordan signing photos taken of him with his Pro-Am partners