Welcome to the Diary of a PGA TOUR marshal.  These entries are taken directly from my journal as a volunteer at PGA TOUR and USGA events, starting with my first day in 2009 and continuing up to the present time.  The most recent event is listed at the top, followed by subsequent tournament days in sequential order.  You'll also read about some of my golf travel experiences and opinions pieces on the state of professional golf along the way.  My intent is to share my experiences and attempt to provide a window into what is otherwise a relatively unknown view of PGA TOUR life, as witnessed by a volunteer marshal, who initially didn't know quite what I was getting involved with, but which has exceeded all of my expectations.
Wyn Morton

The FM Championship   Sunday   September 1, 2024

Still no word as of 8 am so I texted Larry about confirming an assignment for me today, never heard back. I decided to go on their word from yesterday.  On arrival, I again was greeted warmly by Mike and Larry, who said I would be assigned to the 10:26 tee time for Ariya Jutanugarn, Jennifer Kupcho, & Hannah Green.  Once again the dual scorer system would be in place, this time I would be handling paper scoring duties, while my fellow scorer Bob would be on the device and radio.  This would be fine with me as it would be a bit more relaxed without the chatter in my ear.  Mike explained that the best practice was for us to keep a separate accounting of each player's shots, then come to agreement with hand signals before Bob hit the final "ball in the hole" button on the device.  We had no standard bearer today, but our double check system was perfect once again.  Bob turned out to be a great companion for the round, a real veteran scorer from every PGA event going back to 2003, as well as a TPC member.  He's known as "The Commissioner" at TPC since he coordinates the men's league.    

We were also joined by two honorary observers, a very pleasant couple who'd just returned from St. Andrews where they'd attended the AIG, stayed at the lovely Old Course Hotel, and played several rounds of golf in Scotland. They had lots of stories to share with us about their adventures, and were also very receptive to hearing Bob and I telling stories about our FedEx experiences at TPC, a story on every hole it seemed.  I even tasked them to keep us posted regarding the overall FM leaderboard, which they could follow on their phones.  They were psyched to be included inside the ropes.  

Our players were excellent, greeting us at the first tee, thanking us at the start for helping out.  All were tied at -4, five groups back from the leaders. They played superb golf, Ariya and Jennifer both shooting 65 to end up at -11, Hannah at -9.  At 18 scoring desk everything matched up perfectly, the players and caddies again thanked us and gave us autographed balls.  Bob and I congratulated each other on a job well done.  I speculated to him that he'd probably accumulated lots of signed golf balls in his day at FedEx, he said so many that he ended up giving most away or even using some out on the course!                        (He's kept Tiger's ball).

Less than 20 minutes later the weather alert horn sounded, suspending play for what would eventually be 2 hours.  Thank goodness we'd just made it.  Play would resume with a playoff between Haeran Ryu and JY Ko, with Ryu victorious after one hole of sudden death.  

 The FM Championship   Saturday   August 31, 2024

Well, no overnight email about my assignment for today left me wondering if this was just an oversight, or a symptom of a new tournament not quite getting all of the details together.   I texted Chewie who responded that Larry would get me out on the course "somehow".  Kind of vague, but I made the 75 mile drive on faith, figuring if there really wasn't a need for me to serve as a walking scorer today, I could at least jump in to help as a hole marshal with one of my buddies.  On arrival at scoring HQ, Mike May was reassuring, saying I was one of his best guys and they definitely had a spot for me.  He complimented me on handling the scoring perfectly, no errors/corrections, and that I was one of his best guys.  He confessed to me that he was dismayed by the FM scheduling system was this loose and was impressed that I had shown the initiative to reach out and then actually showed up!  Evidently, there had been some scorers who were one-and-done's earlier in the week.   

Larry set me up for an 11 am tee time with Gaby Lopez and Jennifer Chang.  Two scorers would be going out together as a double check system to reduce the number of errors which had evidently been occurring to date.  I would be handling the device and radio while Donna, a TPC member, would corroborate using a paper scoring system.  I was a little skeptical that such a degree of oversight was unnecessary, but Mike said the LPGA and Golf Channel was shooting for an error free event from all its scorers.   We would also have a standard bearer, Tiger, who I initially had some concerns about, him being only 13, a native of China, with ESL.  Turns out he was excellent at keeping right on top of our player's leaderboard standings, making the necessary changes without me or Donna having to feed him the numbers.  Great kid!  We complimented ourselves on having a triple-check system here!  Donna was very nice, soft spoken, efficient, in keeping with her background as corporate lawyer at a Boston pharmaceutical company, specializing in intellectual property.  She'd evidently never worked a professional tournament other than scoring for the past two days, and was a reassuring presence. 

 I was fully aware of the time sensitive nature of making accurate scoring entries which were then sent to LPGA and Golf Channel for broadcast and on-course leaderboard posting.  We were able to develop a relaxed routine, which then allowed us to also enjoy the experience of being in the moment with these players.  We were also able to chat about our backgrounds, PGA experiences, and TPC membership including playing the course.  Keeping track of only two players versus three was also less taxing, involving less walking as well, trying to view each player's shot situations.  It was also nice to take a seat occasionally as hole marshals would kindly offer their chairs to us for a short rest.  

At the 18th tee we had an exceptionally long wait and I'd been debating whether to introduce myself to Jennifer Chang, who had a USC logo on her bag.  I was well aware of our directive to not distract players unnecessarily but the round was almost over, and she was not in serious contention.  She was completely receptive to meeting a fellow alum, becoming quite animated about it.  After a couple of comments, I excused myself to let her get back to her job and tee off.  As we walked off the tee, she came up to me and resumed our chat about our respective USC experiences, talking the entire way to her ball.  There really is something about being members of the Trojan Family!  

Jenn subsequently needed me to call in for a rules official as she her second shot had landed near the cart path, affecting her stance.  Her next shot ended up with interference from the 18th grandstand, necessitating another call by me for the official.  She thanked me for making both calls for which I was glad to help.  At the scoring tent, I rectified the device with the scorers, perfect.  We all received signed balls from Gaby and Jennifer, and thanks from both and their caddies as well.  

Once again at Scoring HQ I tried to nail down an assignment for Sunday, but was informed that the schedule would not be determined until the end of play, but that I would receive an email later to night.  Mike May verbally reassured me I would definitely be scheduled, since "We need guys like you!"           By 10 pm, no email.

 The FM Championship   Friday  August 30, 2024  

I felt pretty proficient in terms of mastering the scoring system by this point, it almost becoming second nature, but I hadn't been challenged with any complicated penalty entries yet, so I still had some lingering concerns.  Today's threesome included So Me Lee, Eun Hee Ji, and Matilda Castren.  Again having virtually no exposure to the majority of LPGA players, it was a challenge to differentiate one from the other to accurately enter their shot making for scoring purposes.  The scoring device interface was set-up with each player's data, including a photo, which greatly helped in tracking each one. In particular, So Me Lee wore a white hat in her picture, Eun Hee Ji a black hat, which they both thankfully did today as well.  So for the majority of the round, I found myself recording shot data as Black hat, bogey, White hat par, and so on.  What can I say?  

We were joined by a standard bearer today, Bob, a long-time veteran of 10 FedEx championships as a #1 hole marshal.  He needed some help initially as he had no score displayed on his board, thinking we would just be concerned with today's scoring.  I quickly got him set-up with the player's leaderboard standings, and continued to update their standings as the round proceeded.  Bob was funny in that he became focused on how poorly engineered the standard pole and display board were, too heavy, too short, and susceptible to windy conditions.  By the end of the round I think he had decided he'd found an opportunity for a retirement side hustle, reconfiguring and marketing standard bearer signs!  We had fun comparing notes from our respective TPC FedEx experiences.  He'd never walked the back 9 holes, having been assigned to Hole #1 exclusively.  I entertained him with a story for each hole from my mobile marshal days.  

Our group was low key, not much interaction between the players, although I heard Lee and Ji chatting in Korean frequently throughout the round.  All were playing consistently without much change in their leader board standings.  Castren went as low as -4 but fell back on our last hole, #9 after hitting into the treeline on the left fairway, asking me to call for a rules official.  This went quite smoothly, the scoring central radio system exceedingly efficient and prompt.  

Because we'd begun the round on #10 consequently concluding on 9, we were carted to the scoring tent at 18, where the officials reported there were no discrepancies between the player's cards and the scoring device entries.  That made my day.  It had been explained to me earlier that one of the main objectives in walking scoring was accurate shot reporting, as this information was instantly transmitted to the TV broadcast (Golf Channel) as well as to the various leaderboard displays throughout the course.  The objective was to avoid any inaccurate entries in scores, having to make on-course corrections.    

As I turned in my radio and scoring device at Scoring HQ, I made sure to check in with Larry the chairperson, and Mike of the LPGA about tomorrow's assignment.  The reason I was concerned was the FM volunteer website had me scheduled only through today, nothing for the weekend.  I figured this was a function of the field being reduced by the cut, and not yet knowing the weekend leaderboard schedule.  I was verbally reassured by both guys that I was definitely needed tomorrow and that I'd be receiving an email with details tonight...

The FM Championship    Thursday   August 29, 2024

One fantastic advantage of being a walking scorer was knowing your tee time in advance rather than being in the dark (literally) and not having to be on site at 6 am to then receive your assignment, as I've reported multiple times in this blog.  Today I knew we'd be teeing off at 12:26 pm, giving me a relaxed morning before I had to drive the 75 miles from the Cape to TPC Boston.   Such a luxury!  

The scoring officials are pretty guarded with the equipment and won't let you pick it up until 30 minutes prior to your tee time.  I grabbed some lunch at the concession stand and sat outside the volunteer center in perfect summer conditions, much less humidity than yesterday, twenty degrees cooler.  At the appointed time, I got my radio but was informed that I'd be issued a special scoring device down at the first tee, a GPS player tracking system.  I thought to myself "I'm not ready for any upgraded special device, just give me the old one I'm barely used to!"  I got a ride from "Chewie", the scoring committee co-chairperson, down to tee #1.  He'd worked several Travelers and FedEx events and we had a lot of mutual acquaintances although we'd never met up til now.  Great guy!  At the 1st tee, two technical specialists were handling the scoring devices, which involved attaching a small GPS tracker to the waistbands of the player's outfits, about the size of a pack of gum.  This was a new device rollout evidently, there were only nine in use.  I heard that some players refused to be bothered with wearing the device, fearing it might fall off or something during play.  One of the tech guys pulled me aside and asked that I warn players to be careful with the device when they head to the porta-potty! Yeah right!  On our end, the scoring device interface was identical except for now having a "tap in" feature to streamline the process of recording putts.  I was thankful I didn't have to learn a new system, especially since today's round would involve tracking every shot of three players. 

Jiwon Jeon, Yan Liu, and Celine Borge made up our threesome.  I'd never heard of any of these players, thankfully the caddy bibs and golf bags had the player names in view. Accurately identifying who hit which shot in order to enter into the device was challenging initially.   The learning curve was in play but by about the third hole I was settling into a routine.  Walking with the players in order to see every single shot was a thrill but also required a continuous focus.  I got to closely witness some incredible shot making skills from each of these players.  It was an even better experience than being a mobile marshal.  

On the 9th tee, one of the GPS tech guys showed up, stating we had a problem.  For a moment I thought I'd somehow made an error in the scoring process but he reassured me that the device itself wasn't transmitting its GPS data, not my fault.  He took over the scoring function while we walked all of the ninth and tenth holes, eventually having to call in his counterpart as to reboot the device.  All was well by the 11th hole, but... 

At the turn we were joined by a walking NBC spotter who was sent to observe Borge's play as she was climbing the leader board at -3.  Although initially seeming to be a congenial presence in our group,   "NBC lady" soon began peppering me with questions about each players score, their place on the leader board, and even course details, ie., "Is this a par 3 or 4?"  She would then report in to her producer, who would ask for more info, then turn to me for an answer.   It was distracting but tolerable for a couple of holes but then Borge lost her ball in the right rough on 12, I was the one who eventually located it.  Meanwhile, I'd missed that Jeon had played a provisional ball, not her original shot, which meant I had to enter a scoring correction.  This took me 2 holes to accomplish as NBC lady continued to pester me with questions.  Finally, I had to cut her off, I had enough to worry about doing my own job, not her's as well.  I felt badly having to ask her to back off but it had to be done.  By this time my confidence in using the scoring device was great or these situations would have soured me on the process.  

On the 15th hole, a rules official put our group on the clock, specifically citing Yan Liu for slow play.  We were shadowed by rules for the remainder of the round, the players responding with a noticeable improvement in pace of play.  At the scoring area Liu and multiple officials ended up having a lengthy discussion about whether a penalty would be issued, therefore changing her score in my device.  Mike May, the LPGA chief of scoring had me stand by for 30 minutes while this discussion was going on, but eventually he
relieved me of duty, stating he'd handle it from here, and that I did an excellent job, especially with some complicated scoring issues.

 

 

 The FM Championship    Wednesday   August 28, 2024   ProAm

Even though I'd always volunteered as a mobile/walking/marshal/ambassador to date since 2009, I'd secretly desired to see if I could try working as a walking scorer at one of these tournaments.   I'd never been selected for the walking scorer committee in 19 championships; it was always a coveted closed committee at every FedEx and USGA event.  When the LPGA announced a return to New England at TPC Boston I got my chance to see if scoring was as challenging but rewarding as I'd hoped it would be.  

It was.

I completed three power point training sessions coordinated by the LPGA to become familiar with the scoring device, but seeing a depiction on my laptop still left me with some doubts about actually entering the data out on the course, in the moment of play, without any mistakes.  Thankfully I had my Travelers fellow mobile ambassador Mike T's encouraging words in my head from back in June saying "You can handle it, Morty!"  

 Some initial impressions about the FM Championship on arrival for the ProAm:                                  They were not ready to host a top-tier professional golf tournament, the build-out of the infrastructure wasn't complete, the concession stands weren't stocked, most of the "Fan Zone" attractions had yet to be set-up, and speaking of fans, there weren't any!  No spectators for the ProAm, invited family members and their guests only, Huh!?  In hindsight, this wasn't entirely surprising as the lead-up to the FM had been lightly publicized, particularly to potential volunteers in the local area.  As a result, there were significant vacancies in various committees, most notably hole marshals, and even walking scorers.  During the week prior to the FM start we were receiving emails encouraging us to recruit our friends to come and help out. There was a noticeable limited number of marshals at nearly every tee and green.  

I won't bore you with the details of getting everything I needed to step out on the course and start my job, but I'll just say the process was not real smooth, leaving me wondering if this was going to be a sink-or-swim moment.  Finally with 20 minutes to teetime, I had my scoring device and radio in hand and thankfully had a very short walk over to #10 tee where I would be meeting Allisen Corpuz and the 4 amateurs in our group. Thankfully they would be playing a scramble, requiring me to keep track of a single team score, rather than 5 running scores on my device.  This proved to be scoring on training wheels as entering each stroke was pretty slow during this six-hour ProAm.  The pros play only nine holes, switching off at the turn but the ams continue for a full 18.  Both Allisen Corpuz and Annie Park were USC grads, my alma mater, which gave me a reason to initiate some conversation with each of them at the start of their respective 9's.  They were both very pleasant, Annie Park being the more chatty of the two, and I ended up talking to her 4-5 times throughout the round as we walked the fairways and elevated wooden cart paths, and while being carted to the more distant holes.  She asked where I was from, and even talked about some mutual experiences we each had at USC, ie., seeing football at the Coliseum.  I told her I'd attended graduate school for Occupational Therapy and she immediately mentioned having some OT students in her Communications classes.  

We were later joined by Jeff, who introduced himself as Annie Park's agent and accompanied us for most of her 9 hole round.  He was a terrific guy, had a conversation with every one of us in our group, even asking me details about my background and stating that the walking scoring volunteers played a vital part in LPGA events.  He had just returned from the AIG at St. Andrews, stayed at the Dunvegan, played the Old Course, so we compared our mutual experiences and agreed it was golf heaven.  

The four Ams were a mixture of guys of varying golf ability, but the atmosphere was pretty relaxed and non-competitive; we knew that the winning team was something like -17, (our group was -7).  The interaction with them was great as well, questions to me about where I was from, my volunteering background, where I play golf at Captains on Cape Cod.   It was a strange ProAm however in that the lack of spectators meant no noise from the ropes, no requests for autographs or photos, no verbal encouragement, shout-outs, not even any good-natured heckling of the Ams.  FM needs to correct this for next year's event.  Nonetheless it was just terrific to be right there with the players, having to closely focus on each shot to correctly record it in the scoring device, which made watching the golf much more meaningful. I never had a glitch or a problem with the entire process, but I also realized that tomorrow's actual competion with three players would be more challenging and serious.  

 The Travelers Championship   June 23. 2024   Sunday

Thankgoodness I awoke in time to check my email at 5:45am, received notification from Greg announcing our 7am meeting had been moved to 6:30.  The PGA TOUR had decided on a reconfiguration of the tee times, as well as grouping players in threesomes in order to finish by 3pm, hopefully before any T-storms erupted. I had to hustle a bit to pack up and depart the Hotel Bednarek, luckily zero traffic at that hour so made it to TPC River Highlands with 10 minutes to spare.  Got assigned to the third to last group, JT, Lowry, and Finau.  Wished I'd gotten Scheffler, Bhatia, and Kim, in part to compensate for our abbreviated round yesterday.  I'd also marshaled JT and Lowry earlier in the week and was a bit surprised at the repeat.   Nice to only wait until 10:53.  Got breakfast and sat in the volunteer villa to watch the weather and get some details about yesterday's lightning strike, which had occurred just off the 5th tee, injuring 3.  I was initially overjoyed that the overcast sky was keeping it at 80 degrees, but that ended by tee time when we were at 90.  Once again my neck wrap loaded with ice at every other tee box saved me.  My Mobile Ambassador crew of Nick and Paul were both experienced guys so needed no coaching, making for a smooth day.  My attention was focused a bit on our "Honorary Observers", two pleasant gents originally from Eastern Europe.  In my experience, Honorary's initially follow the few directives: remaining within arms length of the rope and at a discrete distance from the players, but then tend to migrate closer to the action, even walking across greens and fairways.  These two however were terrific, very knowledgeable about golf and today's leaderboard, and always checked in with me if they had a question about where they should be positioned.   

My nephew Adam met me at the 4th tee, always a bit of a pleasant surprise when you hear your name being called by someone in the gallery.  Chatted ever so briefly, but I had to keep moving along with the players, which is always difficult for my friends to keep up while they move through a congested gallery.  I texted him later to see how the rest of his day went at TTC.  He'd followed Scottie's group mostly and had a great time until the weather got to be too much.

 I rarely saw my small crew of two throughout this round, which I view as a good sign; they're experienced and know where to go to be the most effective.  An unobtrusive marshal is the best kind. They'd briefly touch base with me so we could keep organized on each hole for optimal positioning.  Paul was especially adept, as he had been lead on several occasions.  

We were later joined at the turn by two last minute additional Honorary's, who I asked if they'd received any instruction on the inside the ropes protocol.  Shockingly, No!  I half jokingly instructed them to just "Just follow these other Honorary's, they're great, fully trained", to which one of the original guys replied, "Hey, I'm just following you"!  At times I directed them to the best viewing spots, and they were very appreciative. The back nine was a pleasure to have them along.

(Photos by Adam Mitchell)

At the 11th tee, I raided the semi-hidden volunteer cooler and snack bin, nearly chugging a water and grabbing another to go, also retrieving 2 Clif bars which got me through the back 9. I had an incident at the 12th tee where I quickly shut the crosswalk rope to avoid the lengthy wait for players as the gallery leisurely traversed the long cart path. The hole captain took exception to my actions, stating he doesn't close the gate until the final player's putt drops.  The problem was the 100' walk for the players to the tee took far less time than the longer 500' walk for the gallery to get to the other side, resulting in an unnecessary wait.  Anyway, he wasn't happy that I'd stepped to close the gate, Oh well!  Not trying to throw my weight around as a Mobile Ambassador, just trying to streamline pace of play for the players.  

I again decided to implement the 15 --> 17 route, skipping 16, which was fine except we missed Finau's tee shot into the lake which took him out of the lead and dashed his hopes for a win at TTC.  I guess it was  another one of those moments when I'd decided to move ahead of my assigned player group, only to miss a game-changing moment for them in the tournament, (Mickelson at the 13th green at Shinnecock in 2018 comes to mind).  I gradually worked my way over to the 17th fairway, watching the Aberg/Hoge/Swenson and Cantlay/Yound/Pavon groups go by.  Our group was next on the tee, up the hill 300 yards away, whereupon JT struck a drive that narrowly missed the hole marshal sitting alongside the 17th fairway.  He was okay, and received some kind words from JT when he arrived on scene.  Along with Paul and the 2 hole marshals present, we moved the crowd back a bit so JT could hit his 2nd shot to the green. He voiced his appreciation for our efforts.  

At the 18th tee, I had to reposition my Honoraries at this narrow chute so they wouldn't get killed by a slightly errant tee shot, they were most appreciative about my concern.  We walked our group to the 18th green to finish up, the excitement palpable for an epic finish.  Nick and Paul exited but I remained at the traditional clubhouse side of the grand amphitheater, along with some of my fellow Mobiles.  We hadn't received the usual directive to remain at 18 for added marshaling support, nor had a rope been issued to potentially string across the fairway behind the final group for gallery control.  A playoff was becoming increasingly likely, which would have been a nightmare if fans had to be cleared from the 18th fairway.

 

Scottie Scheffler, Tom Kim, & Akshay Bhatia approached 18 to a tidal wave of cheers, nice to see each one receiving an ovation.  It was quite the electric situation, Scottie in the lead by one stroke.

 Then out of the crowd emerged five protestors carrying smoke bombs and bags of red and white powder, which they dumped on the green in a mis-guided effort to bring the proceedings to a halt.  They were immediately subdued and handcuffed by the police who had been surrounding the green, and unceremoniously marched off the premises.  I won't further publicize their message which was emblazoned on their shirts.  Suffice to say that it's a huge stretch to draw a connection between their "cause" and a PGA TOUR event.  The players were rightfully stunned by this interruption of play but once things settled down, it was terrific to see the focus that both Scottie and Tom brought to their climactic putts, Kim especially, able to pull off a birdie and head to a playoff. They went off to the scoring area, then were taken via carts back to the tee on 18.  While all this was happening, the green was cleaned of this powder-like substance via blowers and towels, but since enough remained near the hole, the decision was made by the PGA to cut a new one, in record time.   I received texts from a few friends watching on TV, asking "What the heck was that.  Protestors on 18, that's crazy?!"  Evidently the video feed had been cut soon after the protestors entered the picture.  I gave as detailed description as I could my incredulous buddies. 

The outcome of the playoff was more or less decided when Kim hit into the greenside bunker.  Kind of a toss-up for me as I would have been happy with either player coming out on top.

Sunday Steps  15,481    Miles  5.91    Hours on site  11.0  

 

Total stats for 2024 Travelers Championship

Steps  84,243

Miles  31.76

Hours on site  50.5

Players 8

Crew members  13

  

         

 The Travelers Championship   June 22, 2024   Saturday

Again weather played a major part in today's proceedings, resulting unfortunately in an abbreviated experience walking inside the ropes with the top player in the world.  I was assigned to Scottie Scheffler and Akshay Bhatia at our 7am meeting, my crew consisting of 2 experienced Mobiles, Julia and Dan, who would need no training other than some strategizing for the best coverage hole by hole, recognizing where we were needed and not duplicating the roles of the hole marshals already in position.  

I was able to successfully transfer some guest passes to my nephew Adam and his friend Justin for Sunday.  Still finding the digital ticketing process complicated, but big thanks to Jeff for his help.  An even bigger thanks to him for swapping my radio earpiece to something more comfortable.  Jeff, you are a master technical wizard!  

Scottie and Akshay didn't tee off until 1:50pm, the second to last group for the day, both having a great championship so far.  The round started out with what seemed to be an abnormally high amount of heckling directed toward Scottie, most of it indecipherable, some references to his recent arrest could be heard.  Makes you wonder why someone would be impelled to bellow such nonsense at a professional sporting event, when everyone else in the gallery can hear and see who is being such a nitwit.  I spoke with the police officer accompanying our group; he seemed unfazed, stating the inebriated knuckleheads generally aren't able to keep up the walking pace with the players, especially in the heat, and end up just parked near a watering hole.  

I found myself marveling at Bhatia's play, especially given his 130 pound physique, hitting 300 yard drives in his attempt to keep up with Scottie.  'Shay is an excellent guy to be close to inside the ropes as well.  Scottie's game is outstanding as everyone knows, but to have the privilege of witnessing it, and playing a small part in facilitating the optimal playing environment is beyond words.  We only got to spend 8 holes with them, however, as the hazardous weather horn blew at 3:30.  Thankfully, carts were right behind #8 green, so the players, caddies, and cops were quickly transported back to the clubhouse.  We had a blessedly short walk to the volunteer villa, which actually felt too cold, so I sat outside and was joined by my crew from yesterday, the 3 C's!  They seemed to be still buzzing from our experience.  We were all checking our weather apps, the yellow-orange storm stretched clear across the map looking pretty intense.  I told them all we're about to get slammed, so I headed for my car, sprinting the last hundred yards as it intensified.  Spent the next 2 hours waiting it out through heavy rain, wind, lightning, thunder, and another tornado warning, monitoring my radio for notification of resumption of play. I finally texted Greg when play resumed as 6:40 to see if my services were still needed, but there were relatively few spectators remaining, so no need for gallery marshaling.

 

Today's total:

14,349 steps

5.3 miles

10.5 hours at TCC

 

   

 The Travelers Championship    June 21, 2024  Friday

At our 6am Mobiles meeting, (tee times having been moved up by the PGA Tour due to impending weather), I chatted with Adam, who completed his first assignment as a lead yesterday.  He commented on how much radio chatter there was in his ear throughout the round, who knew?  He enjoyed the experience, and is certainly qualified to be lead in the future.  I also spoke with Jim, who was still semi-exhausted from yesterdays heat, as was I. My assignment as lead today was for the 12:50 group, Wyndham Clark and Jordan Spieth. Greg apologized for giving me such a late tee time, plus a crew of 3 rookie Mobiles, but they turned out to be a terrific group.  Corey and his wife Cat, along with Corey's brother Craig made up a family affair of thirty-somethings who were quick studies and great personalities.  Craig was unmerciful in teasing his sister-in-law Cat throughout the round, which was hysterical.  

(How do I use up the next 6 hours until out teetime? Had breakfast, sat in my car, sat at 1st tee borrowing a marshals chair and chatting them up, walked a few holes with the Tom Kim group but wasn't really marshaling since I sat at a few shady spots, trying to conserve my energy, 84 degrees at 9am. Went back to my car and moved into a shady spot but it was still too hot to take a nap, grabbed lunch and sat at the Barbados pavilion chatting with the staff and a standard bearer seated nearby). 

Finally, at 12:30 I met up with my crew, the Three-C's as they called themselves, at the first tee and briefed them on details of marshaling on the fly, as differentiated from hole marshaling, which they had all previously done, as well as shot-link. They were full of energy and enthusiasm and were psyched!  With 10 minutes to go, I received word via head-set that we would be joined by the Governor of Connecticut, Ned Lamont, along with a security detail of unspecified number.  Radio speculation instantly began as to how many holes the Gov would last walking in this heat, 5 being the highest prediction.  Ultimately he and his party vanished after three holes.  His presence didn't affect our job at all as his group were pretty  low key, walking at a discrete distance inside the rope.  I had an interesting experience early in the round, near the 2nd hole green, as a ball came over the hill, and rolled up the cart path near my feet.  I actually recognized it as belonging to JT, a Callaway with 4 marked dots.  Fans instantly began to crowd around, but were great in allowing JT and his caddie to approach and direct us all as to their preference for relief from the path and taking a drop.  I had to remain here throughout these proceedings while my crew continued on with Clark and Spieth on #3.  Once I caught up to them on 4, I knew they were a competent bunch as they'd kept going, and didn't need constant directions from me.  

Wyndham Clark was having a fantastic round, -6 for the day, with the weather beginning to turn thankfully with a light rain and clouds to dissipate some of the heat.  Even so, we still baked on the back 9, a portion of the course, holes 12-13-14 which I dubbed the Sahara Desert due to the heat.  By the 15th hole, I was getting weather updates from Maureen, the PGA Tour's threat of a lightning cell moving in our direction, condition "yellow" now upped to "red".  The horn blew at 4:11 and we were directed to escort our players to the awaiting evacuation vans, of which there were none in this area.  Clark and Spieth were thankfully picked up by carts, so our job was done while we went into weather delay mode.  We stood under the 17th grandstand archway, us and about 50 fans, who'd been advised to evacuate the stands above, being predominantly metal structures.  It was an opportunity to talk at length with these three very interesting people, as well as share stories about our previous PGA experiences.  We eventually made our way back to the volunteer village and waited it out, the assumption being we would eventually head back out.  It was a wild time with the rain, thunder, and lightning pounding this canvas sided temporary structure.  A tornado threat caused us to begin cracking jokes about getting carried away in the storm.  The PGA Tour provided updates every half hour, at 5, 5:30, 6, but I questioned if there would even be any spectators left out there to marshal.  I finally got Greg to release use from duty at 6:30, and promptly thanked Corey, Cat, and Craig for their services above and beyond the normal call of duty.  Despite the weather we'd had, they said their experience was tremendous!

Total for day:

20,308 steps

7.37 miles

12.5 hours on site      

 The Travelers Championship   June 20, 2024  Thursday

I was assigned crew lead for the 10:50am tee time for Justin Thomas and Shane Lowry, along with a veteran crew of 2, Jim and Steve.  Would be a smooth operation today as veteran Mobiles know what to do.  I'll credit Jim right here in having an intuitive knack for working as a forward marshal, being on the correct side of the first 3 fairways in order to organize the crowd for shots hit beyond the ropes.

 

Before getting started though, I killed time by sitting at the 9th hole with my breakfast, watching the groundskeeping staff cut the hole location for the day, under close supervision of a PGA TOUR member, followed by marking out tomorrow's hole location, using pretty impressive equipment including what looked like a GPS device. 

Morning temps in the 80's climbed to the mid-90's halfway through our round.  JT and Shane were suffering along with the rest of us in the heat.  A fan tried to be helpful by bellowing to the Irishman, "Buy this man a pint!", which drew some laughs from the gallery.  I was putting ice chips into a neck wrap every 3 holes, which helped immensely.  Drinking water just as frequently, wherever I could find it, even from a cooler on a vacant cart marked "Security".   Hey, I had to keep going somehow!  Shane and JT both played well under these brutal conditions, although JT couldn't buy a one-putt all day.  How they did it wearing long pants is sort of remarkable.  Our group was last in a marquee line-up with the Bradley, Scheffler, and Spieth groups immediately ahead, resulting in the largest accumulated gallery trailing along, 200+ easily.  Not bad for a Thursday in less than ideal spectating conditions.  I got separated from Steve and Jim from about hole 7 to 12, we were all on auto-pilot taking care of business in spread formation.  We finally caught up to each other at hole 13 where JT needed a ruling off a sprinkler head, causing a 15 minute delay.  This was a real treat for the fans in the gallery as it was close to the rope, whereby everyone could hear the interplay between the official, JT, and his caddy, something that's rarely shown on TV in its entirety.  Great stuff.  

Made the executive decision coming up to the 15-16-17th hole complex to shoot right over from 15 to 17 green, rather than attempting to cover the small 16th over water, logistically challenging to get to from the 15th green.  In so doing, we would be relying on the hole marshals positioned at 16, as well as at the 17th tee.  Additionally, it meant we would skip the mountainous climb behind 17, to then come back down along the fairway, an incredibly long, hot walk.  As it happened, Wyndham Clark hit his drive on 17 into the rough, with his second shot landing just outside the rope.  I assisted a hole marshal already there with managing the rope, allowing for Wyndham to make a shot to the green.  She thanked me for my assistance, saying this had never happened before.  All part of our Mobile skill set!    

I finished at 18 green with Jim, both of us on fumes from the heat.  I sat at the fan zone concession area and tried to recharge with a southwest burger, large chocolate chip cookie, and a Tree House iced coffee.  On the uphill walk back to the volunteer villa, I'd run out of ice for my neck wrap and became overheated, having to recline on one of the couches in the A/C for 20 minutes to regain my senses.  This was probably the closest I've ever come to heat prostration.  

Today's total:

17,902 steps

6.87 miles

8.5 hours

 The Travelers Championship    June 19, 2024   Wednesday

Whatever you heard about the 2024 edition of The Travelers Championship, and by that I mean it was a matter of many extremes, is true.  The weather was hellaciously hot.  The thunder storms (2) were biblically brutal and sustained.  Multiple lightning strikes at TPC River Highlands.  The delays in resumption of play were tedious.  The knucklehead protest really did happen and really did NOT destroy what was otherwise a sensational Championship.  And the New England fan base should be exceptionally proud of this tournament, the single largest annual sporting event in the state of Connecticut, which despite its magnitude is able to convey a sense of welcoming family spirit that entices golf's best to attend, immediately after the ballbuster antithesis of the US Open.  

(I'll attempt to apply an edited frame of mind to this installment of the The Travelers Championship, or TTC if you will).

Our 6am Mobile was preceded by some reconnecting with folks, including Big Jim, ex-Marine, who is full of interesting stories, including a recounting of discovering a collection of baseball momentos among his late father's belongings from the NY Polo grounds, plus a 21 year career as a usher at Fenway Park.  Greg Hammond, our Mobiles Chair, assigned me as crew leader for the first ProAm group, Scottie Scheffler, teeing off at 7am, in about 20 minutes!  I felt honored in Greg's confidence in my ability to get right into it with the number 1 player in the OWGR.  (This spot in the ProAm traditionally is reserved for the biggest names, TW especially, back in the day).  Three out of four Mobiles on my crew were experienced, so I only had to focus on our newbie, Cheolun Kim, who I promptly nicknamed "Tom".  He had a somewhat inscrutable reception to this but we went with it.  Instructing him in the nuances of marshaling on the fly were a combination of verbal and hand gestures in this ESL situation, but he was a quick study and did quite well.  Also joining the crew was Cece who I'd had the pleasure of working with at last year's TTC, a delightful personality who is enthusiastic and eager to learn the role of an MA in all its permutations.  Mike, as well, great guy, tons of experience both at the FedEx Cup events in Norton, as well as many events in Florida, both PGA & LPGA, were he's primarily volunteered as a walking scorer.  I told him of my acceptance to the upcoming FM Global LPGA event in August as a scorer, where he will be as well, so he instantly pledged to be my mentor in that new role for me.  Rounding out the crew was Adam, Mobile at both TTC and Norton, but more incredibly, is on a personal quest to run a marathon in all 50-states, and has only four more to go!  This crew made our front 9 holes with Scottie and 3 Ams quite smooth, although we had at least one ball go outside the ropes on every hole, but the morning crowd was pretty light.  Spectators will only hustle to be near a ball of a Pro when its gone astray, but Scottie always landed in the fairway. 

This group was done by 9am, so we had an hour lunch break and then met back at the 10th tee for the Mathieu Pavon group, plus 3 different Ams.  In hindsight, the heat index for our 10:07 am teetime was only 90 degrees, relatively cool compared to what lay ahead!  Trying to stay hydrated was complicated again this year by a ruling from the PGA Tour that teebox coolers supplied with water and ice were for players only.  Additional coolers were placed at about 5 other locations, supplemented by roving carts carrying vitals for volunteers, but it was too spotty, in my opinion.  In normal weather, perfectly adequate, not this week unfortunately. 

Mathieu Pavon proved to be a great golfer to watch, attempting to make a favorable impression with everyone during the ProAm, interacting with spectators in a personable manner.  My crew were just excellent, working both sides of fairways and greens whenever possible, so that we always had someone right there to help locate an off target ball.  "Tim" went above and beyond when he retrieved a lost putter cover and ended up going 2 full holes ahead to track down the owner.  This can only further our image with our paying amateur players and the PGA TOUR.   I think everyone on my crew enjoyed themselves, afterwards they thanked me for the extra training, even though they were all experienced to one degree or another.  

In other circumstances I would have taken a rest break, then gone out for another 9 holes or so, as I did last year with the celebrity group including Bill Murray.  This time though the heat index had reached 98 degrees, plus the celebrity groups weren't must-see in my opinion, (Carson Daly, Doug Flutie, and Chris Berman).  I was back to my sister Shirley's by 2:30 for a shower and a cold one, an unusually early finish.

 Days total:

  16,223 steps 

  6.31 miles

  8 hrs