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