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