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.
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
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