I awoke before my 5 AM alarm and was out the door by 5:15, arriving at TPC River Highlands by 5:40 AM. The weather was questionable in terms of rain & fog, but the forecast was for improvement later on. Unfortunately, long range forecasting for the week seems to predict Biblical heat and humidity, conditions identical to last year‘s Championship.
It was nice to have everything run extremely smoothly this morning for the 6 AM Mobile Ambassadors meeting. I was assigned as crew leader for Justin Thomas in the morning and Rory McIlroy in the afternoon. Greg Hammond our committee Chair had decided to make fewer MA crews with more Marshals in each, so I had five in my crew, all of whom had worked as mobiles before with the one exception. They turned out to be a great crew, receptive to my periodic directions to place themselves to the right or the left of fairways depending on each circumstance. It was a pleasure working with JT‘s ProAm group of amateurs, all of whom rarely hit a ball outside of the ropes. At that morning hour, we had a rather small gallery of spectators, generally less than 100 through holes 10 to 18. We finished up at around 9:30 and stood by JT as he signed autographs for close to a hundred kids standing on the steep incline leading up from the 18th green. It was great to be close to one of the favorites on the PGA Tour.
We had a three hour break before having to go out with Rory‘s group at 12:50. During that time an interesting circumstance happened to where several of us went to a new concession stand, which seemed to be offering a substantially upgraded menu for volunteers, (Mexican food, lobster rolls, barbecue). Unfortunately it turned out that none of these items qualified for the meal voucher system available to us volunteers; we were all sorely disappointed. One of my crew was kidding me later about the food staffer having the lobster roll all prepared for me and ready to hand over, but then checked with her supervisor and found out that we were not eligible for that upgraded menu so she had to pull it back, with apologies. So I settled for getting a veggie wrap lunch at the generic concession stand. I then went to my car for a well earned sit down, including about an hours nap which was great to recharge. Rory‘s afternoon group was the last of the day and attracted a gallery of several hundred people. The amateurs playing with him were not at the same skill level as our morning guys and consequently, were spraying balls beyond the ropes at almost every hole. My crew members got really good at going forward to position themselves to then find balls beyond the ropes and help with controlling the gallery so that players could return back into play. I think the amateurs really get a kick out of having a PGA Tour-like experience with the gallery pressing in while they confer with their caddies and try to execute a decent shot. It has got to elevate the experience for them having marshals ask for quiet and "Hold Please", everyone watching closely, even Rory!
At the eighth hole, the mobile pizza grill was fired up and we all had a terrific opportunity to join Rory and his group for a couple slices. He was very magnanimous in chatting with everybody, posing for selfies and signing autographs for the pizza staff. Speaking of autographs, Rory had deferred signing anything throughout the round, stating he would sign at the end meaning at the ninth green. When we got finished at that point it turns out there were well over 100 kids waiting for autographs yelling out “Rory” and You promised you would sig!” He worked his way through the majority of the crowd along the ropes but you could tell he eventually became completely fried by the heat and the entire process and had to give it up with a few left wanting, but I can’t blame him for having signed as many as he did.
We took a terrific crew selfie with everyone seemingly reluctant to call it a day. They all really bonded during this Pro-Am round.
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