ProAm
Today’s the day I get to see if I can handle the walking scorer device in actual use during play. Thankfully, the program requires only recording information for the pro. The team amateur score is recorded separately, a simple number on a traditional scorecard.
Upon arrival at the walking scorer tent, I was met by Steve, who was assigned to walk with me throughout my round to assist as needed and answer questions if and when they arose. Steve’s been doing this for 26 years and is one of the half dozen honchos at Walking Scoring Committee who keep everything organized, but in the friendliest manner possible. That is a key factor to reiterate because I was entering what I always have considered a closed shop committee and I was hoping it wasn’t going to have much of an intimidating atmosphere since I was a rookie. It was overwhelmingly positive every step of the way, and reinforced my ultimate decision to attempt to learn this skill of scoring at the highest possible level.
Prior to heading out for my ProAm assignment, I got to have a nice sitdown chat with Buddy Buder who was holding court at the Walking Scoring HQ tent. He reminisced with me about our mutual friend Jim Horvath, but also demonstrated a genuine interest in my background, including how long I had been involved at professional golf events. It seemed like everyone I ran into this week knew Buddy in some capacity or other, generally mentioning that he was always the walking scorer for the final group on the leaderboard on Sunday.
I was assigned to Sam Stevens for the front 9 of the ProAm, to be followed by Brendt Snedeker for the back nine. Sam was very personable, introducing himself at the first tee, asked where I was from and chatting periodically as the round unfolded. Alongside me was our sign bearer, Mike, who was a great asset to me in keeping track of Sam’s score, kind of in a check and balance way. We had an interesting collection of amateurs in this group a 2, a 6, and 10 handicap, but found out that the 10 probably should have been recorded as 28 as the round unfolded. He was having a blast playing so poorly, laughing off every flubbed shot, so nobody got exasperated when he would be putting for a quadruple bogey. It later got to the point where Brandt was kidding him about his game and it got pretty silly. Example, on the 16th tee, a par three with a forced carry over water, our “10” wiffed his ball and sent his divot flying into the water, a good 20 yards! It was hilariously bad.
I was gaining confidence throughout the round, recording each and every shot accurately on the device. It got to the point where Steve didn’t need to check me out at all on the back nine. To elaborate, each shot necessitates selecting on the device the location from where it is originating (Tee, fairway, rough, green, etc.), then holding the shot button until the moment the player impacts the ball with the club head, and releasing it at that exact moment. This then triggers the Shotlink tracking cameras located throughout the golf course which generate the ball flight depicted on TV screens through a complex hook up. In fact, it’s directly connected to the TV broadcast in that my radio was communicating with a producer rather than a scoring control official. You get used to it! I was very thankful that this first go round did not involve having to register any kind of penalty stroke or a shot into a water hazard or out of bounds. That was yet to come no doubt.
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