Today would become one of those volunteer days that goes down in the books as amazingly, good and amazingly bad. First, the good:
I was assigned to Sahith Theegala and Taylor Pendrith for a 10 AM teatime with Ken being our sign bearer. He is a seasoned veteran at this having done so for the past 10 tournaments and we worked well in a check and balance system throughout 18 holes our round with the gala and Penrith went great, what I thought of as a “clean round “until the 13th hole when both players ended up hitting into the water and needing to take penalties. The gala had me Radio for a rules official to determine the exact point for a legal drop. Penrith had trouble with his drop at the greenside water hazard and had to eventually place it by hand for times before stayed in place rather than rolling back into the hazard. Registering all of these penalties correctly in the scoring device gave me a real sense of accomplishment. The gala played quite well, -5 on the day, -4 for the tournament Penrith not as well, -4 for the tournament afterwards at the scoring tent I was greeted by multiple scores, asking me how it had gone and would I be coming back next year? I replied certainly, which resulted in positive reactions from everyone there.
The bad part:
A two hour well-deserved rest break I psyched myself up to go back into battle to Marshall or Scotty and Victor Hopland in the last group on the back nine. I timed my arrival to meet Greg just as this pairing was exiting the eighth green and Greg‘s face lit up as if the cavalry had just arrived. The shoot leading from 8 to 9 was packed with screaming fans of two different affiliations, half or Norwegian screaming encouragement to Hoffland and have for shouting USA USA at the top of their lungs as both golfers made their way to 9 tee. It was a tremendous marshaling experience, working with Greg again to attempt to manage a gallery even larger than Friday. Working nine, 10, 11, and 12 we’re just barely within the realm of controlled insanity with this gallery. On the 13th hole, a light rain began to fall, initially feeling like it might be short-lived, then gradually intensify to basically a steady downpour none of us were prepared for this situation, and we rapidly became drenched to the skin. We proceeded on in this miserable fashion For another two holes until the PGA sounded the horn for suspension of play Greg and I and assorted PGA officials escorted Scotty and Victor to the nearby player evacuation vans at the 14th Green. It was about 5 PM and taking stock of the situation. I couldn’t imagine that play would resume anytime soon in multiple prior circumstances, it was my Experience that the majority of the spectators would evacuate and nearby create a situation where there were no remaining they were minimal gallery that was in minimal gallery remaining to be martialed. Consequently, I made the semi miserable walk back in the direction of the clubhouse where I met up with several fellow scorers standing under the protective overhang. I felt badly that they would have to be heading back out if and when play resumed, they said they were envious that I could walk off now that the crowds would be basically nonexistent. I said a second goodbye and see you next year. Finally arriving at my car I was able to semi dry off using some golf towels and dawning some golf dry clothing I ended up staying put as it took over an hour for the bumper-to-bumper traffic to finally finally let up enough to attempt to head home. I later learned that play had resumed after a 90 minute delay, resulting in a Thai score on 18 between Sheffler and Hoveland. Yeah, -21. It was a bit perplexing that they didn’t proceed to replaying the 18th hole in a sudden death instead rescheduling it for first thing tomorrow morning I later found out that this was to avoid a programming conflict with the Yankees Red Sox game also scheduled on NBC.
22,020 steps
On course 8am—7:30pm
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