After a few years wandering around (I did not stop golf and won't...ever !), I am now back in the world of golf blogs to continue the journey on another continent as I recently moved to NY bringing my golf bag with me.
I was only in NYC for one week when I volunteered as Marshal at the Barclays play-off golf tournament including the top 125 players on the PGA Tour...wow...I could never imagine this happening...my dream comes true !
...first registering from outside of the US as I was still a resident of Europe at the time of the request. I had no address or telephone number on the US soil at that time and this could have made the registration difficult... However, I grabbed my phone and called the Volunteer's Director who directly announced me that I was becoming the longest traveling Marshal with a new record of 3,600 miles (5,800 km) traveled...ha, ha! This is a really great start in the world of US golf.
You must be a little nuts to travel from Manhattan to the Plainfield Golf Club in New-Jersey by public transportation as it took me 2 hours to hit the Barclays's venue...I had the pleasure to take the subway, the train and a shuttle, so long !
All I can say is that the commute worth it! I truly felt like a kid in a huge open-air toys store, every golf brands were present, merchandise tents perfectly settled, big leader board screens reflected the score and the pictures of the players, everything was so perfectly organized, it was impressive.
I am back at home on Wednesday night after this long day of competition. To summarize, the best moment came after I was standing in the middle of (...nowhere) the hole number 12 (see the location indicated by a yellow star on the map), a very long hole, for one hour managing the crossing of the fairway by the spectators...it was honestly a pretty sleepy place to stay...
However, my time came afterward when the captain asked me to "go on the tee box".
Wow...great PGA tee box, this is even better than my first impression as I entered the door of this event. A lot of spectators were packed next to the tee box to watch the big bombs launched by the best players on Tour.
The captain explained to me the duties: wait for the first group to clear the fairway before asking the following to tee off...indicating to the other marshals on the sides of the fairway whether the ball was going straight, left or right...I am feeling a bit nervous now as I can not see any ball landing way forward (these guys are really long hitters...) as I forgot my eye- glasses at home! ;-)
...five minutes after the short explanation came Ernie Els, two times major champion, on the tee...he is standing only a few yards from me ready to hit his driver... 5 minutes later came Adams Scott and Jason Day...I must be dreaming, I have been here for only one hour and I am now managing the traffic jam on the tee box...
I am very nervous now as I have to guess where the ball is landing for several shots...ha, ha !
Today was the pro-am and one of my favourite player, G-MAC, US Open winner, also signed my cap. WHAT A FIRST DAY!
I am back at home on Wednesday night after this long day of competition. To summarize, the best moment came after I was standing in the middle of (...nowhere) the hole number 12 (see the location indicated by a yellow star on the map), a very long hole, for one hour managing the crossing of the fairway by the spectators...it was honestly a pretty sleepy place to stay...
However, my time came afterward when the captain asked me to "go on the tee box".
Wow...great PGA tee box, this is even better than my first impression as I entered the door of this event. A lot of spectators were packed next to the tee box to watch the big bombs launched by the best players on Tour.
The captain explained to me the duties: wait for the first group to clear the fairway before asking the following to tee off...indicating to the other marshals on the sides of the fairway whether the ball was going straight, left or right...I am feeling a bit nervous now as I can not see any ball landing way forward (these guys are really long hitters...) as I forgot my eye- glasses at home! ;-)
...five minutes after the short explanation came Ernie Els, two times major champion, on the tee...he is standing only a few yards from me ready to hit his driver... 5 minutes later came Adams Scott and Jason Day...I must be dreaming, I have been here for only one hour and I am now managing the traffic jam on the tee box...
I am very nervous now as I have to guess where the ball is landing for several shots...ha, ha !
Today was the pro-am and one of my favourite player, G-MAC, US Open winner, also signed my cap. WHAT A FIRST DAY!
One another magical moment came while I was giving the go for the Scott-Day-Na pairing (great choice!) as I saw a few minutes later a ball rolling toward me touching my foot...well...nobody saw that...except the captain as a golf ball was stuck next to my feet..."what's up" he asked...heuhhh...I explained to him that one of the caddie slid and dropped a golf ball out of the golf bag... "it's yours" said the captain. It was Kevin Na's ball, I have been high for two days now and won't forget these great moments.
(Copyright: Plainfield Country Club website)
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