I'm a volunteer for this year's event and just received this in the event's newsletter:
There was also this accompanying article.
There was also this accompanying article.
Terry Francona Named Honorary Chair for this Year's U.S. Senior Open in Newport June 26-30
- Thread starter SoxJox
- Start date
This will be my third volunteer championship event at Newport CC. I was a walking scorer for the 1995 Amateur won by Tiger Woods; the 2006 U.S. Women's Open won by Annika Sorenstam in an 18-hole playoff vs. Pat Hurst; and now this year's Senior. I saw some great golf in the Amateur but didn't really get assigned to any pair that moved on to bigger and better things on the PGA tour. Still, just being inside the ropes and walking the course with the players is awesome. And, of course, they all give you either a signed ball, glove, or something.
The U.S. Women's was a completely different story. I was assigned to groups or final pairs that included Lorena Ochoa (then ranked #1 in the world), Michelle Wie, Natalie Gulbis, Julie Inkster, Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel. Probably the strangest assignment was a first round assignment with a group that had a Thai golfer named Virada Nirapathpongporn. She had a tough time stitching the name onto her bag. But she was a great pleasure to walk with.
Great story about Lorena. For Newport, they revised the normal front and back nines because the regular #18 doesn't set itself up for a great fan (or golfer) experience for a final hole. So, she's playing #6 (or real #15), a 410-ish yard par 4 for the women with a slight-right dogleg. As did all the other golfers, she took a line on her drive to carry two right-side bunkers to cut the corner of the dogleg. But her drive landed in the second bunker, about 170 yards out. During training for scorers, they gave advise on where we should stand relative to the golfer - i.e., never in a position to be seen peripherally on their backswing side, and certainly never up hole from them. They wanted us either directly in front of or behind the golfer. As they phrased it: you want to be looking at either t*ts or a*s. So I'm standing about 10 yards behind her while she and her caddie are making a tortuous and lengthy decision on what club to use. Surprisingly, she settles on a fairway metal. I'm thinking, no way. She's about 3-4 feet from the front edge of the bunker and sitting on a fairly challenging up-slope. I'm, saying to myself, she's not going to be able to clear that lip. But proceed she does and, sure enough, the ball catches the upper lip and goes nearly vertical and slightly to her right, landing about 20 yards away in some pretty high grass. So now she's sitting 2, still about 150 yards away from the pin. The pin is tucked on the extreme left side of the hole and, from the angle of her approach, she has to clear one bunker just short of the hole, and stay right to avoid a greenside bunker on the left. I lean over to the USGA official walking with us and whisper, "This has at least bogie written all over it." He nods. Not sure what club she pulls out, but she takes a mighty whack and the pop just jumps out of the grass, takes a majestic arch toward the right-center of the green, lands, and the green's contour funnels the ball down to within 3 feet. Par. Wow.
The U.S. Women's was a completely different story. I was assigned to groups or final pairs that included Lorena Ochoa (then ranked #1 in the world), Michelle Wie, Natalie Gulbis, Julie Inkster, Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel. Probably the strangest assignment was a first round assignment with a group that had a Thai golfer named Virada Nirapathpongporn. She had a tough time stitching the name onto her bag. But she was a great pleasure to walk with.
Great story about Lorena. For Newport, they revised the normal front and back nines because the regular #18 doesn't set itself up for a great fan (or golfer) experience for a final hole. So, she's playing #6 (or real #15), a 410-ish yard par 4 for the women with a slight-right dogleg. As did all the other golfers, she took a line on her drive to carry two right-side bunkers to cut the corner of the dogleg. But her drive landed in the second bunker, about 170 yards out. During training for scorers, they gave advise on where we should stand relative to the golfer - i.e., never in a position to be seen peripherally on their backswing side, and certainly never up hole from them. They wanted us either directly in front of or behind the golfer. As they phrased it: you want to be looking at either t*ts or a*s. So I'm standing about 10 yards behind her while she and her caddie are making a tortuous and lengthy decision on what club to use. Surprisingly, she settles on a fairway metal. I'm thinking, no way. She's about 3-4 feet from the front edge of the bunker and sitting on a fairly challenging up-slope. I'm, saying to myself, she's not going to be able to clear that lip. But proceed she does and, sure enough, the ball catches the upper lip and goes nearly vertical and slightly to her right, landing about 20 yards away in some pretty high grass. So now she's sitting 2, still about 150 yards away from the pin. The pin is tucked on the extreme left side of the hole and, from the angle of her approach, she has to clear one bunker just short of the hole, and stay right to avoid a greenside bunker on the left. I lean over to the USGA official walking with us and whisper, "This has at least bogie written all over it." He nods. Not sure what club she pulls out, but she takes a mighty whack and the pop just jumps out of the grass, takes a majestic arch toward the right-center of the green, lands, and the green's contour funnels the ball down to within 3 feet. Par. Wow.
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@ColdSoxPack Here is the process:
- Complete volunteer signup
- Provide "committe" preferences. There are probably 12-15 different committees, ranging from walking scorers, to ShotLink operators (using handheld lasers to record and transmit data like driving range, putt distance, etc.), to marshalls (you know, the folks at the tee box waving the wands, those manning the fairways and placing the flags for wayward shots, and the greenside attendents telling everyone to shush), to player and caddie chauffeurs, hospitality attendants, practice range attendants, parking assistants, and a host of others.
- Order and pay for Volunteer clothing and apparel (they require you to be in "uniform", and give you options on shirts, headware, and rainware). Typical cost is about $100-$125 for 2 polo shirts, hat, and pullover.
- Receive committee assignment
- Provide workshift availability (I always say I can work every day, multiple shifts per day, and am available for pre-event preps and post-event wrapup (there are typically a ton of things that they give away after everyone is gone).
- Undergo training. Walking scorers receive instruction on how to operate the handheld wifi device that is used to record things like drive in fairway, green in regulation, number of putts, sand saves, and score, and then transmitting that to scoring Central (you keep score for all players in your group). Also, as mentioned, the subtleties of t*ts and a*s positioning relative to the player for women's events, and other administrivia, such as volunteers are allowed to help players look for lost balls (I have a very funny story here involving Rosie Jones, a capable but less than marquee player - a very foul person)
- Report for your workshift and get assigned a group. This is always fun because it's supposed to be random, but the walking scorer committee chairs always seem to fudge toward assigning the highest ranked and most popular players to obvious "lobbyists" and "favorites". I say this based on additional volunteer experience from other non-USGA, PGA, and other events (walking scorer at 10 or so Deutsche Bank Championships at TPC Boston, CVS Charity Golf Classic, US Women's Amateur Championship and others). I'm hoping my advanced age will motivate them to have mercy on an old veteran and assign me to the final group for the Senior Open (hahaha!!!)
- Walk the assigned round and record and transmit the scores on the handheld device. You are also responsible for verbally informing the standard bearers that also walk with the group. There are some interesting rules on "mechanics" here...like don't have the standard bearer change the numbers on the board immediately after an above-par score. The player who just recorded a bogie or worse, doesn't want to have the misdeed reenforced with the sound of the plastic numbers being removed and replaced on the standard. Sheesh.
- After the round (and this is something the public so rarely gets a glimpse into), you enter the scorer's trailer / room with players, caddies, and the rules official, to witness and confirm the VERBAL reading of the scores (i.e.,matching what you recorded) and card signing. The verbal solliiquey is always a pretty mundane process, but it is very well defined. You just don't hear an uninterrupted regurgitation of the scores hole-by-hole, like 4,4 4 3,5,4,3,4,4,4,5, etc. Instead, it is a 3-hole group, pause, 3-hole group, pause, etc. So you'll hear, 4,4,3...5,4,4...6,4,4, etc. And then, if requested (not alway...since it is not technically required), you sign as scorer witness.
- Depart the scoring area and anxiously await outside for any of the players to give you a signed ball, glove or other offering.
- If you don't have an additional assignment, your "official's pass" gives you leeway to do a whole bunch more things that are not allowed to the general public, like inside-rope access to the practice range, [somewhat restricted access to areas within the clubhouse], etc.
They also provide concession meal vouchers, discounts in the merchandise tents, and free shuttles from free satellite parking to the course.
GREAT FUN.
- Complete volunteer signup
- Provide "committe" preferences. There are probably 12-15 different committees, ranging from walking scorers, to ShotLink operators (using handheld lasers to record and transmit data like driving range, putt distance, etc.), to marshalls (you know, the folks at the tee box waving the wands, those manning the fairways and placing the flags for wayward shots, and the greenside attendents telling everyone to shush), to player and caddie chauffeurs, hospitality attendants, practice range attendants, parking assistants, and a host of others.
- Order and pay for Volunteer clothing and apparel (they require you to be in "uniform", and give you options on shirts, headware, and rainware). Typical cost is about $100-$125 for 2 polo shirts, hat, and pullover.
- Receive committee assignment
- Provide workshift availability (I always say I can work every day, multiple shifts per day, and am available for pre-event preps and post-event wrapup (there are typically a ton of things that they give away after everyone is gone).
- Undergo training. Walking scorers receive instruction on how to operate the handheld wifi device that is used to record things like drive in fairway, green in regulation, number of putts, sand saves, and score, and then transmitting that to scoring Central (you keep score for all players in your group). Also, as mentioned, the subtleties of t*ts and a*s positioning relative to the player for women's events, and other administrivia, such as volunteers are allowed to help players look for lost balls (I have a very funny story here involving Rosie Jones, a capable but less than marquee player - a very foul person)
- Report for your workshift and get assigned a group. This is always fun because it's supposed to be random, but the walking scorer committee chairs always seem to fudge toward assigning the highest ranked and most popular players to obvious "lobbyists" and "favorites". I say this based on additional volunteer experience from other non-USGA, PGA, and other events (walking scorer at 10 or so Deutsche Bank Championships at TPC Boston, CVS Charity Golf Classic, US Women's Amateur Championship and others). I'm hoping my advanced age will motivate them to have mercy on an old veteran and assign me to the final group for the Senior Open (hahaha!!!)
- Walk the assigned round and record and transmit the scores on the handheld device. You are also responsible for verbally informing the standard bearers that also walk with the group. There are some interesting rules on "mechanics" here...like don't have the standard bearer change the numbers on the board immediately after an above-par score. The player who just recorded a bogie or worse, doesn't want to have the misdeed reenforced with the sound of the plastic numbers being removed and replaced on the standard. Sheesh.
- After the round (and this is something the public so rarely gets a glimpse into), you enter the scorer's trailer / room with players, caddies, and the rules official, to witness and confirm the VERBAL reading of the scores (i.e.,matching what you recorded) and card signing. The verbal solliiquey is always a pretty mundane process, but it is very well defined. You just don't hear an uninterrupted regurgitation of the scores hole-by-hole, like 4,4 4 3,5,4,3,4,4,4,5, etc. Instead, it is a 3-hole group, pause, 3-hole group, pause, etc. So you'll hear, 4,4,3...5,4,4...6,4,4, etc. And then, if requested (not alway...since it is not technically required), you sign as scorer witness.
- Depart the scoring area and anxiously await outside for any of the players to give you a signed ball, glove or other offering.
- If you don't have an additional assignment, your "official's pass" gives you leeway to do a whole bunch more things that are not allowed to the general public, like inside-rope access to the practice range, [somewhat restricted access to areas within the clubhouse], etc.
They also provide concession meal vouchers, discounts in the merchandise tents, and free shuttles from free satellite parking to the course.
GREAT FUN.
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That's a lot of responsibility. My GF is a standard bearer at Riviera. She just said she walks around carrying the standard. Curious about this:
- After the round (and this is something the public so rarely gets a glimpse into), you enter the scorer's trailer / room with players, caddies, and the rules official, to witness and confirm the VERBAL reading of the scores (i.e.,matching what you recorded) and card signing.
Who checks the scorer's score?
Have much fun.
- After the round (and this is something the public so rarely gets a glimpse into), you enter the scorer's trailer / room with players, caddies, and the rules official, to witness and confirm the VERBAL reading of the scores (i.e.,matching what you recorded) and card signing.
Who checks the scorer's score?
Have much fun.
Oh, there are quite a few checkpoints, but to be honest, if the SCORER'S tally is the only one that's off, I believe they'd discard it. And, I've actually had on one occasion a caddie leaning over and telling me the standard bearer's score was wrong. It matched up with what I had so we called an official in (didn't interrupt play, we just did this on the fly), and, after review, determined that I had recorded an incorrect score on one hole (as even the players do on occasion). Crimson face, hand to forehead (maybe THAT'S the reason i got such a shi**y assignment for the next round ). I believe the walking scorer is just an extra check. But not the determining factor.