In just seven short days I will be among hundreds of marshalls and thousands of other volunteers working behind the scenes of the PGA's Wells Fargo - formerly Wachovia and Quail Hollow - Golf Championship at Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte, NC.
My official tournament shirts and wind breaker arrived via FedEx sometime last week and I am set to pick up my official tournament credentials and hat at South Meck High School this weekend. After that I will head on over to the golf course for a walk-through and team meeting with my hole captain and fellow marshalls on the tenth hole.
Many people have asked me if I will be paid to work the tournament and my standard reply is, "No, I'm paying to work it!"
After gauging their universally quizzical facial expressions, I explain that I purchased a couple of $100 polo golf shirts, a short sleeved golf jacket, a hat, a 7-day tournament pass, two tickets to bestow upon a lucky friend or two, food vouchers and all the snacks I care to eat for the price of one of those shirts.
For this relatively small cost, I get the opportunity to watch - and possibly interact with - the world's greatest golfers in one of the PGA's highest profile non-Major events while helping ensure the event is pulled off as seamlessly as possible and with minimal distraction to the players.
My good friend, Kevin, and I first attended the tournament shortly after I first moved to Charlotte in 2006 and he immediately decided to sign up to work the tournament as a marshall, which he has done since 2008.
I finally signed up for the volunteer list in 2009 and after waiting two years, I learned in February that I'd been selected to join the team of marshalls on Hole 10.
The 10th hole is the longest Par 5 on the course, approaching and sometimes surpassing 600 yards in length from tee-to-green.
As for my role, I don't know much besides the fact that I'll hold up "Quiet Please!" signs, direct traffic and help locate the occassional wayward shot.
I will work the Thursday and Friday rounds and I am expected to be at the 10th hole ready to go around 6:30 AM. Parking is horrendous and expensive at the course, so I will take advantage of the free shuttle service running from nearby Carowinds Amusement Park just ten minutes from my house.
The first two days of the tournament have a larger field than the weekend rounds because no cuts are made until the conclusion of Friday's round, so there will likely be upwards of 140 players crowding the course during my shifts.
Tiger Woods will not be among the entrants, though, despite his assertion that this is among his favorite tournaments, due to a knee injury he aggravated at The Masters earlier this month.
While I always enjoy the opportunity to see Tiger play up close and in person, his absence will likely make my job easier since I will not have to deal with living, breathing, roaring mass of humanity that is a Tiger Woods golf gallery.
Due to the size of the field in the first two days, half of the players will tee off on the first hole and half will tee of on number ten.
This means I have to be ready to work bright and early, but it also means my marshalling duties will be complete earlier than most of my compatriots around the course since the finishing holes will be the 9th and 18th.
Thus, I will be free to either enjoy an hour or so of golf as a casual observer or head home early to catch the highlights on SportCenter.
I am excited about my upcoming experience as a first-time marshall in a PGA event and I look forward to sharing more about my experiences over the course of the next week and a half, both as a volunteer and as an observer and fan.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
On the Role of Our Federal Government in Response to a Friend's Facebook Post and the Ensuing Response
Education, infrastructure (tech and transportation), healthcare, sustainable energy, safe food and water, R&D. This is where we need to be spending domestically and not pouring so much into the military industrial complex. I'm all for defense, but we need to not be so liberal with our military spending, it has gotten out of control.
There are over 300 million people living here, in this country, and we need to refocus on the "homies" and the "homeland" moreso than simply Homeland Defense. I support our military and the people risking their lives to defend our nation - what they do is both admirable and noble - but it's just like with personal growth...you have to work on yourself before you can truly help others, and we are overextended throughout the world. (And NO, I have not forgotten 9/11 whatsoever).
We also need government to regulate corporations - ESPECIALLY finance and the healthcare industries - to the extent that they don't take advantage of their fellow citizens. The changes that have been made in credit card policy and lending, i.e., mortgages, in the past 2 years have been a boon to countless people who are or would be underwater financially b/c of predatory lending. Hell, I had a 30% interest rate b/c I was late on a credit card payment when I was 25 years old. Thankfully I finally wised up and got an installment loan with my credit union and I'm now paying it off at a much lower rate instead of pissing away interest payments for the next 20 years.
We live in a global economy and a tiny world. Anyone read Michael Friedman at all? "The World is Flat." Check it out. Gas prices are out of control, but demand is also way higher than it ever has been and, unfortunately, oil prices are set based on futures, meaning predictions about how supply and demand will look in the future, not how they presently exist. We desperately need to commit to R&D for clean, sustainable energy.
Sure we have the means and, I believe, a moral imperative, to help our friends and fellow global citizens around the world, especially those who are victims of natural disasters and oppresive regimes, but we need to take care of our own first and foremost.
Finally, back to the original point of my friend's post...Obama is an American. He's not the best negotiator when it comes to drawing a line in the sand and saying "this is how it is" the way Bush was. He came into Washington and tried to play nice with bullies. That's what we're taught to do in school and at home, but unfortunately that's not always the best strategy. Or at least not the most effective.
Our president is, however, patriotic, he does love America and he is trying to make this country be the best global citizen it can be and he wants to take care of his people at home, which in my mind, is the most important role our government should play.
There are over 300 million people living here, in this country, and we need to refocus on the "homies" and the "homeland" moreso than simply Homeland Defense. I support our military and the people risking their lives to defend our nation - what they do is both admirable and noble - but it's just like with personal growth...you have to work on yourself before you can truly help others, and we are overextended throughout the world. (And NO, I have not forgotten 9/11 whatsoever).
We also need government to regulate corporations - ESPECIALLY finance and the healthcare industries - to the extent that they don't take advantage of their fellow citizens. The changes that have been made in credit card policy and lending, i.e., mortgages, in the past 2 years have been a boon to countless people who are or would be underwater financially b/c of predatory lending. Hell, I had a 30% interest rate b/c I was late on a credit card payment when I was 25 years old. Thankfully I finally wised up and got an installment loan with my credit union and I'm now paying it off at a much lower rate instead of pissing away interest payments for the next 20 years.
We live in a global economy and a tiny world. Anyone read Michael Friedman at all? "The World is Flat." Check it out. Gas prices are out of control, but demand is also way higher than it ever has been and, unfortunately, oil prices are set based on futures, meaning predictions about how supply and demand will look in the future, not how they presently exist. We desperately need to commit to R&D for clean, sustainable energy.
Sure we have the means and, I believe, a moral imperative, to help our friends and fellow global citizens around the world, especially those who are victims of natural disasters and oppresive regimes, but we need to take care of our own first and foremost.
Finally, back to the original point of my friend's post...Obama is an American. He's not the best negotiator when it comes to drawing a line in the sand and saying "this is how it is" the way Bush was. He came into Washington and tried to play nice with bullies. That's what we're taught to do in school and at home, but unfortunately that's not always the best strategy. Or at least not the most effective.
Our president is, however, patriotic, he does love America and he is trying to make this country be the best global citizen it can be and he wants to take care of his people at home, which in my mind, is the most important role our government should play.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Masters 2011: What a Final Round!
For any golfer and golf fan, this was something to see and one of the best Masters finishes ever, probably the most exciting I've seen. There was a stretch for what may have been 30 mins to an hour when the tv coverage went from one great/hugely important shot to another to another and another. I only feel for Rory, though, who I was pulling for to win. It was reminiscent of his 2nd round at the B.O. last year, shooting in the 80s the day after setting a course record at St Andrew's in the opening round, only the final day of a major, particularly the Masters, was such a bigger stage. Rory's body language, the untucked shirt...it was tough to see. Many of his holes on the back 9 reminded me of how I and most golfers I play with regularly react after a bad shot on a hole, only to follow up w/another bad shot and then another. But he was stilll all smiles at the end and he will be a champ. He is a good 5-6 years ahead of most of his peers. As for Scott, Jason Day, Van Pelt, Choi, Cabrera and Woods, they provided plenty of excitement and wonderful golf.
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