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CGA Staff - Inside the Ropes at the 2014 U.S. Open Championships
Sunday June 22
Chris Nielsen - I acted as a starter for the Men’s practice round last Wednesday, the 11th and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to meet some big names – Matt Kucher, Jim Furyk, Ricky Fowler, Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey and lots more. But honestly, my best time during the two Opens was watching my friend, Stephanie Meadow do an outstanding job. Stephanie played a couple of weeks ago as a GB&I Curtis Cup team member and as soon as her last match was finished, she turned pro. Imagine coming to the US Women’s Open as a brand new professional and finishing third. What an accomplishment. I met Stephanie about 7 years ago when she was still attending Hank Haney’s Junior Golf Academy in Hilton Head and she was up in Pinehurst for a junior tournament. I have followed her success through her four years at University of Alabama where she helped that school win their first national championship. Stephanie and I have ties that go back further. At age 14 she won the Irish Girls’ Championship and I was fortunate enough to win the same event some 50 years ago!! So we had that in common as a starting point for conversation. I predict that Stephanie will go far and accomplish a great deal in her years with the LPGA.
Jack Nance - Well, history has been made! The back-to-back US Opens are in the books! And personally speaking I think the US Women’s Open was the winner! All along, the USGA had said a big reason for the back-to-back Opens was to elevate the women’s game....and I think they did just that! The men’s Open ratings were really low (see previous blog) but I have to believe that the Michelle Wie win will be a big boost to the US Women’s Open ratings! All in all, these events were a big hit. Personally, my main concern was the weather. And that played out well. In the men’s event, we had no suspensions of play, but we did get a shower on Thursday evening. For the women’s event, we had a suspension of play on Thursday evening (but it was not too disruptive) and that was it! Today’s weather was very nice with mostly overcast skies. There was a nice breeze as well. Perfect conditions! I enjoyed seeing many of you on the golf course today (including you Bonehead!). To have these events in our backyard is unreal and we should all really soak it in. I feel sure the US Open will want to return (but I am guessing not back-to-back events again J.) In case you didn’t know, the USGA will be bringing their new event, the US Amateur Four-Ball (two person best ball) to the #2 and #4 courses in 2017! This continues the great “Pinehurst-CGA-USGA” connection! Click HERE to read about it.
Today was a lot of fun but I had some personal drama going on. It was a pretty effortless day as I was fronting USGA President Tom O’Toole by staying ahead of the group and prepping him for any rules situations or stray shots. We had a few minor situations during the day but nothing big....and then came hole 16! As I mentioned I was ahead of Mr. O’Toole targeting any possible rules situations and spotting balls as needed. On 16 Michelle’s tee shot went into the right bunker off the tee. She attempted a hybrid out of the bunker and it ended up in the right area in front of the green. Trying to follow the ball, I lost it against the clouds and could not follow it down. I asked a few spectators and they said they thought it went in the bunker. So I waited on the left side of the fairway for them to go find it in the bunker, and lo and behold it wasn’t in the bunker....so the search begins. By now, I am freaking out! I feel like this is all on me as I should not have lost that ball in the sky! So now, I am wondering if I am costing Michelle her first major championship in addition to not doing my job! The stress continues! Under the rules of golf, she has five minutes to search for her ball. If she does not find it in five minutes, then she must return to her previous shot (in a bunker) and probably drop into a buried lie. The stress continues! The gallery by now if yelling “it’s over there” and “it’s buried in the bunker” and “right behind you” but nothing is happening. After two minutes, I am able to catch my breath as somebody says “I found a ball”. Now I am hoping it is Michelle’s ball and not some tourists ball from months ago......and sure enough it is her ball. The ball was not in the bunker after all, but on the hill above the bunker cleverly hidden under some wire/love grass. Whew! Michelle took an unplayable lie and made double bogey six. However she made a great bounce-back birdie on 17 and played like a champ coming in! Check out some cool videos and more by visiting our CGA Facebook page HERE In the end, there were no big issues with divots from men’s event or the boundaries of the bunkers. The greens were perfect for both weeks and I would give high overall marks to the two weeks.
Thanks to all for your part in helping make history!
Jack Nance - Yesterday, I had a good walk with the Amy Lang and Minjee Lee. Both girls played well but stumbled with bogeys on the last hole. Amy is tied for the lead with Michelle Wie at 3-under par. Heading into the women’s final round, holes 8 and 16 have been the most difficult respectively. The men’s most difficult two holes were 6 and 16 respectively. The women’s open overall scoring average (with one day to go) is 74.9868. The men’s overall average was 73.0762. Here are the links to read more about it: https://www.usopen.com/women/en_US/scoring/cstats.html and https://www.usopen.com/en_US/scoring/cstats.html The entire CGA team of staff, committee and volunteers have been great and helped in so many ways these last two weeks. A big shout out to the CGA volunteer hole captains on #12 and #13 – David Salisch, Bob Liu, Maggie Weder, and Angela Stewart. They have worked tirelessly for not one, but two weeks! I heard that the CGA was one of the best groups marshalling holes! Thanks to all of you for your help as all of you make us look good! I do know the USGA loves coming to Pinehurst #2 for a lot of reasons, one of which is the great volunteer support! I feel sure they will be eager to return for another US Open as soon as the schedule allows. On another note, how cool is it that a long time veteran Juli Inkster and amateur Minjee Lee are tied for third? Juli is 53 years old and Minjee is 18! Two great stories! I have heard from so many people this week that they really enjoy how nice the women golfers are. I must agree. They make all efforts to return from the scoring area to sign autographs and interact with the spectators. They are certainly good for the game! Today’s final round weather looks promising! 0% chance of rain though 3 pm! https://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/graph/USNC0529
Today, I will be with the final group of the day (1:35pm with Michelle Wie and Amy Yang) along with USGA president Tom O’Toole. Mr. O’Toole will be walking alongside the group and I will be the out front in their landing areas of each shot. Thanks to the USGA for giving the CGA this opportunity! Whether you are on the course or in front of your TV today, I hope you enjoy this final day of this two-week historical event!
Saturday, June 21Jack Nance - We are heading back out again today for round 3. Here are the pairings for today: https://www.usopen.com/women/en_US/scoring/groupings.html My colleague Andy Priest will serve as observer in the 10:51 group with Misuzu Narita and Jee Young Lee. I will be observer in the 1:14 group with Amy Lang and Minjee Lee (who is an amateur). Yesterday was a nice walk again on #2. The three ladies I had on Friday afternoon all failed to make the cut. The caddie for Weiling Hsu is a Pinehurst caddie from Rockingham named Jamie Whitley. Jamie played in CGA events a while back (finished 5th in NC Am one year!) and now is professional. It was nice catching up with Jamie, and he is now considering getting back into the amateur ranks. I have seen many of our CGA folks out there this week wearing our hats and enjoying the golf. By the way, kudos to the CGA staff and Executive Committee and volunteers on these last two weeks! In my wrap up at the end of the week, I will review in more detail how the CGA was involved over the last two weeks. Come on out this week and help send the USGA off in style! The weather should be a little cooler as well. Be sure to stop by the GHIN Chevron tent and say hello and complete the survey. It is on the right as you enter the main entrance. More to come....
Friday, June 20
Jack Nance - We returned in place by 6:45 am to finish the round. Haeji was behind the green and had just dropped from a TV tower. Gwladys was in the front bunker and Lee-Anne was on the green. Haeji, behind the green and 30 yards away up hill, promptly nipped the ball up to the green two feet from the hole and drained the par. It was spectacular considering it was her first swing of the day off a tight lie! Wow. Gotta love those talented young nerves! The crowds are down quite a bit from last week but that was expected. Today I go at 12:41 off #10 with Weiling Hsu of Chinese Taipei; Erica Popson of Davenport Fla and amateur Jessica Porvasnik of Hinckley, Ohio. Stay tuned.
Andy Priest - My Round 1 group (Simon, Lee, Uribe) almost finished play last night but that pop-up thunderstorm squashed any hopes while we stood in the 8th fairway (our 17th hole). Therefore we had to return this morning and completed our final 1 1/2 holes with the 6:45am resumption of play. Only had one ruling: on the 11th hole Ashleigh Simon's second shot rested against the grandstand behind the putting green which is a "TIO" or Temporary Immovable Obstruction. The USGA simplified the relief process by requiring players seeking relief without penalty to use the nearest drop zone. Simon was able to get her ball up and down for a par. I will be walking this afternoon with the 1:14 #1 tee grouping of Pernilla Lindberg, Giulia Sergas, Katherine Kirk. If you attend today please make sure to stay hydrated and in the shade as much as possible since it was rather toasty yesterday afternoon.
Thursday, June 19
Jack Nance: The US Women's Open kicked off in style today. I am amazed at how good these greens are for the second week. In all honesty, it is hard to tell that a huge event was played on this same course last week. The fairways are drying out a little more and turning browner. In walking with both the men and women, there are indeed some half sand/half grass lies in some of the fairways. I am a little surprised at the lack of grass around the outer edges of some of the fairways. I understand that the USGA and Pinehurst are showcasing the water conservation effort, but those sandy likes (i.e. right of #3 fairway) on short wedges and really tough to hit from the fairway. Also I heard the men's TV ratings were really down this past week. A 3.3 rating for the US Open vs. 7.8 for the Masters. https://www.cbssports.com/golf/eye-on-golf/24590216/us-open-ratings-were-abysmal I realize that Kaymer is not a household name around here and he ran away with the event, so that took some of the excitement away. However I have to wonder though if many of the viewers who don’t know golf as well, think the brown fairways are a turnoff to watching on TV....not sure but just a thought. I was with three great ladies - Lee-Anne Pace of South Africa, Haeji (Hah-gee) Kang, Republic of Korea, and Gwladys Nocera of Switzerland. I thought they announced Gwladys (pronounced 'Gladys') as being from France and I thought she and her caddie were speaking French. However my two years of French classes in high school (Thanks Ms. Watson!) and two years in college (Thanks Dr. Shoemaker) did little to help me figure it out! We were on our last hole today (#9 green) when the suspension of play horn blew! What a bummer. We must return at 6:45 am on Friday. Oh well, l there are worse things in this world than getting up early to watch great golf!
Tuesday, June 17
Jack Nance: Here are the US Women's Open practice round starting assignments for Tuesday and Wednesday all off #10.Tuesday am will be Tiffany Priest/Scott Gerbereux
Tuesday pm will be Dick Dosek/Jack Nance
Wednesday am will be Tiffany Priest/Tom Johnson
Wednesday pm will be Doug Hardisty/Jean Peters
Also the Goodyear blimp has been present all week and rumors are they are parking it at Camp McColl. Having seen it all week, I thought I would do some research on its size. Here are some numbers:
According to the Goodyear website, the two active GZ-20 blimps are 192 feet (58 meters) long, 59.5 feet (18 meters) tall, and 50 feet (15 meters) wide. For comparison, the largest airships ever built, the Zeppelin company's Hindenburg, LZ-129, and the Graf Zeppelin II, LZ-130, were 804 feet (245 meters) long and 135 feet (41 meters) in diameter. That is, over four times as long and over twice as wide as the current Goodyear blimps. The largest blimp ever made by Goodyear was the U.S. Navy's ZPG-3, at 403 feet (121 meters) in length. To learn more click below.
https://www.facebook.com/GoodyearBlimphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodyear_Blimp
Jack Nance: A few final observations from the US Open. I enjoyed the walk with Justin Rose and Kevin Na on Sunday. Kevin still has pace issues, and at some point, someone will just have to penalize him. Kevin seems nice enough but just needs to work on that part of his game. Rose is a gem of guy from what I hear. A neat ending to their round was Rose made a nice 20 footer very close to where Payne Stewart made his to win in 1999. Rose then made the Stewart pose after the putt dropped. Pretty cool moment. Again there were no rules incidents with the small exception of Na’s ball kicking off the OB fence left of #6 and coming to rest on the sandy path. No relief. He picked it nicely to salvage bogey. Best I could tell there were no bunker boundary issues during the week so it became a non-issue for the most part. I hope that continues for the ladies. I ran into Chris Hartwiger and Patrick O’Brien, the USGA agronomists, and they said they will throw some water on the course Sunday and Monday. He said the greens are extremely healthy heading into the Women’s Open. Temperatures are forecasted to be extremely high this coming week...around the mid to upper 90’s for most of the week. As you may know, the greens are going to be changed to Bermuda grass sometime after the Opens.The traffic around Pinehurst has been extremely good. Kudos to Reg Jones and his team for setting up the great parking and transportation! One thing I noticed on Sunday was a fair amount of LPGA golfers walking the course. I am sure this is what was arranged by the USGA but one part of that bothered me. In a group or two, the ladies were actually walking alongside the standard bearers, scorers, etc. For example, two ladies walked in the Jordan Spieth group creating some distractions in my opinion. I certainly think the ladies should be able to walk the course, but why walk in the fairway with the players who are vying to win their national championship? Why not walk behind the event? It just seemed a little bit over the top to me.
One final and important note. The Dove Bar (ice cream) lost its #1 ranking with me this week. This delicacy moved to a close second after I sunk my teeth into a Twix ice cream bar. I discovered this on Sunday, the last day of the men’s event. Normally this last minute discovery would force me to wait until a USGA championship return, but lo and behold, we have another week of golf (and Twix bars) with the US Women’s Open! Good things sometimes just work out!
Tiffany Priest: My week as a TV Rules Committee member has come to an end. I was assigned to Bill Giglio and Chris Hawkins with NBC Sports. We worked with the x-mo camera all week. This camera captures all the slow motion action shots that you see on TV from the comfort of your living room. I learned a lot this week. It was interesting to be a part of the whole NBC Golf production and see and hear how it all comes to life when it's delivered out to the world. I also learned that a x-mo camera is HEAVY! Luckily I did not have to carry it (poor Bill). It was great to be a part of the action and have access to up close and personal inside the ropes action with various groups throughout the week. We were able to walk/ride around with Phil, Adam Scott, Rory, Dustin Johnson, Erik Compton, Henrik Stenson, Rickie Fowler and eventual champion Martin Kaymer. These were long, hot, tiring days. I have a new found respect for those camera/media guys and what they do to make the golf tournament come to life through the eyes of the viewer. It was also fun to be an arms length away from the players all day. I mean, c'mon...I was about an arms length away from Adam Scott multiple times throughout the week! I was lucky enough to be right on the 18th green with the final two groups (Stenson-Compton and Kaymer-Fowler) while they finished. The feeling of being just off to the side of the final day hole location with thousands of people in the grandstands cheering and looking down toward the green is a memory that will stay with me for a long time. Those few moments made getting covered in dust and sand all week totally worth it. I hope you were able to find some memories of your own throughout this great U.S. Open championship week.
My View: Below is a photo I took of Martin Kaymer's final putt on the 18th green.
Andy Priest: Hard to believe that the U.S. Open is already over! But the good news is we have another week of championship golf ahead with the best female players in the world competing in the U.S. Women's Open this week. I recognized many of the Women's Open competitors either practicing today or actually walking the course as spectators. Very cool.Many thanks to the thousands of volunteers that tirelessly devote ther time and energy to making the U.S. Open run like clockwork. Special thanks to our members that marshaled holes #12 and #13. Our hole captains are there from 6:00am until... each day of the championship. If you happen to see Bob Liu, Dave Salisch, Maggie Weder or Angela Stewart please give them a big thank you. They will be working this week as well.I was a forward observer today for the Jason Day-Jimmy Walker pairing. I worked with David Rickman (R&A rules director) who was our referee and Stasia Collins (USGA Women's Committee member). Stasia and I covered each side of the holes and basically stay in the landing zones for the player's next shots. Forward observer's duties in stroke play are to assist in spotting balls and report any possible rules situations to the referee. It was a pretty quiet day and I only had to help with one situation when Jimmy Walker hit his tee shot into the trees on the driveable par 4 3rd hole. Just made sure that spectators did not disturb the ball and helped the marshalls clear the way for Walker's next shot.Jack Nance and I will also be officiating the U.S. Women's Open this week. We will post our assignments when we receive them.Photo below is Scott Gerbereux, CGA Director of GHIN Services and Jack Nance, CGA Executive Director behind the 18th green on Sunday.
Saturday, June 14
Jack Nance: I enjoyed my walk today with Brendon DeJonge and Keegan Bradley. There were no rules incidents. The course is getting firm again after that 1/2 inch of rain from Thursday night. On Friday, I was the rules official for Boo Weekley, Stephen Gallacher and D.A. Points. We had a few rules situations. Boo sculled a bunker shot from the left side of 3 over the green. His ball came to rest against a cable cover which is an immovable obstruction. We had to determine his nearest point and he dropped without penalty. He got a tough break on the drop when the ball landed in front of some wire grass. He squeaked out a bogey. Another one came on the #5 crosswalk. DA asked for relief from the crosswalk which is a standard free drop for ground under repair. However he was bordering the edge of the fairway and relief is not given from the "rough" All in all, he saw where his drop was going to be and he decided he liked his original lie. Finally DA asked for relief on #14 from intervention from a sprinkler head. Under the local rule, if the sprinkler head (immovable obstruction) is within 2 club lengths of the edge of the green and his ball is within two club lengths of the sprinkler head, he would be allowed free relief from intervention. However his ball was more than two club lengths from the sprinkler head so he did not get relief.Also I enjoy walking #12 and #13 especially as those two holes are being marshaled by the Carolinas Golf Association. It's great to see so many familiar faces. Thanks to all of you for representing the CGA!See you Sunday I hope as I will be the forward observer for the Rose and Na group at 2:51.
Andy Priest: I was assigned as the walking referee for the Shiv Kapur-Alex Cecka pairing. We had a quiet round rules-wise and it was a beautiful day at Course No. 2. USGA did move up some tees to give guys a chance to make a move like on the par 5 5th hole but hole locations were very difficult on some holes. Bottom line is these guys are so good that they rarely miss a shot. We finished four minutes under our pace of play which was set at 4:07 despite having to wait seven minutes on the tee at the drivable 7th hole. Only rules question was from Cecka on the 18th hole asking if he could move some sand behind his ball that lied in the "rough". I denied his request since sand and loose soil are loose impediments only on the putting green (see definition of Loose Impediments). I informed him that he could "lightly" ground the club behind the ball. Highlight of the day was our group was standing on the 15th tee when Kenny Perry holed his 240-yard shot on the 14th hole. Place went crazy! Jack Nance was the forward observer for the Keegan Bradley-Brendon De Jonge pairing. On Sunday, Jack is a forward observer for the 2:51 pairing of Justin Rose and Kevin Na and I will be a forward observer for the 2:07 pairing of Jason Day and Jimmy Walker.Below is a picture of Tom Johnson, CGA Manager of GHIN Services serving on the distance measuring team this week.
Friday, June 13
Andy Priest: I was the walking rules referee with the Nick Lindheim, Anthony Broussard, Will Bremmer group. It was a quiet day other than the weather warning that was posted while we played the 14th hole. By some miracle we finished despite weather coming within 10 miles of the golf course. I did have to speak to our group on the 10th tee about our pace of play and position with the group agead. The guys did a great job of picking up their pace and we regained position on the 12th hole. I will be walking with the 11:34 group on Saturday (Alex Cecka, Shiv Kapur). Jack Nance will be with the 2:52 group (Keegan Bradley, Brendon De Jonge).
Below is a photo of all of the Carolinians working on the rules committee or the TV rules committee this week.
(L-R) Barry Bruggers, Dick Dosek, Jack Nance, Dave Hampton, Donnie Bowers, Tiffany Priest, Andy Priest
Thursday, June 12
Jack Nance - I was a walking rules official for Martin Kaymer, Keegan Bradley and Jason Dufner today. I was technically the observer who stays out front. They have two rules officials for some marquis groups. All three played really well, despite the afternoon when things were really drying out. Kaymer is leading at -5. No big rulings today. However we did have a situation on #5 when Kaymer chipped his ball up to the green and deflected Dufner's ball a few inches away from its original spot. The rule simply allows Dufner to replace his ball and Kaymer's ball stayed where it came to rest. As I type this, a nice thunderstorm rolled through Pinehurst ending up around 10:30 pm. It lasted about 45 minutes and should settle the dust that was so prevalent today. Kaymer should enjoy this bit of good fortune. After handling the dried out conditions today with a -5 round this afternoon, he now has the luxury of enjoying the softer morning conditions after this rain. He goes early tomorrow. I am off #1 at 1:14 Friday. I am walking with the same group Andy Priest, my colleague, had today.
Andy Priest: I was the walking rules referee with the Boo Weekley (71), D.A. Points (77), Stephen Gallacher (73) grouping. Boo was definitely the crowd favorite with the many "Booooo" cheers from the fans. It was a fairly quiet day for me rules-wise (which is what we want as officials). We only had one ruling on the Par 4 3rd hole when D.A. Points hit his third shot to an area behind the green that he felt was a washout area and was asking for relief under Rule 25-1 (Abnormal Ground Conditions). Only the rules rover (not referees) are permitted to grant GUR relief. I called the area rules rover, he listened to Points's request and then denied him relief stating that the imperfections of Course No. 2 will be played as it lies this week. Points went on to make a double bogey six. We had no questions about whether a ball was in a bunker or not. Pace of play was very good for our first 13 holes but once we arrived at the 4th hole (our 13th) then we waited on every shot until we finished. Maximum pace was setat 4:44 but we finished +24 on time par which equates to 5:08. I will be walking witht he 2:42 #1 grouing on Friday. Jack Nance, CGA Executive Director, was the forward observer for the Martin Kaymer group this afternoon so he had a front row seat to witness his exceptional five-under par 65 today. Funny enough, Jack will be walking with the Weekley, Points and Gallacher group on Friday afternoon at 1:14pm #1 that I had today. Hope to see you out there!
Tiffany Priest: Wonder how the NBC Sports cameramen get from place to place on the golf course? Well now I know! I was called late yesterday to help act as a TV Rules Committee member. Basically my job is to help the cameramen get from place to place on the golf course. My crew filmed slow-motion action shots. Its a challenge to navigate the course with all of the spectators and was told it gets harder as the weekend progresses. We mainly followed the Mickelson, Rose and Fitzpatrick group. There is some physical labor involved with this role (moving camera stands, changing camera batteries) but its a cool deal to be inside the ropes and very close to the action (see Phil pic below that I shot from behind #3 tee).
Wednesday, June 11
Andy Priest: Rules Committee had their on-course walk through this morning to go over all of the rules situations that we may encounter throughout the championship. Most rules issues that you may see will deal with Temporary Immovable Obstructions (grandstands, TV towers, etc.), immovable obstructions close to putting greens (or the "sprinkler head" rule) and whether a ball may be in a bunker or in a sandy area (i.e. through the green). We were told that if there is doubt to where a ball lies then the ball lies in the bunker. Maintenance staff is going to tamp down the sides of bunkers so a ball is likely to end up in the bottom of a bunker. See the below pic I took of the bunker left of hole #6 looking back towards the tee. Can you tell what is bunker and what is through the green? Check the lip or ridge running through the middle of the photo.
Scott Gerbereux: Watched Webb Simpson and Phil Mickelson on practice range. I was able to get an interview with Webb Simpson on his way from the practice range to green (see video below). I walked a few holes with Adam Scott during his practice round and tweeted those. Later I took photos of players interacting on the practice area for the USGA to retweet. They have used a handful of my photos on their Twitter account I have sat in on interviews with Matt Kuchar, Mike Davis and Webb Simpson.
Tuesday, June 10
Michael Dann: The Chevron tent in the Putter Boy Plaza is the place for kids, young and old, as you go to the U.S. Opens this year. To the right of the main merchandise tent at the main entrance, the tent is filled with science and math games. Among those is the USGA handicap booth, where anyone can complete a survey and get three USGA TEE IT FORWARD ball markers. It is a fun way to start or finish a day’s Open experience.
Jason Cox: Helped out today as the starter on the tenth tee. Pretty busy in the morning as groups started to tee off at 6:45 am. The trek back to the tenth tee from the practice area is not very short, so several players missed their starting time and just threw a ball down in the fairway. Had some big names start on #10 like Adam Scott (and yes he is a good looking dude). After all the groups scheduled for the morning wave started, the players off #1 started to come through. Pretty cool seeing these guys and how nice they were. Most stopped and signed a few flags or talked to the fans just outside the ropes. Graeme McDowell is a class act. Took the time to sign items from hats to flags for all who requested. And there were a few big names who just stayed on the other side of the tee. My shift ended with Ernie Els, Erik Comptn, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen just showing up and wanting go out for nine holes. We still had groups making the turn, so the guys said no problem, just let them know when it was clear for them to go. Pretty good guys as some of the pros have been a little hard to deal with. Back on Wednesday in the afternoon heat.
Monday, June 9
Tiffany Priest: It's finally here! Open week(s)...the CGA staff will have various duties throughout the two weeks. We are excited to have the world here in our little slice of golfing paradise. Chris Zeh and I were the starters on the 10th tee. We were there bright and early at 6:30am. Many players ventured out for a practice round and many caddies were walking and mapping out the course for their players. Bubba Watson was one of the few players who took out a driver on the par 5 10th hole. Most players hit fairway woods or irons off that tee throughout the day. Chris and I even got into an interesting conversation with Jim Furyk. We were also able to see Mike Davis and some of his crew plan and set hole locations on #9 green. After our shift we were able to get into clubhouse for some lunch where Mr. Arnold Palmer himself came in to cool off and chat a while. All in all a great start to a historic two weeks here in Pinehurst. Hope to see you out on the course.