“Ben,” a long-time member of our golf forum, recently volunteered at the wet and wild Nissan Open. Fortunately for Ben, he volunteered on Thursday. Here is one man’s experience.
Volunteers are supposed to be at the course by 6:00 am. I live 15 minutes from the course, so I’m there in plenty of time. I’m to be a standard bearer – the FootJoy sign boy without the annoying attitude or multi-million-dollar advertising contract. The standard bearers meet at the driving range and line up to get our groupings. As we are doing so, players start coming to the range. I saw Hank Kuehne and Colin Montgomerie. I eventually make my way to the font of the line and get the 8:30 time off the 10th tee. My group will include Charles Howell III, Frederik Jacobson, and Bo Van Pelt.
Continue reading “A Day in the Life of a PGA Tour Volunteer”
Sixty-four players, 108 holes of golf, just one winner. David Toms continued his golf clinic throughout the finals of the Accenture WGC Match Play Finals today. Toms posted a 6 and 5 victory over Chris DiMarco, and may have displayed some of the best ball striking the PGA Tour has ever seen. In the consolation match, Retief Goosen and Ian Poulter exchanged birdies back and forth until Goosen finally won on the second playoff hole.
The Chrysler Classic of Tucson has become the premier event for first time winners on the PGA Tour. Today, Australian Geoff Ogilvy joined the winners club thanks to his clutch performance on the second playoff hole. Ogilvy began the day 
No bracket could have predicted this outcome. How could just one top-seed make it through to the semi-finals? Although the dream match of Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson didn’t materialize, the semi-finals of the Accenture WGC World Match Play provided some memorable golf. The matches were set. The first match of the day would pit uber-conservative David Toms against bleach-blond, spiky-haired Ian Poulter. In the second match, Chris DiMarco a fiery competitor would take on Retief Goosen the stoic South African. Could there be any greater contrast in styles? So how did these fire and ice matches play out?
You better keep your eye on Kevin Na. He is the youngest player on the PGA tour but is getting used to feeling the weekend heat, finishing ahead of second round leader Calcavecchia. He finished tied for second at the FBR Open behind Phil Mickelson earlier this month and is showing maturity and poise against some great golfers this season. Na’s 7 under 65 was good enough to tie Geoff Ogilvy for today’s lead.
The LPGA kicked off the year with its first full-field event, the 
The Chrysler Classic in some people’s minds (perhaps mine) plays second fiddle to the Accenture WGC World Match Play. While that may or may not be true the Classic allows some less prominent figures on the PGA tour to strut their stuff as is proved by the occupants of the winner’s circle for the last five years: Carter, Willis, Leggatt, Lickliter and Slocum.
When Friday began at the World Match Play, the big news was that the tour would be able to complete two days of golf in a row without being interrupted by the rains that have been so oppressive over the last week in Southern California. By the end of the day, the big story changed from the beautiful weather to the huge upsets occurring throughout the day.