Golf You Have To See To Believe

It’s Byron Nelson week, and to you that may be just another week, but to me it is one of the highlights of the year. I’ve been working at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship for more than twenty years and I highly recommend it for anyone who loves golf, getting outside, or simply people watching. It’s a hoot.

I’ll never forget my first year; I was a rookie marshal constantly fearful of doing something dumb like walking in a players’ line. But when the rains started everything changed. And as the day progressed, the challenge became whether or not they were even going to play. At every break in the weather the rookies like myself would squeegee the greens and do our best to bail the water out of the bunkers. Then it would rain again.

You haven’t had any fun until you’ve bailed and raked bunkers for hours on end.

Weatherwise it was a terrible week. It must have rained ten or fifteen times, and of course every time it rained we had to evacuate the players. I’ll never forget seeing Greg Norman huddled under one of the hospitality tents, wet, cold and totally tick-off about getting wet I suppose. Apparently it never rains in Australia, or at least it never rains on Greg Norman. But we all survived, including Greg Norman, although I don’t think he ever returned to the Nelson. I suppose it could have been the rain, but more likely it was the less than sterling round he shot on Sunday.

For several years the Nelson had the reputation that it always rained, and stories like the one I just told likely contributed to the misnomer. The truth is we’ve only lost four days of golf in thirty years. Most of the time we worried about being scorched by the Texas sun, then again the sunshine brought out the beautiful ladies. It’s that ying/yang thing working, I suppose.

Regardless of the weather, it is always fun to get close to the players because you see and hear some amazing things. Like the time Nick Faldo missed the fourteenth fairway and was hopelessly in the trees. Being a dutiful marshal, I cleared an area so that he could safely pitch the ball out into the fairway, take his punishment and move on to the next hole. When he arrived at his ball I was astonished when he pointed toward the green and said, “I’m going right there,” then he asked me to clear the area. Understand, “Right there” required that he hit a 150 yard shot no more than six-feet high, under the trees, then carry the ball over a lake as well as a mound to an elevated green. It was just the kind of shot that you and I make everyday.

As I moved the crowd back I smiled politely at Nick as he focused on the shot at hand. This was the first time I had ever been close to Faldo and I was struck by how big he was; six-four I would guess and every bit of 225 pounds. As he took his stance over the ball I said to myself, “This is crazy. Pitch it out in the middle of the fairway and take six or seven out of the equation.”

Then, with a hundred people crowded as close as possible, Nick made his swing, not the easy, form-fitted swing that he usually makes from a fairway, but a low violent punch shot that sent the ball rifling through the trees like a .357 magnum. As his ball cleared the water it was traveling at perhaps a thousand miles an hour just before it impacted with the large mound that protected the green. Then, as if he had played a twenty-yard pitch shot, the ball bounced straight up in the air and fell softly on to the green and the crowd went crazy.

As those of us still standing close to Faldo deep in the trees cheered and laughed at the astonishing shot we had just witnessed, Nick slowly removed his glove and looked straight at me and winked as if to say, “Nothing too it, Mate.”

It was totally cool.

These days I’m stuck in the media tent during most of the Tournament, but occasionally I do get to watch some great golf up close and it is still as thrilling as ever.

The EDS Byron Nelson Championship has almost 2,000 volunteers helping out each year, and judging by the celebration we have at the end of each Tournament, every one of them has a blast. And, if you have the opportunity to work a tournament I’ll bet you’d feel the same. It doesn’t have to be the PGA Tour to be fun. The guys on the Nationwide, Champions and LPGA could use your help, as well and those tournaments might be even more fun to work. But even if you don’t have the time to work, make sure you get out to see some great golf in person. I’ve told that story about Nick Faldo a thousand times and there are a thousand more stories just waiting for you.

See you at the golf tournament.