Moving Day at Crooked Stick

As the day wore on there was a buzz in the air at Crooked Stick. It definitely felt different than the first two days. I arrived at the course early to watch a little golf . Mostly I just went onto the range and watched the players warm up. They were all business at the world's biggest senior golf tournament.

I was out at 1:00 with Jim Thorpe and Scott Simpson. My duty was to be the forward observer, to assist the referee for the group. Basically I go to the drive zone to make sure that the balls land safely and then I head up to the green to make sure there are no issues with the approach shots. It's not the most exciting duty, but it was still a fun walk. When I'm the only guy walking down the edge of the fairway or up to the green I can see the gallery watching me probaly thinking, 'What the heck is this guy up to?' I did a lot of chit-chatting with the volunteers and met a lot of nice people. I met a woman from Iowa who signed up with her husband to volunteer. They took vacation time to be here and said they've enjoyed every minute. Every hole has 12 or more volunteers stationed at various spots. These players are so good that most don't hit it too far off line so it's got to be a little boring for some of these people stationed in the rough in the drive zone. On another hole a woman said not much had happened, but her exciting moment came when Bernhard Langer's ball flew over her head and she chased it down next to a trash barrell.

I chased down Scott Simpson's ball on the 9th. I was positioned up by the green and he was going for the green in two on the par-5. He hit an uncharacteristic snipe into the gallery about 90 yards short of the green. I ran up to see where the ball ended up. It wasn't too far into the gallery. One of the marshalls had it spotted. I didn't want to steal his big moment so when I verifed that the ball hadn't been stepped on or moved by a gallery member I headed back to the green. I reported to the referee, Glen Nager, that we were all set. One other time I radioed to him that Jim Thorpe's ball came to rest on a greenside sprinkler head. There were a couple of other minor issues but that was about it. The real fun began as soon as I walked off 18 green. I shook hands with both Thorpe and Simpson and was barely off the green when Jim Farrell called over to me and said, 'Hey, let's go.' I got into his golf cart and he whisked me to the NBC TV compound on the other side of the course.

A sea of cables surrounded several trailers and we headed up the steps into the command central trailer where the telecast was being produced. It was fairly close quarters in low light with seven people in there in front of a wall of 20 hi-def TV screens. Many screens were feeds from a different camera. Some screens had up to seven picture-in-picture shots representing even more cameras. There was a main screen front and center of the two producers, Tommy Roy and Tom Randolph, which represented what was going out over the air. Everyone in there had a head set and there was a lot of shouting and gesticulating by the producers to camera men, on air talent or to the engineer on the other side of the room. It was absolutely amazing. When they cut to commercial there were conversations going on between the producerse and Dottie Pepper, Bob Murphy, Gary Koch and Mark Rolfing. You think the on-air folks call the shots? Not a chance. They're the golf experts offering analysis in the field, but the two producers are making it all happen and if they don't like something the on-air person is doing, they're not afraid to tell them.

Jim and I watched the last 70 minutes of the telecast inside the production truck. It was beyond cool. With Greg Norman and Fred Funk duking it out, it's set up more a great finale. With Funk's slim, one-shot lead it will be fun to see how he does or if Sindelar and Norman can make a run or if amateur Tim Jackson can get back on the birdie train. Jackson really hung in there. No matter what happens he's had a tremendous week and earned the respect of all the tour veterans.

I wish I was staying for the final day, but I'd made arrangements to fly out today so I can get back to work on Monday. I do plan to go to the course briefly this morning (Sunday) to collect a few things from my locker and watch a few of the early players tee off. It's been a great week and I'm sad to see it end. I just hope to get home in time to watch the last few holes on TV.