My Morning as a Marshal at the LPGA Championship

Today was my opening day on the job as a marshal at the McDonald's LPGA Championship here at Bulle Rock.  I was fortunate enough to make arrangements with the great volunteer team here to serve on the 16th hole.  The 16th here at Bulle Rock is a short hole - just 330 yards - but it is devious.  The green is small and situated diagonally relative to the tee from left to right.

From the perspective of a marshal, I realized that watching a single hole all day is one of the best ways to catch a tournament.  Short of following a lead group on the weekend, most fans are never going to be able to keep up with all of the action on their own.  Instead of trying to experience information overload, it seems to work well to watch a ton of groups play a single hole.

I quickly gained an appreciation for how players tried to attack the hole.  Most laid up with a 3 wood or something like that to right around 110 to 120 yards.  With the pin in the front, they wanted a wedge or nine iron to challenge the placement with spin.  This way, they could shoot the ball to the backstop behind the pin and bring it back for an easy birdie.

The thing is, though, that a number of players tried to hit driver and take the ball down almost as far as they could.  Most wound up on the right hand side of the fairway.  And out of all of those players that tried to go far and right, none could hit their approach to pin high except Angela Stanford.  Only one player - Australian Lindsey Wright - hit the ball to the left hand side of the fairway with driver.  She challenged the green from the right angle and made an easy birdie of number 16.

Being a marshal presented me with a lot of good action, too.  Five players took the ball way left and had two in the hazard.  Se Ri Pak had a playable lie in a kind of rocky watery grave and played the ball to the hole.  Dorothy Delasin took advantage of the rules and played her drop third to the pin.

Lorena Ochoa and Suzann Pettersen found themselves in the shadows of trees on the left.  Both managed to get the ball to about pin level, but Ochoa was extremely impressive out of the nasty rough.

And that was just half the field. 

The people I worked with today - and will again tomorrow - are fantastic.  The job really is pretty easy.  Keep cameramen close to the ropes.  Take down stakes when you are asked.  Stop people from moving.  And you get up close to all of the action.   I would highly recommend volunteering at an event if you never have.  It's a great experience and a free ticket.