Sports
Volunteers play key role in Buick's success
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Wednesday, July 2, 2008 9:26 AM EDT
GRAND BLANC - With tens of thousands of fans spread out across Warwick Hills, it's easy to overlook the volunteers who are busy in the background making sure the Buick Open runs smoothly each year.
Tournament officials rely on 3,000 volunteers each year to get things done and keep things moving as the PGA Tour pros descend on Grand Blanc for the annual tournament, completing its 50th edition today.
“We had a couple from Florida who used this as their vacation,” said Ted Addington, tournament co-director of volunteer organizations. “We've got some people here from Canada. There's just a multitude of groups.”
Addington said about 90 percent of the people who volunteer each year come back the next season. Some volunteers have worked nearly every tournament in the event's 50-year history.
“That 10 percent turnover, that's not necessarily people not coming back,” Addington explained. “Each year it gets larger and larger. There are more requirements. Every year we find a new area we need volunteers for.”
Volunteer organizations receive donations from tournament proceeds for the work they do. The Boys Scouts, for example, pick up litter and sort trash into recyclables. For their efforts, they keep all the deposit bottles and cans thrown away.
Perhaps the most visible volunteers are those who work the ropes and those who walk with the golf pros.
Addington said there are nearly 1,000 marshals working the tournament. Among them was D.J. Hrcka of Owosso, who was marshaling for the second year.
Tuesday and Wednesday this week Hrcka was acting as a forecaddie along No. 18 - watching for and pointing out errant balls for Tour pros and the amateurs playing with them.
“The guys spotting on the other side of the fairway yesterday almost got hit a couple of times,” Hrcka said of the semi-perilous position midway down the fairway.
In 2007, Hrcka helped hold back the crowds near the 18th green where the pros were coming off the course and heading back toward the practice green. Hrcka said he enjoyed working the fairway because he was able to see more golf, but his youngest son Brendan, 10, who was seeking autographs out at No. 17, said he prefered his dad's job in '07 because it was easier to get autographs at the 18th green.
Among the marshals who atch ropes and keep back crowds are about 100 who walk inside the ropes with the golfers helping keep fans at bay and providing other support.
In addition, another group of about 200 people work the Shot Link system to provide all the data on distances balls are struck or yardage that players have left to the hole.
Then there are the many walking scorers and a multitude of other unseen workers.
Every volunteer goes through some type of orientation before the tournament.
The Shot Link volunteers, for instance, undergo a 3-hour lesson in using the system and an explanation of what they're doing, Addington explained.
Addington said the No. 1 rule among walking marshals is to stay invisible. They're told about how to stay along the ropes and out of the line of sight for photographers.
Addington said becoming a volunteer is pretty easy. Contact the Buick Open, he said, and you'll get your name on the master list. If you express a preference for type of job, your name will be distributed to the person who organizes that group.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, we find a spot for them,” he said.
Volunteers who have done certain jobs before get first crack at them the next year, but new volunteers are always welcome because of the continuously increasing requirements.
“Five years ago, we had a team put together for weather evacuation. Now we have 25 to 30 vehicles on the course with drivers every day. Earlier this week we had an evacuation for weather,” he said.
