A Lasting Atmosphere

   For the past several days, I have been volunteering at the McGladrey Classic, a PGA golf tournament held here on our Island. It takes a lot of volunteers to make the event work as it should, and I am just one of about 1200 locals doing a job for a few days on an October weekend; just another blue shirt and white hat on the course.

   As I read Chambers early this morning, before heading out to the course again, this thought of his caught my focus: "It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence."

   As a marshal on the course, my job is mainly crowd control, keeping the spectators behind the ropes, and still, while the players concentrate on their games. I have also watched the players as they competed, and a few images stand out in my mind right now.

   As they compete, most tour professionals wrap themselves in a cocoon of concentration. On the tee box some talk with the other two players in their threesome, some talk only with their caddy, some don't seem to talk at all. Some may say "nice shot" to another player, and some just hit the ball and go. They have a job to do, and so they zone in on that. Professional golf is such a personal mental game that other people are not considered too much.

   Out on the course, one of our jobs is to remove any man-made obstructions to the player's shot. The crowd control ropes are the main thing in this regard, and so, if a player hits a ball behind the ropes, or near to that area, the marshal needs to take the rope off the stake, lay it on the ground, or move it out of the way, so the player has a clear shot. Not a difficult job, but if it is done while the player is making his way to that area for his next shot, he does not have to concern himself with any of that.

   Two incidents yesterday come to mind. In the first, a player's ball came to rest right outside the ropes, and, so I took the ropes off and moved some stakes so he would have a clear shot to the green. There was no gallery there, so it was a simple procedure. The caddy got there first, took a look around, laid the golf bag on the ground, and surveyed the next shot. The pro arrived, took a look around, took the club from the caddy, hit the shot and moved on. Strictly professional.

   Another time, this time around the green area, a player missed the green to the right, and his ball rolled under the rope and down a slight hill, so that the next shot had to come back through that area to get to the hole. So I laid it all down and waited. Caddy and player arrived together, and the first thing the player did was speak to me, thanking me for getting the area ready so he could play his next shot. 

   Chambers says that it is not what a man does, but who he is that counts. The atmosphere of who he is has lasting influence.

   I remember that second player and want to have that kind of atmosphere around me. I hope he makes the cut.