UPDATE: Observations of a Barclays Walking Scorer

[jokerusn]

Saturday group added

I started doing the walking scorer bit in 2008 and was hooked. It's the best seat in the house and you get to interact with the pros (usually only when they ask you for their scores, a rules official or to move to another spot so you're not in their view). This year is my 3rd year doing this at the Barclays and, despite the rain, it's been an amazing experience.

Wednesday (Pro-Am Day)




This is the best day to interact with the Pros. They aren't in tournament mode and all too happy (usually) to share a laugh and answer any questions you might have. My pro this year was Mark Wilson. Talk about a class act and a solid player. That guy was all about making sure the volunteers were appreciated and signed just about every autograph asked. Yes, he does look a little like Robin Williams but he's not at all nuts. He has a SOLID game and a very pretty swing. He also hits the straightest ball I've ever seen. NONE of his shots tailed off to one side or the other unless he was trying to hit a draw or fade. Totally amazing to watch.

From my time scoring for these guys (and the plethora of pics we get to see here), you find that pros fall into 2 categories when it comes to equipment: Those that change to the newest and those that stick with what works until something that much better comes along. Mark falls into the latter category.

WITB:
Driver - Ping i15/Grafalloy Tour X
3wood - Cleveland Hibore XLS 13*/Aldila NV (don't know the weight)
Hybrid - Ping Rapture/GDI YS Hybrid
Irons - Ping i10/Ping CS-Lite
Wedges - Ping Tour Black Nickel
Putter - Karsten Anser

Thursday


Group: Johnson Wagner, Scott Verplank and Chez Reavie

Being a tournament round, the chit-chat with the crowd was cut to almost nil. They were very courteous on the first tee and after the round but during, they were (almost) all business. On the 4th hole (uphill ~350yd par 4), all three hit nearly perfect drives to under 100yds from the pin. Then all 3 duffed their 2nd shots (one hit it fat, one cut across it and one just didn't hit it hard enough) into the front bunker and rough. After they all got up and down for par, they were laughing and congratulating each other on their good play. They ended up having a tough day with all of them around par. The lowest score of the 3 was -2 by Reavie. All of them hit a draw as their stock shape but what really stood out was that, as the largest of the 3 (and he's a big dude), Johnson Wagner was almost always hitting one club longer into the greens. His drives were generally equal to the other 2 but he hit his irons much lower.

WITB:

Verplank
http://blogs.golf.co...ampionship.html
Everything stayed the same except for the fws. He had a 2007 Burner and Rescue 11 in the bag this week.

Reavie
Driver - Burner 2.0/R11 painted Tour AD DI
3wood - R11/R11 painted Tour AD DI
Irons - TP MB/KBS C Taper
Wedges - xFT/KBS C Taper
Putter - I want to say 009 but I didn't get a close look at it. it was pretty sweet, though - Dark misted finish with single black site dot and "Scotty Cameron" on the face.

Wagner
Driver - 910D3/RIP'd NV (pretty cool looking)
3wood - 904F (yup, 904)/Aldila NV
Hybrids - Idea Pro/UST V2, Pro Black/GDI UT
Irons - 712 CB/Modus3
Vokey Wedges
Putter - Black misted Kombi (also sweet)


Saturday


Group: Rickie Fowler, Bryce Molder and Kevin Stadler

I got the call on Friday after finding out that Sunday's round was cancelled. Originally, I was supposed to walk on Sunday but due to Irene, a lot of people couldn't make it. I could so I took up some of the slack. I got there and was given my assignment: Group 21 - Rickie Fowler, Bryce Molder and Kevin Stadler. Normally, the scores we keep are for tv, scoreboards on the course and for stats. Since they took down all the scoreboards in preparation for Irene's arrival, all our scores were going toward stats and tv (which never aired in my area due to hurricane coverage). Because of that, we were routinely given leaderboard updates to give to the pros.

My tee time was at 8:20 so I had a couple of hours to kill since I got to the course around 6am. I decided that since I could watch the putting green with my credentials, I would grab my gear early and head up to there to watch (which was right next to the 10th tee - not the best placement for spectator viewing but I'll get to that later). I saw a bunch of guys warming up and the few groups ahead of mine tee off (I'll run through a couple of notables in a bit).

When it was my group's turn, Bryce and Rickie showed up about as soon as the previous group left the tee and got their pin sheets and score cards from the stand. Bryce immediately came up to me and the standard bearers to say hello along with the caddies. Rickie didn't say hello but he didn't seem to have an attitude either. It was more like he was already focused on the task at hand. About 3 minutes to the tee time, people started looking for Kevin Stadler. He was on the putting green 10 yards away and came over right before Rickie teed off. Since he didn't have time to say hello before teeing off, he took the time to introduce himself on the walk down the fairway - Very personable guy.

Throughout the round, they were joking and talking. They seemed to really be having a good time out there despite having a generally ho-hum round (-3,-1,-1 for the day). There were a few tees that backed up and I got to hear some interesting conversations - Bryce asking Rickie about the rules for wearing orange (turns out it's not just an all orange rule but a black/orange/white rule) and how they need to get 0s on holes in order to be in the mix. On one of the tees that backed up, one pro (I'm not going to say who or whether he was in my group) caught sight of Ian Poulter and proclaimed "Look at him. Does he think that looks good? He must have gotten dressed in the dark. He needs to stop at 4 different colors." Poulter was wearing dark blue/purple (like blue ink) pants, teal and purple shoes, black (or dark blue) and green striped shirt and some 7th color visor. It was not his best effort. Rickie, however, was decked out in ALL BLACK with orange accents - very sharp looking.

I saw some interesting play too. With lift, clean and place, Stads placed his ball on a piece of upturned turf and hit driver off the deck on one hole. On a few holes, guys hit off the turf with hybrids and fws. And an almost hole-out from the fw by Bryce. Rickie made the next round of the playoffs. Unfortunately, Bryce dropped 1 spot in the FedEx rankings to 101 and missed the Deutsche Bank - at least 5 lip-outs that should have been birdies or pars. Stads needed a much better round to make it and just couldn't get the putts to drop.

WITB:

Rickie Fowler
driver - 910/whiteboard (orange and white alternating scorelines on the face and orange paint on the sole)
fw - (didn't see it because he never used it during the round)
hybrids - Adams Pro Black/Matrix hM2, one black and one red (both had wear spots the size of dimes in the dead center of the face)
Irons - 712 MB/DG (orange paint)
vokey wedges
Putter - matte black circa #3, black sight dot, orange crown in the cavity and on the face, stampings on the sole, black shaft, black headcover with orange signatures all over it (pretty sweet stick)

Bryce Molder
driver - 909D3/Kaili
fw - 909F3/whiteboard
hybrid - 910H/Speeder 904
irons - 712 CB/DG
vokey wedges
studio select Newport 2.7
Nothing too fancy or wild.

Kevin Stadler
driver - Burner 2.0 TP/looked like it said "VTS by USTMamiyia" but I'm not sure
fw - Nike VR Pro (glued one)/Miyazaki Kusala white (totally sweet stick and crushed it)
hybrid - Ping i15 17*/GDI UT
Irons - Cleveland CG16 Tour/DG
Wedges - CG14, 588/DG
Putter - Yes! long putter
(only Srixon branded item in the bag was his ball, bag and headcovers)

Overall, they all hit it pretty far with Rickie being the longest. Bryce is VERY deliberate with every shot. He's not slow, just does the same routine every time and makes sure he covers all his bases. Stads hits a HIGH ball. All three had a draw as their normal shot shape with Rickie's being a little more like a hook at times. Only a couple times did any of them hit fades.

Stray sightings:

Marc Leishman had a matte black circa 2/hollywood (didn't see the sole).
KJ Choi changed his driver again. I didn't get a good look but it was a black head with black shaft.
DJ Trahan had probably the sweetest putter I saw all week - an all black (head and shaft) circle T Del Mar. If you think Rickie's is slick, DJ's is black ice. If I could have any scotty now, it would be that one.
Chris Stroud had a Burner 2.0 with Kiyoshi that just looked like it should be in the hands of a pimp - white head a grip with purple and gold shaft - but in a good way.

Parting shots:

The course is gorgeous. Just a breathtaking view from every tee and in every direction and if it was dry, it would have been a beast of a layout. My only gripe is the viewing locations. There were many spots on the course where the closest spectator was 100yds away and, unfortunately, it was in areas where a few tees and greens were co-located. This would have afforded a great spot to watch but you just couldn't get there. This is as much a function of the organization of the tournament as it was the layout of the course. Plainfield CC is a walking course and only people with medical reasons are allowed to use a cart on the course. Every tee is really close to every green and as a result, you have large areas with no place to put spectators. There were a couple of areas where small grandstands could have been placed but weren't, probably for safety reasons (could be hit by stray drives).

This lack of spectator viewing was also found in the practice areas. Besides the fact that the range was across the street from the course, there were areas of the range that were not in view from the ropes. The part that was in view was a good 50yds away in places from the ropes. The putting green was in an area off limits to most spectators (it was in the turnabout in front of the clubhouse). And, there was a chipping area that was behind privacy fencing. If you wanted to watch them hit balls, you needed binoculars or a clubhouse or all-access pass. For the next time PCC hosts the Barclays, if they fix this piece, it will be a top-notch tournament.

[GatorNate11]

Nice thread man. That would be a cool experience to be a walking scorer.

[mapeacock]

great insight...hope that storm would stay away and will make for a long day tomorrow and longer days to come... be safe out there..

[Downhill Dave]

Awesome thread.. sounds like a sweet volunteer job!

[ZimBag]

i did a scorer for the mga in new jersey for the met open. it was a great time. it was 2 years ago and i was just going to high school and the one guy in my group cameron wilson (plays for stanford now) was chill after the round he was nice enough to talk to me about golf and give me tips on being a better player. is there an age limit to do scoring for the pga?

[sunnyboy]

Thats awesome man, Im not gonna lie im kinda jealous. How did you go about doing this?

[BuckyBadger]

Mark Wilson from Wisconsin! Great guy. Wish I had his swing. I'm very jealous of you. Sounds like a great experience. Have a wonderful weekend and I hope you post some more.

[zm231]

Great thread! Looking forward to tomorrows update.

[maddog4546]

Good post, thanks for sharing.

[BENNYSUPREME]

Don't sleep on that 904f 3 wood.

[Golfwolf]

Great story, I would love to do that someday, hope that you manage to get todays round completed.

[craz-e]

Thanks for posting, you have a sweet job there always nice to hear from guys like yourself who get to walk the course with the pros.

[jokerusn]

Thanks guys! I got this job the first time by being the 5th person to sign up as a volunteer. Then, the committee chair had my name and I had an in by getting advanced notice of the signup. Today will be interesting. I will update everyone this afternoon on today's group.

[jokerusn]

Saturday's group: Rickie Fowler, Bryce Molder and Kevin Stadler.

[nitram]

Sweet gig

[moonshine]

Wow, a surprise to see Stadler made it. Have fun, wonder what the rip'd nv is like?

[Br1an02;]

I guess Wagner must have changed his putter then. I caddied for him not too long ago in a pro am and he had a sweet oil can Newport.

[jokerusn]

Here's a couple things I heard today:

(referring to Poulter) "He must've gotten dressed in the dark."

"if you skip the last two holes, you're in the mix"

[jbrunone]

[quote name='jokerusn' timestamp='1314467071' post='3523458']
Here's a couple things I heard today:

(referring to Poulter) "He must've gotten dressed in the dark."

"if you skip the last two holes, you're in the mix"
[/quote]

hahahhh nice, sweet gig walking with fowler. Awesome guy

[2over]

Excellent report, thanks! Enjoyed that very much. Especially like hearing about their ball flights and how often they hit a scrappy shot!

Please give reports for Sat. and Sun.!

[GatorNate11]

Can't wait to hear about today. My boy Rickie is one of my favorite players on tour.

[jokerusn]

Added Saturday recap.

[AP2 712]

KJ was using an R11 on Friday

[moonshine]

Great stuff! I noticed DJ's putter on TV as he flubbed up that hole and I think missed the next round. Yes, I agree, Poulter looked terrible with that outfit on. Congrats on a fun weekend, except your weather. CJ

[jokerusn]

[quote name='TP Ghosted' timestamp='1314565640' post='3525767']
KJ was using an R11 on Friday
[/quote]

He wasn't on Saturday. I was surprised because I saw him using the R11 earlier in the week too. It almost looked like a FT-9 from the sole.

[PaulFitz]

Very jealous you got to walk with Rickie on saturday.... Love that kid

[Pondy]

Good stuff! Thanks for the all the excellent observations

[Ham Solo]

Great read! Thanks for sharing.

[pickerjohn]

Very good report, I like your style.

this is the kind of post I like to read.

[OnTheRocks]

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience at the Barclay's!