Eighteen Holes Carrying the Score Sign

Inside the ropes with a former PGA champion at the 50th Buick Open

by Marty Bernstein

Tiger Woods is one of the most recognized people in the world and certainly the world's best professional golfer. Last year, as part of my quest to do George Plimpton-like things, I was going to be a standard bearer (fancy golf talk for carrying the score sign) for Tiger during a round at the annual Buick Open tournament in Grand Blanc, Mich.

Good idea, but bad timing. Tiger skipped the 2007 tournament to stay home with his wife and new baby. No gig for me. This year everything had been arranged with the Buick people—Woods has a huge endorsement deal with Buick—for me to be a standard bearer for him during one round of the 2008 tournament.

But, as golf fans know well, after winning the U.S. Open on June 16, Tiger needed a knee operation. Once again he was to miss the Buick Open, which this year was the 50th anniversary of the tournament.

For a moment there, it appeared that again I'd be denied. Undaunted, I pitched Buick to let me carry the standard for long-hitting John Daly, pro golf's perennial bad boy and arguably the second-biggest gallery favorite among current golf professionals.

My pitch was accepted and in late June, I drove to the Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc to get my marching orders. I was one of several hundred volunteers.

Donning the Uniform

But I was older, a lot older. Most of the volunteers were 14- to 17-year-old kids. The manager of caddying operations said to me: "You want to do what? It's over four miles of walking in the rough up and down while carrying a 30-pound sign that must be changed as the scores change. And it's gonna be 85 degrees or more with matching humidity. Can you do it?" Enthusiastically, but somewhat warily, I accepted the challenge. "Be here by 6:30 a.m. tomorrow. John's got an early tee time," he said.

First, I needed appropriate attire. The kids wore special T-shirts; I was to wear a special Buick Open golf shirt and matching cap. I arrived a half-hour early and met Al Abrams, the Buick Open's public-relations director, who provided the garb.

Then a short walk to the staging area where I was given a blue canvas apron-like thing that tied in the back—the skinny kids wrapped it around their waist—which had 10 different pockets to hold the plastic number cards I'd be changing during the round. Red numbers signified under par; black, over par. The letter "E" for even par was in green.

Then I was handed the large green plastic frame with at least a three-foot-long pole. The names of the golfers I'd be carrying for were already slotted with their scores from Round One the previous day. "Hold the sign above your head, parallel to the galleries, while walking from one hole to the next. It's O.K. to put it down when on the tee box or the green, but that's all. Hold it high, hold it proudly."

Changing the score numbers required pushing the plastic cards into slots that ran on both sides of the standard. More instructions: "It's important to change the numbers of each golfer quickly…and before going to the next tee. The fans in the gallery want correct scores. You'll be walking with an official scorer who will have the correct number if you don't."

Words of Advice

And the final, cautionary words: "Don't cough, sneeze, chew gum, make noise of any kind when the pros are teeing off and certainly not when they putt. Stand out of their sight line when and wherever they hit the ball. Don't speak to them unless they speak first. Oh, bathroom breaks only at the seventh and 13th holes—and make it fast. Have a good time out there and good luck. If you get tired and need to quit, have a marshal call me and I will get a replacement for you."