Pebble Beach 2010 - Part 2: Morning Shift

I had my only morning shift today; and the only reason I had a morning shift at all was originally I was scheduled to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and I thought Corwyn was going to be around to take onto the course Friday.  So I switched from Friday PM to Monday AM.  And 5 minutes later (seriously, 5 minutes) I found out that the family was not going to make it.

So my shift started at 0700 this morning.  Backtracking that meant I needed to be at the front gate no later than 0630, I needed to catch the bus from the volunteer lot no later than 0545, and I needed to leave Morgan Hill no later than 0500.  But with 1st day gremlins I gave myself an extra 25 minutes, getting up at 0345, getting away by 0435, getting to the lot at 0530, but not getting into the course until 0630 as the buses were running slow.  I made it to the hole right on time and was assigned to work the fairway, left side.  The 3rd hole has a blind shot so there is an extra signaler to indicate when the coast is clear and to the marshals when the ball is coming.  Every 3rd ball though seemed to be heading my way as I was near the hidden bunkers/gully.  I ended up fishing out Angel Cabrera's ball and should have fished out Jim Furyk's ball, but it vanished into the grass.

After 3 hours of ducking and covering up every time the paddle pointed my way it was time to rotate; clockwise sending me and the 2 other guys on my side up to the green.  And then it got really slow.  My job at the green was to keep the greenside crowd quiet, keep the paying customers off the hole, and spot stray balls.  Sadly not one of those things happened.  Well, at least I had a good view of the shots down #4 and also the golfers hitting perpendicular to #17.

Finally the shift was done and I resolved to walk from #1 to #18.  That took 3 hours and wore me out.  After surviving that (it was gorgeous and I took a lot of pictures) it was time to head back to the volunteer lot and then drive the 45 minutes to Morgan Hill.  And here I am; tired but ready for another go at it tomorrow.  It'll be the afternoon shift, so I can sleep in just a bit.