2020 PGA at TPC Harding Park -- Overview and Round 2

Here's an overhead view of Harding Park (I stole from NY Times).  So you can see that it's on this peninsula within Lake Merced.  Holes 16 and 17 along the lake on the right, and Hole 18 on the left.

This is our new normal.  We had to check in at the "Safety Gate" after parking at the Sunset Lot.

After passing through the gate, it's a walk across a bridge over Lake Merced to the course.  This is looking west with Hole 18 on the left and the big white tent is the broadcast booth.

Up the hill and there is the 18th green!  And yes, this is how empty the course was the entire time due to the fact that spectators were not allowed.

For those following along, this will be useful.  You'll see the Sunset Parking lot at the top of the map and the bridge and the 18th green.  Key holes are 1, 6 and 3 for those are where I was stationed for the three days I was called to volunteer.

So what did I do?  I signed up to be a "laser operator."  I literally thought I was going to be shooting "lasers" like they do for street surveyors.  But at this point, that's all done with cameras and electronics.  I ended up being one of these two guys by the green.  One person is the "Quick" meaning if the ball lands off the green, the Quick has to show where the ball lands on a map on the iPad.  This has to be done with 10 seconds.

Here's what the iPad looks like.  So the walking scorer tells me who's hitting (you'll see the player icon) and then I watch the ball and if it lands on the green, I will mark the ball in the general vicinity of where the ball is on the green and hit "PRELIMINARY".  This tells the three cameras located around the green to triangulate the location of the ball.  Then the second person, called "Final" takes over.  It was always more fun and more to do when a player hits off the green, like in a bunker!

I wondered why we were even there if the cameras were doing all the work, but I guess it's for the shot tracker online.

Then I found out it was for keeping statistics.  I actually had some interesting power because if a ball was on the fringe, I could mark it as ON or OFF the green which would affect a players "Greens in Regulation" statistic.  I was a purish, in the fringe meant off the green.

The "Final" person handles the ball once it's officially on the green and the player is putting.  If the "Quick" marks the general spot of the ball on the green and then the cameras put the ball in the location it triangulates "officially" on the "Final" screen and the person who has the "Final" iPad confirms or denies the location determined by the cameras.  It's basically being the "human" in a self-driving car, with much less at risk.  The one day I was the "Final" the cameras were never wrong.

In case you wanted to know what the lunch looked like!

So I was assigned to work on rounds 2, 3 and 4. The only really perfectly sunny day was round 2, Friday.  Here's my walk along the first hole.

This is my view from the green back down the fairway at hole 6.  This is why the walking scorer is important for the "Quick"  The walking scorer has to tell the "Quick" who's hitting the ball.

The 6th green, my view all afternoon on Friday.

I got spoiled here because there was a scoreboard I could look at.

On Friday, I was scheduled to work the afternoon, which was the second half of the field.  But I got to the green early as the end of the morning half was finishing and I got to see Bryson DeChambeau (pink).  I also watched Rickie Fowler whiff his putt and because of that miss the cut by a stroke.

So as the afternoon half of the draw came through, the name players came early.  And it turned out the sixth hole (par 4) was kind of a bogey factory.  We say two birdies the entire afternoon and lots of bogeys.

You could always tell that big name players were approaching when the mobile camera people showed up.

One of big name groups of the afternoon on Friday was Dustin Johnson

Justin Rose

Jordan Spieth

They all made par

Up next.......Tiger and Rory McIlroy

This was the "crowd" for Tiger's group.  Yeah, you're counting about 30 people, max.  By the way, the guy with the volunteer jacket (orange and blue) is my counterpart on the first day.  I was the "Quick" and he was the "Final"

As the day wrapped up, many players I didn't recognize came through.  This was an interesting situation.  This player, Luke List, hit his ball in the tall grass in front of me.  As they came up to the green, they asked me where it was and since I was the only person who saw it land.