The ShopRite LPGA Classic requires several hundred volunteers to help the popular tournament remain as successful as its over 30-year history represents.
Here is how one part of that group contributes.
Gerard Burton is among dozens of volunteers that kept the Seaview Resort practice range running smoothly from sunrise to sunset.
“I am a retired project manager by trade, so it comes naturally for me to jump in. I’ve been supporting this tournament for five years,” he said. “The first thing is to make sure the players have all the balls that they need. Some players hit Titleist because of their ball contract, some hit Callaway. We make sure both are available – anybody who is exempted can just hit whatever’s available.”
The Seaview staff retrieve the balls from the landing areas and handle preliminary cleaning and sorting.
“They sort the yellow balls are used by the amateurs. The white balls come over to us. We sit down and separate them into Titleist or Callaway,” Burton said. “The other thing we do is work our way along each of the stalls where they’re doing their driving, warmups and stuff, and we look for empty baskets. We pick up leftover balls, broken tees, and large divots.”
These Pro Vs have a special red “Tour” imprint. Burton said, “I’ll get a Titleist Pro V with a No. 7 on it, or a No. 4 on it, and I’ll know right away those aren’t the ones because they don’t have the red ‘Tour’ letters on them. When the driving range guy goes around and picks up the balls he’s picking up everything. We toss them inside the tent here, an extra bucket that we throw them into. They want their balls to be new and consistent.”
The volunteers also maintain four buckets of clean water for the caddies. “We usually swap the buckets out every 45 minutes just to make sure the towels and the club cleaning can be done,” he said. “And then we have responsibility for the two chipping greens. The caddies are patient and appreciative of us because they know we’re volunteering.”
The range operation requires more than 2,000 golf balls. For the ShopRite, this meant 12 Titleist Pro V boxes, each holding 168 balls, along with six similar boxes of Callaway Chrome Softs.
The volunteers work in two shifts, with the first one starting at 5:30 a.m. and the second coming in at 1 p.m.
Burton said, “They were looking for 10 per shift, but it’s averaged about six or seven. It’s a workable number. We’re loving every minute of it.”
Several came from the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard at Atlantic City International Airport. Range committee co-chair Stephen Kolos, who works for the Department of Veterans Affairs, introduced me to Mike Hodsdon and Chris Maryinuk.
And in case you wondered, these “Tour” balls go back to the manufacturers at the end of the event.
Local club competition results
The Mulligan’s Pointe Ladies played a team 1, 2, 3 Best Ball game July 29.
Peggy Claussen, Donna Dolce, Penni Hope, and Wendy Michaelson won first place, with the Marge Amodei, Tammy Bresnahan, Valerie Grib and Brenda Lewis in second.
The Kings Creek CC Ladies 9-Holers played an Individual Net Stableford game July 29.
Sherry Schaffer won the first flight, with Tish Brey in second, Martha Jaxheimer in third and Chris Paisecki in fourth.
Allison Sapke took the second flight, with Joanne Yurik in second, Hope Lavachia in third and Polly Donaldson in fourth.
Barbara Morales won the third flight, with Pamela Cranston in second, Maureen Gutenstein in third and Farah Englert in fourth.
Donna Romer took the fourth flight, with Terry Barrera in second, Brenda Schilli in third and Margaret Connors in fourth.
The Kings Creek Ladies 18-Holers played an Aces game July 29 in net and gross formats.
Jean Chlastawa won Ace gross, with Lisa Lekawa the King and Gale Dibona the Queen. Sally McGovern won Ace net, with Lynn Sweeney as King and Kathleen Nilles as Queen.
The Kings Creek CC Ladies 9-Holers played a 2, 1, 1 game July 10, in two flights.
Sandy Neverett, Rosemarie Schmidt, Prabha Karapurkar and Margaret Connors won the first flight, with Lisa Travis, Carol Silberstein, Susan Julbe and Terry Barrera in second.
Christine Emery, Dot Filbert, Stephanie Roash and Jennifer Walker won the second flight, with Kim Kavchok, Farah Englert, Kathy Andrus and Barbara Morton in second.
The Kings Creek Ladies 18-Holers played a Hate’Em game July 10, where scores from the three holes (a par three, par four and par five) voted most hated were not counted.
In the Gross category, Jacqueline Everett won the first flight, Jean Chlastawa the second flight and Leslie McClintick the third flight.
Kathleen Nilles won first net in the first flight, with Gale DiBona in second and Diane Shawver in third.
Sharon Denny won first net for the second flight, with Lesley Corydon in second and Vickie Walling in third.
Leslie Ledogar won first net in the third flight, with Margaret Moore in second and Melissa Soper taking third.
-
Fritz Schranck has been writing about the Cape Region's golf community since 1999. Snippets, stories and anecdotes from his columns are included in his new book, "Hole By Hole: Golf Stories from Delaware's Cape Region and Beyond," which is available at the Cape Gazette offices, Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, Biblion Books in Lewes, and local golf courses. His columns and book reviews are available at HoleByHole.com.
Contact Fritz by emailing fschranck@holebyhole.com.
