Friday, February 3, 2012, was our final day to be junior course reporters for the First Tee of Phoenix at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. After arriving at 7:30am and freezing my toes off, I wandered around the practice area hoping to see some of the best players warming up. Soon enough, I see Camilo Villegas putting on the practice green. However 8:00am came too soon and I had to report back to the Expo Tent to meet up with Miranda and First Tee Coach Pete.

We started off the day by having a little breakfast and then heading over to the famous sixteenth hole to watch a few groups come through, while we cheered for some and booed others. After that, Miranda and I stopped by the leaderboard crew to see how they keep up with all the scores. We met with Henry Rosenweig Jr., the Chairman of the Board for the Thunderbirds. He told us all about the board, like how it is all metal and how the numbers and letters are magnets. Also, he told us how hard it is to not fall behind with what’s happening out on the course. It takes a lot of man power, but they only have to worry about six to ten players, so it’s not too overwhelming.

After that, we rested for a little while on a hill overlooking the ninth green. We watched a few pairings come through, just enjoying a beautiful February morning. Next we interview a lady that has been volunteering for the Phoenix Open for twenty years. She says she loves all the chaos and “mess” that is brought to the TPC of Scottsdale. She loves meeting new people while on the job, and has to supervise five to nine volunteers at all times. She also volunteers at the Fiesta Bowl, and works at Chase Field.

We then headed out to the PGA Tour headquarters trailer and we find Wade Stettner, a Meteorologist for the PGA Tour. Wade lives in Minneapolis, and has been a meteorologist on tour for eight years. He tells us what he does during a tournament, saying that the job out here in Arizona is one of the easiest in the business, for its lack of weather issues. There are five meteorologists that work for the tour, and they all work about twenty tournaments a year. Mr. Stettner gets all his weather information from the internet, relaying important weather issues to the head of the tournament.

It was lunch time then, so we headed down to the media lunch area to have some grub, then Miranda and I walked over to the tournament merchandise tent. We interviewed two men from ASU’s ROTC. They told us that ASU contacted the Phoenix Open, offering their ROTC members to help volunteer the tournament. This was one man’s third year of volunteering, while the other has been volunteering for only two. They both told us they like to interact with people and that’s why they like volunteering at the Phoenix Open so much. Not knowing who else we could interview, we noticed that Rickie Fowler was going to tee off soon and that it would be nice to see him play a hole or two. We sped ahead to the fourth hole, a par three, and waited for Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson to arrive. It was fun to be able to sit and watch players come through, for our day had been full of excitement and I was quite tired. When the time came for the featured group to come through, we had a prime position to watch them. After they had finished the hole and hit their next tee shots, it was time for us to get back and start blogging our experience of the day.

Today was a great way to conclude our time as Junior Course Reporters. We got the chance to go places I had never thought of going before and I even got to have a conversation with a caddie. These last two days will be with me for the rest of my life and I thank The First Tee of Phoenix and the Waste Management Phoenix Open for giving me this opportunity to see into the window of what a real course reporter actually does.

Miranda Reyes
First Tee of Phoenix Correspondent
Friday, February 3, 2012

The sun is finally out and the frost is fully melted off of the grass, it is time to play some golf. We scurried over to the sixteenth hole to watch Bubba and the stands were slowing beginning to fill up. The stands behind hole number 17 were empty, so we decided to watch Bubba and his fully pink driver make an attempt to drive the 332 par 4. After watching Bubba, we parked ourselves on a hill overseeing the driving range and number 9 green, playing through were crowd favorites Angel Cabrera, Camilo Villegas, and Mark Calcavavecchia.

Of course following the feature group of the afternoon was a must, so we watched Rickie, Phil, and Dustin play through number four in the afternoon. We were privileged to meet Harry Rosenweig. He is one of the Thunderbirds in charge of the manual metal scoreboard just above the 18th green. The recycled massive board has been around since 1995 and Mr. Rosenweig has found that the public prefers manual scoreboards versus electronic. One cool thing about the scoreboard is that they can display special messages, just yesterday they had congratulated Kenny Perry’s son on getting engaged.

Wade Stettner is the official PGA Tour meteorologist for the Waste Management Phoenix Open. He attends almost every other tournament on the PGA Tour, which would be roughly twenty tournaments a year. The only piece of equipment that he travels with is a machine to track lightning. He has been on the PGA meteorologist team for about eight years now and he is from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Weather was perfect here in Arizona and it made Mr. Stettner’s job very simple this week.

The Arizona State University ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program is volunteering at the merchandise tent for the tournament and we had the chance to talk to some members of the ROTC. The members have at least two pairs of combat boots one for the warm weather and one for the cold weather. Cold weather combat boots are insulated around the ankle, while the warmer weather boots have no insulation. One of the members told me their favorite drink is coke and if they could go anywhere in the world they would choose Germany.

Junior course reporting was one for the books; I will surely never forget the amazing interactions and places I got to see. I have made memories that I will never forget from visiting the Shotlink truck, meeting tons of fun Thunderbirds, and even nicknaming Rickie Fowler, Rickie Ricardo because of his mustache. I loved being able to meet tons of amazing people running the tournament, volunteering in the tents and even caddies who all work their tails off. Reporting and being in this atmosphere these last two days only influenced and helped strengthen me not only as a golfer, but as a person as well. Hanging out inside the ropes, listening in on interviews and seeing the behind-the-scenes of the whole tournament was truly a one of a kind experience.

Miranda Reyes
First Tee of Phoenix Correspondent
Thursday, February 2, 2012

SCOTTSDALE, Az — After an hour frost delay, we started off the freezing morning meeting Robbie Ware, a rules official with the PGA Tour. He has been a rules official at the Waste Management Phoenix Open for about thirteen years. There are about fourteen members on the PGA Tour rules committee that travels to the different tournaments around the country, with only seven or eight officials at each event. He stated that his favorite tournament to officiate was the Shell Houston Open, as that is in his hometown. The Thunderbirds, who put on The Phoenix Open, surprisingly have nothing to do with the pairings; it is all just based on when they have television coverage and who they want to feature.

We had made our way back to the clubhouse, where the media center is and we met the “club valet”. His name was Drew Ricker, and he is actually the outside services for TPC Scottsdale. He mentioned that all of the outside service staff was spread throughout the course during tournament week and some shifted to work at the other course on site (The Champions Course). His job for the week was to store and protect the player’s clubs; he told us that there was a time when a player came with thirty different putters in one bag and the next day fifteen different 56 degree wedges. He’s always getting the inside scoop on the players and he gets excited when he hears from the players that they are eager to get started.

Rickie, Rickie, Rickie, all the girls want a picture with him and all the boys respect him. He is surely a crowd favorite at the glorious tournament in the valley of the sun. Of course I am talking about none other than Rickie Fowler. Rickie had the fun opportunity to play with some of his buddies Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. They all seemed to enjoy themselves out there today. We had the chance to talk to his caddy “Joe” and he told me that the way Rickie marks his ball is really nothing fancy, just a simple orange dot on the left of the “T” of Titleist. He had also mentioned that Rickie travels with about ten pairs of shoes; he is fully stocked with his orange sharpies and tees to represent his school, Oklahoma State University.

After we watched some player interviews, we migrated to the Allegheny Sports Medicine truck. Inside there were about three bikes, two treadmills, tons of heavy weights, spaces to stretch and places to use resistance bands to stretch. The players usually come two hours before their tee times and then once their rounds are complete they go into the truck to lift heavier weights and get a good workout in. On the truck they had all different sizes of Nike tennis shoes and clothes for them to change into as well. Players are watching golf coverage on two televisions in the truck while they are exercising. The sports medicine employees inside the truck are stretching out the players on mats to help them loosen up before a round.

Towards the end of the day we had the privilege to interview John Bridger, the executive director of the Thunderbirds. I had asked him if he could play in a foursome with anyone, and he responded “Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods.” Mr. Bridger said his favorite course to play is the infamous Pebble Beach in Monterey County, California. If you ever see the necklaces that the Thunderbirds are wearing they do have a special significance. Beads are earned by assignments they complete, such as selling things, and you earn more beads the longer you have been in the group. Once you become 45 years of age you then become a life member and you get a turquoise bead on your pendant, until this age you only have the silver beads. Silver beads can also be traded in for turquoise.

Avery Veitel
First Tee of Phoenix Correspondent
Thursday, February 2, 2012

SCOTTSDALE, Az — Today was the first day of competitive play at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Miranda Reyes and I, Avery Veitel , had the opportunity to be junior course reporters for The First Tee of Phoenix. We interviewed many people for a blog on pgatour.com. We had the opportunity to interview people like rules officials, Shotlink crew members and even a caddie. Today was filled with an abundant amount of information, information that is very interesting and eye opening in its own unique way.

First off, we walked around the practice area, finding the pairing that we wanted to partly watch. We decided to follow the featured group of the morning. This pairing included Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and my favorite golfer, Rickie Fowler. The crowd following this group was gigantic, persuading us to just watch them play the first hole. While watching we met a rules official, Robbie Ware and we stopped to chat with him for awhile. He has been working as a rules official for thirteen years on tour. His job consists of reviewing rules sheets, formulating the tournament pairings and even setting the stimp meter on the greens. All of the rules officials are really on top of it at the tournament.

Shotlink Trailer at WM Phoenix Open

Next, we traveled over to the Shotlink trailer and met with the administrator of the trailer, Mario Gallegos. Mr. Gallegos has been working for Shotlink for twelve years. He is in charge of all the information that comes on board the trailer. It then is sent out to the media to be displayed on scoreboards and television screens everywhere. We then got to see all the people working for Shotlink. They were all focused and committed to their job. One person was talking to volunteers that were lasering shots on the course, while someone else was communicating with others inside the ropes to double check on the shots the players hit. It only takes a meager eight to fourteen seconds to record the information and send it out to the media.

Next, we got a bite to eat, then headed off to the Allegheny Sports Medicine trailer to see how the pros workout on the tour. Players usually arrive to work out in the trailer two hours before their round. This includes a light jog on a treadmill, biking a bit or even some pre-round stretching. This trailer was able to hold a whopping two treadmills, three bicycles, an elliptical and lots of room to stretch. After a players round, players will come back to the trailer and workout with heavier weight to stay toned and strong.

Now came the best part of the day, post-round interviews of caddies and professionals. As Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, and Dustin Johnson came off the course and into the scoring area, Miranda and I made our moves. First, Miranda got a picture with Rickie Fowler, while I listened in on an interview of Dustin Johnson. After Mr. Fowler had his interview, it was my turn to intercept him. I got an autograph of his, which was exactly what I was waiting for. Miranda was totally in awe of him, which was funny to watch. We hit another stroke of luck: Rickie Fowler’s caddie, Joe Skovron was all by himself waiting for Rickie to sign autographs. We went up to him and asked a few questions. He was very polite, and gave us the time to answer all our questions in full.

We had one more very important interview with John Bridger, the executive director of the Thunderbirds. Mr. Bridger has been a Thunderbird for twenty years, and has loved every minute of it. This is his tenth Phoenix Open he has overseen and has observed many changes in the tournament. His job is to spread information out to the public, along with handling individual problems. He says that the size of the tournament is a challenge, but nothing too hard to control. We thanked him for his time, and headed off to start our blogs.

Today was such a great learning experience, one that has taught me many things in the communication department of golf. I met many people and learned many things from each one of them. I hope to learn even more tomorrow and interview even more people.

Mark Wilson & Family

Wilson’s win was accompanied by a fair amount of drama. Despite birdying No. 18 in each the first three rounds, on his fourth try he took an overly aggressive line to the left, barley carrying the water hazard before coming to rest in a fairway bunker. He made par from there to force a playoff, and it was back to the 18th tee. Perhaps overcompensating for slight tug minutes earlier, Wilson drove it into a bunker on the other side of the fairway. Again, he saved par. In the end, Wilson slammed the door on Dufner with birdie No. 10. He is now 2-0 in playoffs, with his first coming in 2007 at the Honda Classic.

“The playoff was fun,” said Wilson. “Hit a bad tee shot as you’d probably expect. Hit the first one left; got to make sure not to make that mistake again, so I hit it right. Made par with a two-putt from a mile away. That was an easy putt on 10. Just thankfully I started it on line and knocked it in.”

Wilson and the rest of the field overcame unusually cold weather that resulted in frost delays during the week. In fact, the Wednesday pro-am was cancelled due to frozen turf. First time that’s ever happen at the Phoenix Open. Tour officials delayed Thursday’s round by four hours, and the guys played catch up until they finished all 72 holes on Monday. Last time that happened was in 1971 when Miller Barber won at Arizona Country Club.

Other players on the first page included Vijay Singh, who finished T3 on his way to his first top-10 finish since a T9 at the 2010 AT&T National, and his best showing since his win at the 2008 Deutsche Bank Championship. Scottsdale resident, Martin Laird, closed with rounds of 64-65 to finish T3. It was his third top-3 finish in his last eight starts. And Journeyman, Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey, held the lead for a time before fading into a tie for eighth place.

Amaris Jaurique

The second day as The First Tee Course Reporter started off a little slow due to frost delays. All we could do was to play the waiting game. While we waited, we got to see what goes on in the media room while everyone is inside, out of the cold. Once the first tee time went off it kicked off the whole day and we created some memories as our reporting skills kicked in again. We interviewed a few people that worked for the PGA Tour, like The PGA Tour Meteorologist (which was interesting considering how the weather has not been good), the person who is responsible for fulfilling all requested tickets and credentials and other jobs that are required to run this memorable tournament; we also got to interview Lance TenBroeck who is the caddy for Jesper Parnevik which was really interesting.

After that we watched some of players on course, like the group of Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Bill Haas and squeeze in a little Ricky Fowler.

Watching golf was an incredible opportunity for me and to be up close to see a golfer’s swing and how they play. We also got a chance to “experience” the infamous hole 16th and all of its crazy wonders. Then we went and asked some questions to Lucas Glover and he talked about his amazing round. Bill Haas was a very nice and incredible player that we had the chance to meet yesterday. When we had seen him today we actually talked about the blog we are writing, which I thought was really cool.

At the end of the day I highly appreciate the game of golf. Being a First Tee Course Reporter has shown me all the careers within golf and what it actually takes to produce a tournament like this one. Now I can’t wait to see who will come out winning the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Austin Groen

Another day at the open, what could possibly go wrong? How about a 4 hour frost delay for starters! Insane weather patterns shaped the day, however despite this I had another amazing experience. We began the day waiting patiently for play to begin and feasting on the always delicious breakfast provided to us. At about 11 we made our visit to arguably the hottest spot on the course, the PGA Tour Headquarters, where the head weather man resided. After asking him a few questions we learned that the weather was unexpected, and there was honestly no way to expedite the thawing process. Although the weather man did expect more frost delays to come in future days, he was cautiously optimistic that a Monday finish would not be necessary.

After, we met with the caddie for Jesper Parnevik, Lance TenBroeck, along with a TPC Scottsdale employee in charge of booking all Corporate Outings and Special Event tee times; we made our way to the pro shop. There we encountered the Head Professional for The TPC Stadium and Champions Course, Greg Wolfe, who answered our questions about the Open and what responsibilities he had in it; one interesting thing was that he worked his way from outside services up to the position of Head Golf Professional over 7 years, wow, what an accomplishment!

Following that interview our day truly began, we made our way out to the course where me and my fellow reporters followed the featured morning group for several holes, along with the South American only group which consisted of Camilo Villegas, “Jhonny” Vegas, and Angel Cabrera. For an aspiring golfer such as myself, watching these men was inspiring. Their precision on every shot was uncanny, and they all shared a similar unwavering focus. Specifically the moment I remember most vividly was when Phil Mickelson, Bill Haas, and Bubba Watson all hit their shots within 6 feet of the pin on Hole 4, a par three. I can honestly say that watching this incredible display of golf has inspired me to go to the driving range tomorrow!

Returning from the golf course, we stood near the scoring table, waiting to hear the professionals get interviewed and maybe pick up a few tips to help our own reporting skills. I was impressed to see how kind and patient the players were with fans, and how they spent tens of minutes signing autographs.

The day was fun, relaxing, and interesting, and although I am sad that it was my last day as a Junior Course Reporter, I cannot wait until next year! Thank you to The First Tee of Phoenix and Phoenix Thunderbirds for this amazing opportunity!

Kamio Espindola

The second day started off very similar to the first, here at the TPC Scottsdale. Weather delays held back tee times for all the players. It wasn’t until four hours from the original tee times that the players got to go out and do what they do best.

We talked to Wade Steffner, the PGA Tour’s meteorologist about the past two days. He said that this was the first time that the Tour had lost an entire day’s play due to the cold. He said it wasn’t a stressful day but a waiting game.

While we were waiting for the weather delays to end, we were able to talk to Mia Wells about her job with the Thunderbirds. Her job is to manage all the tickets to the tournament as well as provide photo credentials for everybody that needs them. It’s a tough job when the Waste Management Phoenix Open as the most attended golf event in the World. I also learned that the most money that they have made off of this tournament is eight million dollars! We were also able to talk real quick with Lance TenBroeck, who is Jesper Parnevik’s caddy, Kevin Labuda, who is the coordinator for corporate events at TPC and Greg Wolf who is the Head Professional at the TPC Scottsdale.

The rest of the day was filled with non-stop golf. We were able to see the greats come by and hit amazing shots all across the course. Man, these guys are good.

One of the highlights of my day was being able to see Bill Haas play and get to talk to him after his round. He was very kind and asked me how my blogging was going for The First Tee Junior Course Reporters. I don’t think I will ever forget that.

The ending of my day was also great. I was able to sit in on Lucas Glover’s post round interview and hear about his new beard, check it out!

My experience with The First Tee Course Reporters was definitely memorable. I appreciate the opportunity and thank everyone involved.