NORTON - Lots of room, lots of stories. That is the overwhelming sense one has for the staging of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston since 2003 and this year was no different.
With an expansive course amid large areas of wetlands, the walk is a beautiful one, though it isn't one of New England's traditional courses - short treks from green to tee, and easy crossovers from the front nine to the back nine. No, with TPC Boston you are committed to the front or the back, but that is only a minor deterrent when you are there for a week and the images are everywhere.
To whit:
It was a few minutes before 8 Friday morning and the Round 1 lead group off the back was on the 13th. But there was a PGA Tour official rolling 12-footers at the 15th green to determine whether the hole location would earn a stamp of approval. His first roll broke differently than he anticipated, so he scowled. When he tried it a second time, it went dead-center, so he retrieved the ball and moved on. Obviously, the hole location was fine.That same morning, with the dew still fresh and the air quiet, Mark Wilson stands on the 12th green and nearly jumps out of his golf shoes. Wild turkeys in the woods cared little about keeping the peace.The stands to the left of the par-3 16th green are empty as the first group approaches in the morning of Round 1, but quietly watching the action is superintendent Tom Brodeur. The green was redone a year ago and he wanted to see how players handled it.If there was a hard-to-forget voice at this year's tournament, it perhaps belonged to Phil Yagoda, whose 4-year-old son, Ian, is living with a brain tumor. Tirelessly working to call attention to children with similar conditions, Yagoda - a managing director with Deutsche Bank - went to a store where he lives in Atlanta, the House of Fleming, and purchased blue alligator belts and had a buckle put on with the initial IFF. It stands for "Ian's Friends Foundation" and it is Yagoda's goal to raise awareness of the disease and raise funds to help combat it. He has used the FedEx Cup playoff tournaments to promote the cause and he had a list of players come to his aid. Adam Scott, Fred Couples, Charley Hoffman, Camilo Villegas, and Anthony Kim did not hesitate to slip on the belt. Kim went even further - to the highest bidder at an auction that will benefit IFF, the 23-year-old two-time winner will play a round of golf with a foursome. "He offered that up, gave me his cell phone and e-mail, and couldn't have been nicer," said Yagoda. Jim Furyk didn't hesitate to accept the belt. "It's not hard to do," he said. Cheryl and Phil Yagoda have been overwhelmed by the support. "There's an awful lot of good out there when a lot of bad is going on," Phil said.
With a deft up-and-down Saturday at the par-3 eighth, his 17th hole, Phil Mickelson remains 2 under for the tournament, knowing another birdie might be needed to make the cut. Pressure? Sure, but when he spots a young girl standing by the ninth tee, Mickelson nods her way and as if on cue, caddie Jim Mackay takes out a golf ball and gives it to her. Good teamwork there and it remained so a few minutes later when Mackay says something to the lefthander on the ninth green. Nodding his head, Mickelson steps up and curls in a 12-foot, left-to-right birdie to get to 3 under, which indeed gets him in on the number.A nice idea was the Kids' Zone, which sits beside the 18th green where players come out of the scoring trailer. But it would be better if the kids would stop demanding hats, balls, towels, shoes, visors, sunglasses, etc. Maybe they could learn from Colby Lewis of Scituate, who was twice rewarded without asking for anything. He received a signed golf glove from Ken Duke one day, and while standing quietly by the 18th tee Monday, he heard Kim call out and extend to him his golf club.Keri Giangrande of Ashland played softball at Fairfield but has come to love golf.So much, in fact, that she took time off from her job in human resources with Supercuts to be one of a whopping 1,800 people who volunteered to marshal, drive carts, operate scoreboards, work concession stands, and keep those in the media center content, which is perhaps the toughest job of all. It is a number that never ceases to amaze me - 1,800 - and while we often ask if players appreciate the volunteers, I wonder if those of us in the media appreciate them. Giangrande worked for Sue Hill, whose team once again shined.
As for the winner, Vijay Singh, he continued a story line to this championship that speaks volumes for the course and the TPC Boston staff. The winners in five of the six Deutsche Bank Championships have been ranked 40th (Adam Scott), second (Singh), first (Tiger Woods), third (Mickelson), and fifth (Singh). A quality ending for a championship built around quality.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
Phil Mickelson and caddie Jim Mackay made for a friendly pair at the Deutsche Bank Championship Saturday - even when the pressure was on.
(Travis dove/for the globe)
