“My Life as a Golf Marshall”: So What is a Good Day as a Golf Marshall?

Perfect days are rare for a Golf Marshall! On a rare occasion I start my horrific week-end shift by cruising out in my golf cart and feel the warmth of Synchronicity! By this I mean everything is flowing beautifully! The spacing and pace is like some ballet. I have an overall picture of the entire course humming like an assembly line. No glitches. No gaps. It is a rare beauty to see and experience. The evils of hackers and the etiquette starved somehow do not exist. This beauty is rarely experienced. For example today with rain reducing golfers by 60% there is a foursome that is 20 minutes behind. Unbelievable but true!

So a perfect day is rare indeed and what gets my throttle going is a manageable problem of slow, stupid, inconsiderate or simply ignorant golfers. I am a manager at a fish processing plant. Get that assembly line flowing. Intoxicated, stoned and laggards are my challenges but I can’t fire any of them. Only encourage in a sweet and sappy voice to help me. A castrated manager! Of course, if matters get bad the golfers can phone the pro shop and complain and then my phone rings and shit I have a problem. So and so golfer knows a contact in the pro shop I then hear about it and am expected to solve a jam up despite the fact I may be working on a jam up at the opposite end of the course. It’s who you know isn’t it!

Yes I circle back and let the suffering golfers know I am working on the problem and they are appreciative of that. I say to myself isn’t amazing a newbie like me has not been fired! But at least I know customer service which is the same whether you are working on multi billion dollar financing deals or dealing with a bunch of irritable and even stoned or pickled golfers. Going back to H. Rap Brown in the nasty 1960’s in his seminal “Die Nigger Die” I am a servant stating “Yessum” and “Please Sir”.

But many a golfer will look at me and say thank you for helping me make their day better. That makes me feel like I have made their golfing experience better. That I care about them instead of a lurking and spying Marshall that says speed it up and limits golfer contact to that.

I simply want respect and I strive to give that respect to the “offenders” and the “complainers”. If I can get that and management only focuses on the problems, I think they disrespect me as one who has the best overall picture of what is going on! As Aretha Franklin song goes RESPECT!