THESE HELPERS COME FROM AROUND
THE UNITED STATES, AND MANY HAVE BEEN
RETURNING FOR A DECADE OR MORE.
BLAZER BRIGADE Blue suit jackets signify importance and are worn by rules officials or gallery-guard supervisors.
2022 edition. “There is no other tour- nament in the world that thinks of ev- erything the way the Masters does,” the South African said.
In addition to managing the gallery guards, the supervisors are armed with phones programmed to automatically dial 911 or 6911 (the non-emergency dis- patch number) in case a patron suffers medical distress. The supervisors also coordinate evacuation of players and caddies during weather delays, which means they were busy during the 2023 Masters. The supervisors react with such promptness to evacuation protocols that Louis Oosthuizen went out of his way to compliment them during the
extravagant Berckmans Place, where VIPs watch the action on big screens in the comfort of air-conditioning and limitless upscale food and beverage. Well, maybe not you. They don’t let your kind in there, but ask your better- connected friends about it.
BLUE JACKETS (maintenance division)
This might be as thankless a job as one can imagine, although the folks who mill around the clubhouse sweeping and picking up stray litter – we’re talk- ing about the tiniest bits of flotsam here – at least get to rub shoulders with some of the players.
JACKETS (suit division)
Blue suit jackets are reserved for rules officials – usually two per hole – and for the volunteer job of gallery-guard supervisors, who are kind of a big deal.
60 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
MARCH/APRIL 2024
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