It is truly one of the most cherished memories I now have.
I was playing that day with my mother-in-law Joy Fielding on the East Course at BallenIsles Country Club (formerly a PGA of America course). I was playing the golf tees 73.0/137. That day the 6th hole (190 yards) was playing 177 yards. Wind gently right to left. I hit a quite perfect 7-iron that on impact I only said,
“be good.” It was a high ball that drew gently and landed four feet in front of the hole. A member of the course staff was in his cart behind me and said, “that looks really good.” He waited and as I walked off the tee he drove up by the green (where I could not see him because the Carr oath is blocked out to the right by a tree and hedge line.
Joy and I both saw it bounce softly and roll. When the ball disappeared, I said it just had just settled behind the ridge.
As I walked toward the cart we saw the marshal walk up onto the green. Joy was incensed and asked what he was doing there. He just happened to be parked there, out of sight when it happened. He walked straight to the hole, peered down, turned down toward the tee and threw both of his arms in the air.
What happened next can only be described as a lunacy. I screamed and began running down the tee decks, along the grass and up onto the green where I almost tackled Mark Taylor (the marshal).