Wade reaches 60th year as a PGA TOUR volunteer

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Phyllis Wade is sheepish about all of the attention she's been getting lately. All this fuss seems a bit baffling to the modest volunteer, who worked tirelessly in the media center on Thursday.

Jack Fleming Photography / www.jackfleming.com

Phyllis Wade was recognized for her dedication by the Northern Trust Open.

This week marked her 60th year helping out at the Northern Trust Open, a tournament she first knew as the Los Angeles Open back in 1948. So much more than the name has changed since she was thrust into duty that year, both in golf and the world.

Those were different times, of course. World War II had concluded a few years prior and the world, with the help of the 1948 Marshall Plan, was rebuilding. It was the year of the infamously erroneous "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline, which of course proved false when Harry S. Truman was re-elected as president that fall. And, when Wade first stepped up as a volunteer, Mahatma Gandhi had just been killed.

Ben Hogan won the tournament that year. Wade has watched all the greats, from Hogan, Sam Snead and Gene Littler in their prime to junior golfers Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

"Gene was always fun to watch because he had a great swing and he was nice person," Wade recalls. "Ben Hogan and his wife were really great. Same with Barbara Nicklaus. She's absolutely remarkable and has so much grace and a memory that you wouldn't believe."

This sweet woman, who has spent nearly eight decades on earth and over a half century associated with the golf world, has watched more PGA TOUR players grow up than she can remember.

"Tiger Woods was a great kid. When I first met him, he was very into golf, as most juniors are. Mickelson was also in that era," Wade said.

"I still think of some of the now Champions Tour players as young people since that's the way I became friends with them. I don't think of them as being on the Champions Tour. I think of them being the young guy I watched grow up."

Bing Crosby. Arnold Palmer. Bob Hope. Jack Nicklaus. Andy Williams. Lee Trevino. Sammy Davis Jr. Wade's list of PGA TOUR and Hollywood celebrity encounters might make others green with envy, but she's fiercely loyal and is reluctant to speak about her famous friends.

Her various duties -- she's been everything from a walking scorer and a media center volunteer to a babysitter and a chauffeur -- have allowed her to meet people from all walks of life. Wade's walked hundreds of miles of golf course and made friends with players' spouses, children, golf writers and other volunteers.

"All have become pretty good friends and I've been invited to weddings and they share baby pictures. It's been a lot of fun meeting great people. The golf courses are gorgeous to walk. It's not like sitting at a tennis tournament moving your head back and forth."

As a volunteer, the California native has worked PGA TOUR, Champions Tour, LPGA Tour and charity events in California, Arizona, Florida and Texas. At one point, Wade worked 12 weeks in a row, took two weeks off then worked for four more weeks.

She's not sure how many tournaments she's volunteered at exactly -- "other people were estimating horribly big figures and I thought there's no way I could have done that many" -- but suffice it to say it's in the hundreds. Sometimes, she travels around the country not as a volunteer but to simply watch golf.

She's not too bad with a golf club and a golf ball herself and has gotten around Riviera Country Club, Winged Foot Golf Club, Atlanta Country Club and other enviable tracks a time or two. Though her legs no longer allow her to play the game, she's remained close to the game all because a one of her friends who was a member at Riviera volunteered her to assist with the 1948 L.A. Open.

"He said, 'Phyllis will help' then he told me what he said and I said 'ok'," Wade said. " 'Well, I'll do this one' I thought, then someone else would call so I'd go and do that one. 'Can you come back for next year?' they'd ask and I said 'Sure, if I'm able.'

"After 20 years, I thought maybe I'll try to get to 25. Then I kept trying for another five years and so on. I've met some really great people that are gone now."

When she started, the Internet wasn't around nor were computers or the handheld electronic devices that allow walking scorers to transmit data from the course. She's had to adapt to new technology but hasn't let ever-changing protocol or anything else stop her from working hard at whatever job the tournament needs.

"If they didn't have volunteers, it'd be almost impossible to put a tournament on. There are so many jobs involved and volunteers can choose to work long hours every day. Sometimes I start by 5:30 a.m. and sometimes I don't leave until 10:30 p.m. It depends on which jobs I'm doing and how many jobs per day, what have you."

She's given so much to golf in California and across the country that it's hard to fathom. This week, the Northern Trust Open honored Wade for her 60th year of service with a giant cake and a crystal bowl.

"The cake was beautiful and almost everyone that turned out, photographers, writers and all were in the room. I got red faced because I wasn't expecting it but was very nice and very thoughtful."