With the KitchenAid Senior PGA championship now underway at Harbor Shores, the area is teeming with golfers, caddies, PGA staff, police, and volunteers.
We told you this week there are more than 1,000 volunteers from all over the country helping stage the event. One of them, Jon Gable, told us he’s been helping out since 2014, and in addition to the sense of accomplishment one gets from being involved in a major event, it’s just plain fun to be there.
“I just love the event, of course love what the event does in terms of all the excitement it brings to the community, to the area,” Jon said. “Then the cherry on top is we just had this opportunity to kind of make it really fun by getting together as a big group. So, a bunch of family, a bunch of friends.”
Aaron Youngstedt has been a volunteer every two years since the first year the championship was held at Harbor Shores, in 2012. So, how has it changed since then?
“The first year, I think this community was really trying to figure it out,” Aaron said. “I think we were trying to figure out how do you host a major event that’s never been done here before? But now that we’ve done it for 12 years, you really get it to a well-oiled machine.”
With this being the championship’s last year in Benton Harbor, volunteer Ryan Smith told us the three may have to hit the road to help out at other locations in the future.
All volunteers are out there each day to ensure there are no disruptions to play on the course. That could mean quieting the crowd, finding errant balls, or stopping someone from wandering into the field of play.
Aaron said when you volunteer at the PGA event, the experience is what you make it, and one fun part of it is filling in fans on which golfers are coming through at any given time.
