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J. Britt Henry, with Charles Schwab Challenge chairman Jim Whitten at left, was honored for 55 years of service to the golf tournament.
Colonial Country Club officials cut out a portion of the lunch hour to honor its most tenured volunteers.
One of those was J. Britt Henry. The 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge is his 55th as a tournament marshal. That merits one of those OMGs.
In 1967, Lyndon Johnson was president, and his 10 successors were all dreaming about becoming president.
However, Henry says his first tournament was in 1966. That was the first year that members decided they wanted to do something other than marshal the tournament. Henry, with his brother-in-law in the early years, began a decades-long association.
How committed is Henry to the job? So much so that even though the Justin Boot retiree has lived in Costa Rica for the better part of 20 years, he flies in every week of the tournament.
“My first one was 1966,” the 79-year-old relates. “Let me tell you how I know this story. I marshaled the year before my daughter was born. My daughter was born on May 15, 1967. That was a pro-am day.
“I'm up at the Harris Hospital and I told Dr. Tatum, ‘Get that girl out of here because I gotta go to the golf tournament.’ She was born at 11 and by 11:30 we’re out here at the golf tournament working the pro-am in 1967.”
Oh-ho-ho-ho. You try that kind of stunt today and Mama will have you in the basement suite of the Hotel You Go to Hell. Doesn’t matter if you’re depositing gold in the family bank account every two weeks. (Well ... .)
“Well, she’s my ex, of course, you know, now,” he says.
And then we laughed and laughed bonding over this special memory.
Marshals play important roles in the functioning of PGA Tour events, most notably in crowd control. They’re the guys you see telling spectators to use their inside voice – as in inside a library – or their not-at-all voice as players vie for a piece of millions in prize money available.
But they also play a role in monitoring holes and locating wayward shots, among many other things.
As it concerns the tournament, Brit Harry Hall, the leader after the first round was staying Churchillian strong. He maintained a lead through 13 holes by going 3-under par, as of this writing. At 11 under, he was two strokes up on Harris English, whose day included a hole-in-one on the 170-yard, par-3 No. 8.
Emiliano Grillo finished the day with a two-day total of 8 under. Grillo is vying to become the second Argentinian to win at Colonial, attempting to join Roberto De Vicenzo, who won in 1957.
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Rick Rambo was presented a plaid jacket by Jim Whitten, left, and Rob Hood.
Another character on that marshaling squad is Rick Rambo, a retired Fort Worth firefighter. He’s been on the course as a marshal for 39 years. He keeps saying “next year” might be his last year, but he can’t quite convince himself. It’s like going to Pancho’s. When the time comes, you instinctively just raise the flag.
The year 2024 will mark a landmark 40 years, so, he’s definitely coming back for that.
“I’ll probably keep coming back,” he says of the years following No. 40.
Rambo was presented with something equivalent to the king’s robes, a tartan plaid jacket, the same kind they give to the tournament champion every year. It’s a sharp looking thing, that jacket, though here’s doubting it makes an appearance at church on Sunday. Too easy for the usher with the collection plate to spot you.
The jacket is part of his being honored as a member of the class of 2023 Pride of the Plaid, a symbol of prestige for those volunteers who have distinguished themselves in effort and output. A couple of weeks back, Rambo was feted at a luncheon and presented his coat, as well as a lifetime ticket to the tournament, whenever he turns in his notice that he’s retiring.
Doesn’t look as if that will be anytime soon. The soon-to-be 76-year-old gives me a look, though, something of incredulity – as if he’s speaking to a moron wearing a smirk on his face -- when I ask him if he has 55 years in him like J. Britt Henry.
“That’s just 15ish more years,” I assure him. (I can approach this line of questioning without mucking up my employee-of-the-month credentials because Rambo is a close family friend. Plus, I know I can outrun him.)
Peter Jacobsen defeated Payne Stewart in a playoff in 1984, Rambo’s first tournament as a marshal. For the first several years, he patrolled the No. 5 green, “holding up the same tree,” as Fuzzy Zoeller, with cigarette in hand, liked to tell him year after year.
Henry, a Pride of the Plaid honoree in 2018, is actually retiring after this tournament. Calling it a career as a marshal. Henry missed the 2020 tournament, the first on the PGA Tour following the pandemic shutdown. Though the PGA Tour was picking back up, the airport in Costa Rica remained shut down.
He has almost as many memories as the trees that line Hogan’s Alley. Could you imagine if trees on a golf course could talk? They could do a Netflix special.
Bruce Devlin won the tournament in 1966 and Dave Stockton won in 1967, six years before anyone, even Charles Schwab, had heard of Charles Schwab. Henry saw Ben Hogan out here (the Hawk’s last tournament at Colonial was 1970) and even once met him at Shady Oaks while with John Justin.
Henry has stories told about him, too.
“There was a kid sitting inside the ropes on the 18th. He had his hat on backward and shorts on,” Henry remembers. “So, I leaned down, I said, ‘Young man, you're inside the ropes. You can't be inside the ropes. He handed me a PGA player card and it said ‘Sergio Garcia.’”
Sergio hadn’t made the cut and was dressed down on a Saturday killing time by watching a little golf before a hot date.
“That’s what he told me. I couldn't see the guy. All I could see was that it’s a young man sitting down there.”
And as the story goes, J. Britt Henry is the only guy who ever tried to kick a PGA player off the golf course.