700-Plus Volunteers Are Behind Scenes of Dinah Shore Tourney

Dinah Shore had no idea the modest golf tournament she helped found 19 years ago would become the “premier event” on the Ladies Professional Golf Assn. tour.

“In the beginning, we couldn’t get it broadcast or get people to participate,” said the talk-show host/entertainer/cookbook author/avid golfer.

Now the Nabisco Dinah Shore, held each spring at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, is televised on ESPN and attracts more than 10,000 spectators a day (and nearly twice that for the finals). The pro-am portion includes a virtual who’s who of entertainers and sports personalities.

The tournament’s success isn’t just a stroke of luck. Both Shore and tournament officials agree that without the more than 700 volunteers who work behind the scenes, the event just wouldn’t be possible.

“There’s no way you could buy that kind of devotion and attention,” said Shore. “I am constantly amazed by what they do.”

What the volunteers do is keep the tournament running--from parking thousands of cars in temporary lots and transporting players and officials to the course, to controlling crowds, collecting tickets and keeping score through an elaborate communications network.

But how does the Nabisco Dinah Shore get volunteers to stand on a golf course in the desert sun for six to 10 hours a day--four or five days in a row--when they don’t even get to play?

What could entice bank presidents, lawyers and politicians to volunteer to chauffeur strangers around Palm Springs--on their own time?

Why do winter residents (affectionately known as “snowbirds”) stick around the desert an extra couple of weeks in the spring?

For a golf tournament? Absolutely.

This event has attracted such a devoted following of volunteers that each tournament committee has a waiting list. Some volunteers have been with the Dinah Shore since the beginning.

“The snowbirds call us up a couple months ahead,” said Ralph Hitchcock, co-chairman of the transportation volunteers. “They say, ‘We’ll be back. Leave a place for us.’ ”

The majority of the volunteers do come back--proof that there is something to this annual commitment.

“We look forward to it,” said Fran Lockwood, whose husband, Ray, is chairman of the marshals committee. “You prepare your calendar for it, and the week of the tournament that’s what you do. It’s a way of life.

“Anybody could do it,” she added. “But it’s very satisfying. We feel like we contribute to the success of the tournament.”

Many of the volunteers are retirees, and some are year-round residents of the desert. One thing most have in common is their desire to help their community through volunteer work at the Dinah Shore.

“The volunteers know they’re working for a cause,” said Duke Kosslyn, volunteer co-chairman with Hitchcock of tournament transportation. “Nabisco is very generous to Desert Hospital, United Way of the Desert, the Boys and Girls Clubs--and the volunteers know they’re doing something for the community.”

The event not only involves the host city, Rancho Mirage, but also the surrounding towns of Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Cathedral City. “People from around the world look at this tournament on TV,” Kosslyn said. “Everyone gets very enthused about it.”

The tournament begins Tuesday with the celebrity pro-am, but the volunteers are already at work, as players and tournament officials arrive this weekend at the Palm Springs airport, where the volunteers also staff a desk.

“We know the names of everybody on the airplanes,” said Kosslyn, a 15-year veteran of the tourney.

The transportation volunteers are mostly Kiwanis Club members. It is one committee that will work during the day at the tournament and at night to chauffeur participants to social events, shopping or other destinations.

“We have 30 vans and an assortment of extra vehicles,” Hitchcock said. “Last year we worked over 4,500 hours and traveled 21,450 miles.”

These statistics show not only that the tournament gets a lot of mileage out of the transportation volunteers, but also how organized they are.

“We can look at the (transportation) board and know where a van is, who’s driving and where it’s going,” Hitchcock said.

Hitchcock, who’s also been a volunteer for 15 years, said the first transportation committee he put together required only 44 volunteers. The committee now numbers 135.

He remembers one year when actor Robert Stack arrived to play in the Dinah Shore Pro-Am. (Stack is scheduled to play again this year.)

“I reintroduced myself and asked if he wanted a rental car, a limo . . . and he said, ‘No, when I’m here I use the shuttle service.’ . . . He had that much confidence in us.”

Some people are tempted to visualize the volunteers sunning and sipping margaritas while watching fairway shots sail by (though some of them could, being Mission Hills residents themselves)--but forget it. Perks and recognition are not inherent to this volunteer work.

Some volunteers start their day about 6 a.m., finishing up at dusk. This isn’t one of those “volunteer an hour of your time” deals. “It’s happened where I’ll meet (Hitchcock) for coffee at 5:30 a.m., and say good night at 1:30 a.m.,” Kosslyn said.

“If someone wants to work one day, that’s out,” said Don Brown, co-chairman of volunteers with his sister, Fidge Brown. Those who work on the Browns’ committee are required to work three days minimum.

They work more closely with the players than any other volunteer committee, walking alongside the golfers, keeping scores and reporting the results into a computer and over the radio. The information is fed to a central location, onto the scoreboard outside the clubhouse and to the media. The volunteers also have a manual backup system.

The walking scorers work in 4- or 5-hour shifts, though some committee members work 10-hour days. Volunteers don’t have to be golfers, but many of them on certain committees play.

“Most of our people are golfers,” Fidge Brown said. “We like them to have a knowledge of scoring the game.” And, like the Browns, many of the scorers are Mission Hills residents.

“It gives you the feeling you’re giving something back to the game,” said Don Brown, whose wife isn’t a volunteer but is “very supportive” of her husband’s demanding role as a co-chairman.

Ray Lockwood has served on the marshals committee for the entire 19 years of the Dinah Shore, and as chairman for 18. He oversees more than 200 volunteers and keeps track of them on his home computer. The marshals stand at the tees, along the fairways and near the greens, raising their hands to the gallery to signal for “quiet” when the players are about to shoot.

Lockwood sees quite a different tournament from the early years.

“There are 10 times the number of spectators now,” said the senior member of the volunteer chairmen. “There were maybe a hundred marshals in the beginning years; there are 230 now--the largest committee of all.”

Though Nabisco executives run the tournament, the volunteer chairmen themselves get the credit for organizing the volunteer committees, arranging schedules and making the system work.

“Everyone works on their own,” Lockwood said. “We know what we’re supposed to do. If any group needs help, you can call on another one.”

Ray and Fran Lockwood are one of the many husband-wife teams who volunteer. “We work well together,” Fran said. “I’ve helped him for so long; it’s easy. You get to know everyone, and everybody feels good about being a part of all this--it’s a close feeling.”

Fran Lockwood’s job is to deliver food baskets to the marshals working the “back 40” of the course. The distance makes it impractical for the marshals to walk back for a break.

“They work all day long . . . we’re slave drivers,” Lockwood said with a chuckle. “But they come back every year.”

Fran Lockwood recalls one year when the weather was bad, there was a particularly dedicated marshal who never left his post. “It was pouring rain, and he was wearing this garbage can liner. There was not a soul in sight, and he was holding up his sign: “Quiet Please.”

The massive crowds don’t bother Lockwood, a former Boys Clubs director. “Most people are pretty well-behaved,” he said. He patrols the course on a golf cart during the tournament, keeping in contact with the marshals by radio. He recalls once when he had to escort an amateur photographer off the grounds because he wouldn’t stop filming--cameras aren’t allowed because the noise distracts the players.

“People don’t realize how far sound travels on the golf course,” he said.

No one seems to appreciate the volunteers more than Dinah Shore. One of her favorite memories involves a snowbird from Canada, apparently not all that familiar with U.S. entertainers, who wasn’t about to let anyone into the tournament without a ticket.

“I thought I could smile and show all these teeth and walk right in,” Shore recalls with a laugh. “He said, ‘Well, I’m sorry you don’t have a pass.’ ”

She had to walk around to another entrance. “I deserved it . . . this big shot,” she said. “He was right.”

Nabisco Dinah Shore golf tournament, Mission Hills Country Club, Dinah Shore Drive, Rancho Mirage. Exit Interstate 10 at Date Palm Drive, south to Dinah Shore Drive. Monday practice rounds $5. Tuesday-Wednesday pro-am, $15; LPGA tournament Thursday-Sunday, $15. Seniors and students with ID $10. Golfers Getaway packages (includes 13 rounds of golf) $75, $50 for seniors 60 and older.