The Hole World : 476 Fans Chip In Their Time for Senior Golf Event

Fans come to the Senior PGA Tour event here to see 78 of the world’s best senior golfers, but the ones who really drive the tournament are 476 volunteers who pick up cigarette butts, keep score, play chauffeur--and pay for the privilege.

“Would you give up your job and stand in the rain for two days and eat cold Subway sandwiches?” said Marian Wilke, hospitality chairwoman for the FHP Senior Health Care Classic.

A surprising number do at the three-day tournament, which runs through Sunday at the Ojai Valley Country Club.

Take 78-year-old Mary Bauer and hubby, Cy, 76, of Ventura.

For the past 12 years, a love of travel and scenic golf courses has kept the couple roving the West Coast, volunteering at professional golf tournaments.

They have logged 80,000 miles in the past four years, spent thousands of dollars on accommodations and food and more often than not stay huddled in a tiny darkened trailer keeping track of dozens of scorecards. Last year the two worked 11 tournaments.

“If I wanted to rest, I would go back to work,” Mary Bauer said.

In fact, the couple are so busy they don’t even have time to golf anymore.

At one recent tournament, an official wanted to ensure the two would return next year despite their advancing years. They probably will. They have made a pact that if either goes to “that great golf course in the sky,” the other will keep on volunteering. And at one PGA event, a tournament official specifically requested that the couple pick her up at the airport.

“I feel like I’m visiting my grandfather and grandmother,” the Bauers say the official told them.

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Not all volunteers have the time or money to demonstrate such prolific devotion. Yet hundreds skip work or sacrifice vacation time so that the only thing below par at the Ojai tournament are the professionals’ golf scores.

But while the pros vie for $800,000 in prize money, volunteers must cough up $35 apiece for the de rigueur blue sweatshirt and white hat. “It would be cheaper to buy a ticket,” said Shirley Baker, 61, of Nevada.

The newlywed gave up a Mazatlan holiday with her husband to work on the driving range, keeping the pros supplied with golf balls and shooing away autograph hounds.

The volunteers’ motivation for helping is as varied as Gary Player’s irons and putters.

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Some want to support a good cause--the tournament gives thousands of dollars to such charities as HELP of Ojai, which runs Meals on Wheels, and other programs. Others want to soak up some of the glamour.

“I enjoy coming out here and working with the pros,” said Mike Martinez, a Point Mugu naval petty officer, sporting a visor adorned with the autographs of stars such as Chi Chi Rodriguez.

Barbara Hagerty of Hacienda Heights barely notices the golf. She gives up a week’s vacation to become ecology chairwoman, which means she picks up trash. But she enjoys the camaraderie of people she sees year after year.

So does Claudia Cox of Cerritos. The travel agency owner has been a crowd marshal on the fourth hole for the last seven years.

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“We’ve had the same bunch [of volunteers] working this hole for four or five years, so it’s like a mini-reunion,” she said. “I see some of the same players every year right here. They say, ‘Do you live at this hole?’ ”

She doesn’t, but once a year volunteers come pretty close as they put in 12-hour days--or more.

“Without the volunteers, this thing don’t exist,” said Tom McGeever, 70, of Thousand Oaks, who supervises 30 people in his role as scoring tent chairman.

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FYI

The FHP Health Care Classic begins today at the Ojai Valley Country Club. Tickets are $10 today and Saturday, $12 Sunday. For information, call 640-2800. ESPN will cover the tournament live all three days.