Tony Finau found a way to get up after falling down at the Masters

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WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, West Virginia – The two sand-colored Humvees at the center of the circle stand in stark contrast to the well-manicured lawn and red, white and blue flowers that frame the grand entrance to the iconic Greenbrier Resort. The Black Hawk helicopter that touched down on the 18th green Tuesday afternoon was an anomaly, as well. Ditto for the four paratroopers who cascaded out of the skies with an giant American flag on Wednesday. Members of the military, any of whom get into the tournament for free this week, served as caddies during the pro-am. And a C-130 plane brought play to a brief standstill Wednesday as it flew over the mountains and buzzed the 18th green. While things may seem a little different here at a resort better known for its golf, horseback riding, falconry and even glass blowing, though, it’s with good reason. This is the week of A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier. The eighth renewal of the PGA TOUR event has a new name and a new focus that reflects the history of the resort that has hosted 27 U.S. Presidents, including the incumbent, Donald Trump, on Tuesday night. With the tournament being played during the week of July 4th, the decision to honor the military was a no-brainer. “We’ve always tried to find some way to have that military tie-in and I think we just decided it was time to take it a step further and really show that commitment,� says Cam Huffman, director of communications for The Greenbrier. The family-friendly resort is always a popular stop for TOUR pros. But the week-long military presence has added another dimension for Bubba Watson and his brood, particularly his 6-year-old son Caleb who is one of many who have gotten up-close-and-personal with the Humvees this week. “My son says he’s going to be an Army man,� reports Watson, who has a summer home at The Greenbrier. “He has been sitting on those every day. They haven’t changed but he wants to see them every day.� Watson’s late father Gerry was a Green Beret who served during the Vietnam War and he’s always a staunch supporter of the military. So Watson, who has already won three times this season, would like nothing better than to add his fourth here this week. “It’s just one of those things that would mean a lot to my family, just to honor my late dad,� Watson said. “It would be a cool thing.  There are so many story lines and that would be cool for me to (win) it.� The military connection at The Greenbrier dates back to the Civil War. The Old White Hotel, which stood on the property before The Greenbrier was built, was actually used as a hospital for both Confederate and Union soldiers at one point or other during the Civil War. The Army even bought the hotel during World War II and used it as a hospital for the wounded. Known as the Ashford General Hospital from 1942-‘46, it was dubbed “The Shangri-La for Wounded Soldiers and Airmen� as service members were able to use all the facilities while they recovered. German POWs tended to the grounds and worked in the mess hall, among other duties. “The spa was still open. The golf was still open. It was more of a rehab thing for soldiers to participate in some of those activities while getting back to normal,� Huffman says. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was among the more than 24,000 military members treated at Ashford Hospital. He fell in love with the facility, and he and his wife, Mamie, even celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary at the Top Notch Cottage, which was built prior to the Civil War. General John W. Pershing completed his memoirs while staying in the same place. Eisenhower later decided that The Greenbrier would be the perfect place to build a secret facility to house Congress in case of a nuclear attack. So construction on what was called “Project Greek Island� began in 1958. Workers were told it would be a conference facility, and in fact, some of it was used for that purpose. Beyond those concrete walls that were 3 feet thick, though, was a facility that could house more than 1,000 government officials – complete with metal bunk beds and its own communications system. For 30 years, until it was “outed� in the Washington Post in 1992, The Bunker stood ready to serve. It was even stocked with enough food to last six months – just in case the worst happened. As something of an adjunct to The Bunker, the landing strip at nearby Lewisburg Airport had to be expanded so that it could accommodate the likes of Air Force One, as was the case on Tuesday night when President Trump arrived. Roads in and out of the town of 4,000 were shut down as the motorcade made the 20-minute trek to the resort and back again. “Actually, even when the President is not coming in, Air Force One does a lot of touch down practices at that airport, training exercises and stuff,� Huffman says. Trump spoke for roughly 30 minutes at a “Salute to Service� dinner for about 100 members of the military and pro-am participants. It was his fifth visit to West Virginia, whose governor, Jim Justice, is a close political ally and owns The Greenbrier. “We’ve had meetings for weeks to make sure everything is set and perfect,� Huffman says. “It’s kind of eye-opening to see everything that goes into it. They know every step he’s going to make when he’s here, exactly when and where he’s going to be, who’s going to be in his eyesight while he’s here. “So there’s a lot of planning that goes into it. But I think no matter what your political beliefs are, it’s all worth it to know that you have the President of the United States at your event.�

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When Mike Stiller was a teenager, he used to go to the AT&T Byron Nelson and follow Justin Leonard or one of the other PGA TOUR pros who played out of the Vaquero Club where he worked as a caddie. After he graduated from James Madison and scored a job with the Northern Texas PGA Section, Stiller could sometimes be found working as the calligrapher at the scoreboard outside the pavilion at TPC Four Seasons, which was hosting the tournament at the time. This week, Stiller is back at the AT&T Byron Nelson for the first time since joining the TOUR rules staff in 2015. He’s the advance man, which means Stiller arrives the previous week and interfaces with the on-site tournament staff as well as the course superintendent, assuring everything is ready for the event. “This is something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time,” says Stiller, who is sharing duties with the retiring Brad Fabel this week. “… This is a pretty special event for me, no doubt.” Working with Stiller this week are two other former employees of the Northern Texas PGA Section – Jordan Harris and Mike Peterson. Harris will set up the front nine at the new host venue, TPC Craig Ranch, while Peterson handles the final nine holes. Like Stiller, both are working the Byron Nelson for the first time since leaving the NTPGA and joining the TOUR – Peterson in 2005 and Harris in 2017. “It’s kind of neat to see us come through the ranks like that and get to this level,” Peterson admits. And there are actually two other TOUR rules officials who have NTPGA ties: Drew Miller is a former intern while Harold Geyer, a tournament director on the Korn Ferry Tour, worked there for 12 years. Peterson started the pipeline, so to speak. He went to New Mexico State and earned a degree in business administration in a program that specialized in golf management. Internships with the Southern California and Colorado PGA sections, as well as the PGA of America, stoked Peterson’s interest in running golf tournaments. “It’s always different,” he says. “You’re always going to different places, new golf courses, new cities or states. … And I was never a good enough player to compete at any sort of high level like that. But it was a way for me to be involved at the highest level, tournament-wise.” There was another pull for Peterson, who took a job at the NTPGA as director of tournament operations right out of college. “I fell in love with the Rules of Golf,” Peterson says. “It was kind of like a puzzle to me. You had questions that people would ask you — the juniors would ask you questions, the parents, that sort of stuff and it just was neat to try and figure out what the answer was. “It could be complicated at times, but it just was a big puzzle to me and I kind of liked the way it worked. So that just got me really interested in it.” Stiller and Harris have similar backgrounds. Stiller’s first job was picking range balls so he could practice at the club where his swing coach worked. When his family moved from New Jersey to the Dallas area, he became a fixture at Vaquero, caddying and working odd jobs there. Stiller interned at the NTPGA and did so well he was offered a job before the second semester of his senior year at James Madison. He started two weeks after he graduated in 2008. “Working for the Northern Texas section really was an honor because it’s … known for being one of the very prestigious sections not just because of the quality of the tournaments and the programs that they’ve put on and conducted and run, but because of the people and, and the history of the people that have worked there,” Stiller says. Peterson had already left to work for the TOUR by the time Stiller went to work at the NTPGA. But he remembers when Peterson would stop by the office to say hello and talk golf with his former co-workers. “I always kind of looked up to him like, oh, this is really cool,” Stiller says. “It’s a PGA TOUR referee coming to just to say hello — like, how cool is that? And so, him just kind of being around kind of got me thinking maybe someday down the road, this could happen.” Harris studied professional golf management at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He learned after his first internship at a small private club in Indiana that he didn’t want to sell shirts and give lessons for the rest of his life. He was drawn to the operational side of the competition, though. “My director asked me what I liked about the internship, and I said, hey, it was a great golf professional that I worked for,” Harris recalls. “He got me involved in tournaments. I did scoreboards and picking hole locations and all that stuff. I really enjoyed that. “And he said, well, you need to go and try a section of the PGA of America and see what you think about that. At the time I had no idea what a section was. … And I just flat out asked him, I said, well, if I’m going to try this, I’d like to go to the best one. So, what’s that? Where’s the best section?” Harris’ advisor suggested the NTPGA, which is known for a junior golf tour that helped nurture the likes of Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris – Thursday’s Featured Group at TPC Craig Ranch – as well as an extensive roster of other events, including stages of the TOUR’s qualifying school and various Monday qualifiers. Harris was hired as an intern in 2008 to work with Stiller and Geyer, who would leave to work for the TOUR in ’10. “We worked together that summer and I fell in love with it,” says Harris, who was later invited back to do a seven-month internship and hired full-time. “I loved, loved everything about tournaments and got really involved with the rules and wanting to learn more.” “It was us traveling and working together an entire summer, whether it was going out to Midland to run a section championship or all the tournaments we ran here in Dallas,” Stiller recalls. “It was basically the three of us. …. “But that was a cool summer. I mean, looking back on it, it was really neat just to have all of us doing the same thing together and sure enough, just years later, we’re all out here doing it again.” Peterson, Stiller and Harris give the NTPGA’s executive director, Mark Harrison, a lot of credit for helping them grow as referees and tournament officials. “Mark’s got a wonderful golf mind and … he did a really good job of just pushing us and always thinking about how we can do things better,” Harris says. “And he really mirrored our set-up philosophy around the PGA TOUR’s set-up philosophy.” Stiller also appreciated the way Harrison put his employees in a position to succeed. “What Mark has really done, I think personally, at that section is really given the staff there that works for him the platform to really take off and do whatever they want to do,” Stiller says. “I respect Mark completely and wholly, but one particular reason that I really, really appreciate about him is that if somebody expressed him what they wanted, if they wanted to leave the organization one day and move on to something different or something bigger, he had their back 100%. “So, when I told him that this is something that I wanted to do he did everything in his power to make that happen and support me 110 percent. And that’s something I would never forget.”

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