Five Things to Know: Bay Hill

Marilyn White and her husband Paul have volunteered at THE NORTHERN TRUST for more than four decades. She chairs the player services committee that does everything from making sure the PGA TOUR pros and their families get picked up at the airport to getting their laundry done. She’s made dinner reservations, arranged museum visits and procured tickets to Broadway shows. But the players Marilyn will help this week at Liberty National Golf Club probably don’t know what she and Paul, who announces their arrival on the first tee every day, went through 20 years ago. They can’t comprehend the terror. Or fully understand the overwhelming feeling of gratitude she feels for the police, fire fighters and EMTs who put their lives on the line that horrific day. But Marilyn lived it. So did Paul, helplessly watching the events unfold on the television at their home. Marilyn was in her office on the 95th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center when Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. On Tuesday at THE NORTHERN TRUST, just across New York Harbor from where the Twin Towers once stood and more than 3,000 people died, the tournament Marilyn and her husband have helped nurture for more than 40 years, honored her. She met some of the first responders the tournament honors each year, as well as PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. Brandt Snedeker, who was a student at Vanderbilt when 9/11 happened, took time from his practice at Liberty National to spend some time with Marilyn, as well. “I think it’s something we all think about every year,” Snedeker said last week at the Wyndham Championship. “You hit that September date and you start thinking about how our world changed a little bit that day. “Obviously, everybody knows where they were when that happened, and it was unbelievable to lose that many people in such horrific act of terror. It’s something I think that we hopefully will never forget and hopefully keeps us vigilant.” He knew he would be moved when he spoke to Marilyn. It’s impossible not to be when you hear her story. Marilyn remembers a September day that had dawned full of light with sapphire blue skies. She was working at her computer, her back to the narrow floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the Statue of Liberty, when the first hijacked plane bore into the North Tower between the 93rd and 99th floors at 8:46 a.m. She heard the boom and initially thought it might be fireworks. Then she turned around and looked outside. Fire and debris were everywhere. She could feel the heat on her cheeks and worried that the windows might burst. People in her office were screaming, “Get out, get out” and banging on the elevator doors. She and a co-worker decided to take the stairs, which weren’t as crowded – “cascading like you wouldn’t believe,” Marilyn recalls — and made it to what she now thinks was the 63rd floor. At that point, an announcement was made that the South Tower was safe, and people could either leave, shelter in place or return to their offices. Marilyn and her friend ducked into the offices of Morgan Stanley and quickly found phones to call home. Her husband Paul had taken their son to school and was at their house, watching the news, terrified by what was unfolding. “I’m safe. I’m okay,” Marilyn remembers telling her husband, although in the confusion, she never told him exactly where she was. “Don’t worry. I’m not sure what we’re going to do, but I just wanted to let you know. “And then I said to him, ‘Oh my God.’” That’s the moment Marilyn realized what she was seeing. People were either jumping or falling out of the North Tower. Paul told her to get out of the building immediately. At 9:03 a.m., barely 15 seconds later, Paul watched in horror as the second highjacked plane plowed into the South Tower between floors 77 and 85. He knew the logistics and feared the worst. “I thought she was still in her office on the 95th floor,” he said. Marilyn was in the hallway of the Morgan Stanley offices when the second jet barreled into the South Tower. She remembers a deafening noise as the walls caved in. The building “started to vibrate like Jell-O.” “Then we saw this fireball coming at us” Marilyn says. She and her friend ducked into a room, which turned out to be a kitchenette with a sink and a watercooler. She took off her sweater, soaked it in water and stuffed it against door jamb to ward off any smoke or fire. They doused themselves with water, too. When they opened the door, they could see a fireball caught in a backdraft, receding and then heading their way and receding again. The only way to escape was to make a break for it when the fireball was headed away. They did, found the exit and sprinted down the crowded stairs to the lobby. Marilyn remembers passing firefighters who were heading up the stairs, not down to safety. One asked her whether there were still people on the higher floors. She told him yes. The firefighter pressed on. “They were coming up and they had hoses wrapped around their shoulders, they had ropes, they had all sorts of gear,” Marilyn says. “And I was just in awe, because here I am trying to flee this tragedy and here they are walking up.” Marilyn also remembers seeing people help each other down the stairs, supporting the elderly and injured. “The sheer bravery of people helping each other in this just horrific tragedy,” she says. Paul, meanwhile, was waiting by the phone at home, his eyes transfixed on the gruesome images on TV. His mother-in-law called to see if he had any news. The school their son, Paul, named after his father, attended in Connecticut called twice, urging his father to come get him. By the time Paul got to the school, the South Tower had collapsed, killing more than 800 people, some 55 minutes after it had been hit by the plane. “I knew it was Marilyn’s tower,” Paul says. “And Paul, our son, asked me that, was that mom’s tower that was on the ground. And I basically told him a story, I said, no, mom’s tower is still fine. “By the time we got home, both towers are on the ground, and he wasn’t asking me any more questions. And the two of us just sat on the couch, fixated on what was going on on TV.” Once Marilyn and the others got to the lobby, they were directed to a route through the retail area underneath the World Trade Center so they could avoid the bodies on the plaza outside. She emerged at street level at the corner of Broadway and Vesey, then turned and looked at the haunting sight. “We saw both World Trade Centers,” Marilyn says. “Both holes were at different levels. At 1 World Trade Center, the hole that the plane went through was at a much higher level than at 2 World Trade Center.” Her co-worker left her at that point to head to his home in New Jersey. But she ran into a fellow Fiduciary Trust employee and together they ran to the nearest express subway stop. She didn’t have any money because her purse was in her office. Neither of them had their metro cards. “We just jumped the turnstiles, got on the subway and got up to Grand Central,” Marilyn recalls. That’s when they saw a TV at a newsstand and realized the extent of what had happened. Her friend found an ATM and got some money for them both. They got on one of the last trains to leave before Manhattan Island was locked down. “On the train, I was just shell shocked,” Marilyn recalls. “I was listening to people, hearing what they thought was going on and so forth. And it was just really trying to absorb what I’d been through, what I saw. So, I just stayed very, very quiet on the train. … “I just wanted to get home because I was just so scared and just wanted to be with my family.” Paul and his son were frantic, too. “We were basically just there waiting and wondering, and hoping and praying that she would be fine,” he says. Marilyn got off the train in Scarsdale and immediately went to the Central Cab Company stand. She used their service often, and one of the guys came over and said, “Mrs. White, you don’t look so good.” She told him she had been at the World Trade Center. “They just put me in a cab and sent me straight home,” Marilyn says. “And then dropped me off in front of our house. I walked up the front walk and walked in the front door. And that was the first that they knew that I was okay. “It was a really good feeling to be home.” Marilyn will never forget what it felt like to see her family that day. For the first time since she’d heard the explosion at the North Tower and looked outside her window, she felt safe. “To lose that sense of feeling safe and secure, was something that I’d never felt before,” Marilyn says. “Coming home and feeling that, feeling safe, and having my son and having my husband hold me and hug me, it’s … an indescribable feeling. “Family always comes first. … But feeling it that day so acutely … intensified my feeling towards family and how my relationship with my husband, my relationship with my son, our family is first and foremost. It was totally clarified.” The Whites’ son was acutely affected by the events of 9/11, as well. While Paul was at Boston College, he received a Fulbright Scholarship and studied at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy in Hamburg, Germany. He served in the ROTC when he was doing graduate work at the University of Chicago and later spent seven years in the Army, deploying twice and rising to the rank of captain. He now works in the State Department. “I’m ever so proud of how he has taken the 9/11 experience and has developed it into a path for him, where he wants to serve his country,” Marilyn says. “And the first step for him in serving his country was to join the Army … And very proud that he would want to put his life in harm’s way the way I saw a fireman put his life in harm’s way for me. “Then once he had decided to leave the Army, and he wanted to still build upon serving his country but to do it in a different way. As his little daughter, Evie, says, ‘My daddy works at the State Department. He’s going to help people talk to each other and listen to each other.’ “So, for him to take it to another level is just, just so proud. And I just can’t wait to see … his journey, where it’s going to take him.”

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The PGA TOUR announced today the four Featured Groups for the opening rounds of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas. Full groupings and starting times for the first two rounds of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open will be released officially at approximately 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Oct. 6. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 4 p.m.-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 5 p.m.-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 2 p.m.-8 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 3 p.m.-8 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio). FEATURED GROUPS Kevin Na, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler Notable: Na defeated Cantlay in a playoff to win the 2019 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open • Two of Na's four PGA TOUR wins have come at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (2011, 2019); the Las Vegas resident will make his 14th start in the event • In three starts at TPC Summerlin, Cantlay has one win (2017) and two runner-up results (2018, 2019), losing in last year's playoff to Na • Fowler has never missed a cut in four starts in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open where he owns two top-10s, most recently a T4 in 2018 Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Champ, Matthew Wolff Notable: DeChambeau has two wins in his last eight starts; Wolff finished solo-second at both tournaments (2020 Rocket Mortgage Classic, 2020 U.S. Open) • DeChambeau, who captured his fifth of seven PGA TOUR titles at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in 2018, will make his first start since winning the U.S. Open; has three consecutive top-10s at TPC Summerlin, including a T4 in 2019 • Wolff finished runner-up at the U.S. Open, his lone start of the 2020-21 PGA TOUR Season; makes his second start in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (T18/2019) • Champ, who is making his second start of the season (MC/U.S. Open), has won in his second start in each of his first two seasons on TOUR (2018 Sanderson Farms Championship, 2019 Safeway Open) Webb Simpson, Collin Morikawa, Joaquin Niemann • Following two wins and a 12th-place finish in the 2019-20 FedExCup, Simpson finished T8 at the U.S. Open, his lone start in the 2020-21 season; the seven-time PGA TOUR winner won the 2013 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open • 2020 PGA Championship winner Morikawa will make his second start in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (T42/2019); the Las Vegas resident finished No. 6 in the 2019-20 FedExCup after his first multi-win season • Niemann has a T10 (2018) and missed cut (2019) in two previous starts at TPC Summerlin Sergio Garcia, Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama • Garcia won his first PGA TOUR title since the 2017 Masters at last week's Sanderson Farms Championship; makes his first start in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open since 2003 • Day, who seeks his first victory since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship, will compete in Las Vegas for the first time since 2012 (4th) • Matsuyama has qualified for the TOUR Championship in each of his first seven seasons on TOUR; makes his third start at TPC Summerlin (T10/2014, T16/2019)

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The PGA TOUR uses a standardized system for determining event fields, based off the current season’s Priority Ranking while also including additional exemption and qualifying categories. Field sizes can vary by event, as can the number of event-specific exemptions. Fully exempt PGA TOUR members are guaranteed entry into all full-field events, with various conditional categories subject to periodic reshuffles based upon FedExCup Points accrued throughout the season. Categories with ‘reshuffle’ notation indicate that a reshuffle period has occurred. Scroll below for The RSM Classic field list as of Friday, Nov. 11th at 6 p.m. ET: Check here for updates. Winner of THE PLAYERS Championship (five-year exemption) Si Woo Kim Webb Simpson Winner of Open Championship (five-year exemption) Francesco Molinari Winner of World Golf Championships event (three-year exemption) Kevin Kisner FedExCup Champion (five-year exemption) Justin Rose PGA TOUR tournament winner (two-year exemption) Ryan Brehm Cameron Champ Stewart Cink Joel Dahmen Jason Day Tyler Duncan Harris English Tony Finau Brian Gay Jim Herman Garrick Higgo Tom Hoge Mackenzie Hughes Matt Kuchar Andrew Landry Luke List Trey Mullinax J.T. Poston Seamus Power Chad Ramey J.J. Spaun Sepp Straka Robert Streb Michael Thompson Brendon Todd Erik van Rooyen Richy Werenski Career money exemption Jason Dufner Zach Johnson Ryan Moore Rory Sabbatini * Sponsor exemption (Korn Ferry Tour Finals) Jacob Bridgeman Chris Gotterup Sponsor exemption (members not otherwise exempt) Aaron Baddeley Camilo Villegas Sponsor exemption (unrestricted) Palmer Jackson Spencer Ralston PGA Section Champion\Player of the Year Tim Weinhart Past Champion member Austin Cook Life member Davis Love III Top 30 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List Brian Harman Sahith Theegala Scott Stallings Top 125 prior season’s FedExCup Playoffs & Eligibility Points List Davis Riley Denny McCarthy Keith Mitchell Andrew Putnam Taylor Pendrith Brendan Steele Troy Merritt Taylor Moore Chris Kirk Alex Smalley Wyndham Clark Lee Hodges John Huh Beau Hossler Brandon Wu Matthew NeSmith Adam Long Dylan Frittelli David Lipsky Adam Schenk Aaron Rai Stephan Jaeger Patrick Rodgers Russell Knox Adam Svensson Kevin Streelman Mark Hubbard Peter Malnati Danny Lee Hayden Buckley Sam Ryder Nate Lashley Greyson Sigg Scott Piercy Callum Tarren Max McGreevy Chesson Hadley Nick Watney Kevin Tway Matthias Schwab Patton Kizzire Matt Wallace Austin Smotherman Justin Lower Doc Redman Danny Willett Kelly Kraft # Major medical extension Nick Hardy Zac Blair Korn Ferry Tour Points winner (The 25 and The Finals 25) Justin Suh Korn Ferry Tour graduates via The 25 and The Finals 25 (reshuffled) Carl Yuan Will Gordon Paul Haley II David Lingmerth Zecheng Dou Robby Shelton Philip Knowles MJ Daffue Michael Gligic Taylor Montgomery Dean Burmester Ben Taylor Eric Cole S.H. Kim Joseph Bramlett Harry Hall Brandon Matthews Augusto Núñez Henrik Norlander Byeong Hun An Ben Martin Erik Barnes Ryan Armour Ben Griffin Davis Thompson Brent Grant Michael Kim Carson Young Tyson Alexander Scott Harrington Harrison Endycott Trevor Werbylo Tano Goya Kevin Roy Nico Echavarria Anders Albertson Samuel Stevens Kevin Yu Matti Schmid Vincent Norrman Brice Garnett Trevor Cone Brian Stuard Kyle Westmoreland Korn Ferry Tour graduates via The 25 and The Finals 25 (medical) Chris Stroud Nos. 126-150 on prior season’s FedExCup Playoffs & Eligibility Points List (reshuffled) Harry Higgs Martin Trainer Hank Lebioda Cameron Percy Andrew Novak Jonathan Byrd Charley Hoffman The PGA TOUR uses a standardized system for determining event fields, based off the current season’s Priority Ranking while also including additional exemption and qualifying categories. Field sizes can vary by event, as can the number of event-specific exemptions. Fully exempt PGA TOUR members are guaranteed entry into all full-field events, with various conditional categories subject to periodic reshuffles based upon FedExCup Points accrued throughout the season. Categories with ‘reshuffle’ notation indicate that a reshuffle period has occurred. * = If all prior year Korn Ferry Tour graduates are eligible for event, exemptions become unrestricted # = Latest medical extension information can be found here. $ = Category breakdown can be found here.

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