DRIVING THE DRIVERS
Volunteers chauffeur golfers from course to course
PEBBLE BEACH >> Before drives off the tee, between courses and after the back nine — behind every player, there's a driver who brought them to and from the fairway.
Some are local, some are based states away, but by the end of January each year, the volunteers come out to the annual AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm to donate much-needed transportation for the names that populate the scoreboards and flood social media during the tournament.
They're a quiet team (they are told to wait for the passengers to start a conversation). But they're an important one, filling an integral piece of the Pro-Am's inner workings that keeps the tournament running smoothly.
“You're sitting next to these legends, and it just doesn't seem real,” said Michael Veta, a 63-year-old driver for the ProAm's player shuttles. “To bring them around. …I don't know, it's just a special treat.”
Semi-retired, Veta started volunteering for the Pro-Am this year. As a regular driver for other PGA Tour stops, he wanted to add Pebble Beach to his roster. So far, so good.
“It's been great, and it moves a lot faster than the other tournaments I've worked,” said Veta, who lives in Arizona. “At other tournaments, I'd drive someone, then I'd wait. Here, you're always going.”
Around 70-80 player shuttles help cart the 156 professionals and 156 amateurs who fill the Pro-Am field throughout its four days of tournament rounds. Shuttles circulate the Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula Country Club. From practice rounds on Monday to the final day of play Sunday, shuttles are on standby starting at 6 a.m. — barring a midday lunch break from the road — and stay available until players are done for the day.
On Wednesday alone, before the tournament had begun, Veta said he drove more than 100 miles in his Pro-Am allotted player shuttle. Not too bad for a van weaving in and around the Del Monte Forest in five-minute bursts.
Having lived half his life in California, Veta remembered playing all three courses that define the AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm as a junior golfer growing up. There's been changes since Veta last tried his hand at the famed fairways, but the excitement remains the same.
“I'm glad to be back,” he said. While Veta made his debut as a Pro-Am driver this week, 81-year-old Leon Mattingly returned for his eighth turn at the wheel.
Mattingly, a resident of Watsonville, launched his tournament volunteer days working as a shot link (essentially, he'd measure golf balls' distance from the hole), but quickly wanted to shuffle positions. Now, he enjoys driving players for the Pro-Am as a hobby.
“I think I've been a spectator once or twice, but I like driving and being a part of the system,” he said.
To Mattingly, volunteering for the Pro-Am “is a great honor.” Asked why, Mattingly's answer was simple: he loves golf.
Three times a week, Mat
tingly visits a golf club in Aptos to play through nine holes. While slowed down by an open heart surgery about a year ago, Mattingly said he still tries to make regular trips out to play a round. Even this week, though the Pro-Am has cut into his practice schedule, Mattingly has managed to carve out time to enjoy the sport.
“Sometimes, I stop and watch them putt. Once and a while, I'll be able to pull over and watch them get a good shot off the tee,” he said. “Honestly, it's just nice being in the atmosphere.”
Thursday was Mattingly's last day shuttling players for this year's Pro-Am. The rest of the week, he plans to watch the ProAm on TV.
“I'll get a better view from there,” he said laughing.
Steven Rodewald, a kindred golf fan turned ProAm driver, has been a player shuttle volunteer since 2015. The pastime is his postretirement second act.
“I've lived here since 1963, and I've always been a spectator at the tournaments, but when I retired in 2015, I decided I would volunteer,” he said. His other free time, like Mattingly, is spent watching golf on TV every weekend.
But once a year, Rodewald is happy to play a small part in the real deal — especially with an event that allows him to give back to his community of 60 years. Through its decades-long history, the ProAm has generated millions of dollars for nonprofits throughout the Monterey Bay region. Last year, the tournament surpassed the $200 million mark in philanthropic giving since it moved to the area in 1947.
As a driver, Rodewald said he “likes to know he's helping in his community in some way.”
“The fact that (the ProAm) benefits all of the charities around here is really something great,” he went on. “Plus, you get to meet a lot of people from all over the world. It's a win-win situation.”
Looking back on his favorite moments in the shuttle, Rodewald said the most memorable year so far has been his first, when players rushed into his car to huddle and wait out a bout of Crosby weather.
“That was quite the break-in year,” he said.
Notable Pro-Ams for fellow driver Rex Cannoy have likewise been tied to weather. A few years ago, as rain began showering the greens and — eventually — delaying the tournament, drivers were asked to take players off the courses until play could resume. Cannoy picked up former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“She was so nice,” Cannoy said, explaining that shuttle drivers are told to refrain from speaking with players unless they start talking first. “She started talking to me, and we had a conversation that I didn't expect. You see these people on TV, and it's almost like they're up on a pedestal, but for most of the people, you don't notice they're different from anyone else once you're one on one with them.”
Boyd Robinson, going on his second year driving for the tournament, described the experience inside a player shuttle as almost opposite to that of a fan.
“In our position, our leads actually ask us not to engage with the golfers, which is different than on the golf courses where fans are waiting for that interaction,” he said. “In the van, they want us to leave them alone.”
Still, players often fill the silence. That is, the amateurs and caddies do at least. Boyd said pro golfers rarely strike up a conversation. Rather, the interactions that stick out for Boyd have been with friendly celebrities.
“Last year was pretty cool — I got to drive Alfonso Ribeiro to his tee time, as well as Ray Romano,” he said. “They were two of my more memorable riders — and really chatty, too.”
While sharing far less drives with Pro-Am players than his colleagues, first-timer Veta has already collected a few memorable moments of his own this week. What they are, he won't say. Those he's leaving for him and his passengers.
“I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you,” he quipped. “What happens in the vans stays in the vans.”