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Golf FaGGolf
What one man can accomplish … with a trash bag
Rabat, Morocco: The final hole of the King Hassan Trophy, Feb 27, 06.
The scoreboard shows Sam Torrance with a 3 shot lead as he stands on the 18th tee. I along with a number of other people are watching the action from behind the 18th green. Finally we spot Sam as he approaches his ball which is sitting well positioned in the center of the fairway of this par 5, sharp dogleg left. We watch him lay up with his second shot, then take a wedge to fly the ball to the center of the green and two-putt for the victory. The crowd cheers and starts to wander away.
Well….That’s what we thought we saw.
Actually, what we couldn’t see was Sam ripping his drive into the woods on the left, banging his second shot squarely off a tree and finally chipping out to the fairway with his third. Giving Sam a smooth 7 on the last hole and leaving him in a tie with the tall young Rafael Jacquelyn who had birdied out just in front of him ... 3 shots gone in a New York minute.
Actually it was play-off-time, but none of the fans or volunteers knew this as they started making their way to their ca
“The score is tied. We will have a play-off starting on the 18th hole immediately” announced the head pro at the Royal Golf Club, Ali Bouassela, shouting first in French then in English. He then raked a sand trap next to the green that some fans had walked through, as he ushered Torrance to the scoring tent. Ordering his staff to have golf carts ready to return the golfers back to the 18th tee, he witnessed the signing of the cards, loaded the golfers and their caddies into the carts and ran back to the tee.
I stood in amazement and watched as this one man turned chaos into order, turned the dark of night into day.
Some guys just know what to do.
The play-off began as the long hitting Jacquelyn cut the corner perfectly with his drive, and lined up for the elevated green. He missed to the right but landed pin high….. into the fans. Sam played his third to the center of the green leaving him about 20 feet. Again Superman appeared out of thin air; Ali Bouassela who curiously moved the fans reminding them not to take photos as Rafael played. He moved a rake that may have been in play and held up a “Please be Quiet” sign above his head as the young Frenchman stubbled two chip shots up a side hill still short of the green. Sam, on the other hand, drained his 20 footer for a birdie and the win. This-time-for-keeps.
I love guys like Ali, the policeman, fireman, the volunteers, people you never notice until something goes wrong. As we stand around wondering … guys like Ali know exactly what to do, and they do it.
I had to meet this guy, and let him know that I appreciated his grace under pressure. He was kind enough to sit with me and as he was leaving I asked him: Have you ever screwed up?
He thought a minute then answered, “When I was in America, in Florida, I remember a phase; you can never be to rich or too thin. Well when running a golf tournament , I am convinced you can never have too many plastic trash bags.”
Huh, I wondered. TRASH BAGS? Where was he going with this?
Ali continued, “In the 1989 Moroccan Open I was walking with one of the leading groups when the skies opened up, a torrential downpour that started coming sideways as the winds picked up. I ran back to the tee where I had stored some of the plastic trash bags and proudly handed them out. The caddies covered their golf bags and laid them down (this was before stand-up golf bags) the tv guys covered their cameras and put them down on the grass as well.
“I ripped an opening and pulled one over my head as we ran for the shelter of the trees on the far side of the fairway. We gathered and hid behind the biggest trees we could find. “We couldn’t hear anything because of the wind and we couldn’t see 5 feet in front of us. Very scary as the rain was coming down in sheets.
“Finally it slowed after 10 minutes and then we could walk through and around the puddles back across the fairway. We nervously laughed as we walked, thankful that a tree hadn’t fallen on us.
“”When we went to gather up the golf bags and the cameras, they were gone. They had completely disappeared, with no one in sight but us. It took me three days to figure out what had happened.
“You’ve got to understand. Morocco’s cities have a deserved reputation for being very clean cities, we pride ourselves in that. Wanting the golf grounds to reflect this, like Augusta during the Masters, I had instructed the trash collectors to be constantly driving around the course cleaning and picking up the trash bags. Guess you know where I’m going with this: in this case they had listened to me, followed my instructions with fervor.
“I’m just happy I decided to run across the fairway,” laughed Ali. “If I had ducked down with the trash bag over my me, I may have landed in the back of that truck on the way to the dump.” BG
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