John Hamilton was at home on one Sunday in 1975 when a friend called.
The final round of the Western Open, which was being played at Butler National Golf Club in Oak Brook, had been rained out. The tournament would finish on Monday, when many of its volunteers would be back to work.
Hamilton’s friend – who was a volunteer for the event – had a question for the Wheaton resident.
“They had to come back and play on Monday, so they were short people and they needed people,” Hamilton recalled. “[He] asked if I would like to work, and I said yes.”
And then?
“I got hooked,” says Hamilton.
There are about 2,000 volunteers helping this week’s BMW Championship run smoothly, but none of them is as veteran a volunteer as Hamilton. The 82 year-old is in his 48th straight year volunteering at a Western Golf Association event in the Chicagoland area or across the country.
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He has been doing it long enough that he has been steps away from legends like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, and now Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler.
“I guess it’s a little bit like watching a movie star,” he says. “You say, ‘Oohh – I got a chance to watch so and so.''
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Hamilton has been around major golf events so long that sometimes, the golfers even recognize him.
“I don’t approach them about anything, but I have had a few players that recognize me, maybe not my name, but they come up to me and say, ‘John, how are ya?'" Hamilton said.
Hamilton has the job of Marshall Chairman, meaning he is in charge of about 400 Marshalls who work to make sure the golfers can play without any hiccups.
And once in awhile, that means going the extra mile for them.
“One year at Cog Hill, the player was running late – he was going to miss his tee time, so we arranged to get his courtesy car right as he stepped out of it, I handed his shoes to him, I took his stuff back to the clubhouse, and then he asked for a couple of candy bars,” Hamilton remembered. “It meant a lot to me because I was able to help him.”
As a lifelong golfer, Hamilton’s tournament tradition is something he treasures, and he has no plans to stop.
“I enjoy it – as long as my health is good and as long as the WGA officials can tolerate me, I’ll stay with it," he said.
