Jacks of all golf-related trades:tourney volunteers

Dick Yuhnke put his radio to his ear and winced slightly as it crackled out some bad news. An amateur golfer playing on the 8th green at the Newport Beach Country Club was inadvertently smacked square in the chest by an errant ball.

Next thing, Yuhnke, a volunteer committee chairman and coordinator, was barking out orders to his crew, which includes marshals, and emergency-service and course-repair personnel.

Such is the life of volunteers at the Toshiba Classic, an army of 800 or so who ensure that the PGA senior tournament and the attending pro-am tournaments run as smoothly as possible.

“We’ve installed roughly 65 televisions,” said Yuhnke, a Yorba Linda resident and retired Boeing executive who parks his RV at the Dunes for the two weeks he volunteers. “Today I was picking up trash out of golf carts. If you think about picking up all the trash around here, it’s an enormous undertaking. We basically do what needs to be done.”

In other words, without people like Yuhnke, having a tournament would be a dicey proposition.

“It wouldn’t exist,” said Ira Garbutt, the volunteer chairman. “You would not make any profit. You’d probably lose money.”

And the goal of the tournament, after all, is to raise money for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, hopefully by Sunday $10 million in 10 years.

Volunteers do scoring, grounds maintenance, trash cleanup, player registration, general hospitality and more. They are the starters, they help run clinics and amuse media people with a quick spins in a golf cart.

Garbutt spent part of his afternoon chasing down PGA professional Jack Renner to make sure he autographed photos of himself standing with the four amateurs he played with during Thursday’s pro-am.

“It’s these kinds of things that crop up constantly,” Garbutt said. “And you have to find out how to solve the problem.”

Volunteers actually have to pay $75 to be part of the team. But for that, they get shirts, hats and other goodies with a retail value of $300.

And, of course, they get a chance to mingle with professional golfers.

The volunteers come from far and wide to take part. There are some from Vermont and at least one from Texas.

Ruth Davis comes from Cheshire County in England.

Well, actually, each year she comes for one month to visit her son who lives in Corona del Mar. But while she’s here, she volunteers at the Toshiba Classic.

“I love it,” said Davis, who has volunteered for seven years now. “And when I’m dead, my granddaughter is coming in my place.”

Davis, whose former neighbor was soccer star David Beckham, notes her deep ties to golf as the reason she is involved.

“My grandfather played golf,” she said. “And my husband was best friends with Sir Henry Cotton.”

Cotton, she said, was a well-known English golfer, a Ryder Cup champ and what she called “the last of the gentlemen golfers.”

Repeat volunteers like Davis seem to be the norm at the tournament.

“We get a lot of volunteers who come back,” volunteer Doug Smith of Irvine said. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s a good time.”

Smith said the best times to volunteer are Wednesday and Thursday, during the pro-am tournament. The professionals are more approachable those days and the crowds less hectic.

At the information and lost-and-found booth, Sandra Staley of Midland, Texas, was volunteering with her sister, Fritz Reynolds, and friends from the Junior League of Orange County, Christine Martin and Margaret Morgan.

They were marveling over one of the lost items turned in — a single purple shoe.

“That means there is someone out there with one purple shoe and one bare foot,” Morgan said.

They had one caddy who was so happy that someone turned in his cellphone, that he left without taking his caddy bag and sunglasses.

But through it all, the reason these volunteers put up with all the mishaps and all the hard work is to benefit Hoag Hospital.

Local attorney Bob Callahan, the chairman of the Hoag Hospital Foundation, volunteered as a starter for that very reason.

“I strongly believe we need to have the best healthcare possible in a community like Newport Beach,” he said. “We need to provide Hoag the funds it needs so it can continue to provide high-quality healthcare programs.”

For volunteer information, go to www.toshibaclassic.com .

MULTIMEDIA

See video from the second day of the Toshiba Classic Pro-Am by clicking here. For a collection of photos from the tournament, click here.

TODAY AT TOSHIBA

Toshiba Classic — first round of professional competition; tee times start at about 10:15 a.m.

Women’s golf seminar and clinic — 10:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Newport Beach Country Club Clubhouse. This event is designed to educate women about golf, with an introduction to techniques, rules, etiquette, equipment, fashion and the next steps; $195 per person. For more information, go to www.toshibaclassic.com.

Happy hour — 4:30 p.m. (Clubhouse Patio) featuring “Meet the Pros”