ITEM PHOTO BY SPENSER HASAK
Dave Dufour is in charge of the cart barn during the U.S. Senior Open at Salem Country Club this week.
By MIKE ALONGI
PEABODY — With the real golfing at the US Senior Open ready to officially get underway early tomorrow morning at Salem Country Club, multitudes of volunteers are continuing to work as hard as possible to bring fans and golfers an unforgettable experience. Perhaps one of the hardest workers this week is SCC member and Lynn native Dave Dufour, who is in charge of the cart house and all vehicles used for the tournament.
“We have about 80 vehicles that we’re responsible for, and we serve everyone from the USGA people, the committee, the vendors, the police, the firemen and more, so we have a big role,” said Dufour. “We’ve also been doing shuttling for golfers to bring them from the range to the tees and things like that, so it’s been a full week already.”
Dufour was hit with challenges right away this week, as several carts started to break down throughout the day on Monday during practice rounds.
“We had some carts come over from the US Open in Wisconsin that the USGA brought and they had some issues, but we got them charged up and we’ll be fine for the week.”
This isn’t Dufour’s first rodeo when it comes to volunteering at a major USGA golf tournament. Dufour, who has been a member at SCC for 18 years now, was barely two years into his membership back in 2001 when the Senior Open was last in Peabody. He volunteered to take part in that tournament as well, drawing the role of a walking scorekeeper for the pros. He even got to keep score for legendary golfer Gary Player on one of the days.
“It was really a cool experience walking inside the ropes with the players, especially taking score for Gary Player,” said Dufour. “I also got to walk with the third-to-last group on the final day with (Tour pro) Allen Doyle, who’s back here this year, so it was really an exciting experience.”
This time around, Dufour finds himself with a much larger role in the tournament, but he’s having just as much fun there.
“Last time, I just signed up for any committee and was able to get on, and since I was a new member they didn’t have me do too much,” he said. “This time, as more of a senior member of the club, they asked me if I’d run this group we have here and I was all for it.”
Dufour supervises a crew of 45 people who run carts all over the course for all purposes from 5:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. for the entirety of the tournament. And while he is mainly in a supervisory role, he’s still gotten some time to interact with some players.
“Doing some of the shuttling work you get to talk to the players, which is always cool,” Dufour said. “They’re all always very cordial, and they thank us for letting them use the course and tell us how nice it is and all that stuff, so it’s a great experience.”
But above all, Dufour simply feels pride seeing his club used for such a big tournament.
“The most positive thing about it is that so many people can come and see the course, and when they start telling you the things they like about it and all that, it feels really good,” he said. “It’s certainly an honor to have them here, and I hope everyone continues to have good things to say about our home course.”
Now, with the actual tournament ready to tee off tomorrow morning, the real work can begin for Dufour and his crew.