With all eyes in the golf world on Rochester and the PGA Championship, golf fans may not realize that thousands of volunteers are working behind the scenes to help make it run smoothly. Many longtime volunteers wear their course passes like badges of honor.

Fans visiting Oak Hill Country Club will notice hundreds of people on and around the East Course dressed in green. If those shirts have the PGA logo, the people who are wearing them are playing a key role in the tournament’s success.

To put on a golf tournament, it takes an army. This one’s a major, and the army is comprised of volunteers.

“This is probably my fourth event that I’ve done through the years,” said Suzanne Laese. “The best part is just being able to interact with people, seeing the players. It’s just a happy environment.”

It’s an environment that will bring tens of thousands of golf fans to Oak Hill for the 2023 PGA Championship.

“I actually started volunteering at tournaments before I was even a member,” said Doug Evans, volunteer chair of the marshal’s committee.

During this tournament week, Evans will oversee the 1,600 volunteer marshals who help keep order out on the course.

“If you're on the marshals committee, you're inside the ropes,” he said. “You're seeing the action. You're up close and personal, and you can hear the caddies and players and their interaction, and you see what goes on.”

“You have this great tournament coming to your home club,” said Kelly McCarthy, a longtime PGA volunteer. “And to be a part of it, it’s so much fun that it’s hardly work.”

McCarthy is one of 3,500 total volunteers who recently picked up their credentials and their uniforms for the championship. Volunteer interest was so high they had to turn thousands more away.

“In Rochester, N.Y., it is very easy to get 3,500 volunteers,” said PGA volunteer operations manager Lindsay Allard. “They all mostly came to us, actually, very early on.”

Allard said volunteers are the backbone of the tournament. They handle everything from player signup to transportation to daycare for player families. 

Those who give their time for free — get a lot in return.

“It’s just the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people who have volunteered for hours and hours to have this tournament come to fruition,” said Laese.