by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
There hasn’t been a change like this for The Players Championship since it moved across the street in 1982.
The point man for the massive differences has been the first vice chairman and, reflecting on the tournament week as he prepared to move up to the “redcoat” level, Ron Natherson pronounced that all has been well.
“We knew what was coming and we made a conscious effort to communicate as much as possible with our volunteers,” said Natherson. “We also knew we had to stay ahead of everything.”
The first vice chairman traditionally heads the nuts and bolts of the 1,900-member volunteer operation while the chairman — this year it was Tim Tresca — oversees everything and coordinates with the higher powers. Natherson, like almost all of his predecessors as first vice chairman, went through a series of committee chairs, then was a vice chairman over all four tournament divisions before becoming No. 2.
He accepted his chairman’s red coat at the traditional Sunday breakfast with Tommy Douglass becoming the first vice chairman for the 2008 event.
Natherson, a vice president at Southern Oak Insurance, is in his 12th year with the tournament and chaired five committees before becoming a vice chairman.
The tournament structure allows a person to learn from many angles, but this year’s produced the biggest amount of variables since the Players moved from Sawgrass Country Club to the new Stadium Course in 1982.
“We had the new clubhouse, the schedule move (from March) to May, new scoreboards on the course, new scoreboards in the Media Center, new walkways for spectators on some key holes and on and on,” said Natherson. “As soon as last year’s tournament ended, we started planning for the changes as well as the normal planning for the next event.
“The clubhouse is incredible. Can you believe they put it up in such a short time (less than a year)? But if bad weather had come in and caused it to not be complete, we had to have something to take its place. So we had plans for alternatives.
“The reason we were able to adjust to everything easily is the volunteer force here. Tell ‘em what to do and they do it.”
His week was one of having a radio to his ear and solving the problems that popped up.
“Actually, we had few problems,” he said. “We’ll dissect everything in the coming weeks and start on next year, but we certainly have something good to build on.”