Volunteer celebrates 50 years at The Memorial
DUBLIN, Ohio (WCMH) – This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Memorial Tournament. It’s a huge milestone, one that couldn’t happen without hundreds of volunteers every year.
As golfers and spectators make their way to the 18th hole at Muirfield this Thursday, that’s where you’ll see Shere Everett. She’s arguably got one of the best views in the house.
“I will be on the status board, on the Big Board on 18, which is where I always am on Thursday,” Evertt said.
Like The Memorial, Evertt is also celebrating 50 years of going to Muirfield for the event as a volunteer.
Each year, more than 3,000 people donate their time to help out. They do it all, from greeting guests to tracking stats.
“I considered it an honor when I was accepted as a volunteer in 1976, and now I have been part of this marvelous event for 50 years, and I wouldn't trade it for anything,” Everett said.
Everett comes from a family of golfers; she got her first set of clubs when she was 12, but it was a personal story that led her to land the gig as a volunteer.
“My niece spent ten years in the Burn Ward Children's Hospital,” she said. “She celebrated her fourth birthday there.”
Nationwide Children’s Hospital is the tournament’s primary beneficiary. So, as a way to thank the staff that took care of her niece, Everett and her whole family signed up to volunteer at Muirfield the year the Memorial began.
“My father was a marshal, my mother worked in souvenirs, Dale was a spotter for CBS for a long time, and of course, I started out in leader boards and ended up in status boards,” Everett said.
From the course to the evolution of the volunteer space, Everett said so much has changed over the years. Her hat is filled with pins, each of which holds a different memory. Even after all these years, it was something that happened in her first year that stuck with her, even 50 years later.
“Roger Maltbie hit his shot on the first hole of overtime, it hit one of these metal poles down because it was headed straight to the crowd, and it bounced back out onto the green,” she said. “So he was able to make the putt, which was necessary to go to the second hole of sudden death.”
Everett said her time has been 50 years of great success and she hopes the event will continue for at least another 50 years.