PHOENIX — Augusta National Golf Club member Jeff Knox may be the most famous marker in golf, but there’s a pretty good one at Phoenix Country Club this week.
The field for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship is 36 but it went to 35 when Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker withdrew.
That left an open spot for Kristoffer Marshall of Scottsdale, who recently won the Arizona State Amateur. A former Kansas Jayhawk who was leaving Lawrence just as Gary Woodland was coming in, Marshall played with Kenny Perry Thursday and Kevin Sutherland Friday.
“The gentleman that played with me is one of my dear friends,” Perry said after playing the first round in just over three hours. “He’s a member at Silverleaf and he just won the Arizona State Am, so he’s a terrific player in his own right.”
To get Marshall on the grounds though took a little nudging from Perry.
“I said ‘Is there any way I could get him to play with me today because I really want to go out there by myself,’ and first they said let us talk about it. Finally they called and said, we’ll let him play with you, but he’s got to agree to be the marker all week,” said Perry.
Thursday was a busy day for Marshall off the course, too. Minutes after ending his round, he jumped in his car to get home for his son’s birthday party.
“I was only 15 minutes late, little guy never noticed. My wife was thrilled. She was like, ‘Wow, you guys played fast,’” he said.
“Another reason we were playing fast out there,” said Perry. “I didn’t want him to be really late.”
Sutherland won the Schwab event a year ago. He and Marshall blazed around in an unofficial two hours, 58 minutes Friday, faster by six minutes than his round with Perry.
After the round, Sutherland was complimentary of Marshall.
“Oh, he’s got a great game, hits a long ways, very impressed. State am, right? Yeah, you can see it,” Sutherland said.
Playing first out means getting in a lot of golf before most fans have shown up but there was a funny fan moment Thursday.
“Yesterday I was back in the corner somewhere and I made a nice birdie and [Phil] Mickelson drained a birdie at the same time and I’m like, well, that wasn’t for me, that was for him,” he joked.
Hockey, it turns out, was Marshall’s first love. So how did he get into golf?
“The real answer is I played hockey and everybody started getting bigger than me and I got banged up real good. My grandpa’s like, maybe you should try something else. So I started playing at 16 and then walked on at KU.”
Even after getting “paired with the two nicest guys so far,” Marshall knows he’s in a good spot this week.
“The beautiful thing, I’ve got quite a few friends out here on the Champions tour. The cool thing about it is these guys are always in a good mood, happy to play golf.
“I’m just lucky to be out here.”
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