Service members enjoy front row seats at PGA ProAm

Service members enjoyed star treatment during the 2016 AT&T ProAm at Pebble Beach, an annual PGA Tour event that pairs celebrities with professional and amateur golfers and hosted annually at three Monterey peninsula golf courses.

"It's awesome," Sgt. 1st Class Mark McRae, a Presidio of Monterey Soldier, said while viewing the action from the 15th hole at Pebble Beach.

He and several other Soldiers were enjoying an unobstructed view of the 15th hole on the Pebble Beach course from inside the Patriot's Outpost hospitality tent.

"This isn't my first, I was here in 2014. I'm coming back tomorrow, and bringing my daughter," he said.

The ProAm is famous for providing an opportunity to rub elbows with celebrities, and there were plenty of celebrity sightings and selfies during the tournament's "Military Appreciation Day" Feb. 10, with coincided with the tour's "Celebrity Shootout."

But the nationally-televised event is also a major community event in Monterey, bringing thousands of spectators, and raising millions of dollars for local charities.

That's why hundreds of volunteers also donate their time to take part, among them service members assigned to Monterey area military installations like the Presidio of Monterey.

"I got a holiday break this weekend and figured I would spend my time doing something productive and helping out. I heard this was a good event and wanted to go see it for myself," Airman Campbell Mackay, 517th Training Group, said.

Mackay was volunteering for the Carmel Youth Center at a food concession tent at the 17th hole on Pebble Beach.

"It's pretty impressive, there is a lot more people than I expected... After I'm done volunteering here I will probably walk around and see some stuff, I'm hoping to see some good golf," he said.

The military volunteers are greatly appreciated, said Clyde Klaumann, volunteer tent coordinator.

"I have been doing this for 30 years off and on... They are always here with an attitude to serve and they do what is asked of them," he said.

When not volunteering, service members enjoyed watching games on playing out on the greens, both professional, entertaining (and sometimes both. Celebrity players and fan favorite Bill Murray, a repeat invitee and star of the 1980 cult golf comedy "Caddyshack," won the tournament with partner D.A. Points in 2011, and is infamous for his on-course antics).

Complimentary tickets were offered to all service members, veterans and their guests by non-profit organization "Birdies for the Brave."

"I thought it might be fun, I might see some famous people," Sgt. Carlos Flanders, a DLIFLC Soldier, said, of why he decided to attend his first ProAm.

Flanders recommended the experience to future service members in Monterey, even if they aren't interested in the sport.

"It's like Madison Square Garden. Even if you don't watch basketball, you go," he said.