(The following article by Molly Bloom was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on August 12.)
NEWARK, N.J. — The average fan’s path to Baltusrol Golf Club, where Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and others are contending for the PGA Championship, got a little bumpier yesterday, but didn’t veer into the deep rough.
The PGA is not releasing attendance figures, but 5,500 people rode shuttle buses from the Summit train station to Baltusrol on the first day of tournament play, about 500 more than Wednesday, said NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel. The bulk of those riders arrived at the Summit train station before 9 a.m., hoping to catch Tiger Woods at his 8:30 a.m. tee-off, Stessel said.
The train-to-bus shift moved smoothly, with few waiting at the Summit station more than five minutes to board a Baltusrol-bound yellow school bus, and the buses to shuttle those who parked at the Giants Stadium parking lot in East Rutherford also worked as planned.
Carlyle Frasier, a 49-year-old accountant from Morris Plains, called the system “very efficient” as he walked through the golf club’s gates yesterday morning. But he wasn’t thrilled about moving from an air-conditioned train to a school bus with sweaty vinyl seats. “I’m surprised,” he said. “You expect to go from NJ Transit to something of the same level.”
NJ Transit is adding almost 40 trains that will stop at the Summit station for the duration of the tournament. The PGA is providing 30 buses to shuttle fans to and from the Summit station to the golf course and about 90 to 100 buses to shuttle fans from Giants Stadium to and from the golf course.
As fans left the course in the late afternoon, the wait for a Summit-bound shuttle bus stretched to almost 10 minutes, but fans waited patiently in 90-degree heat. Some were glad they’d saved the $50-plus parking fees being charged by course neighbors. And others were glad they’d skipped the traffic-clogged streets around the course.
“Why worry?” said Brian Winiarski, 41, of Wyckoff, as he waited across the street from Baltusrol for a shuttle bus. “I’d rather save myself the agita.”