Clare Berry began volunteering at the championship now known as THE PLAYERS back in 1982, when she was manager of Arvida Clearview Cable TV and John Tucker was in charge of the tournament.
A friend, Kelly Whitaker, who was Tucker’s assistant, called Berry one day and said, “I hear you write press releases.”
“Sure, I write press releases,’” Berry recalls saying.
“Then can you come over to my office after work?” Whitaker asked.
“And that’s how it all started,” Berry said. “They didn’t even have a public relations committee. I was the public relations committee.”
Berry continued doing public relations for the tournament for two years and then told them it was too much work. So, they gave her a volunteer job in admissions, which she did for one year before declaring that she didn’t want to volunteer anymore.
She had made a career switch to real estate and was too busy.
Until another phone call changed her mind: How would she would like to chair the Players Services Committee?
“As a Realtor, that was right up my alley,” she said. “They put us in a trailer at the edge of the parking lot.”
Berry has kept that volunteer role for 35 years. She no longer works out of a trailer, but “it’s been a lot of years and a lot of fun memories,” she said.
The Players Services committee is now headquartered in the TPC Clubhouse.
Monday, as players arrived from all around the country, Berry and her fellow committee volunteers worked out of The Presidents Cup Library, registering the professional golfers and helping them get situated for the tournament.
Berry said the committee functions as a “concierge” service for the players for the week, helping them with everything from locating a doctor, if they should need one, to giving shopping advice, restaurant recommendations and more.
They began their volunteer duties the Saturday before THE PLAYERS, on March 7 and will work up to 11 hours days through the end of play on Sunday, March 15.
“Before competition begins, our number one job is to make sure they get registered and have a car for the week, if they want one,” Berry said. Some drive their own cars to the championship, but if they don’t, The PGA TOUR gives them a Lexus to use.
Saturdays and Sundays before THE PLAYERS are usually rather slow, because many of the pros are still at Bay Hill, the tournament held the week before, Berry said.
And then Mondays get really busy, with more than 100 players registering that day this year, of the total 144 slated to play.
First time golfers usually have a lot of questions, which the Players Services Committee is on hand to answer, Berry said. And her volunteer role is a learning curve from year to year.
“The registration process used to be very paper intensive,” she said. “Now it’s all electronic. It takes a minute—the old way used to take five. It’s streamlined, it’s wonderful.”
Volunteering at tournament for Berry is also a family tradition. Her mother once volunteered at the Greater Jacksonville Open, which evolved into THE PLAYERS. And her son became a volunteer at age 16 and put in 10 years of service.
Owner of Berry & Co. Real Estate, Berry once worked at the Ponte Vedra Recorder and she said her background in real estate and media is a tremendous help in her volunteer role today.
“I like to fix problems or challenges, which is what I do everyday in real estate,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun. I can pretty much call anybody and tell them what I need and why I need it and get whatever I want. Because everybody wants to help the players and their impact on local charity.”
After 35 years in her current volunteer role, “I still have the same passion and energy I’ve always had,” she said. “I’m excited about rolling out the red carpet for people who are spending a week here.”
