The Loop

Arvin Ginn: A tribute to a friend

February 12, 2010

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Because the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am is conducted over three golf courses, the PGA Tour's rules staff is pretty much all hands on deck for the week. It was both fortuitous and bittersweet. On Wednesday afternoon, around 3 p.m., after the staff's pre-tournament rules meeting, all the officials gathered at the 18th hole for a moment of silence to honor Arvin Ginn, the long time PGA Tour official and tournament director who was nicknamed "Daddy" by the field staff and who passed away last week.

"It was kind of a little solemn tribute to him," says Slugger White. "It's ironic he passed away the week prior to Pebble Beach, which was his favorite place. He's hugely missed. We just thought the world of him. He was a people person, just a good man. Mark (Russell) said, you know, we've all learned from Arvin. When we'd go out and have a couple of drinks, he'd drink a Scotch and when it would get down near the bottom, he'd say, don't pour this out, just go ahead and build on this one. That's what we're trying to do, build on what Arvin's taught us."

-- Jim Moriarty