Councilman Shingleton, a golf marshal, is OK with rain delay, not YMCA song

What do hundreds of volunteers do during a 5 1/2-hour rain delay at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational?

Listen to Village People’s Y-M-C-A song.

Briefly.

“No. I cut it off pretty quickly,” said Fort Worth councilman and longtime volunteer Dennis Shingleton.

Rain delays are nothing new to Shingleton. He’s been a golf tournament volunteer for 24 years, including the past four as head of on-course operations. He’s the No. 2 person among 500 marshals.

“We have two shifts every day,” Shingleton said. “It’s a very complicated thing to do the coverage and the things that the PGA requires. It takes a lot of coordination.”

What about the rain?

“Well, there’s not much you can do about it. It’s out of our hands,” he said. “We have contingency plans that we work for delays and how those get implemented, both to evacuate players off the course and things like that.”

The energetic Shingleton praised the tournament’s new sponsors and this year’s field, which includes Dallas’ Jordan Spieth.

“They (Dean & DeLuca) are great. They’ve interjected money,” Shingleton said.

Bryce Molder leads the tournament with a 6-under 64. Jordan Spieth shot a 67 in Thursday’s opening round, which was delayed 91 minutes by rain.

“Jordan Spieth is not one of those charismatic, over-the top guys when he’s playing much like Fuzzy Zoeller,” he said. “Spieth enjoys the attention, I’m sure, and enjoys the fan support. He’s business. He’s concerned about his game.

“He’s a nice young man. You couldn’t ask for a better role model.”

When not overseeing the golf tournament, Shingleton is busy with projects in the city such as the multi-purpose arena project, the Montgomery Ward parking garage and renovating Montgomery Street.

The new Buc-ees’ development in north Fort Worth is also on his plate.

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 12:08 PM with the headline "Councilman Shingleton, a golf marshal, is OK with rain delay, not YMCA song."