DATE: Monday, October 13, 1997              TAG: 9710130151

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                      LENGTH:   45 lines

THIS GUY PUTS FORTH UNFLAGGING EFFORTKINGSMILL RESIDENT BRINGS IN THE PINS AS THE PLAYERS FINISH THE FINAL ROUND.

Robert St. Clair laughed when told he had been nicknamed Flag Man, the last person anyone wanted to see wandering around Kingsmill Sunday.

``People have told me that in the past,'' he said, walking to his golf cart.

Hole after hole, St. Clair, a landscaper and 25-year resident of this resort, walked across the greens of the River Course after the last group finished play at the Michelob Championship at Kingsmill, pulled the flagstick and put it in the back of his golf cart.

It's as close to a ceremonial sure sign that the tournament is coming to an end as golf affords.

``It started out as a way to try and keep people from stealing the flags,'' St. Clair said, ``although I've never heard of that happening here.''

St. Clair and his 13-year-old daughter Lee followed the final pairing of Duffy Waldorf and Grant Waite around the River Course. After they finished putting, St. Clair parked his cart, walked to the cup and pulled the flag.

``It's considered an honor, it really is,'' St. Clair said. ``I've gotten to do this several times in the last few years, and there's always some people who wish it were them.''

St. Clair stopped at the 16th green, the second hole on the playoff rotation.

``I wait here until I know someone has definitely won the tournament, then take in the rest of the flags,'' St. Clair said. ``You don't want to have to come back and put one in the cup because you suddenly need it.''

St. Clair took the flags and the sticks to which they are attached to a storage shed on the Kingsmill complex. They'll remain there until next October, when they'll revisit the River Course.

When the course opens to public play, either Tuesday or Wednesday, the holes will have new flagsticks and new flags. St. Clair will be on the Kingsmill complex, anxious for another Michelob Sunday and another chance to be Flag Man. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

``It's considered an honor, it really is,'' says Robert St. Clair,

the Michelob Championship's ``Flag Man.''

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