DATE: Saturday, October 11, 1997            TAG: 9710110523

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                      LENGTH:   72 lines

FANS WELL-ARMED WITH CELL PHONES, PAGERS HOOKEY-PLAYING WORKERS CONDUCT A LITTLE BUSINESS BETWEEN THE BIRDIES AND BOGEYS.

It's probably the most broken rule at Kingsmill: No cellular phones or pagers allowed on the golf course.

``If you've got one in your pocket, I'm not gonna search you,'' shrugged a Burns Security guard at the front gate of the PGA tournament. ``I mean, if we enforced that, we'd have a pile of phones a mile high.''

Everywhere you looked Friday, it seemed, businessmen and women could be seen wandering in the trees, sitting in deep grass or taking shelter behind a row of outhouses, a flip phone attached to their ear.

It was Hookey Day at the Michelob Championship. But with the magic of telecommunications, few bosses had to know.

Is it any wonder, then, that one of the big sponsors of the tournament is 360 Communications, which sells cellular phones?

Some budding executives with phones adjoined to their heads said they were just tying up a few loose ends at the office.

``I took a half day off; they know how to get in touch with me,'' said Darrell Prince, a York County construction equipment salesman, a pager stuck to his belt.

Prince was entertaining a prospective client. But as the two watched approach shots to the ninth green, they said they'd talk business later.

``We're having a little fun right now,'' said Bobby Dean, the client, who, like his patron, was wearing a pager.

Other phoners Friday said they were just checking their voice mail so they wouldn't miss anything. A few didn't want anyone to know where they were.

``Oh please, don't put my name in the paper,'' pleaded one Williamsburg businesswoman, who was wolfing down a sandwich under the clubhouse tent while urging a client by phone to come join her. ``My boss would just kill me.''

Told that it was against course rules to carry a phone, for fear its ringing might distract the players, the businesswoman just laughed.

``Yeah right,'' she said. ``You might as well shut down the tournament. Just look around; there's so many business people out here. There's no way.''

Others actually abided by the no-phone rule, and paid the price. Lines for public phones went 10-deep near the 18th green during the midday crush.

``I just need to check in with my secretary,'' said a frustrated Al Hurst, a Richmond executive waiting to use a pay phone. He seemed more worried, however, about the fate of Fred Couple's birdie putt. (He missed, Al.)

Also climbing up the 18th was Kevin Hogan, a phone shoved in his back pocket, a pager on his belt.

``It's hard to lose your electric leashes,'' said Hogan, a salesman for IBM in Richmond. ``I've got all my hardware, don't I? Actually, I've got some customers out here. I kind of lost them, so I was checking my voice mail.''

Standing quietly near the practice putting green, a phone implanted in his ear, was Tom Mackay. A Richmond resident in the employee benefit business, Mackay said he had a meeting that morning in Virginia Beach and was hooking up with clients later at the course.

Asked if his bosses knew about his pit stop in Kingsmill, Mackay said absolutely.

``They like for us to enjoy ourselves, he said, ``especially if it's business related.''

One of funniest sights was outside the hospitality suites in the late afternoon. Rented by big-name corporations, the suites were home to a virtual flock of young executives, beers in one hand, phones in the other.

At one point, seven people could be seen pacing back and forth outside the hospitality suites near the 8th green, talking to their offices. They tried to keep their voices down, but their combined noise caused marshals to turn and wave ``Quiet, Please'' signs at them.

They just shrugged. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Chad Chadbourn, left, and Jim Pierce were there to watch golf, but

conducted a little business between shots.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu