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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- It is one of those picture-perfect spring days in Florida, and former PGA TOUR commissioner Deane Beman is giving a tour of the new clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass.

Conway Murchison

He sees an old friend, and a smile comes across Beman's face. He instantly recognizes Conway Murchison, the Ellis "Red" Redding of TPC Sawgrass.

He is the guy that can get you things.

Murchison, 71, will work his 19th PLAYERS next month as the lead locker room attendant. It is Murchison's job to clean shoes, install fresh spikes and fetch dry cleaning.

As THE PLAYERS draws closer, Murchison has been busy preparing the player's locker room. On this day, he has just finished alphabetizing the names that will appear on players' lockers.

Murchison has a much bigger area to cover for the 2007 PLAYERS. Gone is the 1970s-era clubhouse, replaced with a 75,000 square-foot behemoth covered in Spanish tile.

Flat-screen televisions and classic leather chairs dominate the players' lounge where Murchison works. A piped-in wave of Patsy Cline gives the place a relaxed, comfortable feel.

Murchison, a lanky, easy-going North Carolinian, has worked in the new clubhouse for only a week, and it has taken him awhile to get used to the expansion.

The players' locker room and the resort guest's locker room are located in separate wings of the clubhouse, and Murchison jokingly calls it the "100-yard dash."

"This thing is huge and it is really terrific. It is just beautiful," Murchison said. "We have 25 more lockers in the player's locker room, and the founding member's locker room. We have about 12 more lockers in the champion's room."

The old clubhouse's champion's locker room was getting cramped.

We were at 25 and thankfully, we had some guys that repeated," Murchison said. "We were getting close to the wall. Now, we have 38 lockers in the champion's room."

Murchison began working at TPC Sawgrass after retiring from the Navy, where he was an officer. For a time, he was captain of the U.S.S. McDonnell, a destroyer that patrolled waters in northern and southern Europe.

The inside of the new clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass.

Murchison, a 17-handicapper, cultivated his love of golf while in the Navy. He spent a lot of time in Europe, and he remembers the days when he was able to play the Old Course at St. Andrews for only $18.

Murchison was in Ireland in the summer of 1963 when he was invited to a reception honoring President John F. Kennedy, who was on a week-long tour of the Emerald Isle.

Kennedy, an avid golfer and a Navy veteran, took an immediate liking to Murchison.

"I was on leave and going to report to a destroyer in the Mediterranean," Murchison said. "We talked about where I was from and he told me that the Secretary of the Navy (Fred Korth) was supposed to be in the Mediterranean with the 6th Fleet, and if I saw him, to be sure to tell him to behave himself."

"It was great. He was such a nice man."

Murchison was working in Jacksonville when a friend persuaded him to work as a starter at TPC Sawgrass. After a few years of doing that, he moved into the clubhouse full-time.

In the fall of 1987, they had just finished the Dye's Valley course," Murchison said. "I started as a starter. I got to be the head starter after like six years, and an opening came up in the locker room.

"I decided it would be cooler in the summertime up here and warmed in wintertime. So I got the job up here in the locker room. Even though I was a starter, in the tournaments I worked the locker room."

It was that brief week in March that Murchison formed the relationships that carry him to this day.

Murchison is well-known for the local PGA TOUR pros that make Ponte Vedra Beach their home, and Murchison finds himself rooting for them during the PLAYERS.

The guys that live here, they are all fantastic," Murchison said. "Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Blaine McCallister.

"We often get asked, 'Who do we like best, or who the best player is,'" Murchison said. "Nick Price always comes to mind right away."

Nick Price (WireImage)

Price won THE PLAYERS in 1993. Murchison doesn't get to see much of the tournament -- he watched bits and pieces of it on a small television set in the locker room -- but he does have some favorite memories.

Murchison recalls vividly the day Craig Perks -- a little-known pro from New Zealand -- chipped in twice in the final three holes to win by two over Stephen Ames.

"It was just interesting to watch," Murchison said.

During PLAYERS week, Murchison rises in the small hours of the morning, arriving at the course before 5 a.m. and staying until the final player has left the range, often after 9 p.m.

"We will be here around 5 in the morning. We have to unlock all the lockers," Murchison said. "We take care of the shoes, clean them, re-spike them and hope that there is no rain. Here, they can use metal spikes so they have metal and soft spikes.

"It is a really interesting week. Like I say, we often get asked who we like the best, and my thought is, we have 145 guys between the ages of 22 and 52. By and large, they are like 150 doctors and lawyers."

Murchison spends most of his time making sure the players' shoes are in order. One night during a PLAYERS, he noticed three pairs of spikes sitting alone next to a player, and Murchison asked him if he needed them cleaned.

"As far as I am concerned, you can have them," the player said.

Murchison took a look at the shoes, which were his size. He took them home, a move Murchison regretted early the next morning, when he saw the player hunting for his spikes.

You guessed it.

"I took them home, and the next day, a guy came in and we were trying to find his shoes," Murchison said. "And I said, 'I've got them! I took them home last night!"

The player wasn't angry, especially when Murchison hurriedly sped home to retrieve all three pairs, and another day of THE PLAYERS had begun.